Today on the Becoming Referable podcast we discuss how one advisor completely changed her business model to align with her vision for delivering financial advice. Our guest is Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network. Sheryl shifted her business to an hourly fee model and she describes that making that fundamental change led to a fulfilling and successful practice, an extensive network of like-minded advisors, and a long list of awards including six appearances on Investment Advisor’s Most Influential People in Financial Planning list, Investment News’ 2016 Innovator Award and 2019 Icon Award. She even received a shout-out from President Barack Obama.
You may or may not share the same vision, but this conversation will help you see that it’s possible to make big changes to align a bigger vision with the business you have today.
We were keen to find out from Sheryl why and how she arrived at the hourly fee approach, and learned about the series of events that led to that memorable day in Washington. She called on her personal and professional history and the ‘a-ha’ moments along the way, and how she realized she could offer advice to middle-income families while remaining profitable. Unexpectedly, this method made her newsworthy in her community, and also made her referable in a way she wasn’t before. Eventually, Sheryl built a network of advisors delivering service in this way, and they are now crafting their own stories which clients are repeating with people in their lives.
Whether you’re considering a shift such as this or not, there are valuable lessons in this conversation about the fundamentals of running a purposeful business and making a real impact in your clients’ lives.
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