0:00

With record levels of dry

0:02

powder available for investment, find

0:04

out what's in store for

0:07

private markets in 2025 and

0:09

beyond. Listen to crafting capital

0:12

in partnership with UBS at

0:14

Partners.wsh.com/ UBS Spotify and

0:16

Apple Podcasts. What happens when

0:18

you combine relentless drive with a

0:21

culture that's fun, fair and flexible?

0:23

In the case of Stewart Partners,

0:26

you get an RIA firm with

0:28

about $40 billion in assets under

0:30

management. Hi everyone, I'm business

0:32

coach Steve Sandusky for Barron's Advisor,

0:35

the Way Forward podcast. My guest

0:37

today is Jim Gold. Jim is

0:40

the CEO founding partner and board

0:42

member at Stewart Partners. In today's

0:44

conversation, Jim shares the story behind

0:47

the founding of Stewart Partners

0:49

and how the firm's equity

0:51

ownership structure. fosters a culture

0:53

of accountability, collaboration, and innovation.

0:55

And as someone who's been

0:57

in the industry for 30

0:59

years, Jim describes how the

1:01

training and mentorship of new

1:04

advisors has changed from the

1:06

old Wirehouse days. He also

1:08

provides some insight into his

1:10

leadership style and why one

1:12

colleague described it as fun,

1:14

fair, but firm. With that,

1:16

here's my conversation with Jim Gold.

1:18

Who are your influences? So obviously

1:20

you have your personal experiences when

1:22

it comes to leadership, but are there

1:25

books? Are there mentors? Are there other

1:27

ways that you develop the leadership style

1:29

that you have today? Who would

1:31

you say or what would you say?

1:34

Are those influences? I've always learned

1:36

by watching others and you learn as much

1:38

by seeing people who are not good

1:40

leaders and the decisions they make and

1:42

how they handle themselves. You also learn

1:44

a ton from watching those who do

1:46

it well. So I think as a person

1:48

who's spent really their entire career in

1:51

the branch system as part of the

1:53

branch system, I've been doing this long

1:55

enough to see both styles and I

1:57

think my style is a sort of a

1:59

culmination. of who I am as a person and

2:01

learning from the ways to do it and ways

2:03

not to do it. Give me an example

2:06

of some bad leadership. You said

2:08

you've seen that. What might be

2:10

some examples of bad leadership or

2:12

a bad decision-making process? I think

2:14

bad leadership starts with arrogance. I

2:16

think if you make a decision and

2:18

you roll out of decision and the

2:20

people around you tell you that you

2:22

might have made a mistake or you

2:24

may want to think about that differently.

2:26

You have to be open-minded to embrace

2:29

that. And I think arrogance is

2:31

probably the biggest flaw of leadership.

2:33

I think it's never forgetting that the

2:35

people you lead are counting on you

2:37

and you have a responsibility to

2:39

be responsive to them. I look at

2:41

them as our folks, you look at

2:43

them as your clients, right? When you're

2:46

an advisor, you are responsive and you

2:48

take care of your clients or guess

2:50

what, you're not going to have clients

2:52

anymore. And I think field leadership in

2:54

wealth management has to keep that as

2:56

a hallmark or a cornerstone of how

2:58

they treat the people that are running the

3:00

client relationships. I was reading an

3:03

article where you were being interviewed

3:05

and in the article it said

3:07

a colleague described your leadership as

3:09

fun, fair, but firm. Would you agree with that?

3:11

If so, can you describe a little

3:13

bit those three words or if there's

3:15

some other words that you think would

3:17

more accurately describe your leadership? Yeah,

3:20

no, that was actually a close friend

3:22

of mine and it's absolutely true. So

3:24

I think that is really, it wasn't a

3:26

mandate in my mind of how I

3:28

wanted to lead, but it really is

3:30

a good way to encapsulate my style.

