September 3, 2025 • 17 mins
What happens when growth changes a company?
We’ve all seen it—your favorite restaurant expands and suddenly the quality slips. The connection feels lost. But does growing always mean losing what made you special?
At Root, we think about growth differently. We use “anti-goals” to define what we never want to become, with checks in place so expansion never overshadows client experience or team wellbeing.
That’s why we recently lowered our minimum investment from $2M to $1M. It wasn’t a quick decision. It came after expanding our team to ensure service stays exceptional. Like Patagonia, we measure success by more than profit. For us, it’s about advisor engagement, client satisfaction, and building a place where our team wakes up energized to serve.
If you’re curious how companies can grow without losing their soul, we’d love to hear what brands you feel most connected to and why.
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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.
The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.
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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
James, I've never asked you to do this.
We've had a lot of podcaststogether.
I'm going to ask you to closeyour eyes Now.
For those of you who arelistening, you're going to go.
This seems like the samepodcast.
That's because you're listening.
For those who are watching onYouTube, you are going to see
James's eyes are closed and I'mgoing to ask you, james, a few
questions and everyone.
I promise there's a very goodreason we're doing this.
(00:26):
So, james, would you pleaseclose your eyes and think of a
brand that you really enjoy?
Okay, this can be a restaurant,this can be a clothing
establishment, any service youcan think of.
I'm going to give you a second.
Do you have one in your head?
I do.
Okay, what do you like about it?
And you can open your eyes now.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Uh, what's that?
Should I tell you what it is?
First Just tell you what I likeyour eyes now?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
uh, I wasn't.
Should I tell you what it isfirst, just tell you what I like
.
Uh, yeah, uh, tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
No, tell me what you like about it first I like that
there's this invitation intothis lifestyle that I'd like to
think, I want to live, even if Idon't actually, uh, have the
time or intentionality sometimesto live it is there a immense
quality about a product?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is it even a product?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
of adventure get outdoors, live life, travel, do
fun things and there's somethingfun about that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Beautiful.
Now I promise I'm going toconnect the dots, but, james,
can you close your eyes one moretime?
I'm going to ask you to thinkabout a brand that was amazing,
but you don't love it as muchanymore.
Maybe it's the service, thequality, maybe it's just long
wait times.
Whatever it is, do you have abrand in mind?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Not a specific brand.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Let me think, Give me give me a second, take your
time here and this guys, we'remaking this podcast episode.
Today.
We're talking about change,we're talking about growth,
we're talking about how do weensure that the service always
stays at a level where you go,wow, no matter what growth is
happening.
This is not going to be one ofthose companies where, all of a
(02:17):
sudden, things start to change.
And, james, while you'rethinking about yours, I'm going
to share a quick analogy.
Of many of you know, one of theI mean happiest moments of my
life was when I had financialfreedom to get guac at Chipotle.
That was like I made it.
And now when I go to Chipotle,it's a little saltier than usual
(02:39):
.
I could put that up to you know, maybe there's so many changes
happening and the company's sobig that they switched to a
different salt product.
I don't know, but Chipotle, forme, I loved and I just don't
have that same feeling today.
Is there a company or productyou can think of where you've
had that experience?
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You say that Jersey Mike's is mine and I don't know
if it was just different stores,but I remember loving it in
college and the most recentcouple of times not loving it as
much.
So it could just be I changedor it could be that.
But that's funny that you saida food store, because that was
what came to mind, for me too.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So everyone's probably wondering does this now
connect to asset allocation?
And is it the cauliflower andthe Roth conversions?
No, what is something thatalmost everyone I'm not going to
say struggles with, becausesome people are really good with
it, but they're always going oh, this is going to be different.
Well, that word is change, andthere's people that embrace
(03:36):
change, there's people that fearchange, and we are always going
to be changing.
That is just that's life.
When it comes to Jersey Mike's,maybe there's things that are
changing where the owner goes.
I would love every store to beso dialed in that, whether James
comes to us in New Jersey orCalifornia, he gets that Jersey
Mike's ultimate experience.
(03:56):
But, as many of you areprobably thinking of right now,
you're probably like you knowwhat?
