The Influential Advisor

She called her advisor on closing day. Boxes still everywhere, no movers available, hours until she had to be out. He showed up in his truck, spent four hours hauling boxes to a friend's garage, and wouldn't let her pay a dime. That's the kind of advisor Dan Carver is, and that story tells you more about his practice than any credential ever could.

Dan Carver is a St. Louis-based financial advisor with 26 years of exp...

Most retirees nail the math. Then they hit a wall.

Jim Charles retired in 2021 after more than three decades in financial services. He had the savings, the freedom, and a 90-year-old house full of doors that needed rehanging. Within 18 months, he decided to un-retire. Not because the money ran out, but because the meaning had. That experience became the foundation for Sanctuary Financial Planning, the flat-fee firm he co-founded wit...

At the Exit Planning Institute CEPA Summit in Nashville, 1,200 credentialed advisors gathered in one room. The first night, they held an awards ceremony. Every single person who walked on stage had one thing in common. It wasn't their credentials, their AUM, or their years in practice. It was a book.

Episode Summary

Paul and Gabe McManus just returned from four days in Nashville at the EPI CEPA Summit, where they presented the A...

The Authority Operating System: Turn Your CEPA Credential Into Deal Flow

You earned your CEPA credential. You know how to help business owners navigate the biggest financial decision of their life.

But the business owners who need you most don't know you exist.

Right now, someone in your market is asking ChatGPT who they should trust with the sale of their company. They're searching Google. They're listening to podcasts...

A $200 million exit — and the client who should have been celebrating, but wasn't. That's what started the Exit Planning Institute. And it's the same story Scott Snider has lived himself: a successful business sale in his mid-20s followed by two years of feeling completely lost. Identity, purpose, what comes next — these are questions the transaction doesn't answer. Exit planning does.

Episode Summary

In this conv...

Most business owners assume their CPA is doing everything possible on taxes. They aren't. And the reason isn't incompetence. It's access.

The strategies that allow 18% of Fortune 500 companies and America's wealthiest individuals to legally pay zero in federal taxes are real, documented in the tax code, and available. The problem is that most CPA firms, even highly successful ones, are stretched thin producing re...

When you go independent, nobody tells you that you're just trading one set of constraints for another.

When Conor Delaney went independent in 2012, he started with $40 million in AUM and a blank whiteboard. What followed was a 14-year education in becoming a CEO, a shareholder, and a leader, all while still serving clients. Today, Good Life Companies supports more than 200 advisors across the country, and the firm's adviso...

Most financial advisors will tell you to save more and invest wisely. Mark Rasner will tell you that's not enough. After 32 years of watching people succeed and fail financially, he has the track record to back it up.

Mark grew up poor on a dairy farm in Upper Michigan, worked his way through college without taking a single student loan, and watched his father transform from a struggling farmer into a financial advisor who chan...

Most people doing the right things financially still have no idea if they're actually on track.

They're saving, investing, contributing to the 401k — and still lying awake wondering if retirement will actually work out. That gap between doing well and knowing you're okay is exactly what Bernd Steinebrunner has spent nearly two decades helping families close.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Gabe McManus sits down with B...

He built a successful practice — and it was quietly destroying your life.

That's exactly where Stanley C. Leong found himself a decade ago. Making $600K in revenue, working nights and weekends, falling asleep on the floor while his daughters played around him. On paper, everything looked great. In reality, the business was running him.

Today, Stanley averages 34 hours a week, takes every Friday off, and hit $2 million in revenue...

Episode Summary

Ron Phelps, a wealth advisor with nearly 30 years of experience, joins the Influential Advisor Podcast to discuss his book Beyond the Sales Pitch: A Roadmap for Finding the Wealth Advisor You Deserve. Ron shares his journey from growing up in a tough Milwaukee neighborhood to military service to building a client-centered advisory practice. The conversation covers what separates a true trusted advisor from the rest o...

Joseph Falbo has spent 30 years helping people navigate retirement, from the 1999 tech boom through COVID and beyond. In this episode, we explore his concept of the "functional retirement advisor" and why modern retirement demands a completely different approach than what worked for previous generations.

About Joseph Falbo

Joseph is the founder of Falbo Wealth and Amazon #1 bestselling author of Retirement Success: Hiring Y...

In this transformative webinar, Paul and Gabe McManus reveal why your most powerful marketing assets—your client transformation stories—are trapped in your head, and exactly how to turn them into a book that builds your practice.

What You'll Discover:

• The "You have my faith" story that made Gabe triple his life insurance immediately
• Why Steven's Target bag story about throw pillows made Paul hire him as his fin...

Episode Summary: A tech professional in her 50s had everything planned—enough saved to retire at 55. Just one problem: 80% of her net worth was company stock. Stanley Leong warned her to diversify. She agreed but couldn't bring herself to sell, feeling it would betray the company that made her successful. Then 2008 hit. The stock crashed. Her retirement at 55 vanished—she worked another decade to rebuild.

Stanley, a former engi...

Episode Summary:

Your best client just sold their business for $8 million and calls to say they're moving everything to Goldman Sachs. This devastating scenario happens to 70% of advisors, but Jeff Armstrong has the antidote. As a former business owner who ran a company for 23 years, Jeff reveals the blind spot costing advisors their most valuable relationships. While most advisors focus on managing wealth outside the business,...

Episode Summary:

After 11 years scaling Elite Resource Team, Anton Anderson's revenue tripled when he released "The Art of Collaboration" in 2024. He shows how one book became a growth flywheel, why his event is now the "Virtual Family Office Collective," & how AI is speeding—not threatening—progress. Anton previews book #2, "The Art of Proactivity" (co-authored with Paul Latham, who sold his a...

Episode Summary:

Andrew shares the tragic story that changed his career: a couple delayed retirement until reaching a financial milestone, only for the wife to pass away before they could enjoy it. This moment reshaped his mission from managing money to helping people retire with confidence. He breaks down the three pillars of financial planning, explains how small spending habits reflect deeper priorities, and offers strategies tha...

Episode Summary:
Ever hosted a client event and wondered if it truly moved the needle for your business? In this episode, we’re joined by Elyse Stoner and Angela York—co-founders of Event Advisors—who share the secret sauce behind turning events like book launches into powerful referral and relationship-building tools.

Unlike traditional advisor events that focus on entertainment, Elyse and Angela dive into the art and science ...

Episode Overview

Financial advisor Stephen Soderstrom reveals why high earners struggle with the paradox of "I make good money, where does it all go?" After watching countless successful professionals face this challenge, Stephen developed a radically simple system that requires no budgeting apps, no expense tracking, and no complicated spreadsheets. Learn how the G4 cash flow model can transform your financial life.

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