April 3, 2025 • 28 mins
Are you carrying the weight of every business decision on your shoulders?
In this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich chats with Adrian “AJ” Johnstone, CEO and co-founder of Practifi, about the delicate balance of leadership decision-making.
AJ shares his journey of leading Practifi back to its roots serving RIAs and why growth should be purposeful rather than pursued at all costs. With refreshing candor, AJ discusses the privilege of supporting financial advisors who help clients achieve their personal outcomes while offering practical advice about building strong teams and making confident decisions in the face of conflict.
Kelly and AJ cover:
2:07 AJ's background and a brief overview of Practifi as a "kick-ass CRM for advisors"
3:11 Practifi's transformation and return to focusing on RIAs
4:43 Evolution of Practifi's brand story and authentic positioning
6:50 Practifi’s role in helping the advisor shine
7:06 The importance of integrity in growth strategies versus "grow at all costs" mentalities
9:06 The freedom of growth and entrepreneurship without PE pressure
10:35 AJ's “double-edged” Don't Do That: Don’t assume you have to make all the business decisions – but don’t hesitate to swim against the tide.
13:07 Building a strong leadership team and trusting their expertise
14:37 Finding outside sounding boards and maintaining vulnerability as a leader
18:26 Advice for financial advisors on defining growth on their own terms
21:41 The challenges of CRM implementation and viewing technology as an investment
23:12 Discussion about business planning gaps in the industry
24:51 Caution against making decisions based on fear messaging and industry pressure
26:16 The importance of learning from mistakes on the path to success
Connect with Kelly Waltrich:
Connect with Adrian Johnstone
About Our Guest:
Adrian has over 20 years experience helping advice businesses of all sizes leverage technology for growth. A regular presenter at industry events in Australia and United States, Adrian offers deep insight into the technology needs of advisors. Adrian owns Practifi’s go-to-market strategy and direction globally.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
AJ Johnstone (00:00):
So we're all really privileged to play a role
in what I think is a reallyimportant industry. You know,
advisors, helping clients todeliver or to achieve their
personal outcomes, to me, is areally honorable goal. And so
for us to be able to play a rolein that, in even the simplest
(00:21):
way to to make running the phonemore efficient so the advisors
not tripping over the thepaperwork and the process and
they can spend more time withclients. I see it as an all boat
rising kind of a thing.
Kelly Waltrich (00:37):
Welcome to the Don't Do That podcast. I'm Kelly
Waltrich, CEO and co founder ofIntention.ly and like me, this
show is no fluff and no BS, justsmart advice to help you learn
from the best and level upfaster. So what are we not doing
today? Let's find out. Hieveryone, and welcome to this
episode of The Don't Do Thatpodcast. I am your host, Kelly
(01:00):
Waltrich, and I am thrilled tobe here today with my friend
Adrian Johnson, the CEO ofPractifi. Welcome. AJ, Hey,
AJ Johnstone (01:08):
how are you? It's so fun to be having this chat
with you.
Kelly Waltrich (01:11):
That's the first time I ever called you by your
real name. I feel like I justknew you as. AJ, and every time
somebody calls you by that, I'mlike, Who? Who is that? Do we
use? Yeah, it's like, if someone
AJ Johnstone (01:19):
calls me, Adrian, I just assumed I'm in trouble,
which, which probably means Iget called it way too often. So
often in trouble.
Kelly Waltrich (01:28):
That's That's how I feel if I hear my middle
name, my family, my mom, mywhole life, Kelly, Lynn, I
always knew, Ron, you've donesomething wrong. Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (01:37):
yeah. Mine's my mother's British. And so the
tone in her voice to get like,real, real Hackney Yes, and be
like, Oh, dear.
Kelly Waltrich (01:47):
I think you are my guest with the best accent,
for sure. Yes, yes, for sure. Sowhy don't you tell everybody
that's listening a little bitabout you, a little bit of your
about your background and alittle bit about practice. I'm
sure it really needs nointroduction at this point, but
I think we can just giveeverybody a
AJ Johnstone (02:07):
quick update.
Yeah, for sure. So I'm Adrian.
Hi everyone. I am. Oh, AJ, yeah.
I mean, you know, it feels tooinformal. I'm Australian,
obviously, by the accent, that'smy win. That's the what to do is
be born in Australia, so yougrow up with that accent, so you
can export it, and people willthink it's good. Yes, I'm CEO.
I'm a co founder, originally,now CEO at practice, I've
(02:30):
wandered around this industry invarious guises for decades,
which is really embarrassing,but pretty obvious given the
color of my beard, when, when wetalk about Practifi, I'll keep
that bit light, because I don'twant us to be an advertorial.
We're a kick ass CRM foradvisors. Basically. That's it's
what we do. We try and makeadvisor client relationships and
(02:54):
all of the hard work that goesinto making that seem easy,
easy, perfect.
Kelly Waltrich (03:02):
And so the firm and the business has been under
a little bit of a transformationsince you stepped in as CEO. So
tell us a little bit about that.
What have you been up
AJ Johnstone (03:11):
to? What feels, feels a little bit like, the
what not to do part of your yourpodcast. So what you should, one
thing that you shouldn't do istake over a CEO and told the
team, there won't be muchchange, and then proceed to
change pretty much everything,because, because, turns out,
people don't love that part. Sowe have been, we've been doing a
(03:32):
lot. We've been really focusedon on our roots, I guess, which
is RIAs we, you know, we grew upas a business loving everything
about the independent advicemarket. And we have clients in
multiple countries. So I usethat collective term, the
independent advice market, Riais in all their guises, in in
other parts of the world aswell. And we had this sort of
(03:55):
period that a lot of businessesdo. It was like, Well, how do
we, how do we grow up and go upmarket and go left and go left
and go right and try and beeverything to everybody in and
since I took over as CEO, hasbeen guys who are actually
awesome and RAs and we reallylove them. We love doing
business with them. So why don'twe focus on them? Yeah, and so
we've been, we've been gettingback to those roots over the
(04:16):
last couple of years. Gosh, it'sfun, perfect.
Kelly Waltrich (04:19):
So I've had a front row seat to you thinking
through and refining your brandstory over the last several
years. And I think mostrecently, you've ended up in a
really good, authentic place.
Can you just kind of giveeverybody a little view into
into sort of what that, whatthat looks like for you, and the
and the evolution over theyears? Because I love watching
that, yeah, I mean, it's
AJ Johnstone (04:43):
evolution is always fun to watch, but it's,
it's way more fun. It's way, waymore fun, reflectively,
necessarily delivering it. Butyes, look, I think for me, if I
think about my view on advice,tech, wealth, tech, more
broadly, not even just practice.
