What makes you trust someone with your financial future? In this episode of Root Talks, James and Ari unpack the powerful role of intuition in building lasting relationships with financial advisors, business partners, and even loved ones.
They explain how what we call a gut feeling is actually condensed pattern recognition, your brain quietly scanning countless experiences to guide your decisions before you can put words to it. This is why many Root clients engage with our content for months before reaching out. They are building trust, alignment, and confidence long before the first conversation.
You’ll also get a behind-the-scenes look at how Root designs every client touchpoint to create that same sense of connection—from videos and the first call with our client success manager Jay to the advisor relationship itself. James shares how Root’s hiring process focuses not just on technical skill but on whether a candidate evokes the same feeling of trust clients get from our content. Ari reflects on how intuition plays a role in personal relationships too, bridging the gap between professional and personal trust.
As Root grows, James and Ari discuss how we preserve our culture through decentralized command, empowering advisors to deliver personalized guidance while staying true to our philosophy.
If you are searching for a financial advisor who makes you feel understood and confident about your future, explore our Root Drops and Advisor Unplugged series on our website on YouTube channel. Because the right advisor is not just about credentials or knowledge, it is about finding someone who feels right.
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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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Episode Transcript
James, I feel really lucky.
By the time this episode comesout, I will be married and you
were at my wedding.
You probably saw the incredibledance moves Just kidding.
But what I want you all to knowseriously is I'm truly lucky
because I've only had onepartner.
One partner.
Her name is Alice and we weredating for, I want to say, about
(00:22):
six and a half years, until wegot married.
And I was talking to my brotherabout this and he was saying,
wow, that's really different.
I've been on hundreds of datestrying to find the right one and
I just don't know how I'm goingto find it.
What did you do?
And I said, to be honest, itwas just a feeling.
And he told me a story aboutwhen he actually went and saw a
therapist about his datingdating because he's like I need
(00:44):
to figure out a way to find myperson and he used to have a
long list of I want them to workout and have these interests,
even if they're not the same tome.
I want them to be passionate.
And one therapist said okay,pretend they've done all of
those things and you now get tobe with that person.
How would you feel?
And he said well, now that yousay it, I actually don't think
(01:05):
it would be enough.
And the therapist said why yousaid these are what you wanted
and now those are done.
He said it's just a feeling,and so this feeling that I'm
talking about with relationshipstoday, which will be a topic of
discussion, relates tofinancial planning and the trust
of when you work with Root.
I don't know how long any of youhave been watching the YouTube
(01:26):
videos, listening to the podcast, but if you don't mind putting
in the comments below, have youbeen listening, watching for a
month, a year, a few years?
You probably have arelationship with us in some
sense, which can feel odd, butit's very real.
So, james, is there arelationship that you can think
back on, whether it's a romanticpartner or otherwise?
(01:46):
Where you went, look, it wasjust a feeling that made me
think maybe this isn't the rightfit, romantically or otherwise.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, this episode of Root Talks we'll call this Root
Talks Relationships we're goingto get some advice here.
Yeah, I think that we've allbeen there of feeling like
something on paper should work,whether it's a relationship,
romantic relationship, whetherit was a friendship of gosh.
We should be friends with thesepeople.
They have young kids, we haveyoung kids.
(02:12):
They have these interests, wehave these interests.
They live here, we live hereand just for whatever reason, we
don't jive and we don't feellike we fully connect.
So I think we've all had thoseand we've had other ones where,
on paper, I couldn't imagine amore different person.
But this is an amazingfriendship or maybe some cases,
this is an amazing romanticrelationship and there is
something there and what youstart to realize is that feeling
(02:36):
is you know, we call it afeeling, but it's what is,
what's the right word for it?
There is, I forget what it'slike.
That feeling in many cases, isjust condensed pattern
recognition of we go through ourlives.
We go through our lives overseveral years and decades and
interactions and new experiencesand new people, and that
(02:59):
feeling is not just some randomemotion that bubbles up or
doesn't bubble up.
It is pattern recognition, likeyour mind senses something that
maybe you can't even bubble up.
It is pattern recognition.
Like your mind senses somethingthat maybe you can't even
consciously put words to what itis, but your brain recognizes
it and gives you this feeling ofthis is going to work or this
is not going to work.
And I think that the older weget, the more and more we should
trust what that feeling is,because that feeling is not just
(03:21):
emotional but there's also alot of subconscious programming
going on, realizing, like you'vehad these experiences before,
this type of person matches this, whatever that might be, and
I'd give a lot of credence towhatever that feeling is.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
The average person who reaches out to Root to work
with us has watched or listenedto our content for about six
months.
