As advisory firms close out a strong year and look ahead to 2026, many leaders are focused on hiring, capacity, and AI-driven efficiency. In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray Sclafani challenges leaders to pause and ask a more important question: How does growth actually feel to the people doing the work?
Drawing on research from Arthur C. Brooks, Adam Grant, Gallup, Korn Ferry, and Harvard Business Review, Ray explains why burnout is rarely caused by long hours alone and why meaning, progress, and connection to impact are far more predictive of performance and retention. He explores the hidden strain rapid growth can place on teams, long before headcount catches up, and why most voluntary turnover in advisory firms is preventable.
Ray shares four practical, research-backed ways advisory firm leaders can strengthen team engagement and retention by making client impact more visible across the organization. From rethinking case studies to expanding team participation in client meetings, this episode offers actionable strategies to help firms scale without eroding culture, energy, or purpose.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
As the year comes to a close and ClientWise marks 20 years in business, Ray Sclafani shares a thoughtful year-end leadership reflection on what it truly takes to build an enduring wealth management firm.
In this short, reflective episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray explains why long-term thinking has become a competitive advantage for financial advisors and why leadership depth is no longer optional. He introduces a practical three-year planning framework that helps advisory firm leaders balance reset, execution, and compounding growth while the business remains in motion.
This episode is designed to help financial advisors step back, clarify priorities, and think beyond the next quarter without losing momentum. Ray also shares powerful coaching questions to guide year-end reflection, leadership growth, and intentional planning for the years ahead.
Key Takeaways
Questions Financial Advisors Often Ask
Q: What is the three year planning cycle for financial advisors?
A: The three year planning cycle is a leadership framework that encourages advisors to plant seeds in year one, execute in year two, and see visible impact in year three, allowing for clarity without losing momentum.
Q: Why is long term thinking important for advisory firm growth?
A: Long term thinking helps advisory firm leaders make better trade-offs, avoid reactive decisions, and invest in people, systems, and leadership depth that compound over time.
Q: How does leadership depth impact advisory firm success?
A: Leadership depth is now a competitive advantage because enduring firms rely on strong teams and next-generation leaders, not just a single founder or rainmaker.
Q: How can financial advisors plan while still running the business day to day?
A: Effective leaders plan while the business is in motion by resetting what no longer works, executing current initiatives, and benefiting from prior investments all at once.
Q: What should financial advisors reflect on at year end?
A: Advisors should reflect on who they need to become as leaders, what they must stop tolerating, where to invest earlier, and who deserves recognition for their impact.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray Sclafani dives into how financial advisors can turn strategy into action using a Sorkin-style approach. Rather than relying on thick slide decks or polished documents, Ray emphasizes that strategy should be a story your team can act on today. Learn how to identify a single strategic intention, confront uncomfortable truths, and facilitate productive team dialogue that drives execution. Discover practical steps to align your team, prioritize high-impact decisions, and build a scalable, enduring advisory firm.
Listeners will walk away with four actionable coaching questions to guide their next strategic moves and insights on developing leadership, succession, and enterprise growth in their advisory firm.
Key Takeaways
Questions Financial Advisors Often Ask
Q: What is a Sorkin-style approach to strategy?
A: A Sorkin-style approach treats strategy like a compelling story, focusing on dialogue, decisions under pressure, and clear stakes. For financial advisors, it emphasizes team involvement, prioritization, and actionable direction rather than lengthy slide decks or abstract documents.
Q: How can financial advisors turn strategy into execution?
A: Advisors can turn strategy into execution by choosing one strategic intention, identifying top obstacles, confronting uncomfortable truths with their team, and facilitating structured retreats or discussions to make decisions and assign responsibility.
Q: Why is single-intention strategy important for advisory firms?
A: Focusing on one strategic intention prevents confusion, ensures alignment across the team, and allows advisors to make high-impact decisions that drive measurable growth and sustainable leadership.
Q: How does this approach help build a scalable advisory firm?
A: By clarifying priorities, delegating responsibilities, and developing leadership within the team, advisors create capacity for growth, reduce founder dependency, and build a firm that can endure and thrive over time.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray Sclafani dives into the strategies that top advisory firms use to level up their teams. Discover how feedback, self-reflection, and merit-based career paths drive engagement, performance, and growth. Ray shares actionable ideas for both leaders and team members to create a culture where ambition, curiosity, and development are rewarded.
Learn why high-performing advisory teams invest in clear career paths, regular feedback, and stretch opportunities, and how these practices can accelerate talent development and firm growth. Whether you’re a firm leader or an advisor aiming to maximize your impact, this episode is packed with insights backed by research from Gallup, Harvard, Deloitte, McKinsey, and more.
