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This one was just a blast!

Thanks Mark and James for coming on!

Joe

Happy Weekend! probably going to post 2 podcasts here shortly, so you’ve been warned. :)

I’m 30 episodes in. I’ve had some truly incredible guests. But this guest is just in a whole ‘nuther category.

James is the most zen financial advisor I’ve ever experienced. Possibly the most zen human.

And his firm added $1bil in AUM last year… like $10,000,000 of revenue I’m assuming… will probably double again in 2026.

Zen and growing like mad…

And the quotes… well, they’re killer. :)

* There’s the Kitces tech map - I couldn’t tell you 90% of the companies on that and at the same time I don’t care.

* We’re not chasing new tech solutions, um, just because I don’t know what we’re going to get out of that.

* Inorganic growth is just not even something that crosses my mind, I don’t think of organic vs. inorganic, I just think of growth.

* Too much of the industry feels like they’re being productive when they’re networking with other advisors, and talking with other advisors... stop doing that... stop joining study groups... stop joining masterminds... just sit down and think like what’s the problem in front of me and how can I create a solution to this.

* There’s a lot of talk about a talent shortage. There is zero talent shortage. The shortage is a shortage of quality firms that exist where young, talented people are wanting to work... There’s a huge amount of very talented people that are not able to realize their full potential.

* What is Advice? “Transformation. If there’s not something transformative happening in your client’s life... and the transformation doesn’t happen because of a Roth conversion, doesn’t happen because you told them exactly how much they could spend. That transformation is something emotional or relational. Is their life better lived because of their relationship with you.”

Here are the timestamps:

01:00 James background - from being fired from an RIA to running the fastest-growing RIA03:27 got fired in August 2017 - “what’s next, do I really love this job?”06:10 The why of Root:“have a sense of what I think would be a really cool company that I would want to work at and spend the rest of my life working at and what would make this a very attractive place for what in my mind are the absolute best other people in the industry would come work at and be part of the team creating what we’re creating...”9:09 Will AI replace humans at Root Financial?11:51 What is the ultimate piece of technology at Root? “Every bit of tech that we have exists to support what our advisors can do”12:34 “Our advisors do not rely on upon financial planning software to be the advisor”13:21 “the advice is what I as the human am delivering to the client”14:20 “this industry is obsessed with the technology” - how James thinks about the industry“I spend very, very little time thinking about our industry”

16:16 “There’s the Kitces tech map - I couldn’t tell you 90% of the companies on that and at the same time I don’t care... it becomes a form of procrastination... it feels like I’m productive, it feels like I’m busy because I’m researching all this stuff but no clients are coming in, no clients are getting served.”

16:50 “We’re not chasing new tech solutions, um, just because I don’t know what we’re going to get out of that.”

17:32 James notebook from a day he spent writing out the plan for the company at a park19:48 It was 3 years from Root’s start until Ari started as the first teammate21:08 “The growth rate really hasn’t changed, like yeah, we doubled it in 2025 ($1bil to $2bil), but same with every other year... it’s just those numbers get bigger as you grow.”22:02 How James thinks about organic growth“Inorganic growth is just not even something that crosses my mind, I don’t think of organic vs. inorganic, I just think of growth”23:08 The marketing methods James tried early on: blogging, podcasting, starting recording video of himself doing the podcast24:27 Try many different marketing methods, do what works for you: “It was just trying different things... there’s a lot of people doing Youtube too, a lot of really great... some should not be doing Youtube, there’s nothing interesting about it, it’s not getting traction”

25:04 Based on advisors skills, how does he recommend the best marketing method for them - “Try everything and see what works” He started with the Dave Ramsey SmartVestor Pro leads

“Maybe marketing is not your thing... go join a firm like Root. Don’t force something that’s not your natural skill set.”

26:02 “The most important skill set in this industry is not marketing, it’s your ability to deliver that advice.”

26:23 “A lot of things work... I think people get this sense of FOMO...”

26:30 Joe trolling Root on other advisor’s posts

26:58 Does James care about AUM growth is compared to other firms? “I don’t really care... for the first several years of Root, I kind of liked not being in the industry circles”

“Too much of the industry feels like they’re being productive when they’re networking with other advisors, and talking with other advisors... stop doing that... stop joining study groups... stop joining masterminds... just sit down and think like what’s the problem in front of me and how can I create a solution to this.”

28:05 “Nothing’s going to replace just sitting down... a good mix of thinking and doing.” what’s the one thing such that by doing it everything else becomes easier or irrelevant” ~The One Thing book

29:45 “Don’t go listen to 25 Michael Kitces podcasts hoping that the answer is there... sit down and think about how to solve it.”

30:11 “outsource less of the critical thinking onto what are others doing... and just think through... there’s nothing super unique about this industry... think about the logical next step.”

30:40 How James creates the space to think about the issues facing Root.

31:44 Root rolled out the OKR framework - Objective and Key Results

33:56 coming up for a click-baity title for this video :)

35:10 Increasing AUM by diminishing the client experience and the hiring process... efficiency over quality

Quality > Efficiency

37:30 What is a life well lived?

“The sign of a good financial plan is a life well-lived. Who cares if you’ve executed the perfect Roth conversion strategy. Who cares if you’re small-cap value tilt delivered an extra 1% return over 30 years. Who cares if your client collected social security at the perfectly right time if they never actually enjoyed the fruits of their labor...”

38:15 “The problem with retirement planning is it kind of distills life down into pre-retirement and post-retirement... and pre-retirement is sacrifice everything and defer everything so that you can start enjoying it post-retirement...”

39:28 James definition of success: “Do I love going to work and do I love going home every day?”

40:01 Living Forward by Michael Hyatt... imagine you’re dead, what’s everyone saying about you?

41:06 Do you use a specific technology for “life planning”?

Carl Richards at the Root retreat: “There’s no framework for this, there’s no technology for this, there’s no equivalent to a RTQ that you can do for ‘What do people actually care about’ it comes from learning how to be very present...”

45:27 “Your ability to be present, your ability to be curious, your ability to dig deeper... matters. Well then view every single thing that you do in life as training. How can I practice that in my conversation with Joe, with my 4-yr old daughter, with my executive team...”

46:20 How Root finds its advisors... it attracts them.

“The right people are already interested in joining Root”

47:43 “There’s a lot of talk about a talent shortage. There is zero talent shortage. The shortage is a shortage of quality firms that exist where young, talented people are wanting to work... There’s a huge amount of very talented people that are not able to realize their full potential.”

There’s a massive talent transfer coming...

50:05 will good overcome mediocrity in the long term?

51:40 “You now have your clients turned into a book of business trying to be optimized by some private equity-backed firm that’s trying to flip this. That’s not going to be the best experience for them.”

What is “advice”?

53:32 Advice is “Transformation. If there’s not something transformative happening in your client’s life... and the transformation doesn’t happen because of a Roth conversion, doesn’t happen because you told them exactly how much they could spend. That transformation is something emotional or relational. Is their life better lived because of their relationship with you.”

It’s life-changing counsel.

55:00 Wisdom isn’t directly correlated with age... where does wisdom come from?

“A lot of it just comes with life experience. So you might be 80 years old, but you’ve lived the same year over and over and over for the last 60 of them...”

Do scary things. The ability to give life-changing counsel comes from having a lot of life experiences. The more awesome the life you strive to live, the more awesome the experience you can share with others.

If you want to add $1bil AUM in a year, do more scary things... or get fired.

To Epic Human Stories,

Joe

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