August 4, 2025 • 21 mins
What if the secret to success isn't what you should do, but what you absolutely shouldn't?
What do brilliant jerks, head trash, and the "parent thing" have in common? They're all career killers that successful leaders have learned to avoid—the hard way.
Kelly Waltrich curates the most eye-opening "Don't Do That" moments from 20+ industry titans who've made every mistake so you don't have to. This isn't your typical highlight reel—it's a rapid-fire collection of expensive lessons learned, toxic patterns exposed, and blind spots revealed.
In just 21 minutes, you'll get decades of collective wisdom from leaders who've scaled companies, survived failures, and discovered what actually moves the needle. These aren't theoretical concepts—they're battle-tested insights from the trenches of real business, distilled into the exact moments that changed everything for these executives.
Featured wisdom covers:
- Why brilliant jerks are organizational poison (and how to spot them)
- The dangerous allure of inorganic growth over organic foundations
- How collecting "head trash" sabotages your leadership
- Why the best idea doesn't always win
- The critical difference between being known and being worth knowing
00:44 Adam Holt, Asset-Map
01:41 Eric Clarke, Orion
02:32 Ainslie Simmonds, BNY Pershing
03:16 Chris Schembra, 7:47
03:54 David Wood, Gateway Financial Partners
04:37 Billy Hopkins, Silver Oak Securities
05:08 John Wernz, Great Hill Partners
06:07 Marwa Zakharia, MZ Global Consulting
06:55 Heather Fortner, SignatureFD
08:00 Jason Mirabella, Intention.ly
08:44 Randy Lambert, Intention.ly
09:17 Jack Sharry, SEI LifeYield
10:01 Brian Portnoy, Shaping Wealth
10:44 Penny Phillips, Journey Strategic Wealth
11:55 Chris Shuba, Helios
13:19 Sara Baker, Allworth Financial
14:05 Joel Bruckenstein, T3
14:53 Mark Gilbert, Zocks
15:50 Jamie Hopkins, WSFS Bank
16:39 Jason Early, RISR
17:45 Adrian Johnstone, Practifi
18:48 Molly McClure, Intelliflo
📩 Stay Informed – Join Our Newsletter!
Stay ahead of industry trends and get exclusive updates straight to your inbox: Sign Up Now https://intention.ly/
💬 Let’s Talk!
Have questions or ready to start your next marketing campaign? Contact us: https://intention.ly/contact-us/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelly Waltrich (00:00):
Kelly, welcome to the Don't Do That podcast.
(00:03):
I'm Kelly Waltrich, CEO andco-founder of Intention.ly, and
like me, this show is no fluffand no BS, just smart advice to
help you learn from the best andlevel up faster. So what are we
not doing today? Let's find out.
Hi everyone. I'm Kelly Waltrich,and welcome to a special
compilation episode of The don'tdo that podcast. Over the past
(00:26):
episodes, we've gatheredincredible wisdom from leaders
who know what not to do, andtoday we're bringing together
their best. Don't do thatmoments. Let's dive in. You.
Adam Holt, Asset-Map,
Adam Holt (00:46):
advisors are not really addressing the real
customer pain point. They're notdoing it. And I see it again and
again, and I've been a productof also not always listening to
what the customer wanted, butrather what I wanted to deliver
as a business owner, and I thinkwe're gonna have a major
reckoning. And I think this is areally applicable for every
(01:09):
business owner, is, are weasking our clients what they
really, really want? I know whyyou showed up at this meeting,
at this endeavor, why you'vehired me, but what's the real
core of how I help you get whatyou really want. And Financial
Services has been really kind ofclassic, right? We believe that
everybody wants an assetallocation model and a
retirement burndown ofconfidence, maybe some other
(01:30):
insurance stuff, maybe some taxstuff, and we deliver that
value. I don't think that'sreally what clients are asking
for, not the ones that are goingto stick with us long term, not
the ones that are looking for 20year relationships.
Kelly Waltrich (01:41):
And Hi, Eric Clarke Orion,
Eric Clarke (01:45):
what we are not doing today as an industry is
using AI to augment the advisorclient journey. There's so much
more that we can do to leverageAI to add scale to our
businesses, to help advisorsserve more households, you know,
help clients in a way that theywill best understand. So AI is
(02:07):
being used today, I think, formeeting notes or action items
and next steps. But there's somuch more that AI can do to help
advisors communicate with theirclients in a way that the
client, from a behavioralperspective, will best respond
to, best understand and reallyhelp the advisor meet the client
(02:28):
where they are.
Kelly Waltrich (02:32):
Ainsley Simmons, BNY Pershing,
Ainslie Simmonds (02:36):
you know what I'm not doing. I'm never hiring
a brilliant jerk, and they arepoison. They're poison. They do
terrible things I never and whenI do because sometimes they slip
in because they're so sparkly, Ihave to say to myself, Ainsley,
(02:58):
for God's love, you get themout. Oh my God. Don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't hire them.
