I love operations. There, I said it!
I love operations. There, I said it! I enjoy creating, implementing, and improving processes that save me and my team time while enhancing our client’s experience. I understand I’m an outlier. I know few other owner/founder advisors who also enjoy this. Most started their business to control their target client and service model, for the thrill of growing a business, for the financial upside, or to remove “big brother” from their marketing efforts.
Truthfully, I didn’t start my firm to fulfill my desire to nerd out on operations. I set out to take back control of my life. But as my firm grew, it was crystal clear that my firm’s operations impacted every aspect of my life. I’d go as far as the quality of my processes and procedures literally translates to how much time I can spend with my wife and kids.
My goal with this blog and all future content is to help. I want to help those advisors who are great marketers and great financial planners improve their business and their life. And while I’m at it, I am excited for feedback to constantly improve my own processes and procedures.
What’s my Goal?
You should value operations incredibly highly because the quality of your operational processes and procedures heavily determines your lifestyle, your income, and your happiness. My goal is simple: deliver a weekly newsletter to your inbox each Saturday that will:
Guide you to create the service model ideal for your clients and also your business and your life.
Provide foundational guidance on defining and implementing each component of this service model.
Provide instruction on leveraging your team and executing firm-level actions and requirements.
Provide feedback on tools and technology within the industry and give you tips and tricks for rapidly increasing the efficiency (and quality!) of each component of your Service Calendar. I will share everything about my business; from my entire Surge Process to how we send new clients their Welcome Package.
What you will not get from me:
An “easy button”. It doesn’t exist. Excellent operations require dedication and accountability and it all starts from the top.
Recommendations on investment strategies or fee structures. Invest how you want and charge your clients how it makes sense for you. I’m not here for that debate.
Any conversations on IULs. I’ll leave that to HonestMath.
Now, who am I?
We will get to the operational content starting next week. But for now, many probably don’t know much about me. And that’s okay. There’s no reason you should.
I have been in the financial planning industry for about 10 years, all of which in the RIA space. I launched my firm, Drost Financial, in February 2021. I had a small client base when I started but most growth has occurred since I launched. We now serve about 60 clients and I’m not sure how much more I want to grow. Jeremy Walter and Morgan Ranstrom have written great content on the concept of “enough” and “Focus 50” and I’m still working through what my answers are to those questions. I’ve reached the point of being financially secure but I also love the work I do. I expect to grow very slowly for a few more years and then solely focusing on our existing client base. I say “our” as I do have a team member, Veronica. Not just my admin, Veronica is also my mother. And calling her an admin is selling it quite short. She is involved in every single component of the business and I’ll go deep into how I leverage her skillset throughout this blog.
My “why” for life is at home. My wife, Marissa, and our two boys, Calvin (2.5) and Carter (9 months) are the reason I started my firm. They are why I obsess so much about operations – because every hour I save is an hour that can be spent with my family or improving myself to be a better dad and husband.
