Intro

Unknown: Really, it was just me putting out fires. I was calling people back, and I could not call people back faster than they were calling me. I had I had one client show up on my doorstep. I was telling everyone the same thing. We we left for four reasons. Clients wanted to give me the ability to take discretion for them. Um, I was sick and tired of pck and choosing my favorite clients. AB Jones said I had to go down the line and call everybody to a place to trade. What might be all year before I get through that list, when trade should have been placed a long time ago, you know. So here I am having to pick and choose who I’m going to call first. Having discretion allows me to treat everyone fairly, and cl wanted to give me that.

Podcast Opening + Introductions

Unknown: Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today. Have an awesome podcast episode for you today. Uh, Clark Johnson was a really successful hardworking adviser that was heavily involved in Edward Jones leadership prior to transitioning to independence with LPL Financial. During our process, Clark was one of the most detail oriented and well thought out recruits I’ve ever worked with, wanted to make sure that he had all his eyes dotted and teas cross before he decided to make a transition to another firm.

Unknown: And what makes this story really unique is halfway through our exp exploration, things that happened made him have to move a little bit quicker than we thought, and it’s just a really unique story of leaving Edward Jones without all the pieces in place yet through, you know, hard work and just doing the right things for his clients. Uh, Clark landing on his feet with a really really successful practice. Clark, I I really appreciate you hopping on today.

Unknown: Hey, thanks for inviting me. I’m looking forward to it.

Unknown: Yeah, absolutely. Um, if you don’t mind, just tell the audience a little bit about yourself. I think it’d be really helpful.

Background

Unknown: Yeah, so I was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was—

How did you get started with Edward Jones

Unknown: With edbert Jones for 13 years. I was hired at age 22, just a year out of college. So all my friends were broke. I didn’t I didn’t have a contact list I could carry from a previous career. I don’t come from a wealthy family, uh, so there’s no Rich ants or uncles, um, that I could like use as a crutch to get started. I was given about three and a half million in good night assets, which at the time was technically considered a partner plan. Um, so it it wasn’t what you would consider quality accounts I’d say, but, um, so there’s no Revenue, but I was able to get a little experience from it.

Unknown: I I door kned every day for the first two years of my career. Um, door knocked every other day for the next two, and it wasn’t until about year five or six till I built up my own contact base from scratch. Um, I had no sales experience. I had never owned a 41k before. I had a backwards net worth. Um, couldn’t grow a beard. And, uh, and know by the way the market is down over 40% because we’re in the bottom of the financial crisis, um, so it was I had to learn very quickly how to do well at this job.

Unknown: Um, after 13 years of grinding it out, I ended up as a level n9ine Branch. Um, my assistant Alex and I, we had accomplished having a CI score in the top 10% of the firm. Our deeply served score was in the top 1% of the firm, um, and, uh, so, you know, as a result I was able to serve as a key leader. I was on leadership for most of the years that I was at Jones. I was, um, I was in every category. I mean, i’ served in performance recruiting training deeply served. I led several Regional calls, meetings, panels, um, up until about 2020 when, um, I can share with you here in a bit when things changed. But very grateful for the opportunity. I do want to say that first and foremost I would not be here if it wasn’t for Edward Jones, and I do want to give them credit for having given me an opportunity when no one else had.

What happened from you being really involved in leadership to exploring options

Unknown: What happened from you being really, you know, heavily involved in in in leadership to, you know, start considering some options outside of Edward Jones?

Unknown: Yeah, uh, there there are a lot of things that kind of came about over the last I would say five six years, but but really in my last two years there, uh, there were two things that really bothered me. Uh, one was the unequal compensation amongst advisors. U, you’re you’re not compensated the same, um, and then secondly the the more time that went on and and the the the bigger the firm got, the less control I had on running my Branch. I was losing the ability to run my office, um.

