Episode 34: Trillion Dollar Wirehouse, Trillion Dollar RIA Custodian, Tim Welsh Founder of Nexus Strategy on the RIA Industry | The Story of Industry Awards Program “The Wealthies”
Subscribe to Billion Dollar Backstory on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
A founder's journey never truly ends. Sometimes, that feels like a blessing and a curse, all at once. Hearing 'no' over and over again gets old!
Today, Tim Welsh, founder of boutique consultancy Nexus Strategy, joins Stacy to talk about why the double-edged sword of foundership is more of a blessing than a curse.
While Tim’s initial journey as a founder was behind him, he raised his hand to go back to the basics to get his latest idea off the ground.
Now, "The Wealthies" serves as his example of starting over - or starting fresh - to create something great as a multi-talented founder.
Ready for a healthy dose of motivation and advice that’ll make the startup grind a lot easier? Listen in as Tim and Stacy discuss:
Advice for any founder that’s shying away from founder-led sales
The true cost of bootstrapping your fundraising
The interplay between software and companies and RIAs
About Tim Welsh:
Timothy D. Welsh, CFP® is President, CEO and founder of Nexus Strategy, LLC, a leading consulting firm to the wealth management industry.
Prior to founding Nexus Strategy, Tim was Director of Business Consulting Services for Schwab Advisor Services
Tim is frequently quoted in the wealth management media on a wide range of business management and industry topics. He is the author of a number of industry white papers, a regular columnist for RIABiz, ThinkAdvisor, and wealthmanagement.com, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. Tim earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA in Finance from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business.
Fun facts about Tim Welsh:
He met Vanna White and Pat Sajack backstage at a taping of the Wheel of Fortune
He ran the New York Marathon
He won an ESPN (show producers) fantasy football league 3 times
TRANSCRIPT
Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.
Stacy Havener: [00:00:00] Is it the founder who's telling the story and explaining the software just, you know, in the beginning, right?
Tim Welsh: Absolutely. They're on the floor, demonstrating it to the next prospect that comes along. Cause you got to start somewhere. And again, if you're just coming at it from, you know, this organic Place and not really have a business plan and 14 PowerPoint slides and go Silicon Valley and get and raise 880 million dollars You have to sort of do all that
Stacy Havener: Hey, my name is Stacey Havener.
Stacy Havener: I'm obsessed with startups stories and sales Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the toughest boys club Wall Street I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow on assets for investment boutiques You could say against the odds. Yeah. understatement. I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes.
Stacy Havener: It's real talk here. [00:01:00] Money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales and marketing are all topics we discuss. Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college mixed with happy hour, pull up a seat, grab your notebook and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the billion dollar backstory podcast.
Stacy Havener: If you've hung around the registered investment advisor world long enough, You'll know the name and the face of today's guest. He's an expert in the financial advisor business, how to build them, and how to build a company that sells to them. Tim Welch, the founder of Nexus Strategy, a boutique consultancy that advises financial advisors.
Stacy Havener: FinTech and software companies on how to grow. He spent seven years at Merrill Lynch building their financial advice program. Then transitioned to Charles Schwab, the [00:02:00] scrappy startup at the time, who was putting a stake in the ground for the independent advisor community. Tim knew advisors were his people.
Stacy Havener: They still are. Not only does he advise FinTech and software companies on building businesses that serve advisors, but he is also the quote, executive producer, if you will, of the wealthies, our industry's golden global awards, which Tim co created with wealthmanagement. com. The wealthies are in their 10th year celebrating outstanding achievement of the people and companies that support financial advisor success.
Stacy Havener: This is people celebrating people. Tim reminds us all that no matter the niche we're in, financial advisory, investment management, or fintech, the founder's journey is hard work, sure, but it's work that matters. Here's to an innovator who helps innovators. Meet my friend, Tim [00:03:00] Welch. Tim, thank you so much for being here.
Stacy Havener: This is a blast from the past in many ways for me, we'll talk about it. And I'm thrilled to invite our listeners into this conversation with you today. Thank you so much.
Tim Welsh: Oh, it's my pleasure. The admirer and a fan for all these years. Finally get to be on the podcast. So thanks for
Stacy Havener: having me. I know. I mean, this is like 20 plus years, my friend, but I want to go back even farther than that.
Stacy Havener: Can we, like, I want to start with, I mean, did you always know? That you wanted to be the founder of a boutique consultancy in the financial services biz. I mean, was that your dream growing up? Like tell us your backstory and how you got here
Tim Welsh: today. Uh, yeah, it's a great question. Um, and I have thought about it and the answer is absolutely not.
Tim Welsh: No sense that this would be, you know, my career's aspiration. You know, it was like everyone else. I started at Merrill Lynch in the nineties in the financial planning group of all places. You know, we were trying to change the whole mindset of the broker. They [00:04:00] were brokers at the time away from dialing for dollars in transactions and really adopt that planning mindset, you know, managed accounts.