3:32

Listen, I think everyone should take themselves

3:34

very lightly, not too seriously. So that's

3:36

where the fun part comes in. You

3:38

should be able to enjoy each other's

3:41

company. I think it's really, you want

3:43

to be fair, right, and reasonable and

3:45

flexible, but you have to be firm on

3:47

what is the right decision, right? You have

3:49

to bring in others to help you

3:51

validate that decision. But once you've done

3:53

that, you have to be firm and

3:55

resolute in what you've decided. As

3:58

I said earlier, never be afraid to say. was

4:00

wrong, I made a mistake, I should

4:02

have thought about this differently. When you're

4:04

running an organization and an organization has

4:06

to be run in a thoughtful manner,

4:08

I think you have to be firm

4:10

in the decisions you make and move forward

4:12

and continue on. I know that culture

4:15

is a big piece of what you are designing

4:17

and building there into Stewart Partner. So

4:19

tell me a little bit about how

4:21

do you think about culture in an RIA

4:23

firm? I think culture starts with, you

4:25

know, Stewart is the cornerstone of the

4:28

firm as equity ownership. So every single

4:30

person here is an equity owner. And

4:32

that, you know, dramatically alters

4:34

the culture because the culture isn't,

4:36

I work at Stewart and they're

4:38

telling me it's a great place

4:40

to work. It's everyone here is

4:42

a shareholder. Everyone hears a partner.

4:45

I think culture is driven by

4:47

having a voice and being able

4:49

to steer an organization from the

4:51

field. whether that's a best practice,

4:53

which could be operational, or it's,

4:56

hey, there's a new technology the

4:58

firm should look into as a

5:00

tool for our advisors, to everything

5:02

else that goes into an organization, the

5:05

more of a voice that people

5:07

have, that's what creates a great

5:09

culture, right? When they have that

5:11

feeling of, I work here, it's there

5:13

where the highway, that's where the culture

5:15

has gone wrong, right? So we really

5:17

spent a lot of time on that. We

5:19

have over a dozen committees at

5:22

the firm and these are committees

5:24

made up of our advisors and

5:26

the administrative colleagues and and offs

5:28

colleagues and others and these are

5:30

everything from best practices to marketing

5:33

to under 40 to technology to

5:35

platform and these people meet monthly

5:37

they get together they share their

5:39

best ideas they share their thoughts.

5:41

They bring them to the

5:43

appropriate party at Stewart, whether

5:45

that's management or their peers.

5:47

And it really fosters an

5:49

environment of idea sharing and

5:51

true partnership and culture. You

5:53

mentioned that everybody has equity.

5:56

So is that literally everybody? Is

5:58

it just the advisors? and then

6:00

do people buy in the equity? Are they

6:02

awarded equity? Is it part of their bonus

6:04

plan? How does that work? Yes, it was

6:06

literally everyone and that's a it's

6:08

a great fair question. So we

6:10

felt like to do this right,

6:12

there should be no one here

6:14

that doesn't have equity in the

6:16

company. So when a team joins

6:18

us from the outside, the advisors

6:20

have equity as part of their

6:23

transition package and their administrative colleagues

6:25

have their own, you know, transition

6:27

package including equity. And then there's

6:29

ongoing opportunity for advisors who are

6:31

growing to earn more equity. There's

6:33

ongoing opportunity for administrative. colleagues

6:35

to share in those bonuses as

6:37

their teams grow. So it really

6:39

is a cornerstones. We have over

6:42

500 equity partners today. And really

6:44

from a financial perspective, all the

6:46

equity everyone holds, including myself and

6:48

the other co-founder, high support, we

6:51

all have the same financial upside.

6:53

There's no special privileges that Jim

6:55

Gold or high support enjoy as

6:58

the founders of the firm. You mentioned

7:00

earlier, we were talking about a

7:02

colleague who described your leadership as

7:04

fun, fair, but firm. What would three

7:06

words be that you would use to

7:08

describe your culture? I would say fun, fair,

7:10

and flexible. Because people listen,

7:13

people have fun here and we

7:15

have a national conference every year.

7:17

It was in Las Vegas this

7:19

year. We had over 400 people

7:21

there. So every advisor plus their

7:23

spouse is invited to join us.