Unequal compensation

Unknown: Um, what what I mean by unequal will pay is, you know, that started to become a light to me whenever I was a key leader. I could see how the home office worked behind the scenes. Um, as a recruiting leader I was told that if I was to continue holding that position I would need to ask advisers to promise good night assets up front before we set a goal for how many candidates we were going to hire, um, which goes completely against what Ted Jones and his most famous quote is known for, which is, hey, were hiring people to share in the work, not share in the profits. So the idea of giving people, um, you know, a silver spoon I call it, uh, before we bring them on board really bothered me because, as I just shared with you earlier, I had grinded it out for years, uh, going door too to build up that myself, uh, and then we were going to pay them the same 40% payout that I had, you know, sacrificed so many years, uh, you know, to get to the same place for us. So that that’s what I mean by unfair un unequal compensation. It just just didn’t set well with me, um.

Unknown: And then as far as, um, my wife is concerned, she didn’t like it either because she remembers all the nights that I was not at home, you know. She had dinner by herself. She helped me write thank you cards. She helped me plan events. Um, she listened to me come home and just, you know, complain about the day. It was just very tough. And so she shared my same concern about that.

Losing control of the office + HR experience

Unknown: As far as me losing the ability to run my office, um, that really began to hit me when covid was here. I had a second boa, um, who was against the vaccination, uh, thing, um, and company policy of the time was, hey, you can you don’t have to be vaccinated but you do need to wear a mask when clients are in the office. Um, we had clients dying from the virus, so I was taking that very personally. She, um, did not want to obey and wear the mask when clients came in, um. So, you know, I had no other choice but to bring in HR, um.

Unknown: They gave me the authority to hire her, but they would not give me the authority to reprimand or fire her, um. That stayed with them. So there’s, um, there could be a longer story told on that, but in the end, um, we were both written up. She was written up for not wearing the mask as the company policy dictated. I was also written up, um, for basically dictating her working conditions as HR put it. Um, they said I was not I was out of line for telling her that, you know, she did not wear the mask that we would have to either have her work remotely, um, or take a look at her employment.

Unknown: I was reiterating what company policy was already saying, but apparently that’s out of line for HR because when I speak on their behalf even though I’m regurgitating what’s in writing they look at that as a liability. Um, that was really when it hit me, and I started realizing, um, I’m a liability to the firm more than I am an asset and seems like they’re scared of me. And so as a result they’re taking more control away from me. So those are the two big things right there: the compensation and just the freedom and control.

Unknown: Yeah, I mean, and this just isn’t just an Edward Jones thing. I think many employee firms position to their advisers that, you know, they’re running their own business, that they own their own business, and then, you know, a couple things like this happen where they really realize that, you know, they don’t have as much control as as as they think they do. So kind of sense, um.

Why did you return to HR

Unknown: So we had a pretty unique experience together. Um, you know, we started we started exploring a couple different firms together, just kind of talking about some of the benefits of Independence, some of the downsides, and, um, while we were exploring you were already planning on leaving, um, but something pretty unexpected happened that I’ve never had happen before. Um, do you want to share that experience?

Unknown: Yeah, uh, absolutely. In fact, this is probably the most common question I get from my, um, all my erra Jones counterparts, um, because it it really happened abruptly. You know, I was just a key leader two years prior, uh, singing the Praises of Ember Jones, and now here we are, I’m leaving. So, um, I was about halfway through my plans of leaving, like you said. I, um, signed a lease to this new office down the road, um. I had, uh, worked out the with an architect the blueprint for what the office layout would look like. I had not yet arrived on where I was going to land, but I was about halfway through the process of my exit strategy if you will, um.

Unknown: So this is a different second assistant, um, that comes up because, um, the previous one had left and because it just didn’t work out. But this this new second assistant, uh, she did very well at first. However she did have a medical condition for which she took a highly addictive medication for, um. The medical condition wasn’t an issue, but the medicine that she took it was because its side effect was short-term memory loss. So this is a this turns into a pretty hairy situation because, um, you know she she is forgetting to follow my instructions on very important tasks such as, um, depositing people’s checks correctly in the correct account, um. She’s forgetting to put callbacks on the calendar, so you know that sometimes means I have to backd trades. Um, she was forgetting to, uh, send stuff out in the mail. She was was forgetting to send people their money, um.

