The Influential Advisor Podcast

What should a successful financial advisor look for when deciding whether their current firm can support the next stage of growth?

In this episode of Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth, Paul G. McManus sits down with Brian Mora, Senior Vice President and Head of Experienced Advisor Recruiting at Ameriprise Financial.

Brian began his career as a financial advisor at Ameriprise before moving into coaching, field leadership, advisor development, and national recruiting. That experience gives him a broad perspective on what successful advisors need as their businesses evolve.<...

What happens to the role of the financial advisor when AI can handle more and more of the work happening behind the scenes?

In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Paul G. McManus sits down with Matt Halloran, Chief Evangelist at Zocks and the self-described human voice of AI in the advisory industry. Matt has spent more than two decades coaching financial advisors. He argues the industry is asking the wrong question. The issue is not whether AI will replace advisors, but what they will do with their time once technology...

Why do clients refer one financial advisor over another when the investment performance looks the same?

In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Michelle Lynch joins Paul G. McManus for a conversation about practice design, referrals, and what changes when an advisor has to grow a firm, not just a book. Michelle is Senior Vice President of Practice Management and Growth Consulting at Raymond James. She has spent 22 years at the firm, and she leads the team focused on advisor growth across every stage of the business, supporting roughly 9,000 advisors. You’ll...

Why do highly qualified financial advisors still get overlooked by the clients they most want to attract?

In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Derrick Kinney joins Paul G. McManus for a candid conversation about communication, specialization, and why expertise alone does not win the right clients. Derrick built and sold a top advisory practice, including to Jon Kuttin’s firm, and now teaches advisors how to explain their value so ideal clients lean in. You’ll learn how financial advisors can:

What does it take to build a financial advisory firm that can grow without depending on its founder?

In this episode of Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth, Paul G. McManus sits down with David Grau Jr., MBA, founder of Succession Resource Group and one of the financial advice industry’s leading experts on advisory firm valuation, succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, and advisor exits.

David has spent more than two decades helping independent financial advisors build, value, buy, sell, and transition their businesses.

Th...

Eric Maldonado, founder of Aquila Wealth Advisors, joins the show to talk about the real force behind most bad financial outcomes: not market crashes, but fear. He walks through why simple, understandable investing strategies consistently outperform complicated ones, why he starts every client relationship with values instead of numbers, and how his own experience with panic attacks changed the way he counsels anxious clients. He also shares how he helps people navigate sudden windfalls, why he encourages clients to spend and give while they're alive to see it, and what a seven-year family sabbatical taught him about practicing what...

Edward Gaskey has spent almost 30 years helping people move from financial uncertainty to financial clarity, and in this episode he explains why that shift matters more than any single investment decision. He walks through the "million-dollar question" retirees rarely ask correctly, why most people plan for a worst case that almost never happens, and how a Social Security mistake nearly cost one client thousands. Ed also talks about his office's "dream boards," the surprising reason clients struggle to spend the money they worked so hard to save, and what he calls giving a client a "verbal hug." Listeners will...

What role can a book play in helping a financial advisory firm build credibility, strengthen trust, and convert more prospects into clients?

In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Jon Kuttin joins Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus for a candid conversation about authority, organic growth, client acquisition, and how financial advisors can use books and media to become more influential in their markets.

You’ll learn how financial advisors can:

• Use a book to build credibility before the first meeting
• Stop relying exclusively on cold leads...

You do not need another marketing tactic. You need a system.

If you are an accomplished financial advisor, consultant, attorney, tax strategist, or other expert professional, chances are your biggest growth problem is not a lack of expertise.

It is that too much of your expertise is invisible.

It lives inside client meetings, private conversations, and your own head—where prospects, referral partners, search engines, and AI tools cannot fully experience it.

The Authority Operating System shows you how to change that.

At the center of...

What keeps successful financial advisors from scaling beyond a founder-dependent practice? Dr. Jon Randall, founder of XFA, shares the psychology, systems, and strategic shifts that help advisory firms overcome growth constraints.

In this episode of The Influential Advisor Podcast and our Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Dr. Jon Randall joins Paul G. McManus to discuss why many financial advisors become stuck around $1 million to $1.5 million in revenue and what it takes to move from advisor to entrepreneur and CEO.

You’ll learn why the founder’s capacity often becomes the biggest constraint insi...

This interview featuring James Pollard is part of Influential Advisor Media’s Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, hosted by Paul G. McManus. The series recognizes leaders whose ideas, platforms, and work are shaping how financial advisors build trust, attract clients, and grow their firms.