Don't keep them, don't don't letthem in. And when you do when
they sneak in, get them out.
Quick. Get them out quick.
Kelly Waltrich (03:16):
Chris Schembra, 747,
Chris Schembra (03:19):
kids, don't worry about people knowing you
make yourself worth knowing,chasing accolade or chasing
achievement for achievementsake, or paying for a PR hit, or
paying to hit a best seller listor paying for whatever. Well,
(03:41):
never never get you as far, norbe as fulfilling as just putting
your head down through hardtimes and doing the work.
Kelly Waltrich (03:54):
David Wood, Gateway Financial Partners,
David Wood (03:59):
we're not going it alone. We're seeing this this
scale of the advisors and thefirms that are recognizing that
they can't do everything again.
Why are we using intentionally?
It's because we can't doeverything alone. And the cool
part about it is, the bigger youscale, the more you have the
ability to invest in resourceslike intentionally. I couldn't
have done that 10 years agotoday. I can so this scale is
(04:22):
leading to, I think, a biggerdifferentiator between the folks
that are really successful inthe industry and the folks that
are going to that are strugglingand are going to continue to
struggle more because of allthis change. I think the scale
is really important.
Kelly Waltrich (04:37):
Billy Hopkins, Silver Oak Securities,
Billy Hopkins (04:40):
just as an entrepreneur, what you don't do
is just either hold onto thingstoo long or fight the
opportunity to expand yoursphere. People were buying you.
They bought us. They boughtthese employees bought us. They
knew that it wasn't they weren'tready. What they saw was an
exciting little group of peoplethat. Wanted to grow, and they
(05:01):
focused on that, as opposed tothe things that we weren't. What
we're not doing is thinkingsmall.
Kelly Waltrich (05:08):
John Wernz, Great Hill Partners,
John Wernz (05:11):
the don't do that.
I've done is getting caught upin inorganic growth over organic
growth. The inorganic market isso exciting, and doing
acquisitions and and bringingfirms on and and the spreadsheet
math of that. I mean, it'sreally a seductive thing, right?
I mean, it's and it's easy tofeel the pressure internally
(05:32):
driven, not from even outsideforces, like, Oh, I got to do
this deal, because then we're x,and then we have this, and then
we have this. The reason why I'msaying, I'm not saying, Don't do
inorganic, of course, like Ithink it's a wonderful thing,
but I do see many firms doing iteither at the cost of organic
synergy or before building outorganic The truth is, don't do
(05:57):
inorganic at the cost of futureor current. Organic, and a lot
of firms actually are doing thatright now.
Unknown (06:07):
Marwa Zakharia, MZ Global Consulting,
Marwa Zakharia (06:12):
I don't come in it from a hey, here's what
you're doing wrong. Like nobodywants to be told what they're
doing right, you know, and I doit on a daily basis. Have the
conversation with myself, andthen I annoy myself like nobody
wants to hear about what they'redoing wrong. Here's how we can
do things different, right andtake yourself out of the things.
Listen, you built a phenomenalrocket. That doesn't mean you
need to be the one flying it.
That is my, my mantra in life.
(06:35):
You know, there are phenomenalfounders out there that do a
great job. They don't want theCEO role. They don't they don't
want to have to manage and beoperational and be strategic and
tactical at the same time. Theywant to build. They want to
execute. And that is perfectlyfine.
Kelly Waltrich (06:55):
Heather Fortner, SignatureFD
Heather Fortner (06:59):
today, what we are not going to do is we are
not going to collect all thehead trash everybody else is
laying down. Over the course ofmy career, I've had a tendency
to be one of those people andinternalizing all of those
(07:21):
things that were head trash thatended up taking up space in my
head, in my life, and what Ibelieved about myself and who I
felt like I was. And the realitywas that trash, one, it's trash,
and two, it's not even my trash,and yet I was picking it up and
owning it like it was. And sowe're just going to be done.
(07:43):
We're going to be we're going toget off the side of the road.
We're going to take off thelittle cross body bag. We're
going to lay down the littlepicker upper tool, and we're
just going to stop collectingother people's trash because it
is not ours to own.
Kelly Waltrich (08:00):
Jason Mirabella, Intention.ly
Jason Mirabella (08:04):
get people involved early. Stakeholders
should be part of the build.
