Donald Patrick
Hey everybody, welcome to episode number 48 of the IFG Podcast, What Works? And our guest today is Kevin Garrett and the great financial group Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome, Kevin. We're doing great. It's gonna be fun. So let's just start off a little bit about you and tell us your background, your family and those kinds of things and get to know you.

Kevin Garrett
Hey Don, how you doing?

Kevin Garrett
Okay. Well, yeah, I've, Lacey and I have three children, one daughter who's out in Arizona and two boys that are still in school, 20 and 21. And then we have a golden doodle, Layla, and we have a cat named Steve. those are, yeah, Steve the cat. we, yeah, so those are our children these days since the other three have kind of migrated into.

Donald Patrick
You

Kevin Garrett
semi adulthood anyway. But, but no, I probably, as you know, I kind of have a little bit of a different background from probably a lot of the financial advisors out there. was a midlife career changer, kind of grew up in telecom and technology. That was that part of chapter of my life was just that I came out of school and went to work for, if you'll remember. Well, I went to Alabama, Roll Tide. Yeah.

Donald Patrick
Am I adopted? Yeah.

Donald Patrick
Where'd you go to school?

we just lost half the audience.

Kevin Garrett
I know I did. know maybe even more than that. You know, either you love them or you hate them. There's no in between. I don't think. but, yeah, we, I came out of school, went to work for, a paging company. If you remember pagers and beepers and all that good stuff, pretty before. yes, they do. Yeah. That made an impact on them. Didn't it really, really insane.

Donald Patrick
You

Donald Patrick
Hesbola remembers very well.

Donald Patrick
That was crazy, my god.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah. And I always thought about that. was like, man, you know, I'm surprised somebody hadn't thought of that before. was genius. um, yeah, back then that was the main mode of communication. That was before cellular really. Um, and so I happened to get in with them at just the right time and things just blew up. And I had the opportunity to kind of go from sales to sales management, to general management, um, moved across the country to Orange County, um, moved back to Atlanta as the regional president for

the company, we took the company public in 91. And that was crazy. That was insane. mean, I was part of the senior management team that was involved in that. you know, it was an exciting time. But it was also, you know, a very busy time because the money that we raised, a lot of that money, we put right back into our expansion programs and the Southeast.

Donald Patrick
What was that like?

Kevin Garrett
was an area where the company didn't really have a footprint. So my job was coming back from the Los Angeles area was to basically start up this region. So kind of started it from practically scratch and kind of grew it over the next seven years to a pretty significant company. I would say probably in today's dollars, it was maybe about a six, $700 million in annual revenue business, about a thousand employees.

So was fun. I was young enough to have a lot of energy to be on planes every week to someplace. starting up, basically, was, I think it was seven different startup companies that we did because they were all individual subsidiaries with their own general management that reported up to me. And so that was just a busy, busy time. But I loved it. I learned so much. I learned a lot about, I think, discipline because when you're

trying to change tires on a moving car, you have to figure out ways to do it and still keep going forward at a pretty high pace. Because the environment there was such that it was basically either you got promoted or you got fired. There was really not a whole lot of in between in that culture. So I was lucky enough to be on the positive side of that equation. eventually decided to move on to something else. You can kind of see the technology changing.

cellular kind of taking over the price differential between the two products was getting small. So I moved over into a different company that initially was supposed to be all about focusing on wireless technology and cellular. And it was supposed to be a North American business. And it turned out most of the technology was more applicable because of spectrum constraints. It was really more applicable to Europe and Asia. So I ended up spending some time in

in the UK. But at the same time, I had my daughter who's now 26, 27 soon, just hated to be gone for as long as I was on the regular. And so I just thought, what else do I need to do? What can I do differently going forward? So decided to look around and

Donald Patrick
my God.

Kevin Garrett
It's been about a year, just kind of soul searching a little bit about looking into other businesses. I just chose, I didn't want to go back to work in a corporation. I didn't really want to go and work. I'd worked for board of directors, didn't really want to do that. And really kind of felt that I've always had an entrepreneurial side of me. So I kind of wanted to see about doing something on my own. So then the question was, well, what do you do? know, is it, you know, what kind of business do you want to start? And

Donald Patrick
Right.

Kevin Garrett
And so I had a buddy of mine that I played a lot of golf with who had a financial planning practice and he and I started talking and ended up deciding that I bought part of his practice to kind of come in and really just to see if it was something I even wanted to do. He was financial advisor and so, you know, learned the business a little bit from the inside and pretty quickly decided it was exactly what I wanted to do. And so that's how I got going here.

Donald Patrick
And you start literally from scratch. Now, the one thing I will mention, you had set aside, I call it an investment capital, like five, seven years of living expenses to get this business off the ground, correct?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you know, it always takes more and it costs more than you expect. But yeah, I was fortunate enough to have the wherewithal to kind of weather that. But it, you know, when you and I met, you know, in, I guess it was probably about 2009, you know, that it was, it was a time when I was deciding to go out on my own and deciding exactly how to structure it and everything else. So

When we got together, it was like, okay, this looks like a pretty interesting group. You had so much knowledge that you kind of made me feel like this would be a good place for me to kind of land. And you took a huge leap of faith on me, so I've always appreciated that.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, I've taken bets on a lot of folks that I thought were rising stars. Most of them didn't work out, but every once in a while they do. You become a star.

Kevin Garrett
You know, even the the blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then, right?

