by Jim Stackpool | Jul 13, 2026 | Activity v Productivity, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Capacity-To-Serve, Competitive pressures, Complexity, Consequences, Goals, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Measures of Success, Productivity, stages of growth, Talent
Charmeon runs a $1.8m advice firm. She has just hired another junior adviser. Her plan: hit $3m by 2030. She left a big bank in 2018, starting with no clients. She is excited about her firm’s future. She has a great team, good clients, aligned centres of influence,...
by Jim Stackpool | Jul 18, 2024 | Advice Conversations, Advice is not a Product, Best Interests, best practice, Certainty Advice, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Measures of Success, Mindsets, perfectionism, Professionalism, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
I have a weird memory. Particularly for far too many old TV ads. Joe the Gadget man. You need Palmolive Gold. Mrs Marsh’s Chalk. Louie the Fly. It gets weirder. Sometimes, my brain replays, re-visualising an old commercial during random conversations. This happened...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 20, 2022 | Advice Clients, Advice is not a Product, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Business Planning, future of advice, Leadership, Measures of Success, Minimum Fees, Minimum Pricing, Pricing Advice, Pricing Committees, Profitability, Quality Advice, Separation of advice from product, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
Ever over-eaten? To almost being sick? My mother, Meg, had no sympathy for such a thing. Like sunburn and talking too much, she reckoned you only had yourself to blame. That’s the tricky bit. Realising you are the problem. Similar to the feeling of over-filling an...
by Jim Stackpool | Oct 13, 2022 | advice skills, advisers v distributors, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Competitive pressures, Future of Financial Advice, Leadership, Measures of Success, Professionalism, Separation of advice from product, Successful On Purpose, Value Proposition
Some lessons from the covid pandemic promised to unleash new productivity growth. Studies don’t prove it. Yet. The Economist reported that post-pandemic spending is reinforcing supply lines, re-building inventories and attracting talent from the tiniest unemployment...
by Jim Stackpool | Jul 7, 2022 | best practice, Business Performance, Business Planning, Career Management, future of advice, Greater Good, Growth Stress, Hierarchy of Uncertainty, Leadership, Leverage, Measures of Success, Methodical, Planning, Priorities, Productivity, Professionalism, Profitability, Quality Advice, stages of growth, Successful On Purpose
“I just want a handful of good clients without all the stress and grief.” This was from the principal of a well-established firm with a fast-growing team. It is a common situation facing owners who appear to have built a successful advisory firm but who...
by Jim Stackpool | Jun 29, 2022 | Advice Clients, Advice Products, advisers v distributors, Best Interests, Brand Development, future of advice, Hayne Royal Commission, Leadership, Measures of Success, Public Good, Quality Advice, Separation of advice from product, Serve the Greater Good, valuable advice, Value of Advice, Value Proposition
Heard about Grameen Bank – the bank for the poor? It presents a powerful working model of trickle-up development. Founded in the mid-1970s by Muhammad Yunus in a country lacking first and second-world finance infrastructures, it has sprouted up in over 80,000...