That's why I go to that onerestaurant near me.
That's the small pop shop, andI'm kind of concerned because
they just opened one across theway and now I'm wondering does
that mean my personal service isgoing to start to suffer at my
shop that I love?
So this embracement of changeis something we take very
(04:17):
seriously here at Root.
Into that in more detail today,james, do you think many of
these companies Chipotle, jerseyMike's, rourke do you think
they're looking at change on aconsistent basis going?
What can we do to alwaysmaintain our quality of service?
(04:38):
And do you think people fromthe outside go?
Well, jersey Mike's is just sobig, there's just nothing you
can do about it the outside go.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, Jersey Mike's is just so big, there's just
nothing you can do about it.
Hard to say, Are you asking.
Do I think they're focused onchange management internally and
what that looks like?
Yes, I would hope so.
I would think so.
I think that also part of itcomes down to, as that change is
happening, what are youchanging for, or in other words,
what are you optimizing for?
You talk about the mom and popshop.
If you want to optimize for anawesome experience for that
(05:07):
small town, feel you know all ofyour customers.
They treat you well, you treat.
That's awesome.
There's going to be some thingsyou say no to because of that.
If you're that mom and pop shopthat wants to become the next
Jersey Mike's, there's going tobe some things you say no to
because you have to optimize forthat.
So I think that, yes, there'schange management going on
(05:30):
always, but it comes down towhat are we trying to change and
for what purpose?
And how is it going to move uscloser?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
where we want to go, love it.
And the reason we're makingthis podcast episode today is we
had a new client who said Ilove seeing the videos you make.
I actually feel closer to youand, james, the feeling that I
get from watching your videos isone of the main reasons I
became a client.
But I wanna make sure you'renot growing so quickly that the
service ever starts to suffer.
And I wanna make sure, if I'm aclient, I'm excited for your
(05:56):
growth.
I'm a part of it where I'm notthinking, hey, they're doing new
stuff, I'm gonna be left behind.
They want the guac to alwaysmake sure it's not too salty.
So, yes, I'm the chief growthofficer.
Part of my role is to grow Root, but another part of my role is
to make sure we don't grow soquickly that service suffers
(06:17):
From your perspective, james, ifyou're the founder of Root,
just like there's a founder ofChipotle, but I personally I
don't know the founder ofChipotle.
I just know that my Chipotle issaltier now and I'm impacted by
that.
So, as the founder of Root,what do you want people to know
about how we grow?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
A couple of things.
One is, you know it's importantPeople talk about these
anti-goals is kind of a bigthing.
Hey, what are your goals forwhere you want to be?
Well, in some ways I don't know, at least in the traditional
sense that people ask but I dohave like an anti-goal.
I do know what we don't want tobecome and how can we put as
much effort into not becomingthat as we do the things we do
(07:00):
want to become.
Yeah, I'm not going to namenames, but maybe one of the
names we already mentioned today.
I know it was purchased by aprivate equity company and it
used to be maybe the smallershop.
And then there's an acquisitionand that acquisition, I've got
to imagine the focus is purelyupon how can we maximize profits
, how can we maximize sales, howcan we maximize revenue
valuation over the next five toseven years so that we can exit
(07:23):
this and all of our investorsare happy?
So again, if you're optimizedand if you're changing for that,
great, but that this and all ofour investors are happy.
So again, if you're optimized,if you're changing for that,
great, but that's a zerointerest to any of us here at
Root.
That's not what we'reoptimizing or changing for.
So how do we do that?
We start by understanding veryclearly what don't we want.
What does a bad outcome looklike?
And to me, even selfishly, abad outcome is one where I make
(07:46):
lots of money but I hate my jobbecause like, oh cool, we sold,
we have an investor, but now wehave to hit this quota of
revenue, growth and new clientsper year and profitability
targets, and you need those toan extent to maintain a healthy
business.
But if that's your core andyour sole focus, you're going to
lose a soul.
(08:06):
You're going to lose the heartof what makes something special.
So the anti-goal is I don'twant this to become a place that
I ever dislike working at orthat anyone here at Root ever
dislikes working at, which meansthat that's a big focus.