Donald Patrick
Well, what was your business background, your management, marketing, sales, and all that? mean, it's very few folks I've seen start their business from scratch with that background, that perspective, very unusual in the profession. Most planners are good financial planners. They're not necessarily good business people. The public thinks they are.

and they learn that they're running a business and getting good at that as well.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, well, I think a lot of it has to do too. mean, growing up, you kind of lean on people who I think can be good mentors. think that's really important. And in my mind, I feel like I have four mentors in my life. I've had my mom and dad who are just amazing and still are, thankfully, still with us and were amazing folks to kind of help mold me a little bit. And then had a guy that took a chance on me.

putting me into management from sales at my old paging company and then another guy with the same company that took me to the next level and then you. I put you in my category, one of my four most important mentors. I've always appreciated you.

Donald Patrick
I appreciate that I Thank you. That means a lot to me. That's where I get my most satisfaction.

So starting the business, so how did you get going? did you market? mean, you had relationships and this and that, but how did you get this thing going?

Kevin Garrett
Well, I will tell you, it's not the way I drew it up. You know, I had a business plan, spent a lot of time developing a business plan, thinking through it. Because my background, I had a fairly high level of confidence that I thought, you know, I've bought and sold companies. I've been the acquirer and the acquiree a couple of times. So I kind of thought that would probably be a good cost effective way to go out and really start the business.

build it through some acquisitions. And I quickly determined that that was going to be a tough thing to do. The population of buyers to sellers didn't lend itself to doing that that way. And that just came from a lack of experience in the particular industry that we're in. So I had to back that up and say, well, all right, we'll still work on that as a side project. But the reality is you're going to have to probably grow it organically.

You know, really tried a lot of different things as you and I have talked about over time. I was, I tried all sorts of crazy stuff, some stuff that kind of stuck and worked for a while and some things that, you you kind of look back on and what were you thinking? But, you know, that's all part of it, I think.

Donald Patrick
Well, you are very creative in terms of marketing and you did try a lot of things and there was a cost of capital for these but you were really good about, am I getting the results? Is this worthwhile? So what were some things you tried? What worked? What didn't work? I think this is kind of interesting.

Kevin Garrett
Well, one of the things that I always think about that didn't work, I'll start with that, and it's in the category of what was I thinking, was I started talking to these guys that were over in Athens, Georgia, and they were starting a business that they were focused on marketing to funeral homes. And they said, hey, then they reached out to me through LinkedIn because I was doing a lot of marketing. This is back when LinkedIn was still, I think, less of a...

town hall bizarre kind of situation and more, you you actually have professionals that were on there and interacting a little more. And they reached out to me and said, you know, hey, this could be a great vehicle for you. You you've got families that are, you know, the transitional sort of situation where someone's passed away. You've got estate planning. You've got all these different things. And, you know, you can be interacting with us and we can work with you. I said, okay, you know, we'll take a flyer on that.

Absolutely went nowhere and it was a sort of a No No, yeah. Yeah. No, thankfully it didn't get that bad. But but yeah, they know they had they had a whole thing that and it I appreciated it because it was it was all online It was all kind of internet based and so they they had databases of Funeral homes that they had worked together with those folks got them on board I guess for a fee and and then you know

Donald Patrick
What do do? show up at the funeral and hand out your business card to the widow?

Kevin Garrett
tried to be basically a broker between advisors and these funeral homes. So it didn't work out and it didn't work out for them either. They ended up shutting it down. But that was kind of just an example of kind of, you go, yeah, you know, let's throw some money that way. Let's see what happens and no regrets, right? I mean, that's kind of, that's been my mantra really pretty much my entire life is I never wanted to look back on anything and say what if. And so.

That was kind of what drove me to some of those things. I think what worked, when I look back on it, it's not probably one thing. It's probably been a lot of different things that we've done. Because I think you have to show up and I think you have to participate in whether, be a thought leader, be an educator.

and somebody who becomes kind of a trusted source for things. And then over course of time, it just sort of builds on itself. So, you know, when somebody's asked me, you know, what did you find from a marketing standpoint that worked? I can't think of one thing that's just was a home run, but I think it was just a combination of a lot of little things.

Donald Patrick
So.

So your practice today, and I think this is very interesting because you were in management, you were hiring, firing, managing people, all the complexities. Your practice isn't even close to that today, is it?

Kevin Garrett
No, no, and that's my design. you know, I, yeah, I mean, I think, think really when I look back, you know, the, the, the end product that I've got as a business is, is, you know, aside from that comment I made about no regrets, it's all been very intentional. Even in some, and sometimes the intention, intention didn't turn out the way I kind of expected it to, or the action that I created thinking I would get one result ended up in something else.

Donald Patrick
I know, I know.

Kevin Garrett
That's life, That doesn't extend in different directions. But yeah, mean, of the things that I really, having a blank sheet of paper was what kind of clients did I want? I wanted clients that appreciated financial planning, appreciated the diversification and risk management. And from the standpoint of a business structure, I had...

worked and lived in the world of human resources from the standpoint of hiring and firing people. mean, you can appreciate this being having some time in California. mean, that's a tough place to deal with labor laws and people in general.

Donald Patrick
We don't touch California, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, just so you know.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, mean, there's a reason for it, And I mean, when you come home from work every night and it's 1-800-LAWYERS-SUEM kind of thing, you just go, man, what kind of environment are we in? so, yeah, I had that experience of working with a lot of different types of personalities and people. And I just thought, you know what? At this point in my life, I would prefer to just have more of a practice where I don't have employees.

I mean, I know it works for a lot of people. mean, there's no judgment on that. was purely a personal choice I made, but I just never really wanted to. I stayed with that discipline. you and I worked a lot, I think, through some of those conversations because there was a challenging time when you start in a business that you don't really have enough business to justify bringing on somebody, even if they're kind of third party oriented.

labor. But at the same time, you're busy trying to grow your business. you you're chasing down paperwork and all the things that you know, frankly, I'm not that great at. so that was the that was a challenging time. And that was, you know, one of the things that I know we we work through, we can get into that if you want.