7:25

There are dozens of administrative colleagues

7:27

there. There are dozens of members

7:29

of management there, as well as

7:31

our entire board of directors. And

7:33

we spend three and a half

7:35

days together. And a lot of

7:37

that is sharing best practices and

7:39

the company update. We have a

7:41

shareholder update because everyone in that room

7:43

is a shareholder. But there's a lot

7:45

of fun events that go on. We went

7:47

to tour the sphere in Vegas this year

7:49

is a good example. But people say things

7:51

to me that I love, which is

7:53

the best place I've ever worked. or

7:56

thank you for starting this firm. I

7:58

had given up on my best. days

8:00

being ahead of me and now my best

8:02

days are ahead of me again. And those

8:04

are the things that are intangible that we

8:07

love to hear from our colleagues. And

8:09

when it comes to equity, if someone

8:11

leaves the firm for whatever reason or

8:13

retires, does the firm have to buy

8:16

their equity back? Can they keep their

8:18

equity? How does that work? Yeah there's

8:20

different programs depending on are they retiring

8:22

obviously they have to be vested so

8:24

there is a buyback opportunity if it's

8:26

a qualified departure whether it's vested or

8:28

retirement etc they have a window of

8:30

time that they're able to hold the

8:32

equity. We were also conscious of, and

8:34

I can't tell you why, because 11

8:37

years ago, when this was pretty much

8:39

an idea on a piece of paper,

8:41

we should have been worried about when

8:43

we're filing for bankruptcy, not how does

8:45

someone retire in 20 years? So I

8:47

think that the question we get a

8:49

lot is, can I hold it longer?

8:51

I want to hold it longer, because

8:54

they see that, hey, they're getting distributions

8:56

every year. The equity value goes up

8:58

every single year, because every year it's

9:00

this firm, since its founding since its

9:02

founding has been a record year. The

9:04

equity should be in the shareholders

9:06

hands of the active shareholders. So

9:09

there should be some period of

9:11

time post retirement. You can enjoy

9:13

some additional upside and benefit.

9:15

But at a certain point, it should

9:17

be limited in scope. So we've looked

9:19

at that. We've talked to our peers

9:22

about maybe enhancing that slightly. So that's

9:24

probably something we'll put on the drawing

9:26

board for 25. You have a couple

9:29

of large outside investors. Typically these

9:31

outside investors have a shorter. time

9:33

frame in terms of when they

9:35

want to get a return on

9:37

their investment. How do you balance the

9:39

needs of your large outside investors with

9:41

trying to build a firm for the

9:43

long term? Yeah, so if you think

9:45

about Stewart and I've asked this

9:48

question or made this comment to

9:50

over a thousand people and no

9:52

one's ever disputed it, which is

9:54

there's never been a firm built

9:56

to our size that didn't take

9:58

in capital around launch. So we

10:00

took in no capital for six years.

10:02

So when I tell you it was

10:05

the long hard road, it's going to

10:07

be a great movie someday and we'll

10:09

invite you to the premiere. So taking

10:11

in capital in 2019 from Sinashore is

10:13

a family office. It was our first

10:16

outside capital. And then we took in

10:18

capital from the Pritzker's personal family office.

10:20

It was $100 million. And in both

10:22

those cases, by the way, almost half

10:25

of that money went out to the

10:27

entire organization as a liquidity opportunity. So

10:29

I think it's important in a privately

10:31

held company, you have to validate

10:33

the value of the equity on

10:35

a regular basis. You also should

10:37

create liquidity for partners on a

10:39

regular basis, because otherwise the equity

10:41

somewhat becomes like Zillow for your

10:43

house, right? The number might sound

10:45

great, but if someone actually willing to

10:48

pay for that. So in those cases,

10:50

and I've always believed in, there's absolutely

10:52

the right capital at the right time.

10:54

In those cases, we wanted long capital,

10:56

both of them I mentioned the fact

10:59

their family offices. Right. There is no

11:01

clock. There is no minimum holding or

11:03

maximum holding. They are combined. They are

11:05

absolute minority investors in the firm. And

11:08

they're happy to be in steward and

11:10

continue to support and help our growth.

11:12

They've been tremendous partners to us. So

11:14

we couldn't be more grateful than we

11:17

are to have them here. But there's

11:19

never been pressure on liquidity. It's more

11:21

about saying, hey, the firm's doing great.

11:23

How can we support you? What else

11:26

do we do for you guys, which

11:28

is really wonderful in a in a

11:30

partnership? Growth is clearly a

11:32

key part of what you're

11:34

trying to accomplish there. So

11:36

you started out as an advisor

11:39

again about 30 years ago. Yeah.