Leadership should not bedictating mission critical
initiatives down to the team,because what that does is it
you're wanting to create ravingfans that feel like they're part
of the build, so that they willthen adopt the solution, if
you're dictating it, they maybecome adversarial to this
(08:26):
solution, and it's verydifficult to affect change in
those type of environments. Ivnuinitiatives as an opportunity to
both improve and weaken culture
Kelly Waltrich (08:44):
Randy Lambert, Intention.ly
Randy Lambert (08:47):
doing the parent thing. Like, Hey, Mom said this,
dad said that. So the CEO saidthat. The board said that, don't
do that. It is so lame. Bringdata with you, bring facts with
you, and that is how you lead upand help bring the leadership
along so they don't have to gettheir ego hurt, and they can
(09:07):
then, you know, come down andgo, okay, yeah, the facts do
show that that I do agree, andmaybe they won't agree with you,
like, it's tough luck.
Kelly Waltrich (09:17):
Jack Sherry, SEI Lifeyield.
Jack Sharry (09:21):
Most people don't listen. So instead of listening,
what most people will do isimpatially wait for their turn
to talk, or, more ofteninterrupt anxious to share their
next brilliant thought. So mydon't do that is, don't do that.
Stop waiting for your turn totalk. Listen. So I'm a big fan
of David Brooks, who's a NewYork Times columnist, and he
(09:41):
wrote a recent book called Howto know a person, the art of
seeing others deeply and deeplybeing seen and being deeply
seen. So as he describes it, youwant to listen so hard you burn
calories. That's how hard he'srecommending you listen.
Kelly Waltrich (09:59):
Brian Portnoy.
Shaping Wealth.
Brian Portnoy (10:01):
We are not buying into the belief that the best
idea wins. We are not buyinginto the belief that the work
speaks for itself. The positiveperspective on it is that sales
matter and that in life, there'sa sales component to everything,
(10:26):
whether it's work or creation orlove. You know, best ideas don't
always win. The catchy phrasedoesn't always win that it's got
to connect with others.
Kelly Waltrich (10:44):
Penny Phillips, Journey Strategic Wealth.
Penny Phillips (10:48):
Don't listen to too many people. I mean,
sometimes I say, don't listen toanyone, and I have said that
I've posted it, but I'll say,don't listen to too many people,
because you got to listen tosome people sometimes. But
that's my don't do, and it's areally, really important one. It
is almost impossible to developyour own instinct judgment and
(11:13):
overcome imposter syndrometotally, which I don't think you
ever can if you are basing yourown decisions, confidence and
your own opinions on what othersare saying to you. In other
words, if you are somebody thatcannot make a decision or have a
conviction or an opinion withoutpolling five different people in
(11:34):
your life, collecting all thatinformation and then going with
the one that doesn't disappointthose people, that is a recipe
for, I won't say failure, butcontinued anxiety, and you will
never step fully into your ownpower or even discover what
you're capable of.
Kelly Waltrich (11:55):
Chris Shuba Helios,
Chris Shuba (11:58):
the secret to success is very easy, and that
is, you find a problem and yousolve it right? The bigger the
problem you solve, the moresuccess you get. And success can
be anything. Right doesn't haveto be money, doesn't have to be,
you know, power, whatever youwant to call it. But that's not
the rest of the story. Thesecond part of that is that you
(12:19):
have to love the problem, notyour solution, yep, because the
problem is going to keepchanging, right? And when you
have a vision, a vision,generally, is linked to solving
a problem. And what I foundhappens is that when you
assemble a team and you tacklethat problem, your team is very
(12:42):
likely going to fall in lovewith their solution, and your
vision is falling in love withthe problem. And that's the
disconnect. It's not thatthey're wrong, it's not that
you're wrong, is that you'relooking at two different things.
And as a leader and someonewho's you know, captaining this
ship, hopefully not drifting outto sea, is being strong enough
(13:06):
and communicative enough withyour team when you're seeing the
problem change and bringing themalong to see that their solution
needs to change too.
Kelly Waltrich (13:19):
Sara Baker, Allworth Financial
Sara Baker (13:22):
I used to like at the end of the week, I would
feel so much guilt over I didn'tspend enough time with my kids,
I didn't spend enough time withmy spouse, or I go on vacation,
and I gave nothing to work. Ichecked out, and now I don't do
that anymore. Now I'm much morepatient. I have a much broader
perspective, and now I look atmore year timeframes. So I look
(13:46):
back at the end of the year, I'mlike, Did I have balance? Did I
give everything I have to myspouse, to my kids, to my
family, to my work, to myfriends, instead of these, like,
weak increments, because you'reyou're gonna fail, like you
can't give 100% to all of thoseareas. And every week,
Unknown (14:05):
Joel Bruckenstein, T3 Technology Tools for Today.
Joel Bruckenstein (14:10):
The biggest don't do that for folks who are
starting or running a firm isdon't believe that you know
everything and that you're amaster of everything, because
you're not. And so at thebeginning, you know, when I
started my RIA firm years ago, Itried to do everything right. I
tried to be my own technologyconsultant. I tried to be my own
marketing consultant. I tried tobe my own business consultant.