Unknown: When the client complaints had started rolling in, I had no other choice but to go back to HR, um, reluctantly because of my last issue with them. Um, surprisingly I they they agreed that we made a hiring mistake, uh. They were involved in getting her hired in the first place, um. But of course on that non-recorded line after saying that they would say, hey but we don’t want to fire her. In fact we want you to do the opposite, clerk. We want you to assign her more work on client’s accounts so that we can build a higher documentation Trail, uh. We need to make sure that we can protect ourselves in case, uh, there’s legal recourse. And I’m thinking, well we’ve already had it for 90 days and I’ve had issues come up every day. How how does this documentation Trail need to be, yeah.

Unknown: Um, well they were getting advice from there attorneys, uh, is what I was finding out, and people who are not here in the field in my office seeing what’s going on. And so they’re trusting those attorneys more than they’re trusting me to run my office, um. I obliged and and and did it another 90 days of just giving her work, uh, that Alex and I would have to turn around and just fix. The client complaints still went up. I had people say, please don’t have her have anything to do with my count again. Um, Alex was getting upset with me because she had to go back and fix those mistakes, but it was the game that ever Jones ass that I play, you know.

Unknown: After about five months I called HR and I said, look I I really feel like this is not the right thing. I mean I have a moral conflict with this because essentially we’re tampering with cl’s accounts to cover our rear in court on something that may not even happen, uh, because of this hairy medical condition that gets you so spooked. And I just said, you know, I I just believe that at some point ethics transcend, uh, the legal risk and things, and I I just can’t do this anymore. They they wanted I asked again to walk her out, um. They declined. They wanted me to continue, um.

Unknown: So I told them that I was just going to have her come to the office but not assign her any work. Um, I’ll have her wipe down the marker boards. I have her restock the printer with paper, but that’s about it. I can’t. She just very sweet, but she just can’t remember do the things that we ask, um.

Unknown: Well they did not like that either, and so, uh, basically they gave me an ultimatum. They said if I don’t assign her work still, uh, that they would in turn terminate me in in so many words, um. So for the first time in my career here I am being told I can take sides with my clients or I can take sides with the firm, and and that just blew my mind. I I I’d always thought that if I did what was right for the client it was always what was right for the firm, um, but it was just a very surreal moment for me.

Unknown: And so, um, I I basically just had a come to Jesus moment with Alex and her husband and my wife, and we just decided that we didn’t want to look back or I didn’t want to look back on this moment having regretted not stood up for what I believed in, um, even if that meant losing my job my job. I mean thankfully I was already halfway through the plans. No, I can imagine the stress that would be on me if I didn’t already have a plan, um. So that’s the way it unfolded. They flew me in the home office, terminated me. Uh, when I got back the locks had already been changed, and, uh, we we started on our backup plan for what to do. So yeah, it it was a it was a very, um, stressful, hurtful time.

Transition timeline pressure

Unknown: Yeah, I remember I remember getting the phone call and like literally my my heart dropping because I knew that we had to do in in in 30 days, which most financial advisers have four months to do. So that must.

How many assets did you bring to HR

Unknown: So 14 months in, I mean are you willing to share h h h how successful was was was your transition, you know what what did you bring with you?

Unknown: Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, of course I think there How many assets did you bring to HR would have been more had I been able to go out on my own terms, and I always wonder that, but, um, best I can tell with the market going up and down I think Alex and I both think we got about 70 to 75% of the assets, um. Our our goal was to get 80. Um, as far as households that you know that probably translates to about 60% of the households. You always want as many of the assets as you can but as few of the households as possible, sure.

Unknown: Um, I I don’t want to make it sound like, you know, if I brought over 75% of the assets that means I failed to get the other 25%. I do want to make it clear that when any advisor transitions I you just don’t want all the assets to go with you. There are some clients that you see as an opportunity to just part ways with. I think that was about 10% of that, um.

Unknown: So if that breaks it down to 15% that’s left, I think about 5% of that would just be weird situations where we had like three clients die. Yeah. Uh, we had clients get sick. We had clients that lost their jobs. Just life events took place to where they’re not going to make any decision on anything else, uh, during that time. The other 10%, yeah, they just told us no, um. The reasons are not all the same, and we had some people say no because, um, we had just I mean there’s one one big household we had just brought on like two months prior, and so we had not had the opportunity to build a deep relationship with them like we had our other clients. So it is what it is. We had a couple of clients that already had existing relationships with other Eder Jones advisors, um, and and that was attractive to them, um. But, you know, there are those that hurt your feelings because sure, and just it’s hard not to take personal.