Another thing is how do we havechecks and balances?
You are the chief growthofficer.
I'm confident that if I said,ari, we need to triple the size
(08:29):
of our company in the next 12months, you'd say on it and in
the next week or so, you'd havea great plan and you'd be
executing upon it to get usthere.
We could do that, but that'sgoing to be in direct opposition
to some of our other goals.
So we have checks and balances.
How do we also have a VP ofbrand?
And brand to us is bothinternal and external, not just
a marketing thing, but it'swhat's the culture here at Root.
(08:51):
What's it like for the advisorswho are working here?
How do we support their growthand their development and their
ability to be the best theypossibly can be?
How do we have a regular pulsecheck on how are people doing
here?
What's the morale like?
What's engagement like?
If I'm a client of somewhere andit's a deeply personal
relationship, I want to makesure I'm working with happy
people that love where they work.
(09:12):
The last thing I'd want isworking somewhere where people
are miserable.
People can't wait for theweekend, people can't wait for
their vacation, people can'twait to be done and leave for
the day.
I want to be working where thatperson's engaged, because most
engaged workers, the people thatlove their work are the people
that are going to be mostexcellent at it.
So if you tripled root in ayear, but that directly was in
(09:35):
direct opposition to our abilityto maintain this place where
the best advisors can thrive andhave this place where they can
be developed and grow and do allthese things.
Well, there's a checks andbalance there.
We're hitting this growth target, but we're missing this other
target, or our advisory targets.
Some of our targets are clientexperience.
(09:56):
Many of our targets are clientexperience.
What are we getting?
What are our scores like, whennot just clients taking client
satisfaction scores or MPSsurveys or anything of that
nature that gives usquantitative data, but also you
get a lot of awesome emails.
I get a lot of awesome emails.
We get DMs of just clients thatexpress really positive
(10:19):
feelings about their experiencewith their advisor.
So all of these things are aform of checks and balances of
we could grow like crazy buteverything else would suffer.
That's not acceptable.
And we have someone else on theteam whose responsibility it is
to maintain advisor standards,to maintain team member
standards here of what thatlooks like to maintain
(10:41):
compliance stuff, to maintainoperational standards,
operational standard.
So all of those things serve asa checks and balance to say no
one can go too hard in theirarea because if it starts
pulling away from our ability todo other things in other areas,
we're starting to lose sight ofwhat's most important.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
This is why we are so lucky you're running Root.
Now there's a big questionthat's coming in the comments
often on YouTube, which I'mgoing to ask you, james, and
then I'm going to give a quickdisclaimer.
So everyone knows why are wemaking these types of podcasts,
videos?
It's all coming from the freecommunity, the Root Collective.
If you have not joined, you cando so.
(11:19):
In the description.
There are thousands of memberswhere, as fun as it is and
hopefully it is fun to listen toJames and I talk about all
these types of concepts you canalso speak to each other, and
it's taking YouTube comments toanother level, where you can
hear from other people who arein a similar position going yeah
, I want to retire early, buthealthcare, how do I get my
spouse interested in finances?
So a ton more in there in thedescription.
(11:41):
But, James, you're aware wedropped the minimum to $1
million and people are gratefulfor that.
But a question that comes in alot is why?
Why did that take so long?
Why didn't we start with that?
Why did we even have a $2million minimum?
So any thoughts you're willingto share there?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I would say, well, we did start with that.
If I go back in time, six yearsago, seven years ago, eight
years ago, almost as a start,like there wasn't a minimum, it
was, yeah, that you're gettingthe business started, you're
trying to grow however you can,you're trying to work with
clients.
The minimum was purely our way.
It's hard because, in a way,the minimum is in direct
opposition to our stated missionof how do we help as many
(12:24):
people as possible get the mostout of life with their money.
Well, instituting a minimum isin direct opposition to that.
But we have to go back tochecks and balances.
If we had no minimum and everysingle person was coming to Root
and we committed to servingevery single person that wanted
to work with Root, I can tellyou we'd have zero advisors left
, because the amount of stressand burnout and crazy amounts of
(12:44):
work that that would have beenwe, and burnout and crazy
amounts of work that that wouldhave been we wouldn't have been
able to maintain the standardsthat we have for ourselves.