Tim Welsh: For fee, get to know the clients, you know, instead of trying to sell them the latest focus, one mutual fund or stock, it was a big challenge. And of course they gave it to some kid right out of grad school who knew nothing what he was doing. And so I had to make it up. And so we did, we did some R and D and the ultimate place to go to R and D and which were you and I met was at the financial planning association, the big events.
Tim Welsh: I wandered around the big exhibit halls. You know, no one would talk to me. I had to kind of hide my badge at the time. Cause you know, the independence didn't really like this, these wire house people trying to steal their mojo. Yeah. And that's where I found it. You know, we found the independent registered investment advisors.
Tim Welsh: They had the great model. They had the great relationships. They're growing fast. And we said, all right, let's just emulate that and try to copy the RA model into the wire house world at Merrill Lynch. And it worked, you know, after, you know, maybe four or five years, we had 3000 CFPs, we did pay them a hundred grand to get it.
Tim Welsh: So, [00:05:00] um, they're very incented, but it was a great cultural shift and you could actually see it happen within the organization from again, mother Merrill and, um, the raging bull to, you know, really thoughtful and fantastic advisors. They embraced and adopted it. And it was great story. But so long, long, that journey came into contact with this other company called Schwab, you know, and we were thinking, well, what is Schwab?
Tim Welsh: We keep seeing all these TLA transfer of assets out to Schwab, and we can't understand why. And it turns out because these were coming from advisors who were using Schwab as a case study. Uh, so once that mystery was cracked, I mean, this is going to be the future. And so when I got a phone call from Dave Welling in 1999, he said, Hey, you want to come join this thing called Schwab Institutional, I said, absolutely.
Tim Welsh: Cause that's really where the puck is going. And that's really going to be the future open architecture, a conflict free. And so I left Merrill and went to Schwab. And at the time, I think our branch office downtown Manhattan was bigger than all of Schwab at the time. So everyone said, you only get to leave Merrill Lynch once and you better make it the right choice.
Tim Welsh: You know, the whole [00:06:00] psychology of it, but it was fantastic. It was a great place to innovate and build things and roll out new products and services. So within Schwab, I kind of became sort of like the practice management guy. Working with Mark Timbersion and Moss Adams. I owe my career to him actually, cause he's the first one who came up with this idea around consulting.
Tim Welsh: Um, and he wanted me to be a practice management consultant and I said, no, no, I'm much more into this marketing strategy. I really love building things and rolling them out to an advisor population. He said, well, we'll give you a job, but you can't do that. I said, well, all right, now what am I going to do?
Tim Welsh: So it became very clear that I was never going to be the SVP of anything at Schwab. So I had to find something else. And the happiest people I knew were advisors cause they had their own business. And so I basically just said, well. This was the genesis of Nexus Strategy, which became the consulting boutique firm that you so nicely described earlier in the conversation and basically just launched it.
Tim Welsh: And my first gig was to, of all things, moderate Mark's version at a Persian conference around succession planning. And so it really took off from there. I've met some really great clients [00:07:00] along the way, some startups like Black Diamond, found them in the basement of the T3 conference in Miami and, um, you know, Reid Colley, the founder, you know, he, he hired me to be his marketing guy.
Tim Welsh: Yeah. Same thing with Mark, with Greg Friedman at Juncture. So it really started very organically, just with the relationships you have, as you know, that's really where you're going to find your best ideas. And that turned into an amazing consulting business. Entering my 18th year doing it. So, uh, I'm certifiedly unemployable now.
Tim Welsh: I can never go back. And I love it. Yeah. So yeah, thanks for that opening question. That's sort of the backstory of, you know, kind of how we got to where we are today, but so that's 30 year career, which is amazing, but both sides of the street, wall street, independence, corporate world, and now the consulting.
Tim Welsh: So I'm very grateful and fortunate to have found this niche for me because it definitely fits my personality. It sure
Stacy Havener: does, having known you for so many years. And I think it's great because I want to talk about some of those founder vibes, since a lot of our listeners are founders [00:08:00] of either an RIA, or a wealth management firm, as you described, or even an investment boutique.
Stacy Havener: So I want to come back to that. But first, ask you an even way back machine question, which is, What led you to take the job at Merrill? Like, did you have family members, friends of the family that were in finance and you kind of always knew that's where you wanted to be, or were like, how did that happen?
Tim Welsh: Another fantastic story. So I guess it was my best friend in high school. You know, he said he always wanted to be a stockbroker in Darien, Connecticut, driving a BMW. And I kind of planted that idea in my brain. I said, well, that's maybe not a bad. Lifestyle, maybe I could do that. And I read some really good books about wall street and it was very just intrigued by finance.