Unknown: But they’re just those clients that they just hate change. It’s not that you’re saying anything or doing anything wrong. They’re listening to you. They’re like, hey that makes sense, but I just hate change in general, and I want to make the IR rational decision to just stay where I am. And you just have to learn—it’s very hard—but you just have to learn to respect that and move on.

Unknown: I think for the success that we have, I consider it successful to get three quarters of the business. I’m I’m tickled. I I I was very worry that we wouldn’t even get close to our goal of 80%, um, when all that went down. But I think some of the biggest things that helped me that other advisors should consider would be, you know, my boa went over with me, uh, that was a huge role, um. Also staying in town helped. I think I think ultimately though we can attribute our success to like what I mentioned earlier. Like we had one of the highest CI scores in the region if not the country, and if not the highest score and deeply served.

Unknown: So, you know, the fact that we were taking care of these people they remembered that whenever we needed them the most, um. We had so many people say that they were coming over because they remember how well we had taken care of them at ever Jones. So that that meant a lot to me. It was awesome.

Impact of client loyalty

Unknown: Yeah, it could be one of the most rewarding experiences in your life for sure to have those clients come with you. I mean the ones that it it hurts your feelings, but, you know, it can be an extremely rewarding experience at at the same time. And there’s no doubt if you had more time to plan out that I think you would have brought more of those assets over. And I think there’s a lot of Edward Jones advisers that I speak to that would be thrilled even with a completely planned out transition to bring 75% of their business. I think there’s a lot of misconceptions out there that by the time that you know that you need the brand, you know you’re not going to have enough time to run a business and and bring over clients and you’re going to bring over less than 50% of your practice. And with a tene adviser 10 years plus that runs their business like you do, Clark, that that’s just not what I’m seeing on this side.

What does your income look like now

Unknown: But I’m I’m just curious, you know, bringing over the 75% of, uh, of assets, what does your income look like now versus when you were at Edward Jones? Is it the same? Is it more? What does it look like?

Unknown: It’s it’s really hard to say because I only have this first year to evaluate where I didn’t have, you know, we brought over 75% of the assets but it didn’t all come over on day one. It it came over over the course of a year, so I can’t just look back over my first 12 months and say, oh, so now this is this is what my income is. No, I have to still project that out, um.

Unknown: And we still are figuring out our expenses too. Like you go into this with a plan and then you realize, oh no, I I really should have done it this way, and that’s just going to happen, uh. Like, for example, we’re we’re switching from AT&T to ring syndal for our phones, um. And I just switched to crms for the second time because I I it it took me that many times to figure out where we needed to to be, um. So I think after my second second year I think I’ll be able to confidently answer that.

Unknown: I do have enough information to tell you that I am profitable, and it appears as though I’m making the same income as I was when I was at ever Jones, um. There’s just some difficulty in that. Like, for example, uh, your clients our client’s fees are not charged at the same, um, frequency as what they once were at ever Jones. Um, there’s other ways that I can generate Revenue that ever Jones didn’t allow me to do when I was with them, and we haven’t yet started working on that. And so it’s really hard to say, but I do think that we’re making at least the same amount that we once were serving fewer people, which gives us more time.

Fewer clients, better fit

Unknown: That’s great, you know. And and I I think some Financial no one ever wants to lose, you know, an important client by any means, but there’s something to be said for, you know, leaving some of your assets behind. If you can leave 25% 25% of your practice behind and bring 75% with you and still have a profitable business, that frees up, you know, a whole lot more time potentially to, you know, go out and, you know, get some more of the clients that are the perfect fit for your organization. So not all is bad loss in my opinion.

Unknown: Well, I I’ll just say, you know, there you could always do a good night at AB Jones, that’s fair. At the same time, there were some clients that, you know, we probably held on to and we should have good knighted but we didn’t, you okay. Uh, that having gone through this transition we had no other choice, and golly it it just worked out so much better. Alex and I were talking the other day when scheduling in reviews. She was like, you know what, it’s so nice to have every single client call me back or pick up my phone call when I call him to schedule their annual review. We didn’t have that experience at ever Jones. And it’s not only because she has fewer people call and stay in touch with but because it’s all the people that want to do business with us. So they they call us right back, and it’s just little things like that that that you just don’t you just don’t understand until after you’ve gone through the process.