11:41

If you look at how you

11:43

were building your business as an

11:45

advisor back in the 1990s, and

11:48

you flash forward to today, how

11:50

has it changed in terms of

11:52

how an advisor can build a

11:54

business? And then how is Stewart

11:57

partners different or is it

11:59

different? in terms of how your

12:01

helping advisors continue to grow their business

12:03

today versus back in the 90s at

12:05

Smith Barney and what Smith Barney was

12:07

trying to do to help its young

12:09

advisors build their businesses. Yeah, I think

12:11

obviously the business has changed dramatically. I

12:14

think what you're seeing is and

12:16

why most of firms have gotten

12:18

away from traditional training programs. your

12:20

newer advisors need to have a period

12:22

of time where they're more of an

12:25

apprentice, if you will, and then

12:27

you really couldn't build this next-gen advisor

12:29

profile. So I think the advisors coming

12:31

in absolutely have the best success joining

12:34

an existing team, where they don't

12:36

have to be the advisor, they don't

12:38

have to go from Hey, I

12:40

was in another business. I took the

12:42

series seven. Now I'm supposed to

12:44

be a market expert, a marketing expert,

12:47

run my own business. It's pretty incredible

12:49

when you think of back in the

12:51

day, what advisors did and survived in the

12:53

industry with all the challenges ahead of them.

12:56

So we have a lot of younger advisors.

12:58

Many of them are folks that started

13:00

in different roles that graduated into

13:02

being an advisor. Almost all of them

13:04

are on teams. And I think that's

13:07

really a way that is the best

13:09

way for everyone. An interesting parallel in

13:11

sports franchises do this where They draft

13:13

a quarterback, but they don't start them

13:16

for two or three years and they

13:18

let them learn behind the starting

13:20

quarterback. And then that tends to

13:22

have someone who's more ready to take

13:25

on the enormity of the task ahead

13:27

of them. But I think that, listen,

13:29

the core of being an advisor hasn't

13:32

changed, right? Clients want honest advice, good

13:34

advice. They want you to be unconflicted.

13:36

And that's one of the key things we

13:38

do at Stewart. Whenever I talk to the

13:40

media, they say, I don't have one. Our

13:43

advisors and our clients, the clients

13:45

should get the market outlook from

13:47

their advisor. The clients and the

13:49

advisors should have that conversation not

13:51

steward. So we never want to

13:53

put ourselves in between our advisor

13:55

and their client, whether it's product,

13:57

whether it's research, whether it's a

13:59

pain. That's not the firm's role.

14:01

What's gone out of whack in

14:03

the industry is very simple. The

14:05

client is the most important entity

14:07

in this relationship. The second most

14:09

important is the advisor because they

14:11

serve that client. The least important

14:13

is the firm. All of these

14:15

firms have turned the hourglass upside

14:17

down and they put the firm

14:19

first, which is absolutely wrong in

14:21

my opinion. again back when you

14:23

started it was pretty much still

14:25

a commission business today it's pretty

14:27

much flipped and now it's pretty

14:30

much a recurring fee type business

14:32

and back in the commission days

14:34

if you couldn't sell you didn't

14:36

make it whereas today you join

14:38

a team and you sort of

14:40

apprentice as you mentioned here and

14:42

eventually perhaps you get some of

14:44

the clients from the lead advisor

14:46

because they've got too many clients

14:48

and now you get quote handed

14:50

these clients or inherit these clients.

14:52

First of all, would you agree

14:54

with that? And then second, how

14:56

do you think about the business

14:58

development piece in terms of, for

15:00

your advisors at Stewart Partners, are

15:02

they pretty much developing all the

15:04

new business at the team level?

15:06

Or is there also a corporate

15:08

marketing function at Stewart that is

15:10

also trying to generate some leads

15:12

that then get passed on to

15:14

the different teams there? Yes, I

15:16

think the most teams are. utilizing

15:18

the apprentice position in a way

15:20

that you described. I think it's

15:22

a little different where depending on

15:24

the business, you might say, hey,

15:26

here is a tier of my

15:28

clients that you can give full-time

15:30

attention to that as if I

15:32

have 500 households, right, I can't

15:34

give them all the same level

15:36

of attention. In the right scenario,

15:38

that tends to drive significant organic

15:40

growth because that apprentice is going

15:42

to go in and say, hey,

15:44

I'd like to do a new

15:46

financial review for you. I'd like

15:48

to do an insurance review for

15:50

you. Have you had your grandchildren's

15:52

529s reviewed? And there's usually a

15:54

terrific opportunity to bring in new.

