Don't Do That

On this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Sean O’Toole, founder of 1776ing and CEO of 1776 Wealth, for a conversation about private markets, AI, and why action beats wishful thinking.

Sean went to college on an ROTC scholarship and earned a degree in civil engineering. Four years with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg changed his path. He wanted freedom to build his own way, so he turned down engineering offers and started as a rookie broker at Merrill Lynch. His first years in the business included the Long-Term Capital Management collapse, Y2K panic, and the dot-com crash. He later moved to UBS just ahead of the financial crisis, eventually started his own RIA, 1776 Wealth, and ran a private equity business that grew into 1776ing, an infrastructure platform that helps RIAs access private markets for their clients and helps sponsors find capital.

During the episode, Kelly and Sean dig into the alternatives landscape. Sean explains why he believes wealth is made in private markets and preserved in public ones, shares his concern that the industry is crushing the J curve by selling easy liquidity, and breaks down how fee layers in funds of funds and continuation vehicles eat into returns. He walks through 1776ing’s white-label model, which keeps each sponsor’s brand front and center, and explains why 80-page decks and crowded data rooms don’t work for advisors and their clients. The two also talk AI, including Sean’s view that AI makes the wisdom of experienced professionals more valuable than ever.

Sean’s “don’t do that”: don’t use hope as a strategy. He learned the lesson in the military and says hoping led to nearly all of his failures. He shares how he pictures himself weeks or months in the future, looks back with hindsight, and asks what he can do today instead of waiting for a deal, a market, or a phone call to pave the way.

00:19 – Meet Sean O’Toole

01:29 – From civil engineering and ROTC to the 82nd Airborne

02:48 – Trading engineering offers for a rookie broker seat at Merrill Lynch

04:02 – A volatile start: Long-Term Capital, Y2K, and the dot-com crash

06:56 – Launching an RIA and the private equity business behind 1776ing

08:17 – Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, and the story behind the name

11:59 – How Sean sees the alts landscape and where 1776ing fits

17:01 – Why 1776ing runs behind its clients’ brands

19:15 – The J curve and the push for daily and quarterly liquidity

29:11 – How AI makes experienced professionals more valuable

33:17 – Why the “supermarkets of alts” strip away a sponsor’s brand

38:09 – Money-raising businesses versus money-making businesses

41:28 – Sean’s don’t do that: don’t use hope as a strategy

45:27 – Using future hindsight to take action today 

Connect with Kelly Waltrich:

• LinkedIn: Kelly Waltrich
• LinkedIn: Intention.ly
• Instagram: Intention.ly

Connect with Sean O’Toole:

• LinkedIn: Sean O'Toole
• 1776ing
• 1776 Wealth

About Our Guest:

Sean O’Toole

Founder and CEO, 1776ing and 1776 Wealth

Sean O’Toole is the Founder and CEO of 1776ing and CEO of 1776 Wealth. As an engineering graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Sean later served as an officer in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division before spending 20+ years in wealth management with Merrill Lynch and UBS. In 2017, he co-founded 1776 Wealth, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm. As technology began reshaping private markets, Sean saw an opportunity to make private placements easier to discover, diligence, and invest in, not by going around advisors but by equipping them. In 2019, that vision became 1776ing, a technology and implementation company supporting issuers, broker-dealers, and advisors bring private market opportunities to more investors. Why the name? 1776 was the year Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations. Philosophically, 1776ing is a verb: taking action to create one’s own wealth and prosperity. 

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On this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Anita Knotts, founder and CEO of the Lotus Women's Institute, for conversation about women in wealth management, agency at work, and the real cost of waiting.

Anita coaches women at pivotal points in their careers, from client service professionals weighing an advisor role to advisors who hit a wall five years in. Her curriculum comes from her own experience as a woman in the industry, giving the women she coaches a safe space to admit their fears and push past them.

Kelly and Anita dig into the problems firms still haven’t solved for women, from missing maternity policies to the absence of a lactation room. Anita points out that change only happens when women sit in leadership and ask for it. She also calls out smaller firms in growth mode that still hesitate to offer flexibility or hire women at either end of their careers.