Surprises

Unknown: What were some of the surprises that you had with clients that you know Surprises you thought for sure that they were going to come with you and and and maybe they didn’t, like what what were some of their rebuttal, so and and and, or what were some of their hesitations? So, you know advisers that are considering, you know, changing could potentially be prepared.

Unknown: It it was things that they they really they really didn’t even have an objection, um. It was just like that that 10% that didn’t come over, it was really just it was change in general. Any any other objection that we could discuss that got brought up, it it was just very easy to answer. I mean, we we were telling people, well first off the first half the clients we brought over they weren’t even coming over because of what advantages I had by going independent. They were just coming over because they didn’t they couldn’t imagine doing business with anyone else but me. Yeah, okay.

Unknown: So I I couldn’t so the objections really weren’t as big of a deal as what I thought they were going to be before I left Jones. Really it was just me putting out fires. I was calling people back, and I could not call people back faster than they were calling me. I had I had one client show up on my doorstep, so it, you know, I couldn’t even go through, you know, hey these are the reasons Alex and I left before they’re already saying, hey we don’t know where you went or what happened but we’re with you, buddy, wherever you go, um.

Unknown: If it when it did come to that time when I was having more in- depth conversations, I was telling everyone the same thing. We we left for four reasons. One, um, we wanted more investment options at e Jones. I felt like we only had about access to a third of the invesment options out there, um. Secondly, we wanted access to other people’s technology. There were limitations in AB Jones’s technology, um, that didn’t allow me to do my job as well. I mean, there are limitations in the financial planning software, uh. We couldn’t use booking links to schedule appointments, um, just little things like that, um.

Unknown: Um, I wanted clients wanted to give me the ability to take discretion for them, um. I was sick and tired of picking and choosing my favorite clients. Ever Jones said I had to go down the line and call everybody to a place of trade. Well it might be all year before I get through that list when trade should have been placed a long time ago, you know. So here I am having to pick and choose who I’m going to call first. They’re not going to call me back. They’re going to go along with what I say nine times out of 10. And so having discretion allows me to treat everyone fairly, and clients wanted to give me that.

Unknown: And then lastly, I wanted control over my stuff staff at my office. If we make another hiring mistake like what happened with me at ever Jones, I want the freedom to just walk that person out the door, okay. Um, and I take that on, uh. So when I shared those four reasons with clients they were just like, sounds good, sign me up.

Unknown: It was only a small percentage that had objections, and it really wasn’t even objections, it was just questions. Like, so who is LPL again? Oh, they’re just the largest independent broker dealer in in the in the world. Yeah. Oh, okay. Uh, so th those were very easy objections. The hard ones was I don’t have any reason for not coming over, it’s just it’s just very uncomfortable for me to change. And so some people they just need time. That’s that’s it.

Unknown: Sure. There’s still time.

Unknown: I think the big one of the biggest surprises I had wasn’t so much. I mean, yeah, there’s going to be those people that you think, yeah they’re going to come over, and then they don’t, and it hurts your feelings because you’ve loved and cared for them over the years, and it’s hard not to take personal, you know what they’re saying to you, um. But flipping that on the other side, I was very surprised as how fast other clients have come over. Our business owner clients were the fastest ones to come over because when I told them, hey I’m I’m going to go independent, they were like, oh so you’re one of you’re one of us now. Yeah, I understand what you’re going through, um. Hey you got it man, it’s it’s going to pay off I promise. And that was very encouraging.

Unknown: So, um, a lot of a lot of the objections that that that was outside my control is just finding the the the wherewithal to deal with it.

Downsides

Unknown: Awesome. So Clark, you’ve been a straight shooter ever since ever since I knew you. You know, you talked about some of the things that you were searching for and the reasons why you made a a leap to Independence that that were Pros, right. The investment option, the choices in technology, being able to do discretion, you know, running your office the way that you see fit.