By is we're all reallyprivileged to play a role in
what I think is a reallyimportant industry. You know,
(05:05):
advisors helping clients todeliver or to achieve their
personal outcomes, to me, is areally honorable goal. And so
for us to be able to play a rolein that, in even the simplest
way to to make running the firmmore efficient, so the advisors
not tripping over the thepaperwork and the process and
(05:28):
they can spend more time withclients. I see it as an all
boats rising kind of a thing. Soone advisor helps one, you know,
perhaps small to medium businessowner, they have less pressure
in their lives, so they makebigger bets in their business.
They hire more people. Thosepeople earn more income. They
need an advisor. And so for me,I think there's a real
(05:52):
responsibility that comes withthat is to to not jump on the
latest fad and to not try andoversell things that that look
great on paper, but aren'tnecessarily needed, all those
kind of things. So the journeyfor us has been one of, how do
we be great agents in theindustry? How do we understand
that we have a role to play tomake the advisor and their
(06:15):
surrounding machine in their RIAa better place to be so they can
do better things for
Kelly Waltrich (06:24):
clients. Yeah, you know what I love about that?
I feel like lots of fintechs inour space try to figure out how
to show through their messagethat they are the landing spot.
They're the screen you they wantto have a they want advisors
have open all the time. They'rethe the hub through which all
things should flow through. AndI feel like what I love about
the message that you have mostrecently landed on is that
(06:47):
you're not you're not trying tobe, that you're trying to make
the advisor shine and put therelationships back at the center
of this business. And I thinkthat sometimes, with all the PE
money and all the let's beeverything to everyone, and
let's make sure that we're frontand center. Like, I think that
that gets lost a little bit. SoI really love that. Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (07:06):
this, I mean, there's whether it's PE money,
whether it's founder focus, youknow, whatever it is, the
motivations, there is often somuch drive to just, how do we
grow faster, right? And youknow, when you sit in a CEO
role, there's an expectationthat that's what you get out of
bed for. So, how do I grow? Howdo I grow? How do I grow? Right?
(07:26):
And for me, I mean, growing isreally important and high to our
investors, if you're listening,growing is super important, and
obviously commercially thatthat's everyone's goal, but, but
you've got to do that in a waythat's that's steeped in
integrity and true to addingvalue, and the rest of it will
(07:48):
take care of itself. And I seeso many software firms that are
still trapped in the grow at allcosts, yeah, mentality. And they
come out and say, we've got160,000 integrations to
everything, and it's like, well,you don't you just have single
sign on to some stuff, like,you're not adding value, you're
just ticking a box to say youdid it. I'd rather have 10 good
(08:08):
ones than 1000s of rubbish ones,because that's that's more
meaningful.
Kelly Waltrich (08:13):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. Just give you a
glimpse into so my planning,obviously stepping into
entrepreneurship for the firsttime, and figuring it out and
making a bunch of my ownmistakes. They were older, oh,
my goodness. And so RandyLambert, who joined me un
intentionally from Orion, andJoe Stewart, who joined me from
Carson. We were doing ourplanning for 2025 and you know,
(08:34):
we're having those conversationsabout, how are we going to grow,
and what does that look like?
And at one point, I just sort ofcalled Time out, and I was like,
nobody's chasing us. We don'thave to run, like there's
someone chasing us. We don't, wedon't have a PE firm breathing
down our neck. We don't have,you know, a board of directors
that's pushing really hard, likewe can grow at a pace that we
feel good about, where we canstill provide clients with a
(08:57):
really good experience. And Ithink that like, to your point,
we're also used to just, how dowe get the next client that
sometimes that gets lost? Yeah,it's
AJ Johnstone (09:08):
and, you know, I think again, in the the theme of
things that we we should learnfrom is, I think, a really
important part ofentrepreneurship, no matter what
world you're in, whether you'reagency, technology, yeah,
whether you're an RIA, a bigpart of that entrepreneurship is
(09:28):
remembering what you got into itfor in the first place. Yep,
because if you can't keepchecking back to that, and
you're not being true to that,then you're almost certainly not
bringing your full self to thetask, and if you're, if you're
not able to to challengeyourself with that, well, no one
else is going to either, right?
So, you know, I think you've gotto really own Why am I here?
(09:51):
What am I doing here? Do I stillfeel good about what we're
doing, and if not, change?
Kelly Waltrich (09:59):
Right? Right, right? I met with an raa.
They're becoming a new client.
I'm intentionally I'm reallyexcited about it. And the
marketer is running a campaign.
One of the first campaigns thatwe're going to run with her is,
if you're not changing it,you're choosing it. Isn't that
fun? Yeah, I love every secondabout that. And I think that I
was like, Oh, I'm learning howgetting life lessons from this
(10:21):
prospect meeting, because that'sa nice reminder, right? It's a
great way anyway, all right? AJ,you know the premise of the
show, and you've already givenus a couple of don't do that,
but you know, I think a lotabout how learning from our
mistakes is just so much morefruitful than learning from our
wins and our triumphs and and sowhat we're trying to do here is,
is learn from each other. Sowhat it what is your don't do
(10:43):
that, your big don't do that forour audience today? Well, in
addition to the other three thatyou gave us,
AJ Johnstone (10:48):
this is for me, this, this, this one's kind of a
little double edged, so it's adon't on both sides. And so as I
was thinking about this, it'slike, what are all of the things
that you shouldn't there are somany don't, don't be definitive,
but don't be vague. Don't be,you know, all of those things.
And I was like, when you peelback as a founder or an
entrepreneur, even just someonewith a lot of accountability in
(11:11):
in a business, don't have tohave founded it to to face this,
it's you get so much pressure tomake decisions all the time.
Yeah, you're a senior role, andyou've got to do that thinking.
And so one don't is assume thatyou have to wear all that on
your own shoulders, likesurround yourself with people
within your business, outside ofyour business, and consult
(11:34):
widely. Don't. Don't feel likeyou've got to do it. But the
flip side is, don't, then beparalyzed to make a decision
that runs contrarian toeverybody else's advice, because
that's why you're there, right?
You know you your responsibilityis to consult widely and to take
in lots of input and to do that,but you're in the seat because
(11:56):
you're there to make thedecision, and that may be to
swim against the tide, and thatwon't always be popular. And I
think there are plenty in mybackground who would say, Well,
you're not afraid of makingunpopular decisions, but, but I
think it is just understandthat. You know, it's Don't be
(12:16):
frightened to to go your ownway, if you really truly believe
that that's the right thing todo, even if all of the
surrounding logic is telling youit's not, but you really
strongly believe, then do it.
But just own the decision. Likeif it, if it goes poorly, well,
(12:37):
it was your call, right? Don'tlook for a way out of it. Yeah.