James Pollard is the founder of The Advisor Coach and host of the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast, where he has created more than 370 episodes focused specifically on helping financial advisors build steadier, more predictable growth. Since 2015, his podcasts, newsletters, articles, training programs, and marketing resources have helped more than 50,000 financial ad...

What separates financial advisors who consistently grow from those who stay stuck? Marcus Ranger, who leads a business unit of more than 1,200 independent financial advisors, shares the marketing strategies, systems, and mindset shifts he sees driving advisor growth.

In this episode of The Influential Advisor Podcast and our Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Marcus joins Paul G. McManus to discuss why financial advisors are in the marketing business first—and how the best advisors build intentional systems for attracting ideal-fit clients, generating referrals, creating authority, and growing their practices.

You’ll learn why...

A client came in with statements from more than ten different financial institutions. Her parents had passed away within six months of each other. The paperwork took nearly a year to sort through — and she later told John she never had the proper time to grieve because she was so buried in the chaos they left behind.

That story drives everything about how John Pavelka runs his practice. After nearly 30 years in financial services, John has built a model around one question most advisors never ask deeply enough: What's important to you — and why? In this...

Matt Knoll walked into Baylor in 1997 and told the local paper his goal was to win a national championship. The reporter laughed out loud.

At the time, that reaction was fair. The program hadn't won a conference match in eight years. The courts were slanted. There was no bathroom, no equipment room, no stands. Twenty-two seasons later, Knoll left with a 510-150 record, 13 Big 12 titles, and Baylor's first team national championship. The hard part wasn't getting there. It was learning that the way he led to get there would stop working once they arrived.

In...

She had a million dollars in her account and she was convinced she'd lose her house by the end of the month. That's not a financial problem. That's grief lying. And if you don't know how to recognize it, you'll either rush your client into decisions she'll regret, or lose her trust entirely.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Brandon L. Hayes, CFP, founder of Compass Financial Group and author of You're Not Alone, shares what 26 years of working almost exclusively with widows has taught him about grief and financial decision-making. Brandon's perspective is...

How can financial advisors get found in AI search, build trust faster, and use online reviews in a compliant way?

In Episode 111 of The Influential Advisor Podcast, Paul G. McManus interviews Brian Thorp, Founder and CEO of Wealthtender, about one of the biggest opportunities in advisor marketing today: compliant online reviews as a trust signal for Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI-powered search tools.

Financial advisors have always relied on referrals, reputation, and trust. But today, before a prospect reaches out, they are often searching online, reading reviews, asking AI tools who to...

How can financial advisors use podcast guesting to build trust, attract ideal clients, and turn their expertise into new business opportunities?

In this episode of The Influential Advisor Podcast, Paul G. McManus interviews Gabe McManus about his book, Sharpen Your Message: Guest Podcast Preparation for Financial Professionals.

Gabe shares how financial advisors and financial professionals can prepare for podcast interviews, clarify their best stories, and communicate their expertise in a way that builds trust with prospects. Drawing from his background in theater, storytelling, book coaching, and podcast preparation, Gabe explains why the right message can...

In this episode, Gabe McManus sits down with Jeremy Lederer, CPA and founder of XIT CPA, to explore what separates a tax preparer from a true tax strategist. Jeremy brings more than 16 years of experience working with entrepreneurs, business owners, and high-income professionals to zero (yes, zero) out their federal tax liability using legal, government-backed strategies. From film financing deductions to healthcare software investments, Jeremy breaks down the frameworks he writes about in his book The Zero Tax Strategy. He makes the case that implementation, not information, is the missing ingredient for most people. This is one for any...

A couple had done everything right — dual income, debt-free, millions saved in tax-deferred accounts — and they were on track to hand $10 million to the IRS. Not because they made bad decisions, but because nobody had ever shown them what "doing everything right" actually costs without proactive planning.

In this episode, Gabe sits down with Rob Bedinghaus, Ph.D., CFP® — founder of Bedinghaus Wealth Planning and author of Beyond the Numbers — to dig into the retirement planning conversations most advisors never have. Rob brings a teacher's instinct to every client meeting, and this episode reflects that: clear frameworks, real scen...

Imagine going into business with a partner who tells you upfront: at the end of every year, I'll decide how much of the profits I keep. You'd never agree to that. But Ira Work says millions of Americans already did the day they opened a traditional IRA.

That's one of several hard truths Ira Work, a 42-year financial industry veteran, addresses head-on in his new book and in this conversation. After 17 years working for firms like Smith Barney and Shearson Lehman Brothers, Ira walked away from the traditional brokerage model — not because he failed, but because he sa...