Unknown: Being more than a year into Independence, what are what are some of the downsides?

Unknown: I I like that question because I it isn’t all roses on the other end but it is better. Um, this is just for me, uh, personally I think there are just two cons of leaving e Jones, um. And no, it is not brand awareness. I used to think that a disadvantage of leing Jones is, okay I’m not going to have a household name on my business card. I I I only think that was important to me or I thought it was important to me at the time because, well, I needed that earlier on in my career when no one knew who Clark Johnson was, okay. So it was important at that point in time, but but that actually never got brought up. That was was a myth I made up in my own head.

Unknown: Really the two disadvantages are: one, Jones link is really convenient in that, you know, they they build out all their software for the most part, so it’s all on one system, and that can save time. I had no concept of what overnight processing was until I went into the independent World, um. I was getting used to just starting a task and finishing it that same day because everything is so intricated de Jones and so yes I enjoyed having choices in whose technology I use, but what I didn’t think about is those different systems needing to talk to one another, um.

Unknown: Now it doesn’t change my mind. I’m still grateful for I’d rather still have the freedom over, you know, it going a little bit faster, but it is something that kind of took me by surprise that no one had told me up front. So that that’s just that’s just part of it. I I I think though you’re still going to appreciate having choices in your technology if it came down to choosing between the two. So that’s just part of it.

Unknown: The the second thing is Abra Jones’s back office is better trained. U, they are faster to resolve issues than what I’ve experienced and what I think is that other independent firms. However you need to have a perspective on that because abber Jones’s back office is there to support literally everything. Remember you’ve got choices in whose technology you use, so for what portion you are not using your back office for, I have had actually fantastic back office support for for example I use wealth box for my CRM. They’re amazing. Um, I use right capital for our financial planning software. They are great. In fact that’s been better than what I did experience at er Jones.

Unknown: So it’s it’s not totally at Apple Apple comparison. It depends on how you’re going to run your practice and how you’re going to design that. But for the portion that I still do need to use back office support for, the the the only reason I would say Jones can get credit for having a better office support is because they don’t give you choices in how to run your practice like LPL or some of the independent firms do. It’s so much harder for a firm like LPL to be everything to everyone because everyone runs their diff their business so differently. At Edward Jones there was only one way to run your business. It was the Edward Jones way. So of course when there’s all hands on deck they can be really fast and really good at helping you get through something because you can’t do it Clark’s way or Cory’s way. You got to do it our way. Yeah.

Unknown: So of course that’s an advantage to having their back office better trained and faster because you don’t have the freedom to run your practice the way you like. So I think it just, you know, you got to have a little bit of perspective there, and I think you got to have both of those lenses lenses on whenever you evaluate those disadvantages for leaving Jones.

Transition Process

Unknown: For sure. That’s super helpful, and I appreciate the honesty. So another question that that that I have for for you: when we first started exploring together and I was highlighting some of the benefits, you know, of Independence, whether through flexibility or, um, the ownership or the, um, Enterprise Value that you could build in your business, I just kind of kind of got a sense I’m not picking on you this happens a lot but like you were just kind of reacting back to me almost defensively like there’s no way that this could be true, there’s no way that this could be true. Can you just kind of go through that process?

Unknown: Yeah. And I’ve said this to you privately but I just want to say publicly I’m sorry for being, uh, I I was not the nicest person to you when we first started talking. I apologize, um. I could this just at e Jones, um, you just have this natural tendency to not believe what anyone else is saying unless they work at ever Jones, yeah. It it gets grinded into you, and you know anytime you hear from someone who thinks differently from you outside the firm you just, you know, your guard goes up instantly, um.

Unknown: I really do think everyone goes through these what I call these same five phases. I mean, there’s there is this mental shift, uh, that takes place with everyone. It might go slower or faster for others, but I think for everyone it starts with denial. I mean, I was just in denial that, you know, being a financial or anywhere else was going to be better than what I had where I was, um. That denial really just deres from my pride. Um, none of us want to be wrong in anything, you know, um.