Donald Patrick
So you're totally virtual, correct?

Kevin Garrett
Completely, 100 % virtual.

Donald Patrick
And are you national?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, yep. Yeah. And again, that's come through, you know, referrals. I mean, I've got clients that I've got a client in Anchorage, Alaska, and a number of them on the West Coast and everywhere in between. So we we deal with four or five time zones in working with clients. But, you know, it's it's it's been great. It was actually the vision that I always wanted because it's kind of ironic. I look back, you know, we digitized all of our files back in

2018 and 19. We finished up in 19 and lo and behold 2020 came along. COVID hit. You know, I had an office there at IFG and you know, we ultimately decided this was an opportunity because everyone kind of got forced to go video conferencing and Zoom. You everybody learned about Zoom and whatnot. And you know, my feeling was it would work. A virtual practice could work, but

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
that people would have to embrace the technology and get comfortable with the fact that they were handing over life savings to somebody who maybe they've never met. And up until that point, I think the office setting was such an important aspect of it because it was a validator. It was a confirmation that you were legit and you weren't a fly by night dude. But once COVID hit, it changed things a little bit to the point that

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
you people embraced it and accepted it. so because of that, we just, I just never went back to it. I never went back to the office and just, just kept on going. And because we had everything digitized already, we were able to transfer over into a virtual, you know, program pretty easily.

Donald Patrick
I mean, COVID trained everybody how to use Zoom. Prior to COVID, that might have been a challenge.

Kevin Garrett
Who really is?

Yeah, yeah. you know, I mean, yeah. And if you had had, you know, that was the other thing. I didn't have employees. So, I mean, I think that also, you know, changed the situation for me a little bit. yeah, funny how it all kind of works out. You know, I kind of thought it would take a much longer period of time to transition to an all virtual program, but I always had that as my goal. But, you know, we flipped a switch and we're there pretty quickly.

Donald Patrick
Amazing. how are you acquiring clients in the virtual world? Referrals you just mentioned.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, pretty much referrals now. Yeah, yeah, and the last few years have been really good from the standpoint of getting some new clients and referrals. But also one of the things I think is kind of interesting, and I'm just seeing, and I guess it's just a function of being in the business long enough that you kind of see this is my clients' kids are now my clients.

Donald Patrick
pretty much referrals.

Donald Patrick
That's hard to do.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, it's been kind of interesting and it's become kind of a side, kind of a side passion of mine to educate that next generation of 20-somethings and even 30-somethings that their superpower is really compounding the time that they have to let that money grow and to be disciplined in terms of being an accumulator and an investor.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
And so, you know, a lot of, like I said, a lot of my, was kind of just interesting to watch these kids who were children with my clients when they came on board with me, now becoming, you know, they're adults, they've taken on jobs, and now they've become clients. So it's kind of fun working with them.

Donald Patrick
That's fantastic. That's a big challenge for everybody, getting that next generation. And they don't mind working with an older guy,

Kevin Garrett
No, I think it comes with some credibility coming from mom and dad, right? mean, if mom and dad have been working with them a long time, I think that helps. That's where most of my younger clients are coming from. Either I've gotten some that are referrals from the younger client, so it kind of keeps feeding on itself. And I think it's great because some of the same basic goals that I

Donald Patrick
Sure. Yeah.

Kevin Garrett
wanted to do or want to achieve when I got into this business, which was just to make an impact on people's lives and facilitate change and be there when big decisions had to be made for folks. In many cases, some of my clients have kind of gone through a lot of that, or we've got them pretty well on a good glide path going forward. But the next generation is just starting that. So it's almost like a rinse and repeat process, but they're different. They've got different challenges. They've got different economic.

mountains they've got to climb and headwinds that they're working against. it keeps me engaged, keeps me pretty excited about what we're doing.

Donald Patrick
So we haven't talked about how you charge and this and that, but with the younger folks, they tend not to have assets. how are you, what are the economics in working with younger folks? How are you making a living with?

Kevin Garrett
Well, I don't really make a living with them that much. mean, yeah, it's not really, it's, you know, it's not really a, like I said, it's a little more of a labor of love with a goal that I think long-term they'll grow into things. know, typically they get a benefit right off the bat of being the kid of a client that's probably financially pretty well off. So they get a nice discount on my time right off the bat because I just give them the family discount on that front.

Donald Patrick
Okay.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
But no, it's, know, I would say in terms of the time we spend versus the time we make, it's not financially a big winner, but I think it's a good thing to do and it makes me happy.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, that's a good thing. From a business point of view, it fixes the demographics.

Kevin Garrett
It does. mean, because we're all getting older, hopefully. And so, yeah, so you have to solve that issue in some regards. And so, yeah, long term, I think it probably addresses probably concerns around long term business valuations. I mean, if you've got basically an aging and dying off clientele as opposed to a mix, which I think we're developing, I think that's probably not going to be a bad.

Donald Patrick
you

Donald Patrick
you

Kevin Garrett
Ultimately, it's not going to shake out to be a bad business call either.

Donald Patrick
No, it's great. you've been very process oriented, very clear. You're not doing a million different things. Your financial planning, your investment process, these kind of walk us through what you've done because you're very, very clear who you are, what you are, and you don't mess around with all the shiny objects that are flashing out there.

Kevin Garrett
Well, I will say I don't, yeah.

Donald Patrick
Well, from a marketing point of view, you did a lot of stuff. It was really fascinating. You weren't afraid to try stuff.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, no, we have, we've tried a lot of different things over time, but I think one of the things that's important is to have the discipline to evaluate your own decisions, you know. And so I go through that every year at the end of the year and look back and say, okay, well, so what do we have, you know, that's supporting the business? What do I see that I'd like to have? You know, there's some swings out there I'd like to have that we can't use right now for various reasons, but, you know, the stuff that we have.