Tim Welsh: So I went back to get my MBA with the goal was to end up there. But the long story is that, you know, I went to the university of Colorado and Boulder, which is not exactly the finance hub of the world. I was just happening to be from Colorado and I wanted to get my next gig in. That state Denver area [00:09:00] loved it so much, but that's really where I had multiple job offers, but one of them was with Merrill Lynch and their training program in Princeton, New Jersey.
Tim Welsh: I thought, well, I guess that didn't work because I have to leave, but I was definitely something I had my eyes on. I went back to school to get an MBA to go into finance, but the ultimate irony there was I was thinking capital markets, investment, banking, trading, you know, all the whole glory type stuff.
Tim Welsh: But out of the 109 analysts that went through the Merrill training program, nine of us went into retail. You know, I'm like, but I want to go over there, you know, and so that was private client group, financial planning in Princeton, New Jersey as part of the big mother Merrill organization. But I look back on that as, you know, they had two jobs, they work from five to nine every day.
Tim Welsh: We were from nine to five on a good day. So it was just a different lifestyle, but it was a great way to, you know, just really become embedded in all aspects of a large financial organization that span from capital markets to private client international and everything in between. So it definitely was my vision [00:10:00] to end up there.
Tim Welsh: But once I got there, didn't stay on that path. It took a couple of left turns. Totally.
Stacy Havener: Um, but isn't it crazy? Cause think about how different your life would be, right? I mean, sometimes just sort of being in the right place at the right time and being open to the opportunities that come your way. You know, who knows if you would be the founder of Nexus right now, who knows if you'd be finding these gem FinTech startups and really have that entrepreneurial vibe had you gone a different route.
Stacy Havener: So I appreciate you sharing that, that part of your story with us. So let's talk a little bit about differentiation. I want to talk about it from two aspects, actually. So the first is, you know, when you set up your firm as a founder, how did you think about differentiating yourself? And I'd love to even take that thread into how you work with clients around differentiation, because we all know, like, Many industries, all industries, probably.
Stacy Havener: This is a [00:11:00] crowded space. I mean, that FinTech map from Michael Kitchis will just make your eyes cross. So talk about your own journey around differentiation and then how you work with clients
Tim Welsh: on that. I think you're spot on there because differentiation is really the essence of, you know, what makes you unique.
Tim Welsh: And, you know, I always knew that if this was going to work, it had to be a niche or you have to be a niche within a niche within a niche becomes so. Deeply embedded in that niche and know it well that you can actually offer advice and guidance. So if I hadn't spent 15 years at Schwab and Merrill, I never would be able to do what I do today, working in that space.
Tim Welsh: And it just sort of occurred to me as I, as you know, you go to these big conferences, you see the sea of booths, right? It's just a trade show. Everyone's there. You know, half the people used to stand over here. Now they stand over there because they change jobs. Nothing is different. And one of my gigs at Schwab was to put on Schwab Impact, which is a massive, you know, three way circus.
Tim Welsh: And it always occurred to me when I was talking to some of the vendors that were in there. I said, well, so why are you guys here? What did [00:12:00] they say? We don't know. We were told to be here because this industry is growing. We're not even sure we have a product for RIAs, but our brand needs to be here. So we're here.
Tim Welsh: And so it just occurred to me. Okay, well, that sounds like you could use some help and guidance in navigating. This niche space, because it's not intuitive, you know, independent advisors are very different, unique than the typical financial advisor. Who's an employee model, as you know, very different challenges.
Tim Welsh: They're running a business, they're doing all these different things. And that mindset, that practice management approach to being able to understand what is the message, what makes you different XYZ product or software company, or whoever you are, what makes you going to stand out in the eyes of these advisors who are going to be your buyers.
Tim Welsh: And oftentimes they didn't have that different, to your point, the differentiation, they didn't really articulate it. So I said, aha, that's it. That occurred to me, the light went off. I can do this. I can teach you because it's all we did was sell stuff to advisors. Yeah.
Stacy Havener: I love that. Here are those stories of entrepreneurs saying I had a problem.
Stacy Havener: So [00:13:00] I created a solution and then that turned into a business. I'm curious about the part where they say, oops, now this business, is it almost like this software. Company becomes bigger than the R. A. A. Or what's the interplay between what happens to those
Tim Welsh: entrepreneurs? Yeah, absolutely right. I mean, because, you know, running an R.
Tim Welsh: A. A. I don't want to say it's simple, but you know, you've got people and you have clients and you deliver service. Whereas software, you have to have developers and you have to have, um, you know, All sorts of really specialized resources come to play and then there's of course security and then you got to integrate with everyone that the list is almost non never ends of what you need to do with the software company and I think people really quickly realize that and they want to, you know, invest in it.
Tim Welsh: So then the challenge becomes, okay, I need some capital. Where do I get some capital? Yeah. You know, 20 years ago, it was all friends and family or they bootstrapped it or they self funded. The good news now is that there's lots and lots of people who understand the RA space, the [00:14:00] independent advisor space, know that it's a growth industry and are more than willing to invest.