Unknown: And then that second phase that I was going through mentally I just call the volitional phase because, um, once once you do expose yourself to some of the hardcore facts that are out there, uh, such as your payout actually not being as high as whatever Jones convinces you it could be, or there way more investment options out there than whatever Jon’s LED you on to believe, um. Once once you start hearing this, um, you don’t want it to be true, okay. You want to continue living the fantasy that you’ve created in your mind, um. And so it’s just volitional is all it is.

Unknown: That for me the the longest phase was right there in the Middle where I just got complacent. This is just the complacency phase I call it for people because you you start realizing there’s a lot of work that’s going to be involved in me planning this transition. I mean, I’ve got to I mean, yeah, there was a business plan I put together on Jones Lake, but it it is nothing compared to like actually running a business. It’s fun, but it’s just it just takes a lot of time, um. And so it’s easy to procrastinate, um. It’s easy to find other distractions because don’t forget you’re still taking care of clients at abber Jones and you got to put them first. So I just got compl it, and that’s what probably dried out the longest with our relationship before I started actually taking proactive steps, um.

Unknown: That fourth phase that I got to, um, was what I call the wakeup call, um. That was when my second assistant was, you know, with those medical conditions. That’s when I could kind of sense, uh, oh, um, we’re on thin ice here, you know. For me that was like a scary moment. For others like some other friends of mine that left Jones it was more of an anger moment, uh. Whatever the last draw on the camell’s back is you just realize, uh, things are tipping towards I think for the first time in in in your mind you’re thinking, okay I’m more likely to leave than I am to stay, and you’re thinking of that for the very first time. It it starts getting surreal, um.

Unknown: So what you do is you start coming up with a plan B, and that’s when I started being more friendly with you because I was like, hey, um, if things don’t work out I think I might need to have a plan B. I would be a fool not to have one, um. I remember when my wife, uh, she asked me. She was like, Hey, so you know if you do decide to to not, uh, side with ER Jones on this and stand up for your clients, I mean what’s your plan be? And and at the time I was like, well I don’t have one. She was like, why not? And I was like, well I, you know, I had this Woody response where I was just like, well you know I guess anyone who has a plan B has a far more likely chance of not succeeding at Jones. And she was like, Clark, you’re not a newf anymore, yeah. And by the way are you thinking about me and your clients don’t forget about them. And so that’s when I was like, you know what, I need to start working on this plan B, um.

Unknown: And then that last phase is where when you when you finally build up a sufficient amount of evidence and and you take a truly unbiased approach to evaluating the pros and cons and all that, I think that’s when you realize your plan B was really your plan a all along, you just didn’t know it, yeah. And it took you this long to figure it out, um, and debunk all the myths that, um, ever Jones’s culture had for me led me on to believe, um.

Unknown: That hardest phase though was the very first when I was being, uh, not so friendly in the beginning for you. That is the hardest phase because and and it’s the same thing when I talk with other ever Jon’s friends of M who who had left or or still there because I think as humans our biggest fallacy is our pride, um. We are all naturally sinful and prideful which is by only by Grace can we be saved. And I’m not trying to make like a put a Christian spin on this by no means. I’m just saying everyone’s first step is admitting that they’re not perfect, um. Only then can you remove all presuppositions from your mind and just truly take an unbiased approach to investigating the claims of going independed, um. Once I did that it it was a lot easier for me mentally.

Edward Jones vs Independence

Unknown: Well, I I forgive you, Clark, I forgive you. I know you said it before but I just have to keep apologizing it makes me feel better. It it it happens all the time, and it once again not just picking on one firm but, you know, employee firms have a heavily vested interest in keeping you in your seat and also at the same time the other firms out there have a heavily vested interest in getting you out of your seat and and into one of their seats. So sometimes it’s just kind of H hard to understand truth from from from, uh, from false. So I I totally understand.

Unknown: So yeah, cor, a couple months ago I’m I was texting you just checking up on on on how things were going, and you gave an awesome comparison, I thought, in terms of like what what Independence, you know, is like. If if you had an Edward Jones advisor ask you today, like, to compare, you know, Edward Jones to to Independence, can can you go over what you shared with me?