We would not have been able tomaintain the level of client
service that we expect for ourclients.
We would not have been able tomaintain the place where it's a
healthy work environment forpeople to say they can come and
they can work here and they canenjoy their time here and be
(13:05):
fully engaged in what they'redoing.
No-transcript flow of newclients coming to Root.
That was just the simplest wayto do it and our goal is to
drive that down as much aspossible over time.
Part of our long-term vision,part of our long-term purpose,
(13:27):
is to say how can we create aplatform that, whoever you are
in the world, we can help you?
Now some people that's a verypersonal, one-on-one
relationship where you'reworking with an advisor here at
Root, you're part of an advisoryteam.
For some people, that's simplya podcast or a video or a
resource that's online.
That's completely free andmillions of people could access
that.
But the reason it took uslonger than maybe I initially
(13:49):
thought to be able to drive downthat minimum is as quickly as
our team was growing, the numberof people wanting to work with
Root was growing even faster,and so we kept expanding the
team sizes.
Hey, we can start bringing onmore people in a responsible,
sustainable way each month.
But every single month, moreand more and more people are
wanting to work with Root and sothe pipeline grew, even as our
(14:11):
ability to onboard people grewwith it, and we finally got to
this point where the team wasable to grow to the extent that
we were able to reduce theminimum and be able to serve
more people on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I appreciate the transparency and I think
everyone else will.
Who's listening and watching tothis?
Because it's not often you heara founder speak in the way you
are.
I have a quick favor foreveryone If you're listening to
this, please send us an email athello at rootfinancialcom and
I'm going to tell you what toput in that email.
Don't just send a blank email.
I've done that before.
And if you're watching, pleasedrop a comment on YouTube.
(14:46):
What is that one company orthat one brand that you just
resonate with?
Is it Trader Joe's?
Is it Patagonia?
Many of you go wow, I'm justloyal to this company, I get a
feeling.
So my final question to you,james, for today's short and
sweet podcast episode is there acompany that you go?
I want to simulate this withRoot, is it?
(15:08):
I want this to be its own thingwhere people hear Root and they
think X.
What do you want people tothink of when they hear Root?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Well, I mean, you mentioned Patagonia and that
maybe wouldn't be the firstthing that comes to mind, but
there are a lot of similaritiesbetween what I would like root
to be and what Patagonia is Verydifferent, obviously, clothing
and the mission they have versusour services and the mission
that we have.
But there was very, very, veryclearly a mission far beyond
just the financial side ofthings that the Patagonia
founder had, and beyond that,even as we talk about our growth
(15:39):
philosophy, one of the thingsthat I'll say is how do we
create an environment whereeveryone on the root team wakes
up on the balls of their feet soexcited to get to work with who
we're working with, who we'reserving?
That's a direct quote from thePatagonia founder, yvon
Chouinard.
Of that.
He wrote that in his book Letmy People Go Surfing.
So I think there's a lot ofsimilarities there of when
(16:00):
you're doing things right, itshould feel like play.
When you're doing things right,you should be fully engaged.
When you're doing things right,like you're attracting the
right people to come here, and Ithink that that is a large part
because there is a.
It goes beyond yourself, butit's very easy to be connected
to a mission that's not justabout how do I make more money
(16:20):
for my family and try to get outof work as early as possible on
Friday afternoons.
There's a lot of jobs that arelike that, but it's great when
you can actually be connectedwith a group of people who are
fully aligned and there issomething bigger than just the
financial side of things.
So I think Patagonia is a greatexample of that.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Thank you for tuning in to the show Root Talks.
This is where I host this showwith James, so we are recording
this.
This is available on YouTube onour Root Financial YouTube
channel.
A big shout out to our newseries.
We have a series, root Drops,where you get to hear from
myself and one of my advisorshere at Root to learn a new
financial topic and we answerthe questions that are dropped
(16:59):
in our free community, the RootCollective, and then check out
our other show, advisorUnplugged.