Tim Welsh: So the access to capital is not as hard as it used to be. And that's two things. One is if you're bootstrapping, that means you're questioning every expenditure. Really? And consultants like us, we come in and say, Hey, do this, this, and this. And they say, well, that kind of costs money. And I think, well, absolutely.
Tim Welsh: And I said, well, if I spend that money, then that comes out of my bottom line. I'm gonna have to think about that. And so the idea of having a budget is a good thing, because it gives you the ability to say no. And if you don't have a budget and you just kind of wing it, then you'll always be spending management time thinking about, should we go to this event?
Tim Welsh: Should we not? Should I build this out? Should I not? Should I integrate over here? Should I not? So it's really a strategic thing. So all of a sudden the mindset from founding needs to go to Strategy, what you want to do, and, you know, frankly, for some people, that's just not in their wheelhouse, and they quickly realize that, and they either want to exit the business or just kind of flail along with it for a while.
Tim Welsh: But the ones who are the visionaries who get it, who are the real risk takers, [00:15:00] they'll take on the capital, they'll fund it, they'll make some crazy decisions because they know it's good for the business, and it'll pay off. Those people are very exciting to be around, love hanging out with them. I learn a ton just from them and how they approach to building businesses and developing relationships and really moving something forward to the enterprise level because that's a big jump to get it to that size.
Stacy Havener: Gosh, it reminds me so much of the journey of a founder of a boutique investment shop. It's the same in so many ways. And so I'm curious when. They start out, is it founder led sales in the beginning? Like, is it, is it the Greg Freedman's? Like, is it the founder who's telling the story and explaining the software?
Stacy Havener: Just, you know, in the beginning, right?
Tim Welsh: Absolutely. They're on the floor demonstrating it to the next prospect that comes along. Cause you got to start somewhere. And again, if you're just coming at it from, you know, this organic. Place and not really have a business plan and 14 PowerPoint [00:16:00] slides and go Silicon Valley and get and raise 880 million.
Tim Welsh: You have to sort of do all that. And for some of them, they're also the head developer and the coder. They're actually writing the code. Oh my gosh. So, and those, yeah, that's really amazing. Combination of skills in one person that does that. But absolutely you are correct. They're out there, they're wearing the logo on their t shirt and they're demoing the platform and they're hustling just like everyone else.
Tim Welsh: Yeah,
Stacy Havener: I think that's, it's a big part of it. And I think for an RAA who starts a business, they get it because they're already an entrepreneur. When you have a boutique investment founder who leaves a big firm, let's say like a mother Merrill type of vibe, they're used to a certain way of things being done, parentheses insert for them.
Stacy Havener: They're an entrepreneur and they're like, what hats do I have to wear? And you're like, all of them. So welcome to it. Right. And it's a big shift. [00:17:00] And I don't think they realize that. How big the role of the founder is in the beginning, when you're really kind of building up, not when you're scaling up, it changes, you know, when you can hire the salespeople and make that transition, but gosh, the founders role is so important in the early days.
Tim Welsh: Absolutely right. And that is, you know, really where the culture of the company is being forged in the crucible of, uh, those times, you know, it's really, you know, you get to know yourself very well, very quickly, and you realize what you'd like to do and what you don't like to do. And having to still do those things that you don't like to do, you know, makes it Um, because some are not salespeople, some are just awesome developers.
Tim Welsh: And now, now, now they have to be on stage and when talking some, you know, uh, esoteric practice management, mumbo jumbo just sell their platform. It's not in their wheelhouse. So absolutely. That is a key discovery, self discovery process that they all go through. And it's admirable because you have to put yourself out there.
Tim Welsh: In situations where it's not always comfortable, [00:18:00] you've never done it before, but you're willing to take that risk and do it. To me, it's character development. It's also just a self study in what makes people tick.
Stacy Havener: Yes. How do you coach people through that? Because it's, I imagine it's very similar, like you get investment people and they're comfortable behind a Bloomberg thinking about the markets, talking about the markets.
Stacy Havener: talking about specific positions. You get them into like a sales and marketing situation and they are very uncomfortable. What's your advice to founders who find themselves, you know, having to wear that sales and marketing at having to do the founderland sales? Like, how do you walk them through that transition?
Stacy Havener: Well,
Tim Welsh: the first order of business is to hire really expensive consultants. That's step number one.
Tim Welsh: There's the self plug for both of us right there. I think you just, you need to, I mean, now that I've done this for 18 years, and it's, I mean, experience is the best. I can say, here's what you're going to go through over the next five years. And you can believe me or not, but this is what's going to [00:19:00] happen.
Tim Welsh: So if you don't want that five year journey, you know what then just start selling your technology company for parts and just go back to being an advisor and dominate there and you'll probably be better off mentally and health wise if you did. And I think at this point, you know, I have that experience that I can say, Hey, I've seen it 16 times, 17 times.
Tim Welsh: This is what happens. It's nothing new. There's nothing different here. It's just, you're going to have to persevere through that five year. Time for a minute. And by the way, it is five years, you know, you're not going to be an overnight success. It's going to take five years to get there and just know that.
Tim Welsh: And then that's, I think the best advice I can give them is that that's what your future is going to be. You know, you need to sign up for it now or don't bother because you know, you'll just have regrets that it never worked out and I didn't put my whole heart in to it and what could have been and all that stuff.
Tim Welsh: So yeah, higher expensive consultants and then give them the roadmap of what's going to happen. That's the best advice.
Stacy Havener: I'm laughing for many reasons, but I'm laughing also because. You're so right. I [00:20:00] mean, it plays out over and over and over again. And I think for us, who, you know, we've got the gray hair, we've been around the block, we know it.
Stacy Havener: And yet, at the same time, so many founders Want to think that they're different and it's hard for them to realize, like, we all want it to happen faster, you know, we all want it to cost less. We all want it to happen faster. And I think what you said is so spot on. Like, I'm sorry, but like, That's probably not going to happen.
Stacy Havener: And so now you have a new decision to make. Are you in it for five years? Are you in it for two times what you thought it was going to cost? Are you in it on vulnerability and authenticity? And I need you to say yes, or I love what you say, which is like, just don't bother. I mean, what a freeing thing to be able to say that to someone and give them permission that like, you got to sign up for
Tim Welsh: it.
Tim Welsh: Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the whole concept of a sunk cost. I mean, yeah, [00:21:00] you did give yourself two years of your life to this thing and, and you want to see it through. But ultimately, if there's no path forward, or the competition is just going to crush you. And it's also a different environment now than 10, 15 years ago, it is made more competitive.
Tim Welsh: You have much more market dominators emerging people coming into the space with capital. Not necessarily from the advisor world. They're just coming in with, I know how to build a high tech company. I know how to do it. And that is also just a really powerful competitive threat that you're walking up against.
Tim Welsh: And also the fact, cause if you're small and nimble, you may be just too small to be able to, you know, drop some serious capital into this endeavor. And build up and go for it and really attack the market as it needs to be managed. And that's a tough thing to admit. Yeah, I guess you're right. This business plan, which I thought was awesome, you know, was replicated by Microsoft office in two weeks, you know, a year from now, because it'll be there.
Tim Welsh: Or, you know, the big platforms, the Orion's, Vesta, SSNC, you know, [00:22:00] they built entire platforms just by acquiring other ones and they get capabilities that you were attacking. All of a sudden, they've got the capability and, you know, they didn't buy you. And so all of a sudden, yikes, I'm up against it. But I mean, that's the minority of cases.
Tim Welsh: Most. Founders that I've worked with, they all said, no, no, I got a vision. I'm committed. Yeah. And that's really exciting. Yeah. I don't want to paint the doom and gloom. Like, don't even bother. Reality is there.
Stacy Havener: That's right. And I think it's nice as the consultant to hear them say, I'm in, because then you know, you've got someone that's going to be able to, you know, withstand the roller coaster that happens before noon, some days, such as life as an entrepreneur.
Stacy Havener: So this is a great, you know, Segway actually this conversation about the people behind these fintech businesses into Another I don't want to call it a side hustle, but I mean side hustle so trendy Maybe i'll call it a side hustle, but you had an idea That was super different and super special and i'd [00:23:00] love for you to talk about the wealthies Uh,
Tim Welsh: thank you so much.
Tim Welsh: It's my favorite thing ever and what we're describing here is the wealthmanagement. com industry awards This is our 10th anniversary. So we've been done doing some reflection about the program, what we're going to do this year, but it really all started with an idea I had. After I left Schwab and I was kind of looking for my next gig, I sampled some other industries and realized, nope, don't want to do that back to wealth management.
Tim Welsh: That's my passion. And it came across, you know, this idea that all the awards and recognition at the time were for advisors themselves, you know, like the Barron's list and et cetera, all those ones. But there weren't any awards for the vendors, you know, all the people that we worked with, you know, the advertisers, you know, the support platforms, anybody helping the advisor in their business.
Tim Welsh: There's thousands and thousands of them. We wanted to create a recognition program to kind of point out the best of the best broker dealer, the best software company, the best custodian, the best, Broker dealer, the best asset manager. And that became what I called the golden globes of wealth management at a four page [00:24:00] screenplay.
Tim Welsh: And I was, I walked around New York trying to find some publication that would go for it because they saw the value of, uh, and I needed a medium partner, I had to have that for the scope and scale that I wanted to do. I couldn't just do it by myself. And so I needed a partner and I went to all of them, Stacey went to all of them, they all said no.