That's a long time.
I mean that's I don't know howmany seasons of a certain show,
but I know I've recently gotinto Survivor and we do a
Survivor draft internally andit's a super fun experience and
I'm thinking about that going.
(03:57):
Look, if I've watched twoseasons of this show, I feel
like I'm connected to a lot ofthe characters.
I call them characters, butthey're people and so for those
who have been listening andwatching and they reach out and
we say why?
Now it's normally a fewdifferent things that are along
the lines of I don't feel thatmy advisor is asking me these
questions, or I didn't know whatI didn't know, or I feel like
(04:20):
at this point there's just somuch I don't want to mess this
up and there seems to be afeeling that when James speaks,
or yourself, I just I resonatewith it.
So if I reach out to work withRu, I want to make sure I get
that feeling.
Now, of course, you don't wantus cloned exactly, but you want
some version of that, and sowhat we try to do is go how can
(04:44):
we ensure that, no matter whoyou work with, you're getting
that same philosophy?
But, as James will tell you,I'm sure, in a moment, our
advisors are way better than weare, because this is all they're
doing all day.
Any thoughts, james, you wantto share there?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, I'm going to go back to the feeling thing for a
second and then go there.
That feeling is super important.
I think from the very beginning, if you do something, that's
just a transaction and there'san exchange of value, nothing
that special.
But if you go anywhere, likethere's some place, whether it's
a great restaurant versus anokay restaurant, a great car
(05:21):
dealership versus an okay one, agreat website, e-commerce site
versus a, there's a feeling thatgoes along with a great
experience that we pay a lot ofattention to and that feeling
really matters.
That feeling of a great brand,a great brand experience
actually drives behaviorsometimes and can make us do the
right thing if done properly.
So I think that that was alwayssuper important.
(05:42):
You know, I remember when wewere hiring Jay to kind of go
with you as our client successmanager to say, hey, as people
are reaching out to Root, who'sthat first person they're going
to talk to?
Jay Withey, he's thebrother-in-law of one of our
advisors here.
Chris, and we were looking fora person.
I put a description.
(06:02):
I thought it was someone that'sgoing to have a bunch of
experience as an advisor before,a bunch of experience doing
different things.
And Chris said, hey, james, Igot my brother-in-law Well, I
think you should chat with himand I said cool, I trust you,
chris, you're a good guy.
Even if I didn't have a goodfeeling about this person, I
would give them the time of dayjust because I trust you and
you're a good person and I'lltrust whoever you put in front
of us.
So I did it with that More.
(06:25):
Like Chris recommended thisperson, I'm at least going to
chat with him for a few minutes.
As soon as I got on that callwith Jay, I got a feeling within
15 seconds of this is our guyLike, this is the guy.
That the feeling people getwhen they watch a video and, by
the way, some people don't maybeget that feeling, that's fine
Like, if you don't get it fromus, there's probably another
advisor, another video, another.
(06:45):
So if you but if you'reresonating with the content that
I do, that Ari does, that Rootdoes it was very important to me
that when they land on ourwebsite, which, if they're
interested in becoming a client,the next step in that
relationship and that journeywould be you go to our website.
We invested a lot of time, alot of money, a lot of energy
into making sure that feelingwas reflected in the website
(07:05):
experience, the customer journey.
The next step was then who isthe first person they're talking
to?
At root, at the time, it wasonly you, ari, but we were
adding another person as we'retrying to expand our capacity to
serve more people, and that wasgoing to be very, very tough
shoes to fill.
But within 15 seconds oftalking to Jay, I thought this
(07:26):
is the guy.
The warmth, the level ofgenuine interest, the level of
this guy embodies all of what wecare about and embody here.
At Root it was him.
And then even the same thingwith the interview process.
So that's just.
You know, those are the firstthree phases.
Maybe a video.
There's a feeling okay, go tothe website.
That feeling continues.
Okay, have a conversation withour customer success manager.
(07:48):
That feeling continues.
Well, the last step, of course,is what about the actual
advisory experience?
Like there's been nothing sofar as actually where the rubber
meets the road.
What's the experience going tolook like?
And that's where one of thecoolest things to me about doing
the podcast and about doingYouTube never, never really
planned on this as part of nomaster plan or anything.
I thought it was just going tobe.
(08:09):
This is going to be a great wayto get in front of the types of
potential clients that we'dwant to work with, and a small
minority of the people thatlisten will become clients.
The other portion, hopefullythey get some really valuable
content.
They never become clients, butgreat, they're better off for it
.
The thing I didn't realize ishow many advisors would be
watching that and tuned intothat and become attracted to
that and say, hey, this is thecompany that I feel like I could
(08:33):
become the best advisor, thebest.
