STORIES FROM THE FELLOWSHIP

WITH JEREMY WALTER, CFP

THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE FELLOWSHIP FROM START TO FINISH.

So it made me incredibly happy to hear one of the first alumni of The Fellowship—Jeremy Walter, CFP—describe his experience:

“This is the singular most focused, most distilled collection of wisdom that I’ve ever come across in the industry. It’s not only going to give you the professional confidence, it’s also going to reignite you to think about what it is that you want to accomplish with your firm.“

Jeremy and I spent a little over 20 minutes talking about The Fellowship. I thought it was an amazing conversation, and I think you’ll find the whole thing incredibly valuable. To hear what he had to say, just click the media player below. And don’t miss the Show Notes at the bottom of the page! 

SHOW NOTES

0:00 – 3:00 Introduction, and something of a roadmap to the conversation.

3:00 – 5:20 There were four separate occasions where Jeremy said, “This Declaration is the best one, this one is worth the price of admission on its own.” But in the end, the Declaration that got him the most fired up was the very last one — Declaration 21: We Turn Dreams Into Reality. Jeremy describes why that was so meaningful to him.

“It really struck me that I haven’t spent substantial time really fleshing out what an ideal future state looks like for my firm. I have a couple of loose ideas, but I couldn’t articulate it very well, and that’s been a revelation to me. That’s a little bit of hypocrisy, you know? I’m encouraging my clients to live their best life and align their money with their values. I haven’t—up to this point—spent enough time doing that with myself. Especially in the professional setting with my firm.“

6:20 – 8:00 Jeremy provides a bit of personal background, and tells a story of burnout that many of you will undoubtedly be able to relate to.

8:15 – 9:45 Jeremy falls into one of the classic traps that all of us as Real Financial Professionals work hard to prevent our clients from falling into.

“I was benchmarking my growth, the assets I was managing, the families I was working with. I was benchmarking that to other firms… in spite of the fact that I tell my clients on a weekly basis, ‘don’t compare your net worth, don’t compare your returns, don’t compare your income with others. Focus on what’s most important to you and create your own benchmark…’ That was not aligned with the type of lifestyle I wanted to live.“

12:15 – 13:15 Jeremy tells us a little bit about how a Declaration hit home for him — Declaration 18: We Value The Process Over The Plan.

“The one thing over the years that has made me want to punch somebody in the nose is when they would say dismissively to me ‘Oh, that’s a cute little lifestyle firm.’ Normally, I would hear that when we were on the chairlift skiing, and I happened to run into another advisor that was there from out of town. So I would just politely point out that this was his vacation, and my house was three minutes away.“

16:15 – 18:45 Carl digs into some of his hopes for what people will get out of The Fellowship, and Jeremy tells us what concrete steps he’ll be taking within his firm, and his life, following his graduation from The Fellowship (starring Declaration 4: We Decide Who To Work With).

21:30 – 23:30 Jeremy tells us how he would describe The Fellowship to a friend, and what The Fellowship has meant to him.

“This is the singular most focused, most distilled collection of wisdom that I’ve ever come across in the industry. It’s not only going to give you the professional confidence, it’s also going to reignite you to think about what it is that you want to accomplish with your firm.”