Anita's "don't do that": don't wait until you're 100% ready. She tells the story of leaving a stable corporate paycheck months before turning 51 to launch Lotus. The fear of turning 61 and wondering what might have been scared her more than the fear of failing. She makes the case that trying almost never ends your life as you know it. Regret lasts much longer.

01:22 – Anita's accidental start in wealth management 30 years ago
02:28 – Learning from successful advisors and why you can't become what you can't see
03:18 – Avoiding sales, joining Wells Fargo, and a U-Haul move to San Francisco
04:18 – Taking bets and building a successful advisor career
05:01 – Leaving a corporate paycheck at 51 to launch Lotus Women's Institute
06:14 – The friend's question that clarified what came next
08:11 – From recruiting to developing, advancing and retaining women
11:50 – Why the conversation needs to include the supply side
13:57 – Kelly on being a "wrecking ball" for change
15:06 – How conditioning holds women back from taking risks and speaking up
16:14 – Kelly's list of non-negotiables
17:11 – Core values, agency and why being different is a gift
18:24 – Firms asking "how do I get more women?"
19:20 – The Lotus triangle: women clients, advisors and leaders
23:53 – Missing maternity policies and gaps women still face at firms
24:59 – Why women need seats in leadership to drive change
25:41 – Firms afraid to offer flexibility or hire women "of a certain age"
26:41 – Kelly on the hard calls behind workplace flexibility
28:09 – Treating employees like adults with clear, strategic goals
31:50 – Culture belongs to everyone, not only the leader
33:19 – "Waiters" vs. people who take agency
36:54 – Anita's don't do that: don't wait until you're 100% ready
37:47 – Regret as the bigger risk and the leap to launch Lotus
39:36 – Coaching women at life inflection points
40:28 – Why trying and failing almost never ends your career
42:32 – The cocktail party test for a job worth keeping 

Connect with Kelly Waltrich:

• LinkedIn: Kelly Waltrich
• LinkedIn: Intention.ly
• Instagram: Intention.ly

Connect with Anita Knotts:

• LinkedIn: Anita Knotts
• Website: Lotus Women's Institute

About Our Guest:

Anita Knotts

Founder & CEO, Lotus Women’s Institute

Anita Knotts is a seasoned financial services executive, leadership coach, and TEDx speaker with over 30 years of experience in wealth management. As an immigrant woman of color and long-time industry leader, Anita brings both strategic insight and lived experience into the heart of the Lotus Women’s Institute. Her work bridges wealth management, leadership development, and storytelling, helping women and firms navigate change with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

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On this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with David Coyle, head of growth at Aqua, for a conversation built on decades of shared history in fintech and financial services.

David walks through a career that started with a boiler room stock brokerage job in the late 1980s and moved through Merrill Lynch, a marketing firm he co-founded, a Middle East expansion for a fintech startup, and five years at Interactive Data. He grew AdvisorEngine from five people in a shared office to more than a hundred before its sale to Franklin Templeton, and joined Aqua in the alternative investment space this past November.

Kelly and David talk about what it takes to survive in startup environments versus large, committee-driven organizations, and why some people are built for one and not the other. They explore the current fintech landscape, including the Vanguard acquisition of Altruist, the ongoing wave of asset managers buying technology platforms, and why David believes the industry needs to slow down and refocus on client service instead of chasing scale for its own sake.

David's "don't do that": don't be vague when you say no. He shares stories from his career, including turning down a business relationship as a young advisor and watching deals fall apart because leaders couldn't say no to bad ideas, making the case that a clear no builds more trust than a vague maybe.

00:47 – David's career origin story, from boiler room broker to Merrill Lynch 

04:15 – Leaving the business, starting a marketing firm, and finding fintech 

06:08 – Launching BlackBerry service across 27 countries in the Middle East 

08:29 – Meeting the AdvisorEngine founders and joining as employee number five 

09:03 – What it takes to succeed at a startup versus a large company 

14:02 – Why David avoids committees and slow-moving organizations 

15:50 – Overview of the current fintech landscape 

21:29 – Why asset managers keep buying fintech platforms 

23:21 – The uncertain future of the "great wealth transfer" 

25:15 – David's take on why the industry needs to slow down and refocus on service 

33:14 – Private equity, overpromising, and bad partnership deals in the RIA space 