You kind of look at them and say, they providing the ROI that you thought they would provide when you engaged it originally? And then the answer in some cases is no, which case you punt and move on. And in some cases, you re-up. So yeah, think it's important to have the regular disciplined review and kind of self-analysis of your own choices and decisions and be open to acknowledging that maybe the decision you made wasn't the right one.

And then you just you move on from there. But yeah, I mean really As you know, we get we get bombarded every day with emails and calls from people trying to sell you something and You know that is itself requires a level of discipline to just not chase the shiny object as you say

Donald Patrick
Exactly. So you're very clear about financial plan. Do you bring anybody on that doesn't want a financial plan? That's what I thought.

Kevin Garrett
No, no, no. and you know, we, have passed on, I mean, I could have grown this business, I think a lot faster over, the last 15 or so years. But I think keeping that discipline in terms of the type of clients that you want, the clients that you want to help. mean, I also had kind of a, a sense of if, if, it's not going to be a client relationship, that's going to be a fun one.

for me selfishly, that's not of interest really. If I don't feel like I can add value because they're already so buttoned up and so together, and I can't show value, then in some cases I passed on that as well. So I think the net effect is I've got clients that I think value what I do and value my input, but I also have clients that are really good friends.

good people and I enjoy working with. I mean, I don't reach for my phone and kind of cringe when I get a phone call from somebody, which is kind of nice.

Donald Patrick
That's, well, that took discipline on your part. I know when you're growing the business and say no to prospective client, so many, well, most people bring them all on and you had the discipline not to do that and look what you have now. It's something you really.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, well, I mean, the hardest one, I had a significant asset opportunity. But I could just tell we were just not going to be a good fit. mean, he was looking for, you know, kind of market timing type of thing, you know, get me into an IPO. How about some hedge fund activity? You know, now we don't need planning. I was like, OK, you're checking all the negative boxes here. And he was actually taking a back a little bit.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
that I wasn't interested in. But I do think the relationship has to work for everybody for it to be really successful. I think it also maybe goes to the fact that I don't lose very many clients. the few that I've lost for the most part have unfortunately passed away. But in some cases when they passed away, I ended up with their family. And so that's been helpful as well because it kind of keeps a...

continuity to the practice going a little bit.

Donald Patrick
So yeah, you're very clear about who you are, what you are, what you deliver. And on the investment side, you seem to have great clarity and not going all over the place. Tell us a little bit about that.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, well, same comment as what we would say about software or hardware or anything else, right? There's a million different shiny objects from an investment standpoint as well. And yeah, I mean, I think one of the things that IFG has brought to the table for us has been the models and the different access to really high quality money managers and also building models that we can then

put clients in based on the financial plan that we create, the risk tolerance levels they have, that type of thing. And so it makes it a very efficient process and it's very easy to be able to work with the guys that are running that part of the program. So yeah, we've broadened it out a little bit. We started with one primary money manager when that program started, but then we've expanded to a couple of other ones. But no, we've really tried not to kind of go too in too many different directions.

And then to the extent that we have clients that have kind of the desire to go beyond that, what we'll do is we'll sometimes create kind of a core and satellite investment structure where we'll say, all right, the core structure is what it is. 90 % of your money is going to go into this defined set of investments that our trading group will handle. But then if you want to get into

different things. mean, right now we're talking about a few macro opportunities around defense and aerospace or rare earth minerals or infrastructure, both US and international. And you have people that have an interest in some of that stuff and allow them to kind of go beyond it. But we keep a disciplined approach of saying, five to 10 % of your investments go to that. Everything else, we stay to the core because really, and I also try to tell them, look, this is not

Donald Patrick
hehe

Kevin Garrett
trying to be market timing. This is not. These are macro events that will be around for decades probably anyway. But if you want to go a little bit deeper, you already invested in them. But if you want to go a little bit deeper, we can do that. that has its place with some people's portfolio and other people, just don't worry about it at all.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
So you've outsourced most of the investment management. You're not pushing the buttons and doing all that, which makes life nice. And it's good stuff. So what financial planning tool are you using currently?

Kevin Garrett
Well, you know, way back when you and I started talking about Money Guy Pro and I still use it. And I have found it to be, you know, I don't think there's a perfect tool out there by any means. And, but I think it walks the line between complexity and, but also it's a goals-based tool. And I say we use, you know, we do goals-based planning basically. It's, I think it's what people can connect with, you know, what's important to them.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
There isn't never one.

Kevin Garrett
in their lives and so I think it makes it an easy structure to kind of put together with the client's assistance, really what's important to them, what's their goal. So we use MoneyGuide Pro, it integrates well with LPL's structure so we get all the account information updated on the regular as opposed to doing that updating manually, what we used to do manually which was brutal. And so that's really nice.

Yeah, Money Guy Pro is our primary planning tool that we use.

Donald Patrick
I mean, that is what financial planning is about. It's achieving various goals in life. yeah, anything else technology wise you're using?

Kevin Garrett
Well, obviously Zoom. We use Zoom quite a bit. then we've embraced the virtual note taker strategy. And so we use Jump for that. That's compliance approved. I love it. I love it because it also integrates with our CRM, which is Wealthbox. And so that all works together real nicely.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
How's that going for you?

Kevin Garrett
It allows me to really focus more on listening to clients as opposed to note-taking and it does frankly much much better job of the note-taking than I ever did. So I love the note-taker aspect.

Donald Patrick
you

Donald Patrick
I agree.

Donald Patrick
Anything else you're using technology wise? My Rep Chat, use that?