Scott Leibfried's grandfather sold the family business at 60 with more money than he'd ever seen. He was generous, he lived long, and he ran out. That story is why Scott has spent 28 years in wealth management — and it's why he wrote Climbing Wealth.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Gabe sits down with Scott Leibfried, a Midwest-based financial advisor with 28 years of experience, to explore the parallels between mountain climbing and financial planning. From the moment Scott summited Long's Peak without a guide and couldn't wait to get back down, to guiding clients through th...

Most successful people have a retirement number. Very few have a retirement reason.

That's the gap Jason Wendt has spent 15 years closing. After watching client after client arrive with a solid portfolio and a hollow plan, he wrote a book about it. And now, fresh off an Amazon bestseller ranking and a feature segment on NBC Chicago, he's bringing that message to a wider audience.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Gabe McManus sits down with Jason Wendt, a Chicago-based financial advisor and author of Beyond the Numbers, to explore...

Most business owners assume their advisory team is working for them. A CPA here, a financial advisor there, an attorney on retainer. What they don't realize is that those advisors are working in parallel, not together. No one is seeing the full picture. No one is coordinating. And the business owner, without ever signing up for it, becomes the quarterback of their own financial life on top of running their company.

That's what the Virtual Family Office Advantage exists to solve. And according to Dale Montgomery, a Certified VFO Professional who has worked with business owners for...

She called her advisor on closing day. Boxes still everywhere, no movers available, hours until she had to be out. He showed up in his truck, spent four hours hauling boxes to a friend's garage, and wouldn't let her pay a dime. That's the kind of advisor Dan Carver is, and that story tells you more about his practice than any credential ever could.

Dan Carver is a St. Louis-based financial advisor with 26 years of experience helping ordinary people make smart decisions with their money. His book, Blue Jean Millionaire, takes its title from a formative observation...

Most retirees nail the math. Then they hit a wall.

Jim Charles retired in 2021 after more than three decades in financial services. He had the savings, the freedom, and a 90-year-old house full of doors that needed rehanging. Within 18 months, he decided to un-retire. Not because the money ran out, but because the meaning had. That experience became the foundation for Sanctuary Financial Planning, the flat-fee firm he co-founded with his wife Sarah, and for their new book, From Work to What's Next.

In this episode, Jim and Sarah Charles join Gabe McManus...

At the Exit Planning Institute CEPA Summit in Nashville, 1,200 credentialed advisors gathered in one room. The first night, they held an awards ceremony. Every single person who walked on stage had one thing in common. It wasn't their credentials, their AUM, or their years in practice. It was a book.

Episode Summary

Paul and Gabe McManus just returned from four days in Nashville at the EPI CEPA Summit, where they presented the Authority Operating System to one of the most credentialed audiences in financial services. In this episode, they break down all five...

The Authority Operating System: Turn Your CEPA Credential Into Deal Flow

You earned your CEPA credential. You know how to help business owners navigate the biggest financial decision of their life.

But the business owners who need you most don't know you exist.

Right now, someone in your market is asking ChatGPT who they should trust with the sale of their company. They're searching Google. They're listening to podcasts. They're forming opinions about who the expert is long before they ever pick up the phone. By the time they're ready to...

A $200 million exit — and the client who should have been celebrating, but wasn't. That's what started the Exit Planning Institute. And it's the same story Scott Snider has lived himself: a successful business sale in his mid-20s followed by two years of feeling completely lost. Identity, purpose, what comes next — these are questions the transaction doesn't answer. Exit planning does.

Episode Summary

In this conversation, Paul sits down with Scott Snider, President of the Exit Planning Institute (EPI), ahead of the 2026 CEPA Summit in Nashville. Scott walks through the founding story of EPI...

Most business owners assume their CPA is doing everything possible on taxes. They aren't. And the reason isn't incompetence. It's access.

The strategies that allow 18% of Fortune 500 companies and America's wealthiest individuals to legally pay zero in federal taxes are real, documented in the tax code, and available. The problem is that most CPA firms, even highly successful ones, are stretched thin producing returns and financial statements. They don't have the time or infrastructure to find, vet, and gain confidence in the advanced strategies their highest-earning clients need most.

Alex Sonkin spent 20 years building the...

When you go independent, nobody tells you that you're just trading one set of constraints for another.

When Conor Delaney went independent in 2012, he started with $40 million in AUM and a blank whiteboard. What followed was a 14-year education in becoming a CEO, a shareholder, and a leader, all while still serving clients. Today, Good Life Companies supports more than 200 advisors across the country, and the firm's advisors grew at 34% annually over the last two years, compared to an industry organic growth average of just 3%.

In this episode, Conor joins Paul and Gabe McManus to...