Tim Welsh: You know, and then I came back around two years later and I said, okay, how about You know, fortunately timing, as you know, is everything. And at the time Registered Rep magazine owned by Penton was rebranding itself as wealthmanagement. com and Bill O'Connor, the publisher there and David Armstrong, the editor, they saw right away, Hey, we need to get up to something that will rebrand us as wealth management, not registered rep because the industry is no longer reps.
Tim Welsh: Nobody wants to be a rep. They want to be an advisor. And so we went with it. We did it, put on the show. It's a black tie event every September in New York City. You know, Stacy's one of our fabulous judges. We chaired about maybe 15 of us to come together and sort through all the nominations. So I'm glad you asked this question because the timing is perfect because the nomination window is open through April 4th.
Tim Welsh: So if anybody's [00:25:00] out there thinking about, Getting recognition for what they do to help advisors succeed, you know, how do they help them run a better business, make great client outcome. That's what we want to inspire. And that's sort of the genesis of the awards and the wealthiest. And yeah, it's like a franchise event now after 10 years.
Tim Welsh: And I kind of see myself as executive producer of the whole thing. So it's a lot of fun. And, um, I think it has really impacted the industry in a very positive way. Beyond just, you know, people getting an award. It's really about inspiring them to do great things for advisors to help the ecosystem that supports that.
Tim Welsh: Group. That's what we want to recognize. So, um, great event. And we also make a whole day of it. It's not just a dinner. It's a whole networking. I mean, where else in the world are you going to bring 250, 300 executives of these companies together for one thing? You know, it's unique networking opportunity, unlike anything else out there.
Tim Welsh: So that's, yeah.
Stacy Havener: It really is. First of all, I love the visual of you walking around New York City with your four page little screenplay of this like [00:26:00] golden globes of wealth management. And then just going back into your corner and be like, okay, I'm gonna try that later. It's just so great. Like, it's just, you know, it's the founder's journey in a different aspect of your life.
Stacy Havener: And having been a part of the wealthies, I can say that When you describe Schwab Impact, for instance, like, those of us on the sell side, if you will, you know, sort of helping advisors, we're usually at the booths, you know, schlepping all our stuff around, like, it's rather ungrateful at times, isn't it? Very unglamorous.
Stacy Havener: And this is a chance to celebrate the people who are part of the ecosystem that don't get recognized. And I love that. Having been at the Wealthy's, like, it truly is, it's so positive, it's so inspiring. It's a wonderful thing that you've created. And, As sort of the investment management person at the judging table, I would like to say, like, there's [00:27:00] not a lot of asset managers that participate or submit to be a part of the wealthies.
Stacy Havener: And that's a shame. It's something I've talked to Tim about. I'm like, why are there more asset managers? So hopefully, if you're listening. And you work with the advisor community, you're an asset manager, just know that you are included in this ecosystem. You are part of the ecosystem and you deserve to be recognized too.
Tim Welsh: Yeah. And some of the new categories that we've created through the years have all been, you know, as a result of the impact that the asset management community has been delivering, such as direct indexing, you know, our goals based planning, you know, on the asset side. It's really great growth story of the, all the amazing Investment innovation that we're seeing out there.
Tim Welsh: So yeah, absolutely. We'd love to see bigger participation from the asset management community. Not only do we recognize companies, we also recognize people. So like CEO of the year or CMO here, lots of other individual categories, cause you're right. This is sort of the behind the scenes type work that is sometimes not appreciated, but it's critical.[00:28:00]
Tim Welsh: For advisors to deliver their services to end clients and, you know, make dreams come true. So it's all connected.
Stacy Havener: Yeah. And that people celebration is such a big thing because you can celebrate the firm, but you really do. You pause to say, and also let's celebrate the people who are making. Change and innovating and being visionaries.
Stacy Havener: And that's just inspiring too. And it's just a great event. So encourage everyone to consider participating with us along those lines. Let's go back to the founder piece again, because really, I mean, you're kind of a multi preneur. You've got the consultancy, you've got the help and all the startups, you've got the wealthies, you've got a lot going on.
Stacy Havener: I love it.
Stacy Havener: So. When you think back on your journey, what surprised you? What surprised you on your own journey as an entrepreneur?
Tim Welsh: How helpful people were, you know, the relationships that you have, people don't want you to succeed. Yeah. The challenge is being able to, you know, [00:29:00] ask them. And I was not super surprised because these were fabulous people that I knew and your contacts and your relationships are wonderful people, but then they'll go out of their way to say, Hey, oh, you're looking to do this.
Tim Welsh: Well, I know someone who can connect you to that. And you just end up networking through your. I mean, LinkedIn is amazing now. Back then, it was all Rolodex, right? Or your business card stashed, you know, and sort through there, who do you know at this company? Oh, here's one, and call them and say, Oh, yeah, I remember.
Tim Welsh: Yeah, I'd love to help out. So I think, to me, I guess it wasn't so surprising, but it was just such an unexpected benefit that it Yeah, your network will help you. Yeah. So don't ever be shy. I mean, usually what happens is I get the linkedin request, you know, and then, Hey, you want to have lunch, you know, and then we'll have lunch and they'll say, Oh, so how does this consulting thing work anyway?
Tim Welsh: You know, cause you're like, Whoa, you want to know? Okay, well, I'll tell you because I, I got help along the way. And so I'm always willing to pay it forward and talk to anybody who wants to do it. And, um, because it's such a, an amazing, um, Result, you know, for [00:30:00] me personally that I was never going to be the SVP of anything at any of these companies.
Tim Welsh: So I had to figure out something else and this was it. So, yeah, absolutely. Well, now
Stacy Havener: you're the CEO. So you kind of
Tim Welsh: locked yourself there. Yeah, I had to skip the SVP and go right to the top. You know, it's
Stacy Havener: SVP is cool. It's CEO is cooler. Yeah. So, You know, I'm thinking about this, you know, everyone's talking about the solopreneur right now.
Stacy Havener: Like that's such a thing. In many ways, you were like, oh, gee, solopreneur.
Tim Welsh: Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. That's all you need, you know, and you off you go. Yeah. Um, and, um, that's exactly right. It is. The opportunity in our world, in our country and in our industry and our you have freedom to do that and you can just make a case and the technology is there.
Tim Welsh: You don't have to have a big infrastructure. You don't have to have a 20 people working for you. Just the bare minimum. The MVP, the minimum viable product is a phone and a computer and you're in business. And that to me speaks volumes to the fact that the opportunity is [00:31:00] absolutely there. So, yeah, but that solopreneur is quite discerned.
Tim Welsh: We've been using that quite a bit right now.
Stacy Havener: Yeah. It's quite the thing. And I love the idea about the network. We teach our clients the same concept. And I think you hit on something really powerful, which is. It's really difficult to ask for help. It's really difficult to reach out to your network, not for everyone.
Stacy Havener: I mean, you're pretty extroverted, you know, you've got that vibe to you, but there are a lot, you know, if we go back to that founder, that picture of that founder, we were painting earlier, the engineer or the investment person, who's maybe not as comfortable networking, so to speak, it's difficult for them to tap into their network.
Stacy Havener: And yet, To your point, they don't realize how much people want to help. It's a fabulous reminder. There are good people in this business.
Tim Welsh: Yeah, no. Yeah. I mean, again, advisors are the nicest people I've ever met that we worked with them when I was at Merrill Oshawa, these are just wonderful people. You know, that whole community that we work in, we're very blessed to [00:32:00] be in this, this.
Tim Welsh: Great, uh, industry, there's a lot of that collegiality that exists and yeah, and it is impossible, almost impossible to ask for help, but you know, once you do it in a nice way, people are just absolutely going to say, yeah, absolutely. I want you to succeed. You know, they really do. That's right. Have your best interest at heart.
Tim Welsh: So that's great outcome for sure. Absolutely.
Stacy Havener: And so that's what surprised you. Is there a different piece of advice you'd give founders, whether they're fintech or an advisor, maybe that's starting or even an investment boutique who's starting out like as a founder yourself and somebody works with them?
Stacy Havener: What advice would you have for other people on the journey?
Tim Welsh: Raise as much money as you possibly can, because you're never going to have enough. And if that means, you know, giving up ownership to get capital, you know, the richest people in the world own less than 20 percent of the businesses that they started.
Tim Welsh: So you sort of do need to share that equity. So share equities and bring the right people. Get access to the tools you need. [00:33:00] Because if you, like I said, if you try to bootstrap it or you shortcut the process, you'll never get there. You know, it's like driving down the road, one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake.
Tim Welsh: You know, you're just the whole car will just shake and explode down the line. So you have to be willing to just one foot on the gas and just go. So that was my, I always say that obviously it's hard, you know, to then go become a fundraiser and then actually being asked, not asking people for the help, but for their money.
Tim Welsh: Uh, it's a whole nother conversation, but there are lots of investors out there. They know this space, they see the potential. They're looking to do it. So you just have to find it. I guess that's looking back if I could advise my clients earlier rather than later, you know, find that source of capital. So you don't have to trade off decisions.
Tim Welsh: You don't want to make a trade off decision. You want to make a good decision. And if I'm doing it with my own money, I'm going to make a trade off always every single time.
Stacy Havener: Yes. Burn the boats, burn the boats, right? No plan B. That is fabulous, Tim. Thank you for that. Okay. I'd like to end [00:34:00] with a version of Proust's questionnaire.
Stacy Havener: And since we're of a certain generation, you may remember, remember James Lipton's inside the actor's studio. Oh yeah. Yeah. Remember? Right. See, I love this. When I get people who are my age, I say it, they're like, Oh yeah, I remember. Okay. So we're doing that without the like, what's your favorite curse word?