15:56

said in underutilized client relationships. So

15:58

that's what we do focus on.

16:00

We have not launched a sort

16:02

of digital marketing or a firm

16:04

marketing to the direct public for

16:06

our clients. And where we've had

16:08

some hesitancy to do that is

16:10

going back to messaging. And I

16:12

can remember back in the day

16:14

at Smith Barney when we had

16:16

a number of years we were

16:18

part of city group. And the

16:20

worst thing ever would be a

16:22

Smith Barney client and it's no

16:24

one's fault that just happened. They

16:26

come into me or the advisor

16:28

comes in and says, why is

16:30

Citibank emailing or mailing my client

16:32

a flyer about CDs? And now

16:34

all of a sudden you've put

16:36

the firm between the client and

16:38

their advisor. So it is something

16:40

we're looking into. We are going

16:42

to build something along those lines

16:44

to help foster new relationships for

16:46

our advisors, but we want to

16:48

do it with their help and

16:50

their guidance on it. Where most

16:52

of our folks are really growing

16:54

is we have a tremendous marketing

16:56

department. And there are lots and

16:58

lots of things that you can

17:00

do as an advisor that you

17:02

can't do in a traditional wealth

17:04

management firm. And there's no rules

17:06

or laws against them. It's they've

17:08

made a business decision to limit

17:10

things like social media. Right. We've

17:12

had advisors who have their own

17:14

YouTube channel for 10 years. Right.

17:16

So these bigger firms are not

17:18

nimble. And when they roll something

17:20

out, everyone else has typically had

17:22

it for 10 years, right? So

17:24

our advisor have taken full advantage

17:26

of that. They found new ways

17:28

in digital and marketing and social

17:30

media and podcasting to build a

17:32

new base of clients from that.

17:34

And we've seen explosive growth in

17:36

many of our advisors from it.

17:39

You mentioned that clients are the

17:41

number one in terms of clients

17:43

advisors in the firm. As you

17:45

think about what clients, clients. needs

17:47

were again 30 years ago when

17:49

you started versus what clients needs

17:51

are today. How much have clients

17:53

changed or have they changed in

17:55

what do you see are like

17:57

the key things that they're really

17:59

needing and wanting today from their

18:01

financial advisor. Yeah, I think the

18:03

funny part is for all the

18:05

other changes, I think the client

18:07

advisor relationship is exactly the same,

18:09

right? A client wants someone who's

18:11

competent, someone who they can trust,

18:13

someone who's responsive to their needs,

18:15

which all of this is so

18:17

common sense, right? But that's really

18:19

the core of the advisor-client relationship.

18:21

Sometimes, you know, and you build

18:23

very close relationships with your clients,

18:25

right, because you become... a family

18:27

counselor and the trading over time

18:29

almost become secondary. You touched on

18:31

earlier the change in how business

18:33

is done. We were very fortunate

18:35

Smith Barney that through their EF

18:37

Hutton legacy, EF Hutton pioneered the

18:39

idea of working with a client

18:41

on a single fee basis. So

18:43

Smith Barney was always way ahead

18:45

of the curve there. What's interesting

18:47

is that Stewart about 70% of

18:49

our advisors or CFP designated are

18:51

higher. So planning is obviously critical.

18:53

87% of the revenue that we

18:55

do as an organization. is done

18:57

in our corporate RIA. So we

18:59

are very heavily planning based and

19:01

advisory based with obviously the vast

19:03

preponderance of our clients. And do

19:05

you guys have a high net

19:07

worth focus or is it just

19:09

that you've got all different kinds

19:11

of advisors at all different levels

19:13

of client sophistication? So who are

19:15

the typical clients of the firm?

19:17

Yeah, it's a high net worth

19:19

focus and I think it really

19:21

is. driven by the advisors we

19:23

welcome into the partnership so our

19:25

average advisor does about a million

19:27

to in revenue so these are

19:29

if you think about that number,

19:31

right? That's the number you're going

19:33

to hear from a big four

19:35

wealth management firm, right? And that's

19:37

actually higher in some cases. It's

19:39

significantly higher than most independent firms.