Kelly Waltrich (12:51):
Okay, so you said you're saying, don't put it
on your shoulders. And I thinkthat's sometimes easier said
than done. So like, what doesthat framework work look like
for you? What have yousurrounded yourself with? How do
you make How do you make surethat you're not buried in
decisions day to day? And I'm,I'm asking selfishly for sure,
AJ Johnstone (13:08):
yeah, well, look, a great thing for me, and I
think you've done a good job ofthis with the team intentionally
already, but it's like, I lovemy leadership team. They're
super talented, and, you know, Ilove to give them the free rein
to make decisions, even though,for some of them, that's that's
maybe a new level ofaccountability. Yeah, and so I
(13:28):
don't take it all on myself,because I'm less good at
marketing than Emily in my team.
I'm less good at sales than Jen.
I would be a rubbish COO, but emis an amazing one. So, you know,
for me, it's Don't try and bebetter at their jobs than they
are, and then rely on them togive you thoughtful input, but
(13:51):
understand that you probablyhave a broader context, and so
you've got to pass that inputthrough the broader context, and
you've got investors and longerterm thinking and all those kind
of things in in frame as well.
So share the load for thethinking, but understand that
ultimately, you know this,particularly if you have
(14:11):
investors, there's one for it tojoke, and it's yours, yours,
yeah.
Kelly Waltrich (14:16):
So what is your what is your network outside of
your leadership team look like?
I think this is, you know, Italk to a lot of entrepreneurs
on a day to day basis, and a lotof them are definitely trying to
find their people that are, youknow, experiencing the same
challenges, that are trying tofigure things out day to day
that they can bounce ideas offof. So what is that? What does
that look like for you? Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (14:38):
it's, it's a tricky one. You have this
tendency that a guard goes upwhen you're in a broader
context, and you have this senseof going, well, I can't be
vulnerable because, you know,someone might see that I've got
a question, and that might makeits way back to a key prospect
or a client and makes themnervous. And so, you know,
everything always has to berosy, and that's why I love this
(14:59):
theme. For. Figure out podcastbeing that there's like
everything is not always rosy.
Quite often it's like herdingcats, and that's okay, and
that's that's the reality that Ithink so many of us live with,
but don't want to show we don'twant to we don't want to be
vulnerable. So it can be tricky.
I tend to have a few soundingboards who understand our
(15:21):
industry but aren't directlyassociated with it, yeah, so
they kind of cross over. Thenthey're unlikely to be clients
or or prospects, but they'readjacent. They understand it. I
talked to a number of people whoon a semi regular basis, who are
going through the same cycle,like different businesses, maybe
in in advice tech or wealth techor not, but, but entrepreneurs
(15:46):
and so one of the great parts ofworking with private equity
investors is they have portfoliocompanies, and there's, you
know, they're at differentstages that they're growing some
massive and on their way to anexit, and others are before us
in the cycle. So we havegatherings to get together with
them, and we get a lot of greatvalue, particularly through our
(16:07):
partners at update or in termsof content and knowledge, which
is phenomenal. And then I justread a lot. My reading is so
boring. I remember I was in apub in Sydney, and I was just on
my own on a Sunday afternoon,just having a quiet moment, just
having a pint, and sittingthere, and one of the staff came
(16:29):
by to clear the table, andshe's, oh, what are you reading?
And I showed her, and she'slike, wow, that's all. I was
like, yeah, maybe you know it'salso important. Yeah,
Unknown (16:39):
super important. Yeah.
Do you listen any podcasts? Idon't. I'm terrible at it. Yeah,
it's a change. I
AJ Johnstone (16:49):
I'd much rather just talk to people, yeah. And
so listening to people talk toother people, I find hard to
focus on Yeah. So I, I'm I'mold, so I read books, yeah,
doesn't really read online thatmuch because, like, I'm old.
Kelly Waltrich (17:05):
You're not that old. And you know what? It's
funny, I have a podcast, but Iwasn't listening to that many of
them, either. But I've justrecently started to I've found a
couple of agency or folks whohave sold, built and sold large
agencies, and I'm loving it. I'mlike, because you don't have to
read the whole book, you know, Iget, I'm a little add, and I get
(17:25):
to, like, the, you know, secondchapter. And I'm like, All
right, what's, what are we doingnext year? And I like to be able
to click the listen at two timesspeed, I think a
AJ Johnstone (17:35):
little bit too. I tried to do audio books like
that, and I found that I wasthat I was like, oh, what's
three and a half times?
Chipmunk, yeah. I didn't absorbany of it. I spent a lot of time
on airplanes, so I try on onplanes as much as I can to
disconnect from technology. Andso books are growing.
Kelly Waltrich (17:57):
Yeah. Okay, so let's go back to your don't do
that for a second. So we have alot of advisors that listen to
this podcast, and I think thatyour advice is equally as
important to them. So whatshould that look like for them?
Who do they lean on? You know, alot, you know what a lot of
advisors businesses look like interms of the staff and the teams
and the infrastructure. So howshould they think about their
(18:18):
decision making processes andmaking sure that as they're
trying to grow and think abouttheir businesses differently,
that they're tapping the rightpeople and the right resources.
I
AJ Johnstone (18:26):
think advisors have, and there's so many great
ways for them to do this. And ifyou follow along digitally, like
the the message to advisors is,grow, grow, grow, grow, grow,
grow, grow. And it's, and, youknow, it's, buy something, buy
another phone, buy anotherphone. You should buy another
phone. Yeah, that's got to be ahard message to hear constantly,
(18:49):
particularly if that doesn'tfeel like either it's attainable
or it's what you want to do,right? And so I think for
advisors, particularly those whohave started and I'm running
firms, it's to step back andthink, what actually do I want
to do? Like, do I want to gofrom serving 300 clients to
serving 2000 or do I want to gofrom serving 300 clients to
(19:14):
serving 250 because that's okay,yeah. And you know, do I want my
business to go from 750 millionto 2 billion in in assets under
management in the next twoyears. And if I do, that's
great. Let's look at a strategythat gets us there, yeah, but,
but if I am really happy withthe business as it stands today,
(19:35):
that's okay too, right? SoDon't, don't fall foul of, of
like growth is the only way todrive a business forward. I
think that's, that's one thing,and then it's to understand that
growth can look different. Youknow, it doesn't have to be, you
know, sweating every client. Itdoesn't have to be buying
(19:56):
another firm or merging or likeit can. Be picking a new niche
and just going after that, yeah,and deepening your understanding
and slowly building a businessthat you feel really good about
at a personal integrity level.
Yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (20:12):
you know, it's interesting. You're saying that
I actually feel reallypassionate about that when
clients come to intentionally,whether it's a tech firm or an
RA, and I mentioned this onanother podcast, but it's a
little bit of, I feel like I'mplaying the Mark Cuban and shark
tank a little bit, because I'mlike, What are your goals? You
don't have any. Then, why areyou here? You don't know. Maybe
you should think about thatfirst, you know, I feel, I feel
(20:35):
like starting, you know, goingto a marketing agency or a
growth agency, and saying, Hey,I'm here. I know I need things,
but I don't know what I need. Iget a lot of that, and it's
AJ Johnstone (20:44):
and I don't know why I need them. Yes, it is, and
it's, you
Kelly Waltrich (20:48):
know, the moments like that. I like
question my life choices alittle bit, but, but then I
actually enjoy helping firmsfigure that out. I'm like, Okay,
well, let's rewind. Like youmade this call for a reason you
are feeling like you need to getsomewhere. Let's talk about
where that is. Because I feellike what I'm good at is then
(21:08):
telling people, okay, well, ifthat's where you're trying to
get, this is what it's going totake. But it is alarming at the
percentage of firms who reallydon't know where they're trying
to get. And for me, coming fromcorporate world, and I'm sure
the same is for you. Like youhave to put a plan together for
the next year. You have to havenumbers associated with it. You
have to have to, how am I goingto get there? You have to roll
(21:29):
that. Has to go up to somebodyhigher than you to say, you
know, this is and so just havingdone that my whole life, I am
shocked at the number of peoplewho really haven't gone through
that exercise. We see
AJ Johnstone (21:41):
it with CRM change all the time. I mean, you know,
replacing a core platform is notfor the faint of heart, like
it's, it's hot, yeah, so anyadvisors listening? I mean, this
sounds counter intuitive comingfrom me, but it's really hot.
Really sure you want to do it,but then at the point that you
are. And, you know, we see thisso much there. There are so many
(22:03):
RIAs who are in platforms thatare just really outmoded now,
and they're they're saying, butthey're cheap, so Okay, but, but
your client relationship is theheart of your business and and
you're seeing technologies andexpense not an investment,
right? Like move to thinking ofit as an investment if you're
going to make that investment inyour business, do you want to
(22:23):
move to the technology that's 1%better, or do you want to
actually think, Where do I wantmy business to be three years
from now? And how do I buildtowards that strategically?
Right? And that's, that's notjust CRM, it's, it's any
technology. And we have so manyfirms where, you know, we move
in practice, very configurable,very powerful platform. And one
(22:47):
of the first things is, well, Idon't want to make my team
change. So how do we make itlook and feel exactly like what
we're moving away from? It'slike time, guys, let's come back
to the start of the conversationwas, we don't think where we are
today is meeting our needs. Howdo we move forward and
understand that we need to bringyour people on a journey? Yeah?
(23:08):
Because if you're not preparedto do that, then you probably
shouldn't change, right?
Kelly Waltrich (23:13):
Yeah, there's like a there's like a business
planning aspect to our industrythat seems to be a little bit a
little bit lacking. So maybethat's a new startup idea. But I
feel like there's, there's astep there that's, you know? And
when I think I see it, I thinkyou see it. It's a hard thing to
do when you've been running yourbusiness the same way for a lot
of years. Often,
AJ Johnstone (23:32):
the person running the business, particularly in
advice firms, as they've grownorganically over time, right?
The person running the businessgot in it because they wanted to
be an advisor, and now they findthemselves stepping back from
clients and running, you know, aseven, 810, person shop, and
they're worried about P and l'sand balance sheets and marketing
(23:53):
plans and software and and whatthey really wanted to be was An
advisor, right? And that's ahard transition. And some
people, that's really exciting,and it's what they want to do,
and they they excel at it.
Right? For others, it's thisconstant battle, and I think
don't hire the next advisor.
Hire someone who's great atrunning
Kelly Waltrich (24:15):
firms. Yeah. So do you think this industry's
love of messages around fearplays into this too. I feel like
I see so much marketing defaultto, you're going to be left
behind, or you're not going tohave enough scale to even have
any of the tools that you'regoing to need, or all these
things. And it's just like,maybe another don't do that for
(24:37):
our advisors listening is like,Don't succumb to that. Like, put
your plan in place, identifywhat you need to grow and and
don't succumb to the fearmessaging. Because I feel like
there's so much of that that'sdriving decision making. There's
AJ Johnstone (24:51):
so much and there's the real myopia that
happens as well. So I mean, wesee it on the tech side. So what
are you doing with AI? And ofcourse, we're doing a bunch of
it. But you know, advisors aresitting there being told, like,
you need this tool, you needthat tool, you've got to get AI
between you and the clients.
That's how you're going to growand scale, and they're not sure
whether they want to grow andscale. But the last results I
saw was 96% of of investorssurveyed didn't want to deal
(25:16):
with an AI solution. So if I'man advisor, and I'm racing
towards that because I thinkthat's more efficient and and
kind of I'm possibly pullingaway from what my clients want,
right? And so really understandwhat business do you want to be,
What business do your clientswant you to be, and how is that
relationship centered? And ifyou're happy with that. Continue
(25:40):
down that path. You can, you canstill be wildly successful,
Kelly Waltrich (25:45):
right? All right, everybody. For those of
you that are listening, AJs,don't do that. Well, there are
many of them, but it's funny. AJand I talked about this before
we got on that, everybody thatI've interviewed has said, every
single person has said, Well, Ihave a lot to choose from. And
AJ, and I kind of laughed andsaid, Yeah, to be successful,
you have to step in it like youhave to do a lot of the wrong
(26:06):
things to get it right. That's atheme for this show that I am
loving, because if you takenothing else away from the don't
do that podcast. It's thateverybody's successful does a
lot of things wrong, right?
AJ Johnstone (26:17):
Oh, man, just, just so often. Yeah. I
Kelly Waltrich (26:20):
mean, how boring to get it all right, all the
time. Oh
AJ Johnstone (26:23):
man. I think my favorite we use Slack
internally. My favorite emoji,for me is the guy palming his
face.
Kelly Waltrich (26:31):
I like the slidey face, which is a similar,
you know, feeling. I think,yeah, it's so true. So guys, you
don't have to be perfect on yourway to the top. Like you figure
it out as you go. You learn fromyour own mistakes, and you
hopefully utilizing this podcastyou can learn from everybody
else's so what we're not doingtoday, just as a reminder, is
we're not putting every decisionon our shoulders. We're creating
(26:52):
a strong leadership team, astrong network of outside people
to make sure that we have agood, balanced thought process
to our decision making, but weare, we're taking it on when we
make those decisions, to takeresponsibility for the good or
the bad, right? Yeah, yeah. Yougotta own it. Own it, all right?