Stacy Havener: That's not on the list. Okay. So I'm going to start with an hopefully relatively easy one, which is what book inspires
Tim Welsh: you? You know, I have so many books that I like, but uh, Seabiscuit, I don't know if you remember Seabiscuit, it was a movie. Oh my
Stacy Havener: gosh, I love
Tim Welsh: that movie. Yeah, I mean, it was inspiring on so many levels, the book was, because the author herself, she had some debilitating illness and she could only like, you know, write like an hour a day.
Tim Welsh: Just to even get out of bed was so hard for her to do it, just physically to do it. And if you look back, you know, that, the story of that horse race, And that horse that, you know, the East coast syndicate didn't want this West coast underdog to come into their [00:35:00] world and actually compete, but the, uh, protagonist, he was just such a big salesperson and he's from San Francisco, Bay area, California, West coast, all that, all the stuff where I live and I love, um, he empitifies that.
Tim Welsh: And of course, I don't want to get away the story, but you know, the horse one, but it's just an inspiring, inspiring tale of just showmanship and PR and the underdog mentality. That to me has always been a great all sides, the author herself and then the story itself. So that's the one book that I highly recommend.
Stacy Havener: That is one of my favorite answers. I mean, there's been a lot of good book recommendations on this podcast, but as someone who loves the underdog, that is one of my favorite answers. Okay. So we're going to go from books to places. What place inspires you? What's your happy
Tim Welsh: place? I'm going to go with Tahiti.
Tim Welsh: Visited there, Australia, New Zealand, you know, the Pacific Islands, that whole vibe there. It's just amazing. It's so beautiful. It's so quiet. It's just off the beaten path. I [00:36:00] call it like, you know, the isolated Hawaii, you know, because it's not many people go there. It's far to go. Far. Uh, but that's probably been my favorite.
Tim Welsh: Yeah. Bora Bora was the island we stayed at and it's just spectacular. Those little cabins on the water. And just the snorkeling and the landscape is just incredible. Yeah. So to me, that's fantasy island for me. That's my
Stacy Havener: fantasy island. Hidden gem. I mean, sometimes it's worth the trek, isn't it? To go where other people aren't going.
Stacy Havener: I relate to that very much. Okay, now let's pretend you are taking the stage, not at the Wealthy's, or it could be the Wealthy's, we could stay with that, but you're taking the stage. You're going to give a talk and you've got thousands of your adoring fans in the audience. I'm there. We're all there. Abby Salomé is there.
Stacy Havener: I'll cheer them for you. And, uh, what is your walkout anthem? What song do they play as you take the stage?
Tim Welsh: Third Eye Blind's Semi Charm Kind of Life.
Stacy Havener: Ooh! That's a good one, Tim! I like that. That's great. [00:37:00]
Tim Welsh: Also very upbeat. 90's vibe and you know, it's just it's a title. Semi Charm Kind of Life. I just love it.
Stacy Havener: Yeah. So good. Okay. What profession, other than your own, would you like to attempt?
Tim Welsh: Well, I've always wanted to be a professional athlete. I mean, that's always been the dream, you know, to compete on. I think, you know, the time window has passed on that, but maybe being a professional athlete, that would be awesome.
Stacy Havener: Yeah. Sports are like your seat is good example. I mean, there's a few things in life that inspire the way sport does. OK, flip side. What profession would you not like
Tim Welsh: to do? Oh, gosh. Being in the airline industry, I would not want to do that. As
Stacy Havener: someone who flies all
Tim Welsh: over. I fly, yeah, I've got 2 million miles on United.
Tim Welsh: And I just, unfortunate, um, conveniences we take for granted that there are people behind it that are dealing with indifferent travelers like us. But, I mean, on the other side, it would be great to fly all over the world and do things, [00:38:00] but yeah, I think that would be a tough one.
Stacy Havener: Yeah, that is. They need their own wealthies to celebrate those.
Stacy Havener: You're so right. Like, people take it for granted that we get to just hop on a plane and get off the plane in Bora Bora, for instance. Right. Okay, last question. And I know you're nowhere near this yet. But what do you want people to say about you after you've retired or left the industry?
Tim Welsh: He cared. Oh, I
Stacy Havener: love that.
Stacy Havener: I bet they're already saying that to him. That's awesome. Great answer. It has been such a joy to have you on the podcast and having known you for over 20 years, I can say you are getting better. I would love the journey you're on.
Tim Welsh: Well, thank you so much. Stacy. It's been an honor and privilege to be on your podcast and raving fans.
Tim Welsh: I'm a long time subscriber. First time caller, but love it.
Stacy Havener: Thank you. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon [00:39:00] as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer solicitation or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy.
Stacy Havener: Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance. All opinions expressed by
Tim Welsh: guests on the show are solely their own
Stacy Havener: opinion and do not
Tim Welsh: necessarily reflect those
Stacy Havener: at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Havener Capital Partners.
You May Also Like
Resources