Key Takeaways:
Questions Financial Advisors Often Ask
Q: How can financial advisors level up their team?
A: Advisors can level up their team by providing regular feedback, creating clear career paths, promoting merit-based performance, and offering stretch opportunities for skill growth.
Q: Why is feedback important for team development?
A: Meaningful feedback accelerates employee growth, improves performance, and increases engagement, helping advisors develop high-performing teams.
Q: How can team members take ownership of their growth?
A: Team members can take ownership by reflecting on their performance, asking for feedback, volunteering for stretch responsibilities, and actively pursuing development opportunities.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray explores one of the most overlooked leadership disciplines in advisory firms: off-boarding with intention, respect, and alignment. While most teams invest heavily in creating world-class onboarding experiences, few bring the same rigor to the moment when a team member exits. Ray shares why offboarding is not about correcting failure—it's about stewardship. When leaders navigate departures with clarity, dignity, and structure, they strengthen the culture, protect client relationships, and create space for the team to evolve.
Through a candid example from his own team, Ray demonstrates how mutual clarity, co-creation, and a disciplined framework can turn a transition into an empowering moment for both the departing individual and the organization. He also walks through a seven-part offboarding framework inspired by SHRM best practices and years of coaching elite advisory firms, offering a practical blueprint firms can use to elevate their own internal processes.
Ray closes with coaching questions leaders can use to refine hiring, strengthen feedback loops, and ensure that offboarding reinforces, not erodes, the culture they’ve worked hard to build.
Key Takeaways
For more information click here to visit the Best in the Business Blog.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this Thanksgiving episode, Ray Sclafani reflects on why gratitude is more than a seasonal sentiment for advisory leaders — it is a strategic advantage. Drawing from research, industry insights, and personal experience at ClientWise, Ray explores how appreciation strengthens culture, deepens engagement, and elevates performance across advisory firms.
He highlights why recognizing people’s contributions is essential to leadership, offers meaningful reflection questions for advisors, and underscores that gratitude should lead to action: developing talent, raising standards, investing in future leaders, and preparing for the growth ahead.
Ray closes with a message of appreciation to the ClientWise team and the advisory professionals they serve, encouraging leaders to use this season not as an endpoint but as a launchpad for impact in 2026.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of "Building the Billion Dollar Business," host Ray Sclafani delves into the strategies and insights behind successful financial advisory firms, focusing on organic growth and new client acquisition. He outlines six steps to boost growth, emphasizing the importance of client relationships, team collaboration, and strategic planning. Ray also discusses the significance of setting intentional goals and fostering a culture centered around growth.
Key Takeaways
For more information click here to visit The Best in the Business Blog.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani discusses the implications of avoiding growth targets in business. He highlights a case where a company decided to stop setting growth targets to focus on client service. However, he argues that this decision led to challenges in managing capacity, planning succession, and fulfilling client promises. The conversation emphasizes the importance of balancing client service with the need for growth targets to ensure effective business management.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani discusses the importance of finishing the year strong and how it impacts the upcoming year. He emphasizes the need for a proactive mindset, strategies for success, and the significance of setting clear goals. He also covers overcoming challenges and maintaining motivation as key components of achieving success.
Key Takeaways
For more information click here to visit The ClientWise Blog.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani discusses the critical importance of having a well-defined compensation philosophy in financial advisory firms. He highlights the common pitfalls of compensation planning without a clear strategy and emphasizes the need for a structured approach that aligns pay with performance, culture, and profitability. The conversation covers the essential building blocks of a strong compensation philosophy, how to implement it effectively, and the impact it has on employee engagement and trust in leadership.
Key Takeaways
For more information click here to visit the Best in the Business Blog.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani explores how advisory firm leaders can move from solo leadership to shared, high-performing teams. Using the metaphor of a musical ensemble, Ray shares lessons from his high school band and real-world coaching with billion-dollar firms to show how clarity, trust, and accountability create lasting success. Learn how to define team roles, foster trust, and lead through leadership transitions while keeping your firm’s performance in harmony.
Key Takeaways
Click here for the Decision Making Problem Solving Model™.
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
The advisory industry is facing one of its greatest challenges yet; a looming shortfall of nearly 100,000 advisors over the next decade. In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, host Ray Sclafani unpacks how firms can overcome the "Great Talent Squeeze" and become an employer of choice for next-generation advisors. Ray explores the critical mindset, cultural shifts, and strategic investments firms must make to attract, develop, and retain elite talent not just for today, but for the future of the business.
Key Takeaways
1. Culture isn’t invisible, it’s your most powerful advantage. Build an environment rooted in trust, inclusion, and authentic leadership to attract the best.
2. Next-gen advisors expect modern tools. Investing in technology signals that your firm is forward-thinking and committed to advisor productivity.