36:42 – Marketing as a long-term process, not a lead campaign 

39:24 – David's don't do that: don't be vague when you say no 

40:56 – The cost of an executive who couldn't say no to a fake product demo 

44:30 – Firing a client as a 26-year-old advisor 

48:27 – Applying the lesson to client expectations and honest scoping

Connect with Kelly Waltrich:

• LinkedIn: Kelly Waltrich
• LinkedIn: Intention.ly
• Instagram: Intention.ly

Connect with David Coyle:

• LinkedIn: David Coyle
• Website: Aqua

About Our Guest:

David Coyle

Head of Growth, Aqua

David Coyle, Head of Growth at Aqua, has over 25 years of experience in the financial and wealth management industry focusing on assisting advisory firms leverage technology to better serve their clients. Prior to joining Aqua, he was the Head of Business Development at AdvisorEngine, a portfolio management software firm acquired by Franklin Templeton in 2020.  David began his career as a Private Client Advisor at Merrill Lynch. A veteran of several financial tech start-ups in both the U.S, and in Dubai, David's broad and overlapping knowledge of financial software and the critical importance of technology in our industry will benefit our partners and clients. 

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In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Mary Ellen Harden, a relationship marketing expert and greeting card advocate at Hallmark Business Connections, to discuss why personal gestures still matter in an increasingly digital world.

Mary Ellen has spent nearly 20 years helping businesses use greeting cards to strengthen customer relationships, with much of her work focused on financial advisors and financial services organizations. She explains why a card feels more significant than an email or text. It reaches the client’s home, becomes a physical reminder of the relationship, and shows that the sender took real time to acknowledge an important moment.

Kelly and Mary Ellen discuss how cards can support both prospecting and client retention. A personal note can add meaning to the series of touchpoints required to build trust with a prospect, while birthday, holiday, account anniversary and life-event cards help existing clients feel remembered. They also explore less common occasions, including Thanksgiving and patriotic holidays, that can help an advisor differentiate through outreach.

Mary Ellen shares practical ways firms can make card sending easier, from connecting programs with a CRM to automating recurring mailings. Automation doesn’t make the gesture less meaningful; it helps ensure that good intentions don’t get lost in a busy schedule.

They also get into the details of planning a holiday card program, including when to begin, how to select a design and why the paper, message, envelope and branding all deserve consideration. Mary Ellen recommends starting Thanksgiving card planning in September and December holiday card planning by October.

Mary Ellen’s “don’t do that” is simple: don’t miss the opportunity to memorialize a relationship with a card. Important moments can pass quickly. Advisors who have the right systems in place can acknowledge those moments while showing clients that the relationship extends beyond meetings, portfolios and transactions.

00:28 – Introducing Mary Ellen Harden
01:05 – Mary Ellen’s career in B2B greeting cards and financial services
02:05 – Kelly remembers Tina Powell and her commitment to handwritten notes
04:00 – How business card sending has changed over two decades
06:43 – Using personal touchpoints to support existing client relationships
07:38 – Where greeting cards fit into the prospect journey
08:43 – Building trust through 12 to 15 meaningful touchpoints
09:54 – The most popular cards sent by financial advisors
10:22 – Thanksgiving, patriotic holidays and unexpected outreach
10:49 – Celebrating the anniversary of a client relationship
11:31 – The client data required to automate card sending
15:06 – Planning timelines for Thanksgiving and December mailings
15:27 – Choosing designs, messages, logos and signatures
19:15 – The meaning associated with the Hallmark name and gold seal
21:00 – Don’t do that: don’t miss the opportunity to memorialize a relationship
22:25 – Making personal moments count in a digital world
23:40 – Why automated card sending is not cheating
24:45 – Creating systems so meaningful moments do not pass unnoticed
28:17 – Envelope liners, holiday details and making card sending memorable
29:14 – Closing thoughts and potential Hallmark and Intention.ly partnerships

Connect with Kelly Waltrich:

• LinkedIn: Kelly Waltrich
• LinkedIn: Intention.ly
• Instagram: Intention.ly

Connect with Mary Ellen Harden:

• LinkedIn: Hallmark Business Connections
• Website: Hallmark Business Connections
• Greeting Cards for Financial Services

About Our Guest:

Mary Ellen Harden
Relationship Marketing Expert and Greeting Card Advocate, Hallmark Business Connections

Mary Ellen Harden is a relationship marketing expert and greeting card advocate with nearly 20 years of experience helping businesses create meaningful customer connections.