Most financial advisors will tell you to save more and invest wisely. Mark Rasner will tell you that's not enough. After 32 years of watching people succeed and fail financially, he has the track record to back it up.

Mark grew up poor on a dairy farm in Upper Michigan, worked his way through college without taking a single student loan, and watched his father transform from a struggling farmer into a financial advisor who changed people's lives. That backstory didn't just shape who Mark is. It became the foundation for The Group A Mindset, a framework built...

Guest podcasting is the most underutilized authority-building strategy for financial advisors. And Paul G. McManus built a system to do it at scale.

Most financial advisors who guest podcast do it occasionally and without a plan. They say yes when invited, show up, and move on. The Virtual Speaking Tour is built on a different premise entirely. It is a systematic, deliberate campaign of appearances across the podcasts where your ideal clients, referral partners, and professional peers are already paying attention, designed to build cumulative authority that compounds over time.

In this episode, Paul G...

Most people doing the right things financially still have no idea if they're actually on track.

They're saving, investing, contributing to the 401k — and still lying awake wondering if retirement will actually work out. That gap between doing well and knowing you're okay is exactly what Bernd Steinebrunner has spent nearly two decades helping families close.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Gabe McManus sits down with Bernd Steinebrunner, CFP® and founding partner at Parliament Wealth Management in Costa Mesa, California. Bernd walks us through the core ideas behind his new...

He built a successful practice — and it was quietly destroying your life.

That's exactly where Stanley C. Leong found himself a decade ago. Making $600K in revenue, working nights and weekends, falling asleep on the floor while his daughters played around him. On paper, everything looked great. In reality, the business was running him.

Today, Stanley averages 34 hours a week, takes every Friday off, and hit $2 million in revenue last year — roughly triple what he was making when he was burning out. He's now channeling what he learned into 52 Fridays, a one-on-one coaching program he co-f...

Episode Summary

Ron Phelps, a wealth advisor with nearly 30 years of experience, joins the Influential Advisor Podcast to discuss his book Beyond the Sales Pitch: A Roadmap for Finding the Wealth Advisor You Deserve. Ron shares his journey from growing up in a tough Milwaukee neighborhood to military service to building a client-centered advisory practice. The conversation covers what separates a true trusted advisor from the rest of the industry, why jargon-free communication matters, and the questions every consumer should ask when evaluating a financial professional.

Key Topics Covered

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Joseph Falbo has spent 30 years helping people navigate retirement, from the 1999 tech boom through COVID and beyond. In this episode, we explore his concept of the "functional retirement advisor" and why modern retirement demands a completely different approach than what worked for previous generations.

About Joseph Falbo

Joseph is the founder of Falbo Wealth and Amazon #1 bestselling author of Retirement Success: Hiring Your Functional Retirement Advisor. After starting his career at a penny stock firm (think Wolf of Wall Street), he committed to doing things the right way, completing Merrill Lynch's two-year training...

In this transformative webinar, Paul and Gabe McManus reveal why your most powerful marketing assets—your client transformation stories—are trapped in your head, and exactly how to turn them into a book that builds your practice.

What You'll Discover:

Episode Summary: A tech professional in her 50s had everything planned—enough saved to retire at 55. Just one problem: 80% of her net worth was company stock. Stanley Leong warned her to diversify. She agreed but couldn't bring herself to sell, feeling it would betray the company that made her successful. Then 2008 hit. The stock crashed. Her retirement at 55 vanished—she worked another decade to rebuild.

Stanley, a former engineer who survived the 2002 tech crash, now helps tech professionals avoid this exact mistake. After 20 years managing tech wealth, he reveals why brilliant engineers fail at one crit...

Episode Summary:

Your best client just sold their business for $8 million and calls to say they're moving everything to Goldman Sachs. This devastating scenario happens to 70% of advisors, but Jeff Armstrong has the antidote. As a former business owner who ran a company for 23 years, Jeff reveals the blind spot costing advisors their most valuable relationships. While most advisors focus on managing wealth outside the business, Jeff shows how becoming the expert on your client's largest asset creates unbreakable loyalty. He shares why 97% of business exits disappoint owners and the actions that transform you from...

Episode Summary:

After 11 years scaling Elite Resource Team, Anton Anderson's revenue tripled when he released "The Art of Collaboration" in 2024. He shows how one book became a growth flywheel, why his event is now the "Virtual Family Office Collective," & how AI is speeding—not threatening—progress. Anton previews book #2, "The Art of Proactivity" (co-authored with Paul Latham, who sold his accounting firm for $45M) to help accountants become proactive VFO pros. These titles anchor a four-book series proving collaboration now outperforms competition.

About the Guest: