Welcome, everyone! Welcome to the 69th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Barry Glassman. Barry is the founder and president of Glassman Wealth, a wealth management firm in the Washington D.C. area that serves 250 affluent families and has grown to nearly $1.2 billion in assets under management in barely 10 years since Barry broke away from his former hybrid broker/dealer firm.
What’s unique about Barry, though, is the amount of time and energy he spends focusing on building his advisory business as a business, including why, even though he’s been nominated to most of the industry’s “Top Advisor” lists, he’s most proud of the purposeful culture that’s allowed Glassman Wealth to win a local Washingtonian “Best Places to Work” award.
In this episode, we talk about Barry’s approach to differentiating his firm by doing what he calls “interrupting the pattern” from what clients and prospects are typically used to, which includes his website home page that leads with the message “It’s not about pie charts” and even lists some of the competing firms he refers prospects out to, how he records a quick personal video for every prospect before he meets with them, why he doesn’t give out gifts with the firm’s logo, and how he differentiates himself in his relationship with attorneys, accountants, and other centers of influence by engaging them more proactively than the pattern they’re used to with most other advisors.
We also talk about Barry’s unique philosophy in deciding how to service his clients and connect with prospects in the first place, where he starts with the mental exercise of pretending they’re the only client or prospect the firm will meet with all year, figures out what that client would want and expect, and then working backwards to figure out what the firm can systematically execute on and deliver, using technology to help personalize the experience, for each and every client of the firm’s 250 affluent clients.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Barry talks about where he goes to get inspiration as an entrepreneurial business owner, why he doesn’t go to more than one financial advisor conference every year, and why he thinks it’s so important for advisors to look outside the industry for real perspective on entrepreneurship.
So whether you are interested in learning more about growing a firm after breaking away from a broker/dealer, why it’s important to “interrupt the pattern” of what your clients and prospects are used to, or how you can differentiate yourself by engaging with centers of influence more proactively than they’re used to, I hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast!