The skill sets that I have, theexperience that I have, the
natural giftings that I havewhere's the right place to call
home so that I can be the bestadvisor?
We started to attract such highquality advisors, which was so
cool because it wasn't just okay.
You get that feeling on a videoand on the website and even on
your first conversation with Arior Jay.
(08:55):
That needs to last for the next30 years and your experience
with your advisor, and so westarted to attract I mean,
everyone at Root.
It's so funny Anytime we gettogether in person.
We just got together in personin Denver as of this recording,
it was last week with about 20of the advisory team members
here, and all of them there were.
(09:17):
A recurring theme was I cannotbelieve I've been at root now
six months, 12 months.
There's no duds here, there'sno one here that I feel like, oh
there's, there's a weak link,there's the person that you know
snuck through.
No, everyone here is at suchthis amazing level.
Was the feedback that the teamwas giving self-proclaimed just
even.
You know, that's just thefeeling within the firm.
(09:39):
This isn't like a I don't know,we have to be careful with
compliance stuff of just sayinglike, hey, we can't substantiate
all this stuff, but just kindof throwing that out there.
But then finally, even as weinterview all these people that
are coming to Root I'm a part ofevery single interview process
(10:02):
where an advisor applies theymeet with Dylan to kind of do
that cultural fit, that team fit, that vision fit of is this a
person we feel would fit well atroot?
Then they go through a skillsassessment.
We role play, and the role playcan be hard and it can be
awkward and it can be weird.
We'll grill you, we'll test you.
Well, how would you respond tothese different things?
Make sure you measure up to thestandards, the technical
standards that we set forourselves.
Then there's like peerinteractions meet some of the
people that you'd be workingwith, meet some of the people
(10:23):
that'd be on your team.
I'm the final part of theinterview process and really
what I'm looking for is thatfeeling.
By the time they talk to me,they've gone through the
cultural stuff, they've gonethrough the team stuff, they've
gone through the technicalanalysis.
We've vetted their resume,we've vetted their experience,
credentials, all that stuff.
I want to know, when I hop onwith you, what's the feeling I
get?
Because that's the feeling ourclients are ultimately going to
(10:45):
get.
And if I'm not getting a goodfeeling, I don't care how smart
you are, I don't care howtechnically sound you are.
That's not the experience wewant to be offering to our
clients.
And so that feeling piece, wewant there to be a thread
between the first video thatsomeone sees to the actual
experience they're getting on anongoing basis.
Because, as I mentioned, thatfeeling is more than just bubbly
(11:06):
emotions.
It's that intuition, it's thatcondensed pattern recognition
that says yes, this is theexperience that resonates with
who I am and what I'm wantingout of my advisory relationship.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I love that condensed pattern recognition because I
know even myself I'll go.
Why do I feel this way withthis certain restaurant?
And I'll think maybe it'sconsistency, maybe it's every
time I go I have a great meal,but now that I think about it,
it often is more than that.
It's often hey.
Every time I say hey, can Ihave another glass of water,
it's oh, would you like ice withthat?
(11:38):
Versus yeah, I'll get to thatin a little bit.
It's a feeling, but it's not no, it's consistent pattern
recognition, condensed patternrecognition, and the more that
we trust that, the more we go.
Yeah, like this is when peoplesay gut feeling.
That is exactly what they'realluding to, so I love that you
(11:59):
brought that up.
My final question for today,james, and anything else you
want to take this in in our rootrelationship podcast, which I
don't think we're going to havea new show.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I don't know that we're getting subscribers to our
relationship.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Unless you guys get in the comments and go.
Oh my gosh, I'm crying.
You guys are putting me throughevery emotion.
This is not gonna be a loveisland variation, I can promise
you that.
But in all seriousness, how Imean.
Yes, we're biased, we love whowe work with, we are excited to
go to work.
We're on the balls of our feet.
If you heard our last episodewhere we talked about, okay, how
(12:36):
do we really view growth andwhat is our mission and vision
and purpose, how do we reallyview growth and what is our
mission and vision and purpose?
You can learn way more aboutthat once again in last week's
episode.
But for today, how do we makesure, as this team grows, as you
speak to advisors, you get thatcondensed pattern recognition,
if you will, that you receivefrom James your videos?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Part of it is just controlling for the speed of
growth videos.
Part of it is just controllingfor the speed of growth.
I think that there's adecentralized command is a
concept that I like a lot, thesense that we want our advisors
to be fully equipped to know themission, to know the vision, to
know the tools, know theresources, know how we plan, to
be fully trained, to be fullycoached and then let amazing
advisors be amazing advisors.