After spending 11 years as president of a greeting card company, where she led growth and innovation in the B2B space, she joined Hallmark Business Connections. Mary Ellen now manages enterprise programs that send millions of cards each year, with a particular focus on financial advisors and financial services organizations.

Mary Ellen is passionate about proving that small acts of personal connection still matter in an increasingly digital world. She believes a single greeting card has the ability to brighten someone’s day, strengthen a relationship and sometimes even change a life.

She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with her husband, three children and their beagle.

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In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Cary Carbonaro, CFP®, Managing Advisor and Women and Wealth Ambassador at Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, for a candid conversation about making wealth management work better for women.

Cary’s commitment to women began long before her career in financial services, from founding a sorority at SUNY Cortland to becoming the person female clients sought out during her early banking career. She opens up about her difficult divorce, her experience at United Capital and Goldman Sachs, and the career challenges that strengthened her determination to help change the industry.

Kelly and Cary get practical about what advisors can do differently. Cary explains why both partners in a couple need to be treated as clients, why advisors need to build relationships with women before divorce, widowhood or another major life transition, and why patience is so important when working with someone experiencing grief. A woman who appears disengaged may not be uninterested in her financial life. The advisor may simply not have found the conversation that matters to her yet.

They also discuss the enormous business opportunity associated with the growing wealth controlled by women and what it means to build a genuinely female-friendly practice, including examining communication, client experience, firm culture, leadership, recruiting and compensation.

Cary's "don't do that" is straightforward: don't treat female clients as though they are male clients. Women's financial lives often include career interruptions, caregiving responsibilities, longer lifespans and different financial transitions. Advisors who understand those realities, communicate in plain English and invest the time required to build trust can create stronger, longer-lasting relationships.

Cary and Kelly cover:

00:00 – Welcome back and Cary's commitment to women and wealth

00:02:18 – Cary's origin story, SUNY Cortland and discovering her love of speaking

00:03:56 – Early banking lessons and why women gravitated toward Cary

00:04:53 – Divorce, The Money Queen's Guide and turning personal experience into advocacy

00:06:12 – United Capital, Goldman Sachs and nearly leaving the industry

00:08:27 – Moving clients four times, writing Women and Wealth and Cary's mission

00:10:05 – Why the woman in a couple is your client too

00:11:27 – Widowhood, longevity and why women often seek financial help during difficult transitions

00:12:34 – Kelly's personal story about a spouse suddenly becoming responsible for the finances

00:14:05 – United Capital's female-friendly tools and behavioral finance approach

00:15:27 – How advisors can engage women before a major life transition

00:18:39 – "Resilience bonding": moving from grief and uncertainty to financial confidence

00:20:59 – Why questions can be a sign of engagement, not uncertainty

00:21:48 – Philanthropy and finding conversations that matter to women

00:23:08 – The trust milestone: being included before major financial decisions are made

00:24:26 – Why building trust happens on the client's timetable

00:25:58 – Cary's mission to educate advisors and change the industry

00:27:53 – Turning Women and Wealth into an eight-module CFP® CE masterclass

00:29:04 – The multitrillion-dollar opportunity in serving women investors

00:29:34 – The female advisor talent gap and who's entering the profession

00:32:03 – Introducing younger women to financial planning careers

00:34:47 – Attracting female advisors through culture, leadership, language and representation

00:37:02 – Compensation, rainmakers and building roles around individual strengths

00:39:02 – What a female-friendly firm audit could examine

00:40:20 – Don't do that: stop treating female clients like male clients

00:41:51 – How firms are beginning to change

00:44:16 – Moving the needle and Cary's call for advisors to keep learning

Connect with Kelly Waltrich:

• LinkedIn: Kelly Waltrich
• LinkedIn: Intention.ly
• X: Intention.ly
• Instagram: Intention.ly

Connect with Cary Carbonaro:

• LinkedIn: Cary Carbonaro
• Website: https://carycarbonaro.com/

About Our Guest:

Cary Carbonaro, CFP®
Managing Advisor, Women and Wealth Ambassador, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth
Best-Selling Author, Nationally Recognized Speaker, CFP Board Ambassador

Cary Carbonaro is an award-winning personal finance expert with more than 25 years of experience in wealth management. As Managing Advisor and Women and Wealth Ambassador for Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, she works with clients and advisors to address both the financial and emotional dimensions of wealth.