These are longer episodes whereyou can really learn why did
this advisor choose to be anadvisor, what was their story?
And you might find you justmight resonate with something
they say.
So hopefully you enjoy all thecontent we put out.
Please like this video if youenjoyed it, comment below if
(17:23):
there's something you learnedand all we ask is you share it
with someone who might resonatewith it.
(17:47):
See you guys next time.
Thank you.
James, I've never asked you to do this.
We've had a lot of podcaststogether.
I'm going to ask you to closeyour eyes Now.
For those of you who arelistening, you're going to go.
This seems like the samepodcast.
That's because you're listening.
For those who are watching onYouTube, you are going to see
James's eyes are closed and I'mgoing to ask you, james, a few
questions and everyone.
I promise there's a very goodreason we're doing this.
(00:26):
So, james, would you pleaseclose your eyes and think of a
brand that you really enjoy?
Okay, this can be a restaurant,this can be a clothing
establishment, any service youcan think of.
I'm going to give you a second.
Do you have one in your head?
I do.
Okay, what do you like about it?
And you can open your eyes now.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Uh, what's that?
Should I tell you what it is?
First Just tell you what I likeyour eyes now?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
uh, I wasn't.
Should I tell you what it isfirst, just tell you what I like
.
Uh, yeah, uh, tell me.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
No, tell me what you like about it first I like that
there's this invitation intothis lifestyle that I'd like to
think, I want to live, even if Idon't actually, uh, have the
time or intentionality sometimesto live it is there a immense
quality about a product?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is it even a product?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
of adventure get outdoors, live life, travel, do
fun things and there's somethingfun about that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Beautiful.
Now I promise I'm going toconnect the dots, but, james,
can you close your eyes one moretime?
I'm going to ask you to thinkabout a brand that was amazing,
but you don't love it as muchanymore.
Maybe it's the service, thequality, maybe it's just long
wait times.
Whatever it is, do you have abrand in mind?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Not a specific brand.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Let me think, Give me give me a second, take your
time here and this guys, we'remaking this podcast episode.
Today.
We're talking about change,we're talking about growth,
we're talking about how do weensure that the service always
stays at a level where you go,wow, no matter what growth is
happening.
This is not going to be one ofthose companies where, all of a
(02:17):
sudden, things start to change.
And, james, while you'rethinking about yours, I'm going
to share a quick analogy.
Of many of you know, one of theI mean happiest moments of my
life was when I had financialfreedom to get guac at Chipotle.
That was like I made it.
And now when I go to Chipotle,it's a little saltier than usual
(02:39):
.
I could put that up to you know, maybe there's so many changes
happening and the company's sobig that they switched to a
different salt product.
I don't know, but Chipotle, forme, I loved and I just don't
have that same feeling today.
Is there a company or productyou can think of where you've
had that experience?
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
You say that Jersey Mike's is mine and I don't know
if it was just different stores,but I remember loving it in
college and the most recentcouple of times not loving it as
much.
So it could just be I changedor it could be that.
But that's funny that you saida food store, because that was
what came to mind, for me too.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
So everyone's probably wondering does this now
connect to asset allocation?
And is it the cauliflower andthe Roth conversions?
No, what is something thatalmost everyone I'm not going to
say struggles with, becausesome people are really good with
it, but they're always going oh, this is going to be different.
Well, that word is change, andthere's people that embrace
(03:36):
change, there's people that fearchange, and we are always going
to be changing.
That is just that's life.
When it comes to Jersey Mike's,maybe there's things that are
changing where the owner goes.
I would love every store to beso dialed in that, whether James
comes to us in New Jersey orCalifornia, he gets that Jersey
Mike's ultimate experience.
(03:56):
But, as many of you areprobably thinking of right now,
you're probably like you knowwhat?
That's why I go to that onerestaurant near me.
That's the small pop shop, andI'm kind of concerned because
they just opened one across theway and now I'm wondering does
that mean my personal service isgoing to start to suffer at my
shop that I love?
So this embracement of changeis something we take very
(04:17):
seriously here at Root.
Into that in more detail today,james, do you think many of
these companies Chipotle, jerseyMike's, rourke do you think
they're looking at change on aconsistent basis going?