Within the framework that wetalk about, the best way to
(13:21):
regulate that is to have aculture, a high trust culture, a
culture that demands excellence, like a culture where all of
this is instilled in everyone,because that good culture kind
of keeps that decentralizedcommand in place.
Like that allows people to sayI can go be the best possible
advisor to this new client thatmaybe has never met me before,
(13:42):
but they've seen the podcast,they've seen the videos, they've
gone through this.
I can give them a highlypersonalized experience without
having to put them in what we'lloften refer to as that cookie
cutter solution because I'm nottrusted to be an advisor.
So therefore, I fill out aquestionnaire for them and I
give them the standard portfolio, I give them the standard
(14:05):
advice.
That's not what we want.
We want them to be fully freedup to be the best advisor they
can be.
But that culture is somethingthat is more than just creating
a fun environment.
That culture that kind ofdemands excellence and that
culture that all of us areelevating each other and that
culture that all of us aresupporting each other and that
culture that we're attractingthe right type of person.
And at some point as we grow,you can outgrow that culture,
which is why we're super.
The back half of this year, forexample, we grew pretty quickly.
(14:26):
The first six months of thisyear kind of met.
We talked about this as aleadership team, as an executive
team, talked about the factthat, hey, I think we're going
to slow a bit.
We don't want to get to thatpoint where we're potentially
outgrowing our culture.
There's only so much growth thatculture can sustain before kind
of external forces start topull it in different directions.
You know, you think if you havean awesome culture and it's
(14:47):
five people here's an extremeexample the next day 500 people
are hired, those five peoplearen't going to automatically
influence the other 500 and thatculture is not going to
continue.
It's going to kind of becomethe blended average of those new
500 who may be weighted forwhoever has the strongest
personality or strongest say.
So there has to be thiscontrolled level of growth of
(15:07):
how, as we are growing, notgrowing so quickly that these
values, these expectations, thissense of mission, vision,
purpose, core values, it has tobecome kind of embedded in what
everyone's doing and that kindof becomes a natural limit, a
natural governor of how wechoose to grow, so we can ensure
(15:28):
that experience is beingmaintained as new team members
come on board here.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Love it.
James, you might be aware, butI have a few pet peeves.
So punctuality as always youguys know.
If you've been to my live shows, which are every Wednesday on
YouTube three o'clock Pacifictime, I will say if anyone's
ever late, I have no concern, aslong as I've been informed
ahead of time.
If someone were to say you'renever going to believe it, but a
(15:55):
shark just started walking onland and hurt myself and I'm in
the hospital, I would say noworries, thanks for the heads up
.
I am that forgiving, but whenI'm not informed ahead of time,
that's a pet peeve.
Another pet peeve is slowdrivers in the left lane.
Another pet peeve is one thatwe can actually fix for you,
which is how do I know?
I'm going to assume this is allof your pet peeve is that
(16:16):
you're going.
I'm watching James on YouTube.
I'm listening to Ari on thepodcast.
I have a pet peeve, which is Ireally enjoy the content.
I'm resonating with thetechnical savviness, but I also
like the way they're explainingit.
It doesn't feel like I'm beingspoken down to.
My spouse isn't falling asleepto it, but how do I know I'm
gonna get that advisor thatfeeling, and here's how you can
(16:38):
fix that.
You can go to our website rightnow and under our website, root
Financial, at the top there'sgoing to be a tab that says
about and you can go learn aboutour advisors in a way you've
never seen before.
We have two types of serieswith every advisor.
There's Root Drops, which is medoing more of a technical
focused episode with them, basedoff questions that you
(16:59):
personally could have dropped inthe root collective, our free
community, and there's anothershow called advisor unplugged
with Jay, who James mentioned,the one who you speak to if
you're reaching out to work withroot for that initial call, and
he's learning more about theirstory, and so you might listen
to those and go, wow, I feellike I know Jay really well
ahead of the introductory callwith him.
(17:20):
You might find you resonatewith one particular advisor over
another, and that's becauseyou're a human and you're not a
robot and we want to know thatso that you are paired with the
advisor that you resonate mostwith.
So that's another episode ofRoot Talks, as always.
Please like this.
Please comment.
If there's something youlearned, that can be.
I've never heard of condensedpattern recognition, but it
(17:40):
resonates.
That can be.
I'm still thinking about JerseyMike's from last week when
James mentioned it.
That can be, oh my gosh.
I have a friend who just needsto hear this, because I want to
share why I joined Root and theyjust explained it better than
I've ever tried.
So we love getting to do this.
Thank you, as always, fortuning in and we'll see you next
time.
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