I love that. Well, I appreciateyou so much. I love seeing you.
(27:13):
I love working with your team.
Emily and I are. We went frommentor mentee to now just a
really nice friendship, and I'msuper thankful for that, and I
I'm watching you guys daily, andwish you lots of continued
success. Awesome. Thanks somuch. All right, thanks. AJ, see
you. Thanks so much for tuningin. If you enjoyed today's show,
(27:37):
subscribe to be notified whennew episodes become available,
and please consider giving us afive star review on Apple or
Spotify. This podcast issponsored by intentionally, a
financial services growthengine, design consultancy and
agency. If you want to learnmore, please email me at Kelly,
at grow intentionally.com, thankyou again for listening and
(28:00):
check back to hear what we'renot doing next.
Unknown (28:05):
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guest anddoes not necessarily represent
the views or opinions of KellyWaltrip. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only.
You.
So we're all really privileged to play a role
in what I think is a reallyimportant industry. You know,
advisors, helping clients todeliver or to achieve their
personal outcomes, to me, is areally honorable goal. And so
for us to be able to play a rolein that, in even the simplest
(00:21):
way to to make running the phonemore efficient so the advisors
not tripping over the thepaperwork and the process and
they can spend more time withclients. I see it as an all boat
rising kind of a thing.
Kelly Waltrich (00:37):
Welcome to the Don't Do That podcast. I'm Kelly
Waltrich, CEO and co founder ofIntention.ly and like me, this
show is no fluff and no BS, justsmart advice to help you learn
from the best and level upfaster. So what are we not doing
today? Let's find out. Hieveryone, and welcome to this
episode of The Don't Do Thatpodcast. I am your host, Kelly
(01:00):
Waltrich, and I am thrilled tobe here today with my friend
Adrian Johnson, the CEO ofPractifi. Welcome. AJ, Hey,
AJ Johnstone (01:08):
how are you? It's so fun to be having this chat
with you.
Kelly Waltrich (01:11):
That's the first time I ever called you by your
real name. I feel like I justknew you as. AJ, and every time
somebody calls you by that, I'mlike, Who? Who is that? Do we
use? Yeah, it's like, if someone
AJ Johnstone (01:19):
calls me, Adrian, I just assumed I'm in trouble,
which, which probably means Iget called it way too often. So
often in trouble.
Kelly Waltrich (01:28):
That's That's how I feel if I hear my middle
name, my family, my mom, mywhole life, Kelly, Lynn, I
always knew, Ron, you've donesomething wrong. Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (01:37):
yeah. Mine's my mother's British. And so the
tone in her voice to get like,real, real Hackney Yes, and be
like, Oh, dear.
Kelly Waltrich (01:47):
I think you are my guest with the best accent,
for sure. Yes, yes, for sure. Sowhy don't you tell everybody
that's listening a little bitabout you, a little bit of your
about your background and alittle bit about practice. I'm
sure it really needs nointroduction at this point, but
I think we can just giveeverybody a
AJ Johnstone (02:07):
quick update.
Yeah, for sure. So I'm Adrian.
Hi everyone. I am. Oh, AJ, yeah.
I mean, you know, it feels tooinformal. I'm Australian,
obviously, by the accent, that'smy win. That's the what to do is
be born in Australia, so yougrow up with that accent, so you
can export it, and people willthink it's good. Yes, I'm CEO.
I'm a co founder, originally,now CEO at practice, I've
(02:30):
wandered around this industry invarious guises for decades,
which is really embarrassing,but pretty obvious given the
color of my beard, when, when wetalk about Practifi, I'll keep
that bit light, because I don'twant us to be an advertorial.
We're a kick ass CRM foradvisors. Basically. That's it's
what we do. We try and makeadvisor client relationships and
(02:54):
all of the hard work that goesinto making that seem easy,
easy, perfect.
Kelly Waltrich (03:02):
And so the firm and the business has been under
a little bit of a transformationsince you stepped in as CEO. So
tell us a little bit about that.
What have you been up
AJ Johnstone (03:11):
to? What feels, feels a little bit like, the
what not to do part of your yourpodcast. So what you should, one
thing that you shouldn't do istake over a CEO and told the
team, there won't be muchchange, and then proceed to
change pretty much everything,because, because, turns out,
people don't love that part. Sowe have been, we've been doing a
(03:32):
lot. We've been really focusedon on our roots, I guess, which
is RIAs we, you know, we grew upas a business loving everything
about the independent advicemarket. And we have clients in
multiple countries. So I usethat collective term, the
independent advice market, Riais in all their guises, in in
other parts of the world aswell. And we had this sort of
(03:55):
period that a lot of businessesdo. It was like, Well, how do
we, how do we grow up and go upmarket and go left and go left
and go right and try and beeverything to everybody in and
since I took over as CEO, hasbeen guys who are actually
awesome and RAs and we reallylove them. We love doing
business with them. So why don'twe focus on them? Yeah, and so
we've been, we've been gettingback to those roots over the
(04:16):
last couple of years. Gosh, it'sfun, perfect.
Kelly Waltrich (04:19):
So I've had a front row seat to you thinking
through and refining your brandstory over the last several
years. And I think mostrecently, you've ended up in a
really good, authentic place.
Can you just kind of giveeverybody a little view into
into sort of what that, whatthat looks like for you, and the
and the evolution over theyears? Because I love watching
that, yeah, I mean, it's
AJ Johnstone (04:43):
evolution is always fun to watch, but it's,
it's way more fun. It's way, waymore fun, reflectively,
necessarily delivering it. Butyes, look, I think for me, if I
think about my view on advice,tech, wealth, tech, more
broadly, not even just practice.
By is we're all reallyprivileged to play a role in
what I think is a reallyimportant industry. You know,
(05:05):
advisors helping clients todeliver or to achieve their
personal outcomes, to me, is areally honorable goal. And so
for us to be able to play a rolein that, in even the simplest
way to to make running the firmmore efficient, so the advisors
not tripping over the thepaperwork and the process and
(05:28):
they can spend more time withclients. I see it as an all
boats rising kind of a thing. Soone advisor helps one, you know,
perhaps small to medium businessowner, they have less pressure
in their lives, so they makebigger bets in their business.
They hire more people. Thosepeople earn more income. They
need an advisor. And so for me,I think there's a real
(05:52):
responsibility that comes withthat is to to not jump on the
latest fad and to not try andoversell things that that look
great on paper, but aren'tnecessarily needed, all those
kind of things. So the journeyfor us has been one of, how do
we be great agents in theindustry? How do we understand
that we have a role to play tomake the advisor and their
(06:15):
surrounding machine in their RIAa better place to be so they can
do better things for
Kelly Waltrich (06:24):
clients. Yeah, you know what I love about that?
