Our Program

If you’ve been reading our newsletters for a while, thinking “I need to consider this,” here’s what working together actually looks like.

But first – let’s save us both some time…

This program isn’t for everyone.

We work with advice firm owners who are:

Running established firms (at least $350K turnover with a solid client base), delivering comprehensive advice

Building better advice teams, not just their own job

Driven to make changes NOW, not collecting ideas for someday

Willing to share recordings of client meetings (the good and the ugly)

Ready to “start ugly” – implement before you feel ready

Committed to doing the work, not cherry-picking the comfortable bits

If you’re not convinced you need to do something, this won’t work.

The firms getting results are the ones who show up, do the work, and trust the process, share their journey with the community of advice teams and have a crack, even when it feels uncomfortable.

Still reading? Good.

the problem you’re solving

You’re probably running a growing advice firm but not earning the profits you should be.

You’re stuck using pricing models that originated from the 1980s, 90s or 2000s with paradigms that worked when the advice industry was still forming – but now you want to grow a profit-led or team-led business or both, not just be a better adviser.

Three things are hindering your growth:

1. Your firm depends on you (or one senior person)

Clients want you. Team members need you. New business depends upon you. Anything that appears complex needs you. You’re the bottleneck for everything valuable, complex, important or growth-related.

2. You’re drowning in capacity issues

More clients create more expectations, which require better systems, which require better skills, which require more management. You’re constantly working IN your business with no time to work ON it.

3. Your pricing is based on products or effort, not value

You’re probably undercharging, stuck in a comfort zone charging fees you know how to charge, for work you know how to do, with clients you have experience with. You are very concerned about losing clients if you raise fees.

WHAT WE FIX

1. Team-based propositions (not founder-dependent ones)

We analyse recordings of your client conversations to identify each client’s “Certainty Topics” – why they engage, pay, and implement advice. This isn’t theoretical. We review your actual Discovery meetings, benchmark your team’s probing, listening, and positioning skills against best practices, and then we draft and price your client engagement documents.

The result? You and your team receive specific performance benchmarks and clear skill paths. They build confidence. Clients start trusting the team, not just you.

2. Controlled capacity (not chaos)

Once your team can engage clients on value, we fix your capacity nightmare with three frameworks:

Certainty Mapping – Every client’s value is documented so any team member can provide the context, the positioning and value of their role

1st/2nd Chair Meetings – Two team members in every significant meeting (roles based on function, not seniority) to fast-track the capability of an expert team, broaden the client’s contacts, and reduce key adviser dependency

DeBrief Meetings – 20-minute structured sessions where your team collaboratively map the client approach, fees, and deliverables without you being the constant decision-maker.

This is how you build team dependency rather than key-person dependency.

3. Value pricing (not comfort zone pricing)

Value pricing means pricing based on what clients experience, not what you deliver. It requires you to trust that clients are the best judges of valuable advice – and it fails when you can’t move beyond your existing fee comfort zones.

We provide proven pricing precedents from 20+ years of implementations across hundreds of firms. We act as your pricing committee initially, helping you implement breakthrough pricing that tests value beyond your median comfort zone. We also advise on your ‘access’ pricing – the fee just to start discussions. Over time, your team internalises these processes.

The firms that commit to this typically see their investment returned 3-6x within the first quarter. If you’re committed to implementing, the numbers work. If you’re dabbling, it won’t.

what firms are achieving

Steve Maynes at Mayneline Financial (Melbourne) shifted his entire client base away from insurance and SMSF focus while tripling his fee per client.

Reine Clemow at Acquira Wealth Partners (Gold Coast) increased his average ideal client fee from $3,600 to $12,000.

Lucian Russ at Emu Wealth (Adelaide) achieved six times his program investment in his first six weeks.

These aren’t outliers – they’re what happens when advice teams commit to the work and trust the process.

Ready to discuss how this applies to your firm?

How it works

We add about one new firm per month to our community of 15 advice teams who we rotate from skilling to mastery when they are achieving their objectives.

You start with a 90-minute onboarding to map your first 90 days. After six weeks, we run a check-in to ensure it’s meeting expectations.

THEN WEEKLY:

Monday Focus Sessions (60 min, recorded) – Deep dive on Discovery, DeBrief, pricing, or Engagement Meetings for you and all your team members

Thursday Role-Play Sessions (60 min, not recorded) – Live role-plays with your actual cases, immediate feedback, real skill acceleration for you and all your team members.

PLUS MONTHLY:

Last Tuesday Strategic Sessions – Principals present progress against their strategic plans. Great firms get stuck all the time. Staying stuck surrounded by other principals who have experienced similar phases, with specific steps for progress, provides an accountability and objectivity to ensure the lessons from the ‘tough times’ turn into the steps for new phases. These sessions also feature proven specialists on HR, IT, AI, recruiting, remuneration, off-shoring – whatever’s relevant to building better, comprehensive advice firms. No wheel-reinventing, just direct links to others solving similar implementation issues you will face.

You’ll ideally share one live client case every week with us for review and one new prospect case fortnightly for us to draft, price, and support. We’re available for ad hoc support whenever you hit implementation roadblocks.

The investment

3,300+GST per month, minimum commitment.

Pay annually upfront and save 20% (currently available).

Our expectation – and the effort we put in – is that you’re revenue-positive from month three with growing ROI beyond that. If you’re committed to implementing, the numbers work. If you’re dabbling, it won’t.

The guarantee:

If, within the first 30 days, you realise this isn’t right for you, you will receive a 100% refund of what you’ve paid. Keep all the materials. This limits your risk.

what happens next?

If you’ve read this far and are thinking, “This is exactly what I need to do for my firm,” let’s discuss what’s specifically valuable for you and your team.

If you’re still thinking about it, still comparing options, still waiting for the right time – that’s fine, but let’s not waste time on a call. The firms getting results are the ones that’ve decided they’re doing this and just need to figure out the specifics with me.

What do you reckon?

Meet The Founder

Jim Stackpool

Jim Stackpool

Founder - Certainty Advice Group

Since 1989 Jim has influenced, and consulted to advisory firms across Australia. As founder of Certainty Advice Group, he acts primarily as facilitator for professionals seeking to build advice businesses to serve the broad best interests of clients.

He has published four books on advice, written industry white papers, judged industry awards, chaired practice management curriculum for higher education institutions, and has been granted by IP Australia and ACCC, Australia’s first professional financial advice certification standard for unconflicted advice – Certainty Advice.

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