What can we do to alwaysmaintain our quality of service?
(04:38):
And do you think people fromthe outside go?
Well, jersey Mike's is just sobig, there's just nothing you
can do about it the outside go.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, Jersey Mike's is just so big, there's just
nothing you can do about it.
Hard to say, Are you asking.
Do I think they're focused onchange management internally and
what that looks like?
Yes, I would hope so.
I would think so.
I think that also part of itcomes down to, as that change is
happening, what are youchanging for, or in other words,
what are you optimizing for?
You talk about the mom and popshop.
If you want to optimize for anawesome experience for that
(05:07):
small town, feel you know all ofyour customers.
They treat you well, you treat.
That's awesome.
There's going to be some thingsyou say no to because of that.
If you're that mom and pop shopthat wants to become the next
Jersey Mike's, there's going tobe some things you say no to
because you have to optimize forthat.
So I think that, yes, there'schange management going on
(05:30):
always, but it comes down towhat are we trying to change and
for what purpose?
And how is it going to move uscloser?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
where we want to go, love it.
And the reason we're makingthis podcast episode today is we
had a new client who said Ilove seeing the videos you make.
I actually feel closer to youand, james, the feeling that I
get from watching your videos isone of the main reasons I
became a client.
But I wanna make sure you'renot growing so quickly that the
service ever starts to suffer.
And I wanna make sure, if I'm aclient, I'm excited for your
(05:56):
growth.
I'm a part of it where I'm notthinking, hey, they're doing new
stuff, I'm gonna be left behind.
They want the guac to alwaysmake sure it's not too salty.
So, yes, I'm the chief growthofficer.
Part of my role is to grow Root, but another part of my role is
to make sure we don't grow soquickly that service suffers
(06:17):
From your perspective, james, ifyou're the founder of Root,
just like there's a founder ofChipotle, but I personally I
don't know the founder ofChipotle.
I just know that my Chipotle issaltier now and I'm impacted by
that.
So, as the founder of Root,what do you want people to know
about how we grow?
Speaker 2 (06:38):
A couple of things.
One is, you know it's importantPeople talk about these
anti-goals is kind of a bigthing.
Hey, what are your goals forwhere you want to be?
Well, in some ways I don't know, at least in the traditional
sense that people ask but I dohave like an anti-goal.
I do know what we don't want tobecome and how can we put as
much effort into not becomingthat as we do the things we do
(07:00):
want to become.
Yeah, I'm not going to namenames, but maybe one of the
names we already mentioned today.
I know it was purchased by aprivate equity company and it
used to be maybe the smallershop.
And then there's an acquisitionand that acquisition, I've got
to imagine the focus is purelyupon how can we maximize profits
, how can we maximize sales, howcan we maximize revenue
valuation over the next five toseven years so that we can exit
(07:23):
this and all of our investorsare happy?
So again, if you're optimizedand if you're changing for that,
great, but that this and all ofour investors are happy.
So again, if you're optimized,if you're changing for that,
great, but that's a zerointerest to any of us here at
Root.
That's not what we'reoptimizing or changing for.
So how do we do that?
We start by understanding veryclearly what don't we want.
What does a bad outcome looklike?
And to me, even selfishly, abad outcome is one where I make
(07:46):
lots of money but I hate my jobbecause like, oh cool, we sold,
we have an investor, but now wehave to hit this quota of
revenue, growth and new clientsper year and profitability
targets, and you need those toan extent to maintain a healthy
business.
But if that's your core andyour sole focus, you're going to
lose a soul.
(08:06):
You're going to lose the heartof what makes something special.
So the anti-goal is I don'twant this to become a place that
I ever dislike working at orthat anyone here at Root ever
dislikes working at, which meansthat that's a big focus.
Another thing is how do we havechecks and balances?
You are the chief growthofficer.
I'm confident that if I said,ari, we need to triple the size
(08:29):
of our company in the next 12months, you'd say on it and in
the next week or so, you'd havea great plan and you'd be
executing upon it to get usthere.
We could do that, but that'sgoing to be in direct opposition
to some of our other goals.
So we have checks and balances.
How do we also have a VP ofbrand?
And brand to us is bothinternal and external, not just
a marketing thing, but it'swhat's the culture here at Root.
(08:51):
What's it like for the advisorswho are working here?
How do we support their growthand their development and their
ability to be the best theypossibly can be?
How do we have a regular pulsecheck on how are people doing
here?
What's the morale like?
What's engagement like?
If I'm a client of somewhere andit's a deeply personal
relationship, I want to makesure I'm working with happy
people that love where they work.
(09:12):
The last thing I'd want isworking somewhere where people
are miserable.
People can't wait for theweekend, people can't wait for
their vacation, people can'twait to be done and leave for
the day.
I want to be working where thatperson's engaged, because most
engaged workers, the people thatlove their work are the people
that are going to be mostexcellent at it.
So if you tripled root in ayear, but that directly was in
(09:35):
direct opposition to our abilityto maintain this place where
the best advisors can thrive andhave this place where they can
be developed and grow and do allthese things.
Well, there's a checks andbalance there.
We're hitting this growth target, but we're missing this other
target, or our advisory targets.
Some of our targets are clientexperience.
(09:56):
Many of our targets are clientexperience.
What are we getting?
What are our scores like, whennot just clients taking client
satisfaction scores or MPSsurveys or anything of that
nature that gives usquantitative data, but also you
get a lot of awesome emails.
I get a lot of awesome emails.
We get DMs of just clients thatexpress really positive
(10:19):
feelings about their experiencewith their advisor.
So all of these things are aform of checks and balances of
we could grow like crazy buteverything else would suffer.
That's not acceptable.
And we have someone else on theteam whose responsibility it is
to maintain advisor standards,to maintain team member
standards here of what thatlooks like to maintain
(10:41):
compliance stuff, to maintainoperational standards,
operational standard.
So all of those things serve asa checks and balance to say no
one can go too hard in theirarea because if it starts
pulling away from our ability todo other things in other areas,
we're starting to lose sight ofwhat's most important.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
This is why we are so lucky you're running Root.
Now there's a big questionthat's coming in the comments
often on YouTube, which I'mgoing to ask you, james, and
then I'm going to give a quickdisclaimer.
So everyone knows why are wemaking these types of podcasts,
videos?
It's all coming from the freecommunity, the Root Collective.
If you have not joined, you cando so.
(11:19):
In the description.
There are thousands of memberswhere, as fun as it is and
hopefully it is fun to listen toJames and I talk about all
these types of concepts you canalso speak to each other, and
it's taking YouTube comments toanother level, where you can
hear from other people who arein a similar position going yeah
, I want to retire early, buthealthcare, how do I get my
spouse interested in finances?
So a ton more in there in thedescription.
(11:41):
But, James, you're aware wedropped the minimum to $1
million and people are gratefulfor that.
But a question that comes in alot is why?
Why did that take so long?
Why didn't we start with that?
Why did we even have a $2million minimum?
So any thoughts you're willingto share there?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, I would say, well, we did start with that.
If I go back in time, six yearsago, seven years ago, eight
years ago, almost as a start,like there wasn't a minimum, it
was, yeah, that you're gettingthe business started, you're
trying to grow however you can,you're trying to work with
clients.
The minimum was purely our way.
It's hard because, in a way,the minimum is in direct
opposition to our stated missionof how do we help as many
(12:24):
people as possible get the mostout of life with their money.
Well, instituting a minimum isin direct opposition to that.
But we have to go back tochecks and balances.
If we had no minimum and everysingle person was coming to Root
and we committed to servingevery single person that wanted
to work with Root, I can tellyou we'd have zero advisors left
, because the amount of stressand burnout and crazy amounts of
(12:44):
work that that would have beenwe, and burnout and crazy
amounts of work that that wouldhave been we wouldn't have been
able to maintain the standardsthat we have for ourselves.
We would not have been able tomaintain the level of client
service that we expect for ourclients.
We would not have been able tomaintain the place where it's a
healthy work environment forpeople to say they can come and
they can work here and they canenjoy their time here and be
(13:05):
fully engaged in what they'redoing.