Driver’s Permit vs Driver’s License Analogy

Unknown: Yeah, yeah, um, because I I’d heard some analogies from ex Edward Jones advisors that told me, hey, here’s what it’s like, yeah, because they could they could get into the details that we’ve been talking about on this call, and I’d be like, yeah, but I can’t relate to that because all I know is Edward Jones, U. And so the best analogy I’ve come up with: imagine imagine, do you remember how super excited you were when you were 15 years old and you got your driver’s permit, um. I was stoked. I mean for me I was so excited to finally drive a vehicle on the highway, um. I was so excited I did not care that I always had someone in the passenger seat telling me which turn to take and telling me to pump on the brakes when someone is on their brakes in front of me, um. I didn’t care because I was behind the wheel and I was having fun learning, um.

Unknown: Now imagine if you will though having that driver’s permit for 13 years. That’s building a career at ever Jones, um, never making the jump to getting your driver’s license. Imagine 13 years e Jones is still sitting in that passenger seat telling you what car to drive, uh, where to turn, where to go, um. Not only that, they’re telling you you can’t go here, you can’t do anything without me being in the passenger seat with you even if you want to get in the car and go somewhere, um. After about 13 years you probably get a little annoyed unless that’s the only world you knew of in your head then you wouldn’t know any different, y see. And so once that bubbles popped, which that’s what it was like for me, that’s when I realized I want my freaking driver’s license.

Unknown: Then to ever Jones’s point they’re GNA say, ah, but you’re gonna have to pay for the registration, the taxes, the insurance, um. I’m not going to be here to tell you when to make a turn, when to merge into traffic. But it’s like yeah, but I’ve had my driver’s permit for 13 years. I think I think the risk is okay to take on, so yeah it’s it’s not as scary as what, um, I mean there’s a lot of uncertainty, but your clients have you. And and I think for me the answer was yes after 13 years of the driver’s permit because, you know, it just it’s just so much more fun having your own car. And honestly the clients love it better too. They really do. So it’s awesome. Drive drive that car wherever you want to.

Advice + Kevin OLeary Quote

Unknown: I love it. There you go. So, you know, if you what advice do you have for an Edward Jones advisor considering transition?

Unknown: Um, Kevin o Larry has this famous quote that I was gonna use to answer that question you had for me, um. I’m just going to put a little spin on it. The tap trips and the summer Regional meetings are the drugs Edward Jones feeds you to forget your dreams. The tap trips in the summer Regional meetings are the drugs that erra Jones gives you to Fe to forget your dreams. It is very easy to stay in that world when when someone mitigates your risk.

Unknown: Unfortunately in most every ever Jones advisor’s case they don’t have any other world to compare it to because a they’ve never been a financial advisor anywhere else, or B maybe they just like the experience or the the book size to to risk making the jump, and that’s fair. Probably the biggest majority is, um, you know, for those that are I mean I’d say about what a third of ever Jones advisors are about to retire in the next 10 years. That would not make me sense, you know, to make a transition to me. So if it wouldn’t for those things I think Jones will be seeing a way bigger Exodus of advisors, veteran advisers leaving than what we are all seeing right now.

Unknown: But everyone else that doesn’t fall into that category, you need to just get out from you know lower your pride and you need to just quit drinking the Kool-Aid and just quit being SP scared and just freaking do it. I mean your clients had your back, and other ever johon advisers who you are friends with who are no longer there, they have your back too. Had so many people just Reach Out supporting me. It was it was surreal and it was great. And so just just remember to always have an open mind and and evaluate the situation that you’re in.

Closing

Unknown: I love it, Clark. I’m I’m I’m so happy about your success, and I just think another reason there’s a lot of people, you know, leaving is that they can hear from people like you, you know, that have moved to the other side in a medium like this and just get an honest an honest place to learn about, you know, the pros and the cons and what advisers would have done differently so they could make sure that their transition is as impactful as possible. So I really appreciate the time. I I I think this is going to help a lot of people, and, um, I hope you have a I hope you have a great day, and I’d love to do a two-year recap to, uh, to learn how you how you’ve changed your business and and fully embraced the independent World. Congrats again.

Unknown: I I love that too, and I appreciate, uh, the conversation today.

Unknown: Absolutely. Thanks so much, and, uh, and we’ll talk soon.

Unknown: All right. Bye, Corey.