A longtime CFP Board Ambassador, Cary has dedicated much of her career to financial literacy and improving the experience of women in wealth management. She previously served as Partner and Head of Women's Leadership at United Capital before its acquisition by Goldman Sachs.

Cary's industry recognition includes being named the 2026 InvestmentNews Financial Education Champion of the Year, ranking No. 19 on AdvisorHub's 50 Advisors to Watch list and being named a finalist for Thought Leader of the Year in the 2026 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards. Her previous honors include InvestmentNews' Women to Watch and 2025 DEI Trailblazer of the Year awards and multiple appearances on Investopedia's Top 100 Financial Advisors list.

She is the author of Women and Wealth: A Playbook to Empower Clients and Unlock Their Fortune (Wiley, 2025), which was selected by WealthManagement.com as one of its Best Business Books of 2025 for Advisors. She also wrote The Money Queen's Guide for Women Who Want to Build Wealth and Banish Fear.

Cary is a frequent media commentator and speaker on financial literacy, women's empowerment and the future of financial advice. Her appearances include Fox & Friends, The Today Show, CNN, CNBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, Newsmax and Fox 5, and she has spoken at events including the Milken Institute Global Conference.

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In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly sits down with Mike Barrasso and David DeCelle, co-founders of Wealth Reach, to break down how modern advisory firms should think about growth, prospecting, and technology. They explore the shift from passive referrals to proactive, data-driven outreach and why combining intent data with human follow-up is driving real results.

The episode features a powerful double “Don’t Do That”: don’t approach growth selfishly - focus on helping more people - and don’t skip the fundamentals by jumping straight into tactics without a plan. The takeaway is clear: sustainable growth comes from strong foundations, clear messaging, and disciplined execution, not shortcuts.

Kelly, Mike, & David cover:

00:00 Early traction and real results from Wealth Reach users (including a $500K win in week one) 
00:48 Introduction to Mike and David and their backgrounds 
02:53 Why Wealth Reach was built: “people in motion” vs. “money in motion” 
05:43 How website visitor identification and intent data work together 
08:59 Early results and what’s driving success 
10:14 Why phone outreach still wins when paired with digital 
11:17 The power of intent data in modern marketing 
13:11 The sales infrastructure gap in advisory firms 
14:21 How larger firms are building outbound teams 
17:12 Don’t Do That #1: Don’t approach growth selfishly 
20:59 Don’t Do That #2: Don’t skip planning or try to do everything at once 
22:25 Reframing growth around serving clients 
25:58 Why starting in the middle of the funnel fails 
27:16 Building a full funnel before scaling tactics 
30:34 Final takeaway: fundamentals first, then scale

About Our Guests:

David DeCelle is the Co-Founder of WealthReach and CEO of Model FA. David also co-authored Organic Growth Revolution with Dan Allison.

Mike Barrasso is the Co-Founder and CEO of WealthReach, an AI-powered organic growth platform purpose-built for RIAs and wealth management firms.

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In this thoughtful and insight-packed episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly sits down with Mike Betz, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Nitrogen, for a wide-ranging conversation on wealth tech evolution, advisor workflows, AI, and one of the most common (and costly) mistakes professionals make: overcomplicating what should be simple.

