Listen to the full interview:
1. Please tell the audience about your work and business, and what you’re up to today.
“Advocate IQ is my consulting firm that I started in 2023. My experience in this industry is about helping firms understand the future, what generational differences mean, and what the demographic changes mean to them from a client acquisition perspective primarily, but also what it means for the workforce. I’m also starting to help firms with some of their transition and succession planning—what happens when they are wanting to take a step back and need the right next generation talent? And if they already have it, that’s great—how can they continue to develop? And if they don’t, what should their next steps be? I also do a lot of speaking and talking about next generation talent and really try to help firms, especially independent firms, make a conscious effort to develop that culture that is going to make a firm grow and thrive.”
2. What made you want to focus on this area for your clients?
“I think some of it was people saying to me for years, ‘You should do this.’
And with all the changes that we’ve seen in the industry, it felt like the right time in my career to own it and take more control. Right now, not every firm cares about this. But firms that do—educating them on why it’s important to get them to care and then taking them through that journey—it’s fulfilling.
If you talk to me at all, you know I’m passionate about the financial planning industry and I’m trying to see it grow because the more it grows, the more we can get financial planning help to more Americans who need it. Really, this is for the public. How do we get better at creating firms that can serve the public better? So, that’s where the generational and the demographic part comes in, understanding what the future generation will look like. What do they care about? What does that mean from a financial planning perspective? Where do we have to pivot and shift? And then how do we attract people like them who are going to then work in our firms and take our firms to that next level?”
3. You said there are organizations that are interested in understanding generational differences and how to leverage them. What's in it for them that they get to capitalize on today because they're focusing on generational differences?
“At its simplest form, it’s growth. It’s organic growth. It’s allowing firms to be able to acquire new clients, understand them, and shift their service offering to match what these folks need. If you are not building up the pipeline of talent and building up the pipeline of client acquisition, your firm is going to shrink. For some folks, that’s fine. It’s okay.
‘This is my business. And when it goes, I go, or when I retire, it goes.’
But for many advisors, their business is their economic safety net, so they want to pass that business on, whether it’s to the next generation or to sell it. And you cannot sell a declining asset. So, when you’re looking at succession planning, anyone who is looking to acquire your firm, one of the first things they’re looking at is what is your pipeline? What does that look like? Where are the clients coming from? And if you haven’t built out that model, you can’t just keep getting bigger by buying other firms. At some point, you actually have to serve clients. And so that understanding is important to identify what those clients want and what that means for your business and what that means from your hiring. What is that growth model that’s going to make your business multi-generational, not just from who works there and who you serve, but the fact that your business can be a hundred-year business now?”
4. What are you noticing right now? What’s the lay of the land of what organizations are focusing on, or even individuals? What should people be investing in to have the skill set of what we need today for tomorrow?
“Development is so important. The firms that are growing and are coming together are getting it right. They’re larger, they have the ability to have an HR department, maybe a training department. They get the importance of it.
It’s a little bit harder for some smaller firms, but I always tell them, ‘You don’t have to be the one that provides all of it. What you should be providing is a budget so that every person in your organization has development opportunities every year.’
And those opportunities can be classes, they can be conferences, they can be memberships and organizations. Every year someone’s not going to go back to school, but it’s important that there is a budget for each person on the team. Everyone wants to know where they can get somewhere in a company because your career is yours. You own it. So as an individual, you should also be thinking about how you can develop yourself. To do that, you sometimes need the help of your boss, or a coach. It’s important to have that mindset that when you graduate college or whatever education you had to get into your role, you’re not done. This world changes. I look back on when I went to college, and the jobs I’ve had for the past 20 years didn’t exist. I would have just been sitting on the sidelines. Instead, I’m having a blast learning new things. So, you always have to continually develop and look for those opportunities.”
5. What has your Brilliant Difference™ journey been like?
“There were no straight lines. I would say the word that describes me is curiosity. What’s cool, what’s different, where am I learning? My degree is finance, economics, and accounting. You didn’t hear me say marketing. I took one marketing class in college. Yet 20 years later, I ended up running marketing. So that’s a whole different thing, but my career zigzagged. My dream job was to become a financial analyst. I started out as a fund accountant and moved into some different roles. I became a financial analyst. I got into marketing 100% accidentally. I was doing sales reporting and one day my boss said they moved sales reporting to communications because they think it’s a communications function.
So, I went over there and a couple months later she came back and said, ‘I figured out a way to bring you back to finance. I’m going to create a new role.’
I was like, ‘You know, I’m kind of having fun over here in marketing.’
At that point, it was the first exposure I really had to financial advisors on a more constant basis. And that’s what got me down the path of really supporting financial advisors. That company got bought.
I remember interviewing for a job once and telling the boss’ boss’ boss, who was interviewing me: ‘I’ve never done this job before.’
She just looked at me and said, ‘You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think that you could do it. But looking at all of the roles that you’ve had, there’s a knowledge gap. You’ll figure that out. But the skill set, project management, relationship management, all of that, that’s the same.’
And I love that because it’s so valuable. And that’s what I try to tell career changers and companies who are hiring career changers when they come into this business—that there’s a knowledge gap. You can learn finance, you can learn the technology that we’re using, but nobody’s brain is going away because they changed a career or they stayed at home to help with their family.
But it was important to me to realize this from a confidence-building perspective.
Here I am telling her, “I don’t know if you want to hire me because I’ve never done this before,” and her telling me, “I’m looking at your potential, I’m not looking at your experience.”
And that’s so important for all of us to look at because the experience that I had 20 years ago is irrelevant in this world. I read a quote last week: your skill set from five years ago isn’t going to cut it now.
We need to reinvent ourselves all the time, and you’ve got to have curiosity or you’re just going to be left by the wayside.”
6. How have you learned to find the confidence to lean on your strengths?
“One is your tribe. So, I’ve got a group of strong women that I am in constant contact with. I can call them up if I have any kind of doubt or question or whatever, and they’re either going to beat me up, or pump me up. Whatever I need at that time.
And that’s so important because we all get that like, ‘I don’t have the, I can’t do this, or someone else is better.’
Well, maybe they are, but they’re not in the room right now, so it’s up to you. Having that group of people who are going to be supportive of you is so important to me.”
Interviewer
Finka Jerkovic
Leadership Coach and Founder of Finka Inc.
With 25+ years in leadership and sales and the financial services industry, she has witnessed the power of recognizing and celebrating people’s unique strengths and differences (a.k.a Brilliant Differences™) within a workplace. When everyone’s unique talents are appreciated and people work together using them, that’s when the real magic of business growth happens. Fast forward 10 years. Finka has established programs that help corporate companies grow their businesses by tapping into the full potential of their teams, so they can clearly define their strengths, value their differences, and perform at their best.
Interviewee
Kate Healy
Founder, AdvoKate IQ, LLC
Through her consultancy firm, Kate works with companies to create wealth management growth strategies, so they can take advantage of demographic changes affecting workforce and client acquisition. With over three decades of guiding financial services leaders, she’s become widely recognized for her expertise in marketing, leadership, and talent development. In 2018, Wealthmanagement.com named her on the “Ten to Watch” list, and in 2016, Investment Advisor Magazine named her as one of the industry’s 25 most influential people.