(14:33):
If you want to be great, youneed to have people who are
great in all of those areas. Soyou have to pick your spots. You
have to decide what you're goingto specialize in, devote your
time to what you're really goodat and what you're not good at.
You have to outsource tosomebody who is good at it, or
you have to hire people to do itfor you.
Kelly Waltrich (14:53):
Mark Gilbert, Zocks,
MARK GILBERT (14:56):
the biggest one for us is it's essentially
selling and marketing like wegot. Into a situation very
quickly where, you know, anygood product person does product
research, chats with people,does all this stuff. We got a
ton of good feedback. And so wehad a ton of people like, Yeah,
I'll try it. I'll try it. Thisis great. And because of that,
we were just like, great. Wehave people trying it. Like,
this is fun. And, you know, fora product person, having people
use your product is great. Butbecause of that, we delayed,
(15:17):
probably for nine to 12 months,like, truly marketing and
selling. Like, first of all,that's it. Like, marketing, as
you know, Kelly is a skill,right? Like, it takes time to
learn. It takes time to do well.
And you realize, like,everyone's just super busy, and
you really want to get them theright information, not too much
information, but the rightinformation at the right time.
And for me, that's like, kind ofthe magic of of marketing,
right? Like, right? Whensomeone's thinking about it,
(15:38):
they hear it. They hear exactlywhat's relevant to them all the
way through to like, opening upthe product, seeing the first
demo and using it, that shouldjust feel like a big flow.
Kelly Waltrich (15:50):
Jamie Hopkins, WSFS Bank,
Jamie Hopkins (15:53):
don't compare yourself to averages. Averages
are pretty useless when it comesto your situation. So average
life expectancy, if you plan tothat, I mean, half the time
you're gonna live longer thanthat. That's not a super great
plan. And I really never appliedthat to the business side for a
long time. And then one day, Iwas like, you know, we use a lot
of averages. We look at our dataand our pitch books. I've told
(16:17):
my team here too, like, I don'twanna compare ourselves to
averages. I wanna know who thebest like, who's doing this the
best like, that's who we want tocompare ourselves to. Like, it's
much better to say like, Who'sthat best in class that you want
to compare yourself to? And goafter that? I guess. Think the
other thing too, like, if youalways are focused on average,
you're going to return average.
Kelly Waltrich (16:39):
Jason Early, RISR,
Jason Early (16:42):
bad news doesn't get better with time. We at
riser have a one of our corevalues is, and I stole this from
a woman named CLAIRE HUGHESJOHNSON. I believe she has a
saying that she says, say thething that you think you cannot
say. And so we all have thesemoments in our you know,
certainly in our teams, in ourbusiness life, in our
relationships, at home orwhatever, where there is
(17:04):
something that you're feelingthat you are not saying you are
scared to death to say it, yeah,when you muster up the courage
to say whatever it is thatyou're thinking, those lead to a
lot of breakthrough moments. Andso oftentimes they lead you into
really incredible and powerfulconversations with team members,
whoever it might be. And so wework really hard to say those
(17:27):
things and not sit on them,because oftentimes sitting on
them can lead to resentments orall sorts of things that you
don't want to have happen. Andso I've learned that lesson way
too many times by by not sayingit and and so we work really
hard at that
Kelly Waltrich (17:45):
Adrian Johnstone, Practifi
Adrian Johnstone (17:48):
You get so much pressure to make decisions
all the time. Yeah, you're asenior role, and you've got to
do that thinking. And so onedon't is assume that you have to
wear all that on your ownshoulders like surround yourself
with people within yourbusiness, outside of your
business, and consult widely.
Don't, don't feel like you'vegot to do it. But the flip side
is, don't, then be paralyzed tomake a decision that runs
(18:13):
contrarian to everybody else'sadvice, because that's why
you're there, right? Yourresponsibility is to consult
widely and to take in lots ofinput, and to do that, but
you're in the seat becauseyou're there to make the
decision, and that may be toswim against the tide, and that
won't always be popular. Anddon't be frightened to to go
(18:36):
your own way if you really,truly believe that that's
Unknown (18:43):
the right way. Thank you.
Kelly Waltrich (18:48):
Molly McClure, intelliflo,
Marwa Zakharia (18:51):
we are not going to hire experts and then not
trust them to do what they dobest. Ooh, yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (19:01):
I like it. All right. Tell me more. Tell me
more. And
Marwa Zakharia (19:04):
that can go a couple different ways, I think,
especially in marketing. Thefirst way, the most obvious is,
no one wants to work for amicromanager. I love hiring
people that are better at methan certain things. I love it.
It's honestly one of the mostfreeing and success driving
things of being a leader, isfind someone who's better at
(19:28):
something critical than you are,and I can say that about my
team, hands down,
Molly McClure (19:34):
what we're not doing today is we are not hiring
amazing talent and then tellingthem how to do their jobs. I
think that that's a lesson thatgoes far beyond marketing, that
goes far beyond wealthmanagement, and is a reminder to
all leaders out there that weall can learn something from the
people on our teams, no matterwhat level they are. That's a
(19:58):
wrap on our best of don't do.
That compilation, each of theseleaders has shared wisdom that
challenges us to thinkdifferently and lead with
intention. Thank you forlistening and as always, don't
just learn what to do, rememberwhat not to do.
Kelly Waltrich (20:16):
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed
today's show, subscribe to benotified when new episodes
become available, and pleaseconsider giving us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Thispodcast is sponsored by
Intentiion.ly, a financialservices growth engine, design
consultancy and agency. If youwant to learn more, please email
(20:37):
me atKelly@growintentionally.com,
thank you again for listeningand check back to hear what
we're not doing next.
Unknown (20:46):
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guest anddoes not necessarily represent
the views or opinions of KellyWaltrich. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only.
Kelly, welcome to the Don't Do That podcast.
(00:03):
I'm Kelly Waltrich, CEO andco-founder of Intention.ly, and
like me, this show is no fluffand no BS, just smart advice to
help you learn from the best andlevel up faster. So what are we
not doing today? Let's find out.
Hi everyone. I'm Kelly Waltrich,and welcome to a special
compilation episode of The don'tdo that podcast. Over the past
(00:26):
episodes, we've gatheredincredible wisdom from leaders
who know what not to do, andtoday we're bringing together
their best. Don't do thatmoments. Let's dive in. You.
Adam Holt, Asset-Map,
Adam Holt (00:46):
advisors are not really addressing the real
customer pain point. They're notdoing it. And I see it again and
again, and I've been a productof also not always listening to
what the customer wanted, butrather what I wanted to deliver
as a business owner, and I thinkwe're gonna have a major
reckoning. And I think this is areally applicable for every
(01:09):
business owner, is, are weasking our clients what they
really, really want? I know whyyou showed up at this meeting,
at this endeavor, why you'vehired me, but what's the real
core of how I help you get whatyou really want. And Financial
Services has been really kind ofclassic, right? We believe that
everybody wants an assetallocation model and a
retirement burndown ofconfidence, maybe some other
(01:30):
insurance stuff, maybe some taxstuff, and we deliver that
value. I don't think that'sreally what clients are asking
for, not the ones that are goingto stick with us long term, not
the ones that are looking for 20year relationships.
Kelly Waltrich (01:41):
And Hi, Eric Clarke Orion,
Eric Clarke (01:45):
what we are not doing today as an industry is
using AI to augment the advisorclient journey. There's so much
more that we can do to leverageAI to add scale to our
businesses, to help advisorsserve more households, you know,
help clients in a way that theywill best understand. So AI is
(02:07):
being used today, I think, formeeting notes or action items
and next steps. But there's somuch more that AI can do to help
advisors communicate with theirclients in a way that the
client, from a behavioralperspective, will best respond
to, best understand and reallyhelp the advisor meet the client
(02:28):
where they are.
Kelly Waltrich (02:32):
Ainsley Simmons, BNY Pershing,
Ainslie Simmonds (02:36):
you know what I'm not doing. I'm never hiring
a brilliant jerk, and they arepoison. They're poison. They do
terrible things I never and whenI do because sometimes they slip
in because they're so sparkly, Ihave to say to myself, Ainsley,
(02:58):
for God's love, you get themout. Oh my God. Don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't hire them.
Don't keep them, don't don't letthem in. And when you do when
they sneak in, get them out.
Quick. Get them out quick.
Kelly Waltrich (03:16):
Chris Schembra, 747,
Chris Schembra (03:19):
kids, don't worry about people knowing you
make yourself worth knowing,chasing accolade or chasing
achievement for achievementsake, or paying for a PR hit, or
paying to hit a best seller listor paying for whatever. Well,
(03:41):
never never get you as far, norbe as fulfilling as just putting
your head down through hardtimes and doing the work.
Kelly Waltrich (03:54):
David Wood, Gateway Financial Partners,
David Wood (03:59):
we're not going it alone. We're seeing this this
scale of the advisors and thefirms that are recognizing that
they can't do everything again.
Why are we using intentionally?
It's because we can't doeverything alone. And the cool
part about it is, the bigger youscale, the more you have the
ability to invest in resourceslike intentionally. I couldn't
have done that 10 years agotoday. I can so this scale is
(04:22):
leading to, I think, a biggerdifferentiator between the folks
that are really successful inthe industry and the folks that
are going to that are strugglingand are going to continue to
struggle more because of allthis change. I think the scale
is really important.
Kelly Waltrich (04:37):
Billy Hopkins, Silver Oak Securities,
Billy Hopkins (04:40):
just as an entrepreneur, what you don't do
is just either hold onto thingstoo long or fight the
opportunity to expand yoursphere. People were buying you.
They bought us. They boughtthese employees bought us. They
knew that it wasn't they weren'tready. What they saw was an
exciting little group of peoplethat. Wanted to grow, and they
(05:01):
focused on that, as opposed tothe things that we weren't. What
we're not doing is thinkingsmall.
Kelly Waltrich (05:08):
John Wernz, Great Hill Partners,
John Wernz (05:11):
the don't do that.
I've done is getting caught upin inorganic growth over organic
growth. The inorganic market isso exciting, and doing
acquisitions and and bringingfirms on and and the spreadsheet
math of that. I mean, it'sreally a seductive thing, right?
I mean, it's and it's easy tofeel the pressure internally
(05:32):
driven, not from even outsideforces, like, Oh, I got to do
this deal, because then we're x,and then we have this, and then
we have this. The reason why I'msaying, I'm not saying, Don't do
inorganic, of course, like Ithink it's a wonderful thing,
but I do see many firms doing iteither at the cost of organic
synergy or before building outorganic The truth is, don't do
(05:57):
inorganic at the cost of futureor current. Organic, and a lot
of firms actually are doing thatright now.
Unknown (06:07):
Marwa Zakharia, MZ Global Consulting,
Marwa Zakharia (06:12):
I don't come in it from a hey, here's what
you're doing wrong. Like nobodywants to be told what they're
doing right, you know, and I doit on a daily basis. Have the
conversation with myself, andthen I annoy myself like nobody
wants to hear about what they'redoing wrong. Here's how we can
do things different, right andtake yourself out of the things.
Listen, you built a phenomenalrocket. That doesn't mean you
need to be the one flying it.
That is my, my mantra in life.
(06:35):
You know, there are phenomenalfounders out there that do a
great job. They don't want theCEO role. They don't they don't
want to have to manage and beoperational and be strategic and
tactical at the same time. Theywant to build. They want to
execute. And that is perfectlyfine.
Kelly Waltrich (06:55):
Heather Fortner, SignatureFD
Heather Fortner (06:59):
today, what we are not going to do is we are
not going to collect all thehead trash everybody else is
laying down. Over the course ofmy career, I've had a tendency
to be one of those people andinternalizing all of those
(07:21):
things that were head trash thatended up taking up space in my
head, in my life, and what Ibelieved about myself and who I
felt like I was. And the realitywas that trash, one, it's trash,
and two, it's not even my trash,and yet I was picking it up and
owning it like it was. And sowe're just going to be done.
(07:43):
We're going to be we're going toget off the side of the road.
We're going to take off thelittle cross body bag. We're
going to lay down the littlepicker upper tool, and we're
just going to stop collectingother people's trash because it
is not ours to own.
Kelly Waltrich (08:00):
Jason Mirabella, Intention.ly
Jason Mirabella (08:04):
get people involved early. Stakeholders
should be part of the build.
Leadership should not bedictating mission critical
initiatives down to the team,because what that does is it
you're wanting to create ravingfans that feel like they're part
of the build, so that they willthen adopt the solution, if
you're dictating it, they maybecome adversarial to this
(08:26):
solution, and it's verydifficult to affect change in
those type of environments. Ivnuinitiatives as an opportunity to
both improve and weaken culture
Kelly Waltrich (08:44):
Randy Lambert, Intention.ly
Randy Lambert (08:47):
doing the parent thing. Like, Hey, Mom said this,
dad said that. So the CEO saidthat. The board said that, don't
do that. It is so lame. Bringdata with you, bring facts with
you, and that is how you lead upand help bring the leadership
along so they don't have to gettheir ego hurt, and they can
(09:07):
then, you know, come down andgo, okay, yeah, the facts do
show that that I do agree, andmaybe they won't agree with you,
like, it's tough luck.
Kelly Waltrich (09:17):
Jack Sherry, SEI Lifeyield.
Jack Sharry (09:21):
Most people don't listen. So instead of listening,
what most people will do isimpatially wait for their turn
to talk, or, more ofteninterrupt anxious to share their
next brilliant thought. So mydon't do that is, don't do that.
Stop waiting for your turn totalk. Listen. So I'm a big fan
of David Brooks, who's a NewYork Times columnist, and he
(09:41):
wrote a recent book called Howto know a person, the art of
seeing others deeply and deeplybeing seen and being deeply
seen. So as he describes it, youwant to listen so hard you burn
calories. That's how hard he'srecommending you listen.
Kelly Waltrich (09:59):
Brian Portnoy.
Shaping Wealth.
Brian Portnoy (10:01):
We are not buying into the belief that the best
idea wins. We are not buyinginto the belief that the work
speaks for itself. The positiveperspective on it is that sales
matter and that in life, there'sa sales component to everything,
(10:26):
whether it's work or creation orlove. You know, best ideas don't
always win. The catchy phrasedoesn't always win that it's got
to connect with others.
Kelly Waltrich (10:44):
Penny Phillips, Journey Strategic Wealth.
Penny Phillips (10:48):
Don't listen to too many people. I mean,
sometimes I say, don't listen toanyone, and I have said that
I've posted it, but I'll say,don't listen to too many people,
because you got to listen tosome people sometimes. But
that's my don't do, and it's areally, really important one. It
is almost impossible to developyour own instinct judgment and
(11:13):
overcome imposter syndrometotally, which I don't think you
ever can if you are basing yourown decisions, confidence and
your own opinions on what othersare saying to you. In other
words, if you are somebody thatcannot make a decision or have a
conviction or an opinion withoutpolling five different people in
(11:34):
your life, collecting all thatinformation and then going with
the one that doesn't disappointthose people, that is a recipe
for, I won't say failure, butcontinued anxiety, and you will
never step fully into your ownpower or even discover what
you're capable of.
Kelly Waltrich (11:55):
Chris Shuba Helios,
Chris Shuba (11:58):
the secret to success is very easy, and that
is, you find a problem and yousolve it right? The bigger the
problem you solve, the moresuccess you get. And success can
be anything. Right doesn't haveto be money, doesn't have to be,
you know, power, whatever youwant to call it. But that's not
the rest of the story. Thesecond part of that is that you
(12:19):
have to love the problem, notyour solution, yep, because the
problem is going to keepchanging, right? And when you
have a vision, a vision,generally, is linked to solving
a problem. And what I foundhappens is that when you
assemble a team and you tacklethat problem, your team is very
(12:42):
likely going to fall in lovewith their solution, and your
vision is falling in love withthe problem. And that's the
disconnect. It's not thatthey're wrong, it's not that
you're wrong, is that you'relooking at two different things.
And as a leader and someonewho's you know, captaining this
ship, hopefully not drifting outto sea, is being strong enough
(13:06):
and communicative enough withyour team when you're seeing the
problem change and bringing themalong to see that their solution
needs to change too.
Kelly Waltrich (13:19):
Sara Baker, Allworth Financial
Sara Baker (13:22):
I used to like at the end of the week, I would
feel so much guilt over I didn'tspend enough time with my kids,
I didn't spend enough time withmy spouse, or I go on vacation,
and I gave nothing to work. Ichecked out, and now I don't do
that anymore. Now I'm much morepatient. I have a much broader
perspective, and now I look atmore year timeframes. So I look
(13:46):
back at the end of the year, I'mlike, Did I have balance? Did I
give everything I have to myspouse, to my kids, to my
family, to my work, to myfriends, instead of these, like,
weak increments, because you'reyou're gonna fail, like you
can't give 100% to all of thoseareas. And every week,
Unknown (14:05):
Joel Bruckenstein, T3 Technology Tools for Today.
Joel Bruckenstein (14:10):
The biggest don't do that for folks who are
starting or running a firm isdon't believe that you know
everything and that you're amaster of everything, because
you're not. And so at thebeginning, you know, when I
started my RIA firm years ago, Itried to do everything right. I
tried to be my own technologyconsultant. I tried to be my own
marketing consultant. I tried tobe my own business consultant.
(14:33):
If you want to be great, youneed to have people who are
great in all of those areas. Soyou have to pick your spots. You
have to decide what you're goingto specialize in, devote your
time to what you're really goodat and what you're not good at.
You have to outsource tosomebody who is good at it, or
you have to hire people to do itfor you.
Kelly Waltrich (14:53):
Mark Gilbert, Zocks,
MARK GILBERT (14:56):
the biggest one for us is it's essentially
selling and marketing like wegot. Into a situation very
quickly where, you know, anygood product person does product
research, chats with people,does all this stuff. We got a
ton of good feedback. And so wehad a ton of people like, Yeah,
I'll try it. I'll try it. Thisis great. And because of that,
we were just like, great. Wehave people trying it. Like,
this is fun. And, you know, fora product person, having people
use your product is great. Butbecause of that, we delayed,
(15:17):
probably for nine to 12 months,like, truly marketing and
selling. Like, first of all,that's it. Like, marketing, as
you know, Kelly is a skill,right? Like, it takes time to
learn. It takes time to do well.