I feel like lots of fintechs inour space try to figure out how
to show through their messagethat they are the landing spot.
They're the screen you they wantto have a they want advisors
have open all the time. They'rethe the hub through which all
things should flow through. AndI feel like what I love about
the message that you have mostrecently landed on is that
(06:47):
you're not you're not trying tobe, that you're trying to make
the advisor shine and put therelationships back at the center
of this business. And I thinkthat sometimes, with all the PE
money and all the let's beeverything to everyone, and
let's make sure that we're frontand center. Like, I think that
that gets lost a little bit. SoI really love that. Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (07:06):
this, I mean, there's whether it's PE money,
whether it's founder focus, youknow, whatever it is, the
motivations, there is often somuch drive to just, how do we
grow faster, right? And youknow, when you sit in a CEO
role, there's an expectationthat that's what you get out of
bed for. So, how do I grow? Howdo I grow? How do I grow? Right?
(07:26):
And for me, I mean, growing isreally important and high to our
investors, if you're listening,growing is super important, and
obviously commercially thatthat's everyone's goal, but, but
you've got to do that in a waythat's that's steeped in
integrity and true to addingvalue, and the rest of it will
(07:48):
take care of itself. And I seeso many software firms that are
still trapped in the grow at allcosts, yeah, mentality. And they
come out and say, we've got160,000 integrations to
everything, and it's like, well,you don't you just have single
sign on to some stuff, like,you're not adding value, you're
just ticking a box to say youdid it. I'd rather have 10 good
(08:08):
ones than 1000s of rubbish ones,because that's that's more
meaningful.
Kelly Waltrich (08:13):
Yeah, you know, it's funny. Just give you a
glimpse into so my planning,obviously stepping into
entrepreneurship for the firsttime, and figuring it out and
making a bunch of my ownmistakes. They were older, oh,
my goodness. And so RandyLambert, who joined me un
intentionally from Orion, andJoe Stewart, who joined me from
Carson. We were doing ourplanning for 2025 and you know,
(08:34):
we're having those conversationsabout, how are we going to grow,
and what does that look like?
And at one point, I just sort ofcalled Time out, and I was like,
nobody's chasing us. We don'thave to run, like there's
someone chasing us. We don't, wedon't have a PE firm breathing
down our neck. We don't have,you know, a board of directors
that's pushing really hard, likewe can grow at a pace that we
feel good about, where we canstill provide clients with a
(08:57):
really good experience. And Ithink that like, to your point,
we're also used to just, how dowe get the next client that
sometimes that gets lost? Yeah,it's
AJ Johnstone (09:08):
and, you know, I think again, in the the theme of
things that we we should learnfrom is, I think, a really
important part ofentrepreneurship, no matter what
world you're in, whether you'reagency, technology, yeah,
whether you're an RIA, a bigpart of that entrepreneurship is
(09:28):
remembering what you got into itfor in the first place. Yep,
because if you can't keepchecking back to that, and
you're not being true to that,then you're almost certainly not
bringing your full self to thetask, and if you're, if you're
not able to to challengeyourself with that, well, no one
else is going to either, right?
So, you know, I think you've gotto really own Why am I here?
(09:51):
What am I doing here? Do I stillfeel good about what we're
doing, and if not, change?
Kelly Waltrich (09:59):
Right? Right, right? I met with an raa.
They're becoming a new client.
I'm intentionally I'm reallyexcited about it. And the
marketer is running a campaign.
One of the first campaigns thatwe're going to run with her is,
if you're not changing it,you're choosing it. Isn't that
fun? Yeah, I love every secondabout that. And I think that I
was like, Oh, I'm learning howgetting life lessons from this
(10:21):
prospect meeting, because that'sa nice reminder, right? It's a
great way anyway, all right? AJ,you know the premise of the
show, and you've already givenus a couple of don't do that,
but you know, I think a lotabout how learning from our
mistakes is just so much morefruitful than learning from our
wins and our triumphs and and sowhat we're trying to do here is,
is learn from each other. Sowhat it what is your don't do
(10:43):
that, your big don't do that forour audience today? Well, in
addition to the other three thatyou gave us,
AJ Johnstone (10:48):
this is for me, this, this, this one's kind of a
little double edged, so it's adon't on both sides. And so as I
was thinking about this, it'slike, what are all of the things
that you shouldn't there are somany don't, don't be definitive,
but don't be vague. Don't be,you know, all of those things.
And I was like, when you peelback as a founder or an
entrepreneur, even just someonewith a lot of accountability in
(11:11):
in a business, don't have tohave founded it to to face this,
it's you get so much pressure tomake decisions all the time.
Yeah, you're a senior role, andyou've got to do that thinking.
And so one don't is assume thatyou have to wear all that on
your own shoulders, likesurround yourself with people
within your business, outside ofyour business, and consult
(11:34):
widely. Don't. Don't feel likeyou've got to do it. But the
flip side is, don't, then beparalyzed to make a decision
that runs contrarian toeverybody else's advice, because
that's why you're there, right?
You know you your responsibilityis to consult widely and to take
in lots of input and to do that,but you're in the seat because
(11:56):
you're there to make thedecision, and that may be to
swim against the tide, and thatwon't always be popular. And I
think there are plenty in mybackground who would say, Well,
you're not afraid of makingunpopular decisions, but, but I
think it is just understandthat. You know, it's Don't be
(12:16):
frightened to to go your ownway, if you really truly believe
that that's the right thing todo, even if all of the
surrounding logic is telling youit's not, but you really
strongly believe, then do it.
But just own the decision. Likeif it, if it goes poorly, well,
(12:37):
it was your call, right? Don'tlook for a way out of it. Yeah.
Kelly Waltrich (12:51):
Okay, so you said you're saying, don't put it
on your shoulders. And I thinkthat's sometimes easier said
than done. So like, what doesthat framework work look like
for you? What have yousurrounded yourself with? How do
you make How do you make surethat you're not buried in
decisions day to day? And I'm,I'm asking selfishly for sure,
AJ Johnstone (13:08):
yeah, well, look, a great thing for me, and I
think you've done a good job ofthis with the team intentionally
already, but it's like, I lovemy leadership team. They're
super talented, and, you know, Ilove to give them the free rein
to make decisions, even though,for some of them, that's that's
maybe a new level ofaccountability. Yeah, and so I
(13:28):
don't take it all on myself,because I'm less good at
marketing than Emily in my team.
I'm less good at sales than Jen.