Kelly and Mike cover:
00:56 Mike’s background across advisory firms and wealth tech platforms
03:14 Why every wealth management firm is now, in effect, a technology firm
04:00 Where firms get tech right (and wrong): solving for experience vs. forcing tools into the business
04:44 The shift back toward fewer, more integrated platforms
06:38 The emerging divide between large aggregators and mid-sized firms
07:36 How point solutions are evolving into platform features
09:04 How AI is reshaping advisor workflows (before, during, and after meetings)
09:28 “Reinventing the interface”: moving from clicking to instructing
09:53 Challenges firms face adopting AI, especially around security and compliance
10:31 Nitrogen’s approach to AI integration and the introduction of “Nucleus”
11:12 What AI should—and should not—do for advisors
12:07 The growing need for flexibility and interoperability across tools
13:12 Why note-taking AI has become a “can’t live without it” technology
17:17 The episode’s core mistake: confusing complexity for value
18:15 The Mark Twain principle: if you didn’t have time to simplify, you made it too long
19:07 Dog sledding analogy: why the simplest systems are often the most sophisticated
22:13 “Bottom Line Up Front” (BLUF): why executives value clarity over detail
25:24 Decision-making styles and balancing speed vs. thoroughness
27:02 Why business rewards clarity, not length (despite what school teaches)
29:25 The “shoebox principle”: organizing complexity creates immediate value
31:25 Silent expectations vs. delight: why fundamentals matter more than extras
33:35 Final takeaway: do the simple things extraordinarily well before chasing complexity

About Our Guest:

Mike Betz is the Strategic Relationships Director at Nitrogen, where he oversees many of the company's largest and most complex relationships. With more than 20 years in WealthTech, Mike has built, broken away, and scaled RIAs, helped launch several startups, and has worked in, at, and alongside some of the industry's largest technology platforms. 

His career spanning both sides of the WealthTech ecosystem gives him a rare perspective on how technology, advisory operations, and customer experience actually intersect. He holds an MBA, the CFPⓇ designation, and is a UW-Madison grad, where he pole vaulted for the Badgers. Mike lives in Minnesota with his wife Meagan and their three rescue dogs.

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In this candid and fast-moving episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly sits down with Chuck Failla, Founder and CEO of Sovereign Financial Group, for a conversation about growth, operational scale, advisor support, marketing, and the technology decisions that can make or break a firm.

Kelly and Chuck cover:
01:01 Chuck shares Sovereign’s growth from a $100M lifestyle practice to a $1.2B firm
02:23 Building the platform Chuck always wished existed as an advisor
03:04 Why Chuck is committed to cash-flow-based planning over probability models
04:04 Leaving the broker-dealer model to build a more customized RIA platform
06:16 The catalyst that turned Sovereign into a growth engine
07:34 Marketing limits in legacy affiliation models and why centralized support matters
09:28 Sovereign’s “support as a service” and à la carte advisor platform
10:45 Why centralized marketing outperforms fragmented advisor-by-advisor efforts
12:11 Advisor optionality: incubator support and back-office-only models
12:42 Why firms underestimate marketing in M&A and growth planning
13:13 The math of marketing spend vs. buying books of business
15:00 Buying leads vs. building your own brand and acquisition engine
16:10 Sovereign’s strategy of acquiring accounting firms for growth and retention
18:44 DIY trends, AI, and why clients still want trusted human advice
20:50 Why investment selection alone no longer justifies advisor fees
21:10 The future of integrated wealth, tax, and estate services
22:41 Chuck’s “Don’t Do That” mistake: choosing tech based on a promised roadmap
24:30 The real cost of bad vendor decisions: exits, migrations, and wasted time
25:18 Why advisors must read terms of service, not just contracts
27:16 When it may make sense to buy based on roadmap promises
28:15 AI in wealth tech and why advisors using AI will outpace those who don’t
30:04 Chuck’s view on advisor productivity: if advisors do admin work, something is broken
32:07 Final takeaway: don’t anchor your firm to technology that can’t meet today’s needs

About Our Guest:

Chuck has been a financial advisor for more than 25 years. He started in the early 90s as a "cold calling cowboy" in NYC selling individual stocks. As he built his book, he always planned to go independent and did so in 1999 by opening an independent branch of Raymond James Financial. At that time, Chuck earned his CFP® designation and transitioned from individual stock picking to financial planning and asset allocating using mutual funds and SMAs. Chuck's practice evolved into what is today Sovereign Financial Group, Inc., an SEC registered RIA. With offices and advisors in the Northeast, Florida, and Colorado, Sovereign is one of the fastest growing RIAs in the country. Chuck is also the Director of Sovereign Advisor Solutions (SAS)-- a division of Sovereign Financial Group, Inc. SAS helps advisors transition to RIA by offering a comprehensive plug and play solution for going independent.