Kevin Garrett
you know, yeah, we use that. you know, I've really tried to steer people off of texting period just because I feel like it's just kind of a little bit of a landmine that I don't want to get into. So we, you know, I just, you know, let's, let's just call me or do, do email, but you've always got somebody who wants to text and that's where we stick them over on my rep chat. And, that works well enough. It's not great, but it's, it's, it's functionally, does what it's supposed to do. think. so that, that's.

Those are probably, you know, at a real basic level, those are the main things that we do.

Donald Patrick
So you've got your core investment strategy. Do you do any other kinds of products, annuities, anything of that nature, or primarily focus on your core strategy?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, again, kind of early on decided we didn't work, we weren't going to go down the annuity route for a lot of different reasons. Some philosophical, some financial, and we just decided not to go down that road. And again, I know a lot of people do it, they do it very well. And I think that there's a place for that stuff. But I, know, to the extent that we have a client that finds that they feel or they feel like they have a need, you know, we will try to find a source for that.

But by and large, no, we just, we've steered clear of the annuities. We steer clear of a lot of the, some of the other products that are out there and try to kind of stay focused on what we think we are decent at doing.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, mean, so it's, I'm not gonna say it's simple business, but you're very clear who you are, what you are, not distracted by anything else, and this is it.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, yeah. I think that maybe even goes all the way back to my days in the telecom world because that was such a fast paced business. you were constantly, it was all about growing, growing, growing. And so you wanted to make sure that you could scale up and replicate the activity that was successful.

And I think the more that you throw into the mix of different things, different products, different areas to kind of focus on, I think that detracts and distracts. And I don't, I just tried to steer clear of that.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, I love it. Very clear about it. So you've got a referral. First of all, how do you make that happen? Because the client say, hey, I'm going to tell John about you. And then it just goes away. So how do you handle that first? You got an introduction from a client. Then what? How do you capture that?

Kevin Garrett
Well, yeah, I mean, usually it starts with the conversation about somebody even saying they've got somebody they want me to talk to. You know, I'm not one that will go and ask for referrals. I kind of feel like, you know, if they run across somebody and they have a friend or a family member and they think enough of me, then that's great. You know, I will tell people from time to time because people ask me about my minimums. You know, I think there's a perception that we, you know, we

We only manage high net worth people and for the most part, that's generally true. But I also tell them, look, I have no minimums when it comes to family members or friends of clients. So take that off the table. Don't even sweat it. You know that because I think that there's some tension and pressure that people feel about recommending someone when they don't know what their, what their friend's circumstances are or, you know, or they may feel like, you know, I've got this kid who I really would like to have you talk to.

Donald Patrick
They don't.

Kevin Garrett
But I also know that they don't have any money and I don't know, know, so awareness, I think on the part of the client sometimes holds that them back from making recommendations. So I try to take that off the table and say, look, I mean, if they're a friend of yours or if they're a family of yours, that's good enough for me. And, you know, what I will tell them is, you know, there's no minimum. If I can't help them, if for some reason, I just feel like, you know, for whatever it is that they're looking for or needing is not in my wheelhouse, then.

I'll tell that and I'll try to find them a good home. And so I think the client can get comfortable with the fact that, you know, the recommendation is not going to be ultimately an embarrassment back to them for recommending me. But so we kind of take that off the table and then, you know, just kind of go from, go from there. So then if they do say that they have somebody, I'll say, do you want to make a, you know, an introduction? Do you want me to make an introduction and use your name? How do you, how do you want to do it? Usually.

they'll do it and I'll usually just suggest that so when will you be doing that so then I can follow up so it kind of it kind of pins them down a little bit to say let's let's let's get this done if you think you want to do it and then from there I you know we get the introduction out of the way and and then we we go from there and put them more or less in the process that I that I have that I go I take every single person through before we we we sign them on.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
So you've got the introduction, the referral, and then is it an introductory Zoom meeting, phone call? What is that like?

Kevin Garrett
Well, I typically try to suggest a Zoom call first. Some people would prefer a phone call. I think Zoom is much better. It's just a little more engaging. You can kind of read body language a little bit better. And it's just generally, I find it to be more helpful in a conversation. But it's up to them. But usually what we do is we'll say, let's just start with a 30 minute, no obligation conversation, basically.

And the whole point of the conversation and I and it's a subtle message But it's one that I think is it's plants to seed that says you know look I mean we're both kind of talking to each other about an opportunity That may or may not work out for whatever reason because you know I mean you may not be a good fit for me I may not be a good fit for you and and but you know hopefully it's if it's a good fit then then we Will step up to the next thing and you know I just lay out them

the process because we will go through the initial conversation of validating that, the get acquainted conversation that you have, then discovery meeting, then financial planning after that. It's probably typical to what you've heard most people talk about.

Donald Patrick
So every meeting is that where you gather their documents and information? Do you do that electronically or do they just send you a pile of stuff in the mail? How do you do that?

Kevin Garrett
No mail, no mail, no paper. And the nice thing is civilization around me is kind of helping me along with this. mean, more more people are putting things, digitizing things. So it makes it a little bit easier. We don't have to worry about the stack of documents the way we used to. So yeah, I mean, what we'll do is my assistant will just put, send a...

encrypted email out and have them just send those those documents back and You know, usually say look I mean get it into us and then as soon as you send it in go on to my An email that you have of mine click the the link that's that allows you to schedule some time and that by the way That's another that's another thing that we That we use is schedule once so I you know It makes it a lot easier for people to go on and look at my schedule and then

pick their meeting time based on the type of meeting, the length of meeting, that type of thing. And, yeah, yeah. mean, again, we needed that for a long time too. yeah, Schedule Watch is great. It allows us to kind of build basically a lot of different types of meetings, everything from a 30 minute phone call to a lunch meeting to, and we do meetings in person, but usually it's not at the office. I think probably over the last.