I would be a rubbish COO, but emis an amazing one. So, you know,
for me, it's Don't try and bebetter at their jobs than they
are, and then rely on them togive you thoughtful input, but
(13:51):
understand that you probablyhave a broader context, and so
you've got to pass that inputthrough the broader context, and
you've got investors and longerterm thinking and all those kind
of things in in frame as well.
So share the load for thethinking, but understand that
ultimately, you know this,particularly if you have
(14:11):
investors, there's one for it tojoke, and it's yours, yours,
yeah.
Kelly Waltrich (14:16):
So what is your what is your network outside of
your leadership team look like?
I think this is, you know, Italk to a lot of entrepreneurs
on a day to day basis, and a lotof them are definitely trying to
find their people that are, youknow, experiencing the same
challenges, that are trying tofigure things out day to day
that they can bounce ideas offof. So what is that? What does
that look like for you? Yeah,
AJ Johnstone (14:38):
it's, it's a tricky one. You have this
tendency that a guard goes upwhen you're in a broader
context, and you have this senseof going, well, I can't be
vulnerable because, you know,someone might see that I've got
a question, and that might makeits way back to a key prospect
or a client and makes themnervous. And so, you know,
everything always has to berosy, and that's why I love this
(14:59):
theme. For. Figure out podcastbeing that there's like
everything is not always rosy.
Quite often it's like herdingcats, and that's okay, and
that's that's the reality that Ithink so many of us live with,
but don't want to show we don'twant to we don't want to be
vulnerable. So it can be tricky.
I tend to have a few soundingboards who understand our
(15:21):
industry but aren't directlyassociated with it, yeah, so
they kind of cross over. Thenthey're unlikely to be clients
or or prospects, but they'readjacent. They understand it. I
talked to a number of people whoon a semi regular basis, who are
going through the same cycle,like different businesses, maybe
in in advice tech or wealth techor not, but, but entrepreneurs
(15:46):
and so one of the great parts ofworking with private equity
investors is they have portfoliocompanies, and there's, you
know, they're at differentstages that they're growing some
massive and on their way to anexit, and others are before us
in the cycle. So we havegatherings to get together with
them, and we get a lot of greatvalue, particularly through our
(16:07):
partners at update or in termsof content and knowledge, which
is phenomenal. And then I justread a lot. My reading is so
boring. I remember I was in apub in Sydney, and I was just on
my own on a Sunday afternoon,just having a quiet moment, just
having a pint, and sittingthere, and one of the staff came
(16:29):
by to clear the table, andshe's, oh, what are you reading?
And I showed her, and she'slike, wow, that's all. I was
like, yeah, maybe you know it'salso important. Yeah,
Unknown (16:39):
super important. Yeah.
Do you listen any podcasts? Idon't. I'm terrible at it. Yeah,
it's a change. I
AJ Johnstone (16:49):
I'd much rather just talk to people, yeah. And
so listening to people talk toother people, I find hard to
focus on Yeah. So I, I'm I'mold, so I read books, yeah,
doesn't really read online thatmuch because, like, I'm old.
Kelly Waltrich (17:05):
You're not that old. And you know what? It's
funny, I have a podcast, but Iwasn't listening to that many of
them, either. But I've justrecently started to I've found a
couple of agency or folks whohave sold, built and sold large
agencies, and I'm loving it. I'mlike, because you don't have to
read the whole book, you know, Iget, I'm a little add, and I get
(17:25):
to, like, the, you know, secondchapter. And I'm like, All
right, what's, what are we doingnext year? And I like to be able
to click the listen at two timesspeed, I think a
AJ Johnstone (17:35):
little bit too. I tried to do audio books like
that, and I found that I wasthat I was like, oh, what's
three and a half times?
Chipmunk, yeah. I didn't absorbany of it. I spent a lot of time
on airplanes, so I try on onplanes as much as I can to
disconnect from technology. Andso books are growing.
Kelly Waltrich (17:57):
Yeah. Okay, so let's go back to your don't do
that for a second. So we have alot of advisors that listen to
this podcast, and I think thatyour advice is equally as
important to them. So whatshould that look like for them?
Who do they lean on? You know, alot, you know what a lot of
advisors businesses look like interms of the staff and the teams
and the infrastructure. So howshould they think about their
(18:18):
decision making processes andmaking sure that as they're
trying to grow and think abouttheir businesses differently,
that they're tapping the rightpeople and the right resources.
I
AJ Johnstone (18:26):
think advisors have, and there's so many great
ways for them to do this. And ifyou follow along digitally, like
the the message to advisors is,grow, grow, grow, grow, grow,
grow, grow. And it's, and, youknow, it's, buy something, buy
another phone, buy anotherphone. You should buy another
phone. Yeah, that's got to be ahard message to hear constantly,
(18:49):
particularly if that doesn'tfeel like either it's attainable
or it's what you want to do,right? And so I think for
advisors, particularly those whohave started and I'm running
firms, it's to step back andthink, what actually do I want
to do? Like, do I want to gofrom serving 300 clients to
serving 2000 or do I want to gofrom serving 300 clients to
(19:14):
serving 250 because that's okay,yeah. And you know, do I want my
business to go from 750 millionto 2 billion in in assets under
management in the next twoyears. And if I do, that's
great. Let's look at a strategythat gets us there, yeah, but,
but if I am really happy withthe business as it stands today,
(19:35):
that's okay too, right? SoDon't, don't fall foul of, of
like growth is the only way todrive a business forward. I
think that's, that's one thing,and then it's to understand that
growth can look different. Youknow, it doesn't have to be, you
know, sweating every client. Itdoesn't have to be buying
(19:56):
another firm or merging or likeit can. Be picking a new niche
and just going after that, yeah,and deepening your understanding
and slowly building a businessthat you feel really good about
at a personal integrity level.
Yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (20:12):
you know, it's interesting. You're saying that
I actually feel reallypassionate about that when
clients come to intentionally,whether it's a tech firm or an
RA, and I mentioned this onanother podcast, but it's a
little bit of, I feel like I'mplaying the Mark Cuban and shark
tank a little bit, because I'mlike, What are your goals? You
don't have any. Then, why areyou here? You don't know. Maybe
you should think about thatfirst, you know, I feel, I feel
(20:35):
like starting, you know, goingto a marketing agency or a
growth agency, and saying, Hey,I'm here. I know I need things,
but I don't know what I need. Iget a lot of that, and it's
AJ Johnstone (20:44):
and I don't know why I need them. Yes, it is, and
it's, you
Kelly Waltrich (20:48):
know, the moments like that. I like
question my life choices alittle bit, but, but then I
actually enjoy helping firmsfigure that out. I'm like, Okay,
well, let's rewind. Like youmade this call for a reason you
are feeling like you need to getsomewhere. Let's talk about
where that is. Because I feellike what I'm good at is then
(21:08):
telling people, okay, well, ifthat's where you're trying to
get, this is what it's going totake. But it is alarming at the
percentage of firms who reallydon't know where they're trying
to get. And for me, coming fromcorporate world, and I'm sure
the same is for you. Like youhave to put a plan together for
the next year. You have to havenumbers associated with it. You
have to have to, how am I goingto get there? You have to roll
(21:29):
that. Has to go up to somebodyhigher than you to say, you
know, this is and so just havingdone that my whole life, I am
shocked at the number of peoplewho really haven't gone through
that exercise. We see
AJ Johnstone (21:41):
it with CRM change all the time. I mean, you know,
replacing a core platform is notfor the faint of heart, like
it's, it's hot, yeah, so anyadvisors listening? I mean, this
sounds counter intuitive comingfrom me, but it's really hot.
