Guest: Matt Reiner, a CFA® Charterholder, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ , and partner at Capital Investment Advisors, a $4.3B RIA in Atlanta, Georgia. Additionally, Matt is the managing partner of Wela Strategies, an RIA that deals with the investment needs of the mass affluent. In a Nutshell: Nobody likes to fail, nobody likes to admit they failed, and nobody likes to publicly discuss their failure. That’s why I have huge respect for Matt Reiner. In early 2020, Matt made his first appearance on Between Now and Success to talk about Benjamin, his AI startup. Benjamin supplemented a traditional tech stack with workflow automation that took care of menial tasks so that advisors and support staff would have more time to work directly with clients. Today, that company is dead. And, on today's show, Matt is back to talk about what happened. Matt is candid and real in this conversation, and his perspective on his entrepreneurial journey is something that I think you’ll relate to. We also discuss the broader implications of technology and AI in financial advising and a question I've been asking for a couple years now: Is technology actually increasing advisor productivity by a significant amount?

Matt Reiner Opens Up About Failing as an AI Entrepreneur and Innovating From Within His Multibillion-Dollar Firm

Guest: Benjamin Brandt, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and Founder/President of Capital City Wealth Management, a Bismarck, ND fee-only financial planning company. Benjamin is also the host of the Retirement Starts Today Radio podcast and co-host of The Least Boring Tax Podcast. In a Nutshell: Many advisors think about tech and marketing in terms of "more": more reach, more productivity, more clients, more AUM. But lately I've been asking myself and my coaching clients: Isn't part of the promise of our all-digital, AI-driven future supposed to be "less" time grinding away at the office and "more" time living your life? That depends on what kind of service you want to deliver, what size firm you want, and how you want to spend your time. Some RIA CEOs are going to pump productivity gains right back into the business and keep trying to "add a zero." Others, like my guest today, are going to be very intentional about maintaining both high-touch service for a specific niche of clients and healthy work-life balance for themselves and their team members. On today's show, Benjamin Brandt and I discuss his podcast marketing funnel, his unique approach to accepting and onboarding new clients, and how he's leveraging technology to optimize the efficiency of his firm.

Benjamin Brandt on Using His Podcast to Grow His Business, Implementing Surge Meetings, Avoiding Burnout, and Using AI to Increase Productivity

Strategies, Tips, and Tools for financial professionals.