No-transcript flow of newclients coming to Root.
That was just the simplest wayto do it and our goal is to
drive that down as much aspossible over time.
Part of our long-term vision,part of our long-term purpose,
(13:27):
is to say how can we create aplatform that, whoever you are
in the world, we can help you?
Now some people that's a verypersonal, one-on-one
relationship where you'reworking with an advisor here at
Root, you're part of an advisoryteam.
For some people, that's simplya podcast or a video or a
resource that's online.
That's completely free andmillions of people could access
that.
But the reason it took uslonger than maybe I initially
(13:49):
thought to be able to drive downthat minimum is as quickly as
our team was growing, the numberof people wanting to work with
Root was growing even faster,and so we kept expanding the
team sizes.
Hey, we can start bringing onmore people in a responsible,
sustainable way each month.
But every single month, moreand more and more people are
wanting to work with Root and sothe pipeline grew, even as our
(14:11):
ability to onboard people grewwith it, and we finally got to
this point where the team wasable to grow to the extent that
we were able to reduce theminimum and be able to serve
more people on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
I appreciate the transparency and I think
everyone else will.
Who's listening and watching tothis?
Because it's not often you heara founder speak in the way you
are.
I have a quick favor foreveryone If you're listening to
this, please send us an email athello at rootfinancialcom and
I'm going to tell you what toput in that email.
Don't just send a blank email.
I've done that before.
And if you're watching, pleasedrop a comment on YouTube.
(14:46):
What is that one company orthat one brand that you just
resonate with?
Is it Trader Joe's?
Is it Patagonia?
Many of you go wow, I'm justloyal to this company, I get a
feeling.
So my final question to you,james, for today's short and
sweet podcast episode is there acompany that you go?
I want to simulate this withRoot, is it?
(15:08):
I want this to be its own thingwhere people hear Root and they
think X.
What do you want people tothink of when they hear Root?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Well, I mean, you mentioned Patagonia and that
maybe wouldn't be the firstthing that comes to mind, but
there are a lot of similaritiesbetween what I would like root
to be and what Patagonia is Verydifferent, obviously, clothing
and the mission they have versusour services and the mission
that we have.
But there was very, very, veryclearly a mission far beyond
just the financial side ofthings that the Patagonia
founder had, and beyond that,even as we talk about our growth
(15:39):
philosophy, one of the thingsthat I'll say is how do we
create an environment whereeveryone on the root team wakes
up on the balls of their feet soexcited to get to work with who
we're working with, who we'reserving?
That's a direct quote from thePatagonia founder, yvon
Chouinard.
Of that.
He wrote that in his book Letmy People Go Surfing.
So I think there's a lot ofsimilarities there of when
(16:00):
you're doing things right, itshould feel like play.
When you're doing things right,you should be fully engaged.
When you're doing things right,like you're attracting the
right people to come here, and Ithink that that is a large part
because there is a.
It goes beyond yourself, butit's very easy to be connected
to a mission that's not justabout how do I make more money
(16:20):
for my family and try to get outof work as early as possible on
Friday afternoons.
There's a lot of jobs that arelike that, but it's great when
you can actually be connectedwith a group of people who are
fully aligned and there issomething bigger than just the
financial side of things.
So I think Patagonia is a greatexample of that.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Thank you for tuning in to the show Root Talks.
This is where I host this showwith James, so we are recording
this.
This is available on YouTube onour Root Financial YouTube
channel.
A big shout out to our newseries.
We have a series, root Drops,where you get to hear from
myself and one of my advisorshere at Root to learn a new
financial topic and we answerthe questions that are dropped
(16:59):
in our free community, the RootCollective, and then check out
our other show, advisorUnplugged.
These are longer episodes whereyou can really learn why did
this advisor choose to be anadvisor, what was their story?
And you might find you justmight resonate with something
they say.
So hopefully you enjoy all thecontent we put out.
Please like this video if youenjoyed it, comment below if
(17:23):
there's something you learnedand all we ask is you share it
with someone who might resonatewith it.
(17:47):
See you guys next time.
Thank you.
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