Donald Patrick
instead of emails back and forth.

Donald Patrick
yeah?

Kevin Garrett
you know, five years or so, maybe I've had six or seven in-person meetings at the I of G office. Yeah, yeah, mean, most of the time we'll either just say, let's get together for lunch, you know, or something like that, or dinner. And the other thing I do a lot is, because I got clients all over the country, is we go see them. You know, this summer I've got trips to Chicago and to Denver with clients. We've gone to...

Donald Patrick
at the office. I love it.

Kevin Garrett
gone to all over the place just and it's great because Leslie usually goes with me. We'll go and and you know enjoy a little bit of the side trip, but we get to you know have a nice dinner interact a little more on the personal level. You know, it's not it's not power points and spreadsheets. It's more talking about family and and you know life and I and I think that's really really valuable time. So as much as I I love the zoom and you know and remoteness of our practice. I still think you gotta.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
You got to get out and touch people and I found it to be really not only probably good for them, but it's really good for me too.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, I love that. So, we've had the discovery meeting. What's next?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, so they'll schedule, so they send us the documents. And then at the same time that I'm working on building their plans, my assistant is setting up accounts. So she's using some of the documents that they've sent us from statements and whatnot to get the appropriate accounts set up. And she's handling all of that kind of separate from what I'm doing. you know, so.

Think of it as like parallel tracks, you know, and so she's handling the setup of accounts, the transfer of funds. She does, she handles all of that. I handle the financial planning setup. And at one time I thought about outsourcing the, you know, the data input on that. But I, but it's not like I'm bringing in, you know, 50, 50 new clients, you know, a month or even a year. So I've really determined it's.

better for me to do it because it's opportunity for me to get to know them through the documents that they send me and the questionnaires that they've answered. And in many cases, I'm jotting down separately notes as follow-up items. And so it's a helpful process that I've chosen not to outsource. And so then, you know, they've gone on, they've programmed, they set up a 90-minute financial planning review meeting with me.

And then we get on and we just usually I build out anywhere between two to four different scenarios on the financial plan and through through money guide pro. And we just go through them and we talk about the, you know, the pros and kinds of things, the effects of making certain choices, whether it's retire earlier, retire later, spend more, spend less and and let them sort of center in on which one feels the best for them. And then we basically make that the anointed plan that we're going to work off of going forward.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
And then the next phase is talking a little bit about their risk tolerance. And then we say, well, you know, and this gets back to having doing your due diligence on the front end when it comes to selection of your clients is, know, we don't chase returns for return sake. You know, we sit there and say, look, I mean, we do the opposite. So in other words, if I can get by with less risk, which in most cases may also mean potentially

less return, are you okay with that? Because otherwise you're creating kind of uncompensated risk for yourself by being more concentrated perhaps in equities than you need to be, right? So we have that conversation in front of it. If they're comfortable with that, great. That's a box that we check and we say, they'll go along with it. So when we have the plan finished, they have the plan choice made, then they go, you know,

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
The next conversation is, right, so if things have gone well, now we have our investments that have, you know, hopefully been moved over into the new accounts with LPL. And they're sitting there just waiting for to be traded and put into models. And I mentioned, I mentioned if all goes well, most of the time there's a lag there, but sometimes it all kind of works. It depends on the custodian we're transferring from.

Donald Patrick
Thank you.

Kevin Garrett
But yeah, at that point in time, what we'll do is we'll say, what's most conservative investment strategy we can create for these guys that will give them the highest likelihood of success? And that's the direction that we tend to go, validate that with them, make sure they're comfortable with that approach. And then we just go and talk to the trading people and get the accounts invested.

Donald Patrick
So how do you determine their risk tolerance? That's a very, there's, you you make decisions intellectually and with your stomach. Are you using tools? Is that a conversation? How do you determine their risk tolerance?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, used, for a while I used a riskalyze, which I guess is not nitrogen now, but I don't use that anymore. That was one of those examples of tools that I bought, thought was kind of cool, used for a while, but in reality, didn't really get a vibe that it was adding a whole lot of value to me or to the client or the practice. at the end of the day, we...

Donald Patrick
you

Kevin Garrett
I use the questionnaire that's in MoneyGuide and it's integrated into the software. that's good. it gives, again, it gives kind of a visual of, okay, so you say this is your risk tolerance. How does that actually feel? it illustrates it. It takes you back to the Great Recession. Yeah, exactly.

Donald Patrick
2000 2008 and It's not just percentages is showing your dollar amounts. It's real

Kevin Garrett
It's dollars. It makes it real. And how do you feel about that? And so, you know, and then at that point, you kind of say, well, how does that feel? And if they kind of want to back off that number a little bit, well, then we change that risk tolerance. And then we'll take another run at the what that will net in terms of the asset allocation. And will that get them where they want to go? And if so, okay, even better. Now, we've really honed in on your emotional side as an investor.

And we've kind of coordinated that with the reality of what we think we can get away with and still meet your goals. I think, you it's a little bit of a process, but most of the time we can get it all done in that same conversation.