And you realize, like,everyone's just super busy, and
you really want to get them theright information, not too much
information, but the rightinformation at the right time.
And for me, that's like, kind ofthe magic of of marketing,
right? Like, right? Whensomeone's thinking about it,
(15:38):
they hear it. They hear exactlywhat's relevant to them all the
way through to like, opening upthe product, seeing the first
demo and using it, that shouldjust feel like a big flow.
Kelly Waltrich (15:50):
Jamie Hopkins, WSFS Bank,
Jamie Hopkins (15:53):
don't compare yourself to averages. Averages
are pretty useless when it comesto your situation. So average
life expectancy, if you plan tothat, I mean, half the time
you're gonna live longer thanthat. That's not a super great
plan. And I really never appliedthat to the business side for a
long time. And then one day, Iwas like, you know, we use a lot
of averages. We look at our dataand our pitch books. I've told
(16:17):
my team here too, like, I don'twanna compare ourselves to
averages. I wanna know who thebest like, who's doing this the
best like, that's who we want tocompare ourselves to. Like, it's
much better to say like, Who'sthat best in class that you want
to compare yourself to? And goafter that? I guess. Think the
other thing too, like, if youalways are focused on average,
you're going to return average.
Kelly Waltrich (16:39):
Jason Early, RISR,
Jason Early (16:42):
bad news doesn't get better with time. We at
riser have a one of our corevalues is, and I stole this from
a woman named CLAIRE HUGHESJOHNSON. I believe she has a
saying that she says, say thething that you think you cannot
say. And so we all have thesemoments in our you know,
certainly in our teams, in ourbusiness life, in our
relationships, at home orwhatever, where there is
(17:04):
something that you're feelingthat you are not saying you are
scared to death to say it, yeah,when you muster up the courage
to say whatever it is thatyou're thinking, those lead to a
lot of breakthrough moments. Andso oftentimes they lead you into
really incredible and powerfulconversations with team members,
whoever it might be. And so wework really hard to say those
(17:27):
things and not sit on them,because oftentimes sitting on
them can lead to resentments orall sorts of things that you
don't want to have happen. Andso I've learned that lesson way
too many times by by not sayingit and and so we work really
hard at that
Kelly Waltrich (17:45):
Adrian Johnstone, Practifi
Adrian Johnstone (17:48):
You get so much pressure to make decisions
all the time. Yeah, you're asenior role, and you've got to
do that thinking. And so onedon't is assume that you have to
wear all that on your ownshoulders like surround yourself
with people within yourbusiness, outside of your
business, and consult widely.
Don't, don't feel like you'vegot to do it. But the flip side
is, don't, then be paralyzed tomake a decision that runs
(18:13):
contrarian to everybody else'sadvice, because that's why
you're there, right? Yourresponsibility is to consult
widely and to take in lots ofinput, and to do that, but
you're in the seat becauseyou're there to make the
decision, and that may be toswim against the tide, and that
won't always be popular. Anddon't be frightened to to go
(18:36):
your own way if you really,truly believe that that's
Unknown (18:43):
the right way. Thank you.
Kelly Waltrich (18:48):
Molly McClure, intelliflo,
Marwa Zakharia (18:51):
we are not going to hire experts and then not
trust them to do what they dobest. Ooh, yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (19:01):
I like it. All right. Tell me more. Tell me
more. And
Marwa Zakharia (19:04):
that can go a couple different ways, I think,
especially in marketing. Thefirst way, the most obvious is,
no one wants to work for amicromanager. I love hiring
people that are better at methan certain things. I love it.
It's honestly one of the mostfreeing and success driving
things of being a leader, isfind someone who's better at
(19:28):
something critical than you are,and I can say that about my
team, hands down,
Molly McClure (19:34):
what we're not doing today is we are not hiring
amazing talent and then tellingthem how to do their jobs. I
think that that's a lesson thatgoes far beyond marketing, that
goes far beyond wealthmanagement, and is a reminder to
all leaders out there that weall can learn something from the
people on our teams, no matterwhat level they are. That's a
(19:58):
wrap on our best of don't do.
That compilation, each of theseleaders has shared wisdom that
challenges us to thinkdifferently and lead with
intention. Thank you forlistening and as always, don't
just learn what to do, rememberwhat not to do.
Kelly Waltrich (20:16):
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed
today's show, subscribe to benotified when new episodes
become available, and pleaseconsider giving us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Thispodcast is sponsored by
Intentiion.ly, a financialservices growth engine, design
consultancy and agency. If youwant to learn more, please email
(20:37):
me atKelly@growintentionally.com,
thank you again for listeningand check back to hear what
we're not doing next.
Unknown (20:46):
The information covered and posted represents the views
and opinions of the guest anddoes not necessarily represent
the views or opinions of KellyWaltrich. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.