Really sure you want to do it,but then at the point that you
are. And, you know, we see thisso much there. There are so many
(22:03):
RIAs who are in platforms thatare just really outmoded now,
and they're they're saying, butthey're cheap, so Okay, but, but
your client relationship is theheart of your business and and
you're seeing technologies andexpense not an investment,
right? Like move to thinking ofit as an investment if you're
going to make that investment inyour business, do you want to
(22:23):
move to the technology that's 1%better, or do you want to
actually think, Where do I wantmy business to be three years
from now? And how do I buildtowards that strategically?
Right? And that's, that's notjust CRM, it's, it's any
technology. And we have so manyfirms where, you know, we move
in practice, very configurable,very powerful platform. And one
(22:47):
of the first things is, well, Idon't want to make my team
change. So how do we make itlook and feel exactly like what
we're moving away from? It'slike time, guys, let's come back
to the start of the conversationwas, we don't think where we are
today is meeting our needs. Howdo we move forward and
understand that we need to bringyour people on a journey? Yeah?
(23:08):
Because if you're not preparedto do that, then you probably
shouldn't change, right?
Kelly Waltrich (23:13):
Yeah, there's like a there's like a business
planning aspect to our industrythat seems to be a little bit a
little bit lacking. So maybethat's a new startup idea. But I
feel like there's, there's astep there that's, you know? And
when I think I see it, I thinkyou see it. It's a hard thing to
do when you've been running yourbusiness the same way for a lot
of years. Often,
AJ Johnstone (23:32):
the person running the business, particularly in
advice firms, as they've grownorganically over time, right?
The person running the businessgot in it because they wanted to
be an advisor, and now they findthemselves stepping back from
clients and running, you know, aseven, 810, person shop, and
they're worried about P and l'sand balance sheets and marketing
(23:53):
plans and software and and whatthey really wanted to be was An
advisor, right? And that's ahard transition. And some
people, that's really exciting,and it's what they want to do,
and they they excel at it.
Right? For others, it's thisconstant battle, and I think
don't hire the next advisor.
Hire someone who's great atrunning
Kelly Waltrich (24:15):
firms. Yeah. So do you think this industry's
love of messages around fearplays into this too. I feel like
I see so much marketing defaultto, you're going to be left
behind, or you're not going tohave enough scale to even have
any of the tools that you'regoing to need, or all these
things. And it's just like,maybe another don't do that for
(24:37):
our advisors listening is like,Don't succumb to that. Like, put
your plan in place, identifywhat you need to grow and and
don't succumb to the fearmessaging. Because I feel like
there's so much of that that'sdriving decision making. There's
AJ Johnstone (24:51):
so much and there's the real myopia that
happens as well. So I mean, wesee it on the tech side. So what
are you doing with AI? And ofcourse, we're doing a bunch of
it. But you know, advisors aresitting there being told, like,
you need this tool, you needthat tool, you've got to get AI
between you and the clients.
That's how you're going to growand scale, and they're not sure
whether they want to grow andscale. But the last results I
saw was 96% of of investorssurveyed didn't want to deal
(25:16):
with an AI solution. So if I'man advisor, and I'm racing
towards that because I thinkthat's more efficient and and
kind of I'm possibly pullingaway from what my clients want,
right? And so really understandwhat business do you want to be,
What business do your clientswant you to be, and how is that
relationship centered? And ifyou're happy with that. Continue
(25:40):
down that path. You can, you canstill be wildly successful,
Kelly Waltrich (25:45):
right? All right, everybody. For those of
you that are listening, AJs,don't do that. Well, there are
many of them, but it's funny. AJand I talked about this before
we got on that, everybody thatI've interviewed has said, every
single person has said, Well, Ihave a lot to choose from. And
AJ, and I kind of laughed andsaid, Yeah, to be successful,
you have to step in it like youhave to do a lot of the wrong
(26:06):
things to get it right. That's atheme for this show that I am
loving, because if you takenothing else away from the don't
do that podcast. It's thateverybody's successful does a
lot of things wrong, right?
AJ Johnstone (26:17):
Oh, man, just, just so often. Yeah. I
Kelly Waltrich (26:20):
mean, how boring to get it all right, all the
time. Oh
AJ Johnstone (26:23):
man. I think my favorite we use Slack
internally. My favorite emoji,for me is the guy palming his
face.
Kelly Waltrich (26:31):
I like the slidey face, which is a similar,
you know, feeling. I think,yeah, it's so true. So guys, you
don't have to be perfect on yourway to the top. Like you figure
it out as you go. You learn fromyour own mistakes, and you
hopefully utilizing this podcastyou can learn from everybody
else's so what we're not doingtoday, just as a reminder, is
we're not putting every decisionon our shoulders. We're creating
(26:52):
a strong leadership team, astrong network of outside people
to make sure that we have agood, balanced thought process
to our decision making, but weare, we're taking it on when we
make those decisions, to takeresponsibility for the good or
the bad, right? Yeah, yeah. Yougotta own it. Own it, all right?
I love that. Well, I appreciateyou so much. I love seeing you.
(27:13):
I love working with your team.
Emily and I are. We went frommentor mentee to now just a
really nice friendship, and I'msuper thankful for that, and I
I'm watching you guys daily, andwish you lots of continued
success. Awesome. Thanks somuch. All right, thanks. AJ, see
you. Thanks so much for tuningin. If you enjoyed today's show,
(27:37):
subscribe to be notified whennew episodes become available,
and please consider giving us afive star review on Apple or
Spotify. This podcast issponsored by intentionally, a
financial services growthengine, design consultancy and
agency. If you want to learnmore, please email me at Kelly,
at grow intentionally.com, thankyou again for listening and
(28:00):
check back to hear what we'renot doing next.
Unknown (28:05):
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guest anddoes not necessarily represent
the views or opinions of KellyWaltrip. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only.
You.
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