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In this energizing and forward-looking episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Reed Colley, President of Technology at Orion, for a conversation about where the advisory industry is heading and what it takes to stay ahead of the curve.

The heart of the episode, though, focuses on something more fundamental: the advisor-client relationship. Reed argues that AI should not replace the human elements of advice; instead, it should eliminate the noise so advisors can focus on what clients hired them to do. His "Don't Do That" lesson cuts straight to it: stop treating the most repetitive, time-consuming parts of your workflow as inevitable, and stop ignoring the tools that can free you up to do the work only you can do.

Kelly and Reed cover:

00:51 The origin of Summit and the vision behind it 

02:46 Why the advisor-client relationship is the only metric that matters 

05:55 What it feels like to lead tech innovation during an AI revolution 

06:20 How AI is enabling leapfrog innovation at Orion 

09:21 Denali: Building an LLM-agnostic, enterprise-grade AI platform 

12:43 Orion's client base and earning the right to serve them 

14:07 The Web 2.0 parallel and what this moment really means 

17:46 How AI is changing Orion's internal teams 

18:14 Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset in a solutions revolution 

21:03 How team workflows are transforming in real time 

24:00 What this moment means for the next generation 

27:20 Orion Ascent preview 

30:31 Reed’s Don't do That: Stop ignoring what AI can take off your plate 

32:29 Don't automate the human out of your practice

About Our Guest:

Reed Colley joined Orion in January 2025 as President of Orion Advisor Technology following Orion’s acquisition of Summit Wealth Systems. As co-founder and CEO of Summit, Reed recognized the need to humanize wealth management by creating a modern, digital and mobile experience for advisors and their clients. Prior to Summit, Reed founded and served as CEO of Black Diamond Performance Reporting. He also founded calendar analytics platform Copilot, Do Something Great Today, and FlightPath Inc. Reed holds a Bachelor of Science with degrees in Engineering and Economics from Vanderbilt University, where he was a starting pitcher on the baseball team.

Disclaimer: Outputs generated by Orion Denali AI should be reviewed for accuracy and appropriateness by financial professionals in all cases.

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In this powerful and deeply human episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with history-making Broadway star Sandra Joseph to explore the pressure of performing at the highest level—and the dangerous temptation to hide behind perfection.

Sandra holds the record as the longest-running leading lady in The Phantom of the Opera, spending more than a decade in one of the most demanding roles in theater history. But at the pinnacle of her career, on the night Phantom became the longest-running show on Broadway, Sandra found herself staring at the fire escape outside her dressing room, wanting to run.

That moment sparked a deeper reckoning: If success doesn’t silence self-doubt, what will?

Since leaving the stage, Sandra has built a second career as a keynote speaker and author of Unmasking What Matters, bringing hard-earned lessons about vulnerability, burnout, imposter syndrome, and authenticity to leaders across industries - including financial services. Together, Kelly and Sandra unpack what it really takes to perform at a high level for the long haul, why perfection is a mask that blocks connection, and how leaders can better connect the head and the heart in their work.

This episode is a masterclass in authenticity, emotional connection, and sustainable success - for advisors, executives, entrepreneurs, and anyone who has ever felt the pressure to get it “right.”

About Our Guest:

Sandra Joseph is a history-making Broadway star, a #1 international Amazon bestselling author, and a TEDx and keynote speaker. Her legendary run as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera spanned ten years and over 1,500 performances. She holds the record as the longest-running leading lady in the longest-running Broadway show of all time. Sandra has appeared on many national broadcasts including The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, The Today Show, Dateline, The Early Show, The View, and Oprah: Where Are They Now? Sandra is a member of The Transformational Leadership Council, an invitation-only group of 125 top thought leaders. Among the luminaries who endorse her work are Jack Canfield, Mark Nepo, Martha Beck, Marci Shimoff, and Geneen Roth. Sandra is the author of Unmasking What Matters: 10 Life Lessons from 10 Years on Broadway. She is also the co-author, with five-time New York Times best-selling author Caroline Myss, of Your Creative Soul: Expressing Your Authentic Voice.

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