Donald Patrick
So you've had the 90 minute planning meeting. The clients actually get to choose what they wanted. Let's say the four scenarios you mentioned. They're implemented. Are there any other meetings with a new client, say in the next 90 days, or is it going to an annual cycle of some sort?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, so, you know, and I explain this to them in terms of what they're, I do this actually on our first call is to kind of understand the, and I send them a couple of documents. That's one thing I probably didn't mention to you, but when we set up that get acquainted call, you know, the very first one, I send them a number of documents for their review ahead of time. Some, and you can tell some of them look at it and some of them don't, but that's okay. But I mean, one of the documents is just a little bit more about me.

and my philosophies in the practice that we do. We also give them a document that shows them kind of the step-by-step process of what they can expect from that phone call all the way through the planning process. And then, you know, so at the point that we've made the choice, you know, we made the choice about the investment strategy, we've got a plan in place. You know, I'll reiterate that, you know, as we talked about on your first call, you know,

The next step is we put you into a cycle of quarterly contacts. So my office reaches out to them once a quarter. because of, you we have three different billing cycles through LPL. So we basically have tried to balance them out across all three cycles so that it doesn't kill my assistant too much to have to send these out. We're looking at trying to change a little bit of this process because I think it's become

as we've grown has become kind of a little bit of a time consuming process on her end. It's a little too labor intensive. So we're still trying to figure that out. But basically she sends out an email to them and says, it's been about a quarter since your last scheduled meeting with Kevin. It's that time again. If you want to have it, click the link below, schedule some time. And if you don't want to do it, don't worry about it. We'll get back to you this time in a quarter again.

So, and we also attach in there some thought provoking things around planning that says, you know, what has changed in your life and maybe some things that we need to be aware of. Because a lot of times people say, no, everything's fine. And then, you you get on a call with them and they give you a little nugget of something that you go, wow, I didn't know that. And they go, I thought you, I told you about it. So that's helpful to kind of.

Kevin Garrett
them when they when they look at that go, you know, matter of fact, we have had a few things so let's schedule some time. But I also tell them at the time that we that we get going is to say, look, I mean, that's my structure. That's a quarterly structure that we put in place because if not, then I think time will just pass and we'll all be a year older. We want to talk. But don't feel that that's the only time you can call me. You know, you've got my cell phone, you've got my office number, you got my email.

Donald Patrick
you

Kevin Garrett
When life happens you need me call me, you know, and and we'll just do it that way So yes, we have a structured approach in terms of communicating to them about meetings But we also just say call them when you call me when you need me

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
Yeah. So what percent of clients actually want to meet four times a year?

Kevin Garrett
Very small number. Yeah, yeah, very small. you know, it's a service. I think it's an offering, but it's not, it doesn't crush me.

Donald Patrick
Yeah, so I figured.

Donald Patrick
So in terms of the business, any challenges you're facing currently?

Kevin Garrett
Knock on wood here. know, right now, no. I mean, not really. I think the other thing that doing the planning, having, setting up a structure of planning first and investments secondary, I think it creates a little bit of guardrails on behavior. So when you, when people get, when we go through scary or uncertain times.

you know, whether, you because if anybody watches the news, I mean, if it bleeds, leads, right? So, I mean, it's going to be, it's, that's their job. They're in the entertainment business, more so these days, and I think the information business. And so, you know, it can be a scary environment for people. and depending again on people's political leanings, they may view things through different lenses. So, you know, there's all sorts of opportunities for, for people to get sideways.

behaviorally with what's going on. And I think the financial plan helps kind of address a little bit of that. you when we say, look, you know, we've taken into account good and bad investment time, windows of time. We've taken into account now pandemics, but before that, world wars, recessions, know, good times, bad times. So when these things happen, they're just part of the background of life and part of being an investor.

And you just have to recognize that and that's why we diversify. And that's why we don't put all of all your investments in one sector or even in one country, but we try to spread them out a little bit. And I think that creates a level of perhaps calm. And then, but at least at the very least, it creates a structure to have a meaningful conversation when people do call kind of freaked out or worried that you kind of can then say, look, I mean, as we have talked about.

And as we plan for and as we've discussed, this is not as scary as maybe some people want to make it out to be. And the worst thing you can do is react emotionally to something that you're going to probably regret reacting that way to down the road. So I think that structure itself lends itself to making my life a little bit easier. But then, so what I end up doing in many cases is

Kevin Garrett
is if I haven't heard from somebody in a while, I just proactively just call them. You know, I just go, look, maybe you haven't called me because, you you don't have anything to talk to me about. But I had a guy not too long ago, I called him up, he answered, goes, Kevin, is everything okay? I said, yeah, everything's great. I said, you don't call, you don't write, do you love me anymore, what's the problem? You know, and he goes, no, no, he goes, everything's great. But it led into a whole set of conversations around stuff that was going on in his life, and he just.

you know, we hung up the phone and he just said, just appreciate you just reaching out to me, man. You know, it was totally unexpected. And so I will do that from time to time for the people who I haven't talked to in a while. And, you know, and I will review our list to kind of understand who we've talked to and who we haven't.

Donald Patrick
So is this organizing your CRM or you say I haven't heard from Joe for a while?

Kevin Garrett
Well, the process that you, it's a very easy thing to go onto ClientWorks and take a look and say, when was the last review that you had with them? And so you can start there. And then usually, if I go, okay, yeah, but yeah, I did have that review last year. So I'm within my of my window of time that's acceptable. But I just know that person and I just know that probably I need to touch base with them from time to time.

So it's a little bit of knowing your client as well. I yeah, I think I'm pretty disciplined and structured, but there's also a little bit of just, know your client and you kind of, you got to understand that. I mean, I've got some clients who were working systematically through, you know, heavy concentrations in positions that have served them well, but you know, we're dealing a little bit, you know, we deal with two primary emotions in this business, It's fear and greed.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Donald Patrick
Yep.

Kevin Garrett
And which side of that ledger do you kind of land on? And the greed factor often kind of comes into play with these concentrated positions that have done really well. And so in some cases, you know, I'll reach out to them on that front and just go, Hey, you know what? It's been a while. I know, you know, I'm calling you and you know, I have a lady that's got a heavy concentration in a tech stock that she loves, but she's too emotionally attached to it. we've done some systematic sales and redeployed them.

her assets and she understands that it's in her best interest to do it. But I always have to chase her down to do that. So it's just part of the game, I think.