3. Go beyond salary. Explore rev-share, equity, or performance-based incentives to align advisor goals with firm success.
4. Recruit ahead of capacity needs, benchmark compensation, and hold out for the right candidates to strengthen long-term growth.
5. Focus on potential and leadership qualities. Build a clear career path and communicate it early in the hiring process.
Click here for CFP Board 2024 Compensation Study
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this short but powerful episode, Ray Sclafani tackles a topic many financial advisors avoid: pricing. As firms expand their services beyond portfolio management into multi-generational planning, tax coordination, and family governance, their value has increased, but too often, their pricing hasn’t.
Ray challenges advisory leaders to view pricing not as a financial figure, but as a leadership decision that impacts enterprise value, team compensation, and client perception. He breaks down the mindset and mechanics required to evolve your pricing model with clarity, confidence, and consistency.
This episode is a must-listen for firms committed to delivering premium services and ready to price like it.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani dives into a key leadership habit that high-performing advisory firms revisit every year: a structured marketing review. Far from a compliance audit, this annual reset is a strategic opportunity to realign messaging, optimize marketing systems, and attract the right clients for the future.
Ray walks through the five essential areas to evaluate:
Whether your team is large or lean, in-house or outsourced, this episode outlines how to make marketing a firm-wide responsibility, not a side project. If you're ready to move beyond generic outreach and lead with intentional messaging, this is your playbook.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani challenges advisory firm leaders to rethink how they attract new clients. He exposes why many firms are unintentionally sabotaging their growth by relying on outdated, ad-hoc approaches to client acquisition like waiting for referrals or operating off of a founder’s charisma.
Ray dives deep into what it takes to build a scalable, repeatable, and measurable lead generation engine. He covers:
This episode is a wake-up call, and a roadmap, for advisors who want to lead their growth, not just react to it.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani introduces a critical metric that leading wealth management firms—and the private equity firms evaluating them—are using to assess the health and enterprise value of their businesses: the Rule of 40. Originally born in Silicon Valley to evaluate SaaS companies, this simple but powerful formula (Revenue Growth % + EBITDA Margin %) has crossed over into the RIA world and become a litmus test for intentional, sustainable growth.
Ray breaks down:
Plus, you’ll get five coaching questions to spark powerful conversations with your team—and begin leading like a CEO, not just a lead advisor.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode, Ray Sclafani challenges financial advisors to shift from simply managing a successful practice to thinking like a CEO and capital allocator. Drawing parallels to the booming subscription economy, Ray explains how advisory firms, powered by predictable AUM-based revenue, are in a prime position to reinvest with purpose.
Whether it’s developing leadership, upgrading tech, or expanding into new client markets, this episode offers a compelling call to action: don’t coast on recurring revenue, leverage it. Learn how elite firms are acting boldly and investing in infrastructure, talent, and strategic growth to command premium valuations and build enduring enterprises.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray Sclafani explores one of the most underutilized but essential skills in financial advisory: the art of choosing clients wisely. Shifting from “more clients, more assets” to “right clients, sustainable growth,” Ray outlines how high-performing firms assess both behavioral and financial indicators to identify their next generation of A+ clients—even before they build wealth.
He introduces a client selection framework that focuses on advice-receptivity, future potential, values alignment, and more—all geared toward improving enterprise value through predictable cash flow. Ray also offers coaching questions to help leaders train their teams, align their growth strategy, and build a firm designed for the future.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, Ray Sclafani explores the profound demographic shift reshaping the financial advisory industry: the aging of America. With 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, and 80% of U.S. wealth held by those over 60, advisors can no longer afford to focus solely on accumulation. Ray outlines three powerful shifts advisory firms must make to stay relevant: reframing their value proposition, building capacity for aging clients, and leading multigenerational family dialogues. Packed with data, practical strategies, and team reflection questions, this episode is a must-listen for firms ready to evolve into future-ready advisors.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.
In this episode of Building the Billion Dollar Business, host Ray Sclafani reframes what it truly means to engage clients in a modern wealth management practice. He challenges the common misconceptions of client engagement which includes emails, gifts, and review meetings, and instead defines true engagement as emotional, intentional, and rooted in value. Ray outlines three pillars of effective engagement: proactive conversations, customized communication, and meaningful milestone recognition. He emphasizes that real engagement must be embedded into firm culture, not just left to the advisor. Listeners are encouraged to use tools like client journey mapping, achievement reviews, and feedback loops to scale meaningful connections. The episode closes with three reflective coaching questions designed to help advisors evolve their approach and deepen client relationships in a commoditized landscape.
Key Takeaways
Find Ray and the ClientWise Team on the ClientWise website or LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
To join one of the largest digital communities of financial advisors, visit exchange.clientwise.com.