Donald Patrick
It is, it is. So I'm gonna ask you some fun questions maybe. And the verse is to use three words, describe your talents and strengths.

Kevin Garrett
I would say probably educator. I like to think of myself as an educator and I think that's part of what's attractive to me about working with these younger next generation folks that I'm starting to work with is you you kind of are able to maybe impart a little bit as maybe one of the one of the rare benefits of getting older is that you kind of have a little bit of life lessons that you can pass along. So I like I like educating and I like being an educator. I think I'm pretty empathetic.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
I also think I'm a pretty good listener and I think those two kind of go hand in hand with one another. know, one of the tools that's a jump that I love is the fact that it will actually track how much the clients talk as opposed to how much the advisors talk. And in some cases, I'll find myself going, yeah, you know what, you did kind of run on a little bit there, so you got to be careful about that. But yeah, I think, you know, the old saying, nobody ever learned anything.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
by talking, think really is a truism that I've tried to hang on to over the years. And so I try to do a little more listening than talking. And I think this business lends itself to being an empathetic soul. You have to care about your clients. if your relationship is transactional, they'll feel it and you won't get as much out of the relationship as opposed to one that.

where it's really meaningful. I think that all I would probably put those those titles to myself.

Donald Patrick
I would agree with that. So tell us something maybe surprising others don't know about you.

Kevin Garrett
We talked a little bit about my past, but I'd probably say, and you probably know this because I know we talk way back when about running and everything, way back when, I was both an all-city and all-state runner over in Alabama. So I did that. And then I got into marathons and did longer-term running. But I...

I don't do any of those these days anymore. Yeah, I just can't do it, you know? But I still try to get out and walk 10,000 or more steps on the regular and try to stay healthy that way. yeah, I think my running days are behind me.

Donald Patrick
Is that right?

Donald Patrick
How about golf, you still golfing?

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, I got away from it for a while. I really kind of focused on the business for a long time and got away from it. But as the business has matured and I've found myself to have more time and availability to do it, then yeah, I've kind of started doing it again. I'm not sure that it really shows in terms of the end result, but I still love to get out in place. I try to get out more often.

Donald Patrick
I've never seen an ugly golf course. They're all beautiful. Just getting that. So what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Kevin Garrett
Well, I mean, I think one of the things, like I said before, is talk less and listen more. And I really do use that on the regular because I think it's, we as a, in our industry, think it's full of lots of smart people. We have to go through a lot of education to get where we need to be. And so, and we build on life experiences. So I think in many cases, people are so in a hurry to demonstrate.

that expertise that you can kind of overwhelm clients in areas that they don't care that much about. And so I think it's important to have a humility about you to say, you know what? I you've got that depth if you need to go deep, but in most cases, there's probably no real value in doing that. And if anything, you're probably undermining the relationship or the experience in that conversation. So I try to listen more.

and try to talk less and then to the extent that you need to go deeper with somebody who wants to get into the weeds on something, then hey, that's fun too, we'll do that.

Donald Patrick
there. Yeah, two ears, one mouth. mean, clients, most clients don't want to open the hood up and start tearing the engine apart. That's not what they just want to know. They're okay.

Kevin Garrett
That's funny.

Kevin Garrett
Exactly. Yeah, I mean, we do have the Georgia Tech engineers in our team that will want to do that stuff. But yeah, by and large, no, we don't have that to worry

Donald Patrick
course.

Donald Patrick
Kevin, this been fantastic. What a career you've had and very deliberate in various aspects of your career. And it's been a blast watching you build this thing. again, you came to it with a business mindset and you experimented it a lot. You weren't afraid to try things, invest in things and you've got to.

Fabulous business now. It runs smoothly. It's simple. It's not ridiculous. And I want to thank you for taking this time. We all love these little conversations.

Kevin Garrett
Yeah, well, and I also want to reiterate, as I said before, I really appreciate the relationship with you, but also with IFG. You know, everything from the trading to the compliance to the client support and service, you know, that has all evolved over time and it's just gotten to point where it's just world-class stuff that supports my business. And I couldn't run the business as efficiently as I do if I didn't have this relationship and partnership.

Donald Patrick
Mm-hmm.

Kevin Garrett
You know, and I'm a part of a mastermind group that has some really smart guys in there. I, you know, I just hope they're not that smart that they, that they all of sudden wake up one day and realize what the heck is this guy doing? Yeah, what's this guy doing to this group? but they all have different practices and I always walk away with a handful of different things to kind of think about and reevaluate. you know, it's all part of the overall package and I just really appreciate the relationship.

Donald Patrick
What's Kevin doing there?

Kevin Garrett
see a lot of value in

Donald Patrick
Fantastic. And that's, I our goal is to try and take as much off your plate as possible. And yes, we've gotten better at, we have great teams and actually our team members have the same qualities. Our advisors are really good people and they really care.

Kevin Garrett
Absolutely, yeah, I will say that personally. And I know that they're all dealing with a lot of different personalities, a lot of different challenges, I'm sure, I'll just leave it at that. But I'll also say that whenever I talk to anybody in that group, they make me feel like I'm the only guy that they're working with and that they've been waiting on my phone call all day. And I think that's pretty awesome.

Donald Patrick
You're sick. You sure? Really?

Donald Patrick
Fantastic. That is exactly what it should be. All right, well, I'm going to sign off. Again, I want to thank you. I want to thank people listening to this. And this was a fantastic conversation. And I really appreciate it, Kevin.

Kevin Garrett
You bet, Have a great day. Bye-bye.

Donald Patrick
Alright, bye.