19:41

So when you have advisors who

19:43

are tenured, who are accredited, who

19:45

work in a holistic manner, who

19:47

are larger producers, they tend to

19:49

be the folks that serve the

19:51

fluent and very high-end massive fluid.

19:53

And with 1.2 million in revenue

19:55

per advisor, roughly how many clients

19:57

would they be servicing? Usually it's

19:59

a couple of hundred households, but

20:01

many of them do it as

20:03

we talked about earlier through a

20:05

team. So it could be a

20:07

lead advisor, more of the apprentice

20:09

or junior advisor, and then the

20:11

administrative team around them. Talk to

20:13

me a little bit about the

20:15

future of the firm. How do

20:17

you picture what steward partners will

20:19

look like a few years down

20:21

the road? Yeah, I think, listen,

20:23

people asked the question about Stewart

20:25

and our success and listen, we

20:27

don't focus on yesterday, we're focused

20:29

on tomorrow. And I think great

20:31

companies have to do two things.

20:33

You have to be able to

20:35

execute because if you look at

20:37

our business plan, there's been 500

20:39

companies launched with our business plan

20:41

and 490 of them at the

20:43

bottom of the ocean next to

20:45

the Titanic. So it's about execution,

20:48

number one, more than anything. And

20:50

the second part is evolution, right?

20:52

If you look at Stewart today.

20:54

there's hallmarks of what we are

20:56

that were there from day one

20:58

like the equity ownership. And then

21:00

there's brand new offerings that we

21:02

have that are, you know, dramatically

21:04

changing our growth trajectory and everything

21:06

else about the firm. And that

21:08

would be in this case, M&A.

21:10

Right. So up to a year

21:12

ago, we had never consummated an

21:14

M&A transaction. We've now done seven

21:16

and we have seven more under

21:18

L. I and we have a

21:20

pipeline of five or six dozen

21:22

names that we're in conversation with.

21:24

So. The future of Seward is

21:26

brighter than it's ever been. I

21:28

mentioned this at our conference a

21:30

year or so ago. I said,

21:32

you know, like that great Frank

21:34

Sinatra song, the best is yet

21:36

to come. And so look, we're

21:38

going to build from here a

21:40

billion dollar revenue firm. That means

21:42

we need to base. triple where

21:44

we are today and we're going

21:46

to do that much faster than

21:48

it took to get to where

21:50

we are today because we have

21:52

critical mass. We have over five

21:54

dozen offices, we have a hundred

21:56

person leadership team and 500 partners

21:58

that are out there in the

22:00

community telling all their friends and

22:02

peers how great it is to

22:04

be here. You mentioned execution is

22:06

one of the key things there.

22:08

Tell me a little bit about

22:10

how you execute? Maybe the planning

22:12

process, how the leadership team works,

22:14

how you hold people accountable, how

22:16

you set goals, how frequently you

22:18

review the initiatives and objectives that

22:20

you have, how does the execution

22:22

process work? Listen, execution is every

22:24

day, right? There's no coasting. There's

22:26

no point of saturation at Stewart.

22:28

We don't care that we've already

22:30

finished 10 marathons. We're putting our

22:32

sneakers on for the next marathon.

22:34

So it's a daily thing, right?

22:36

It's a daily process. We're on

22:38

calls all the time. We have

22:40

a tremendous board of directors. I

22:42

mentioned Charlie Johnson. We have Bob

22:44

Mulholland who ran Merrill Lynch back

22:46

when it was the thundering herd

22:48

and ran the field at UBS.

22:50

We're the only board Bob's ever

22:52

served on. We have Janet Robinson,

22:54

who was the CEO of the

22:56

New York Times, who's on the

22:58

board of the Carnegie Foundation today.

23:00

And then we have our outside

23:02

investors and others, so tremendous board.

23:04

We actually had our board meeting

23:06

yesterday. And look, we're measuring this

23:08

quarterly with the board. We measure

23:10

it monthly with our team. We're

23:12

measuring it weekly. We go through

23:14

pipelines and who's having what conversations

23:16

or where are we at? This

23:18

is what I did when I

23:20

was a trainee. You used to

23:22

dial the phone 500 times a

23:24

day. Co-calling people on Long Island,

23:26

they were so happy to get

23:28

my phone call when I called

23:30

them. So you have to, if

23:32

you're going to succeed, you have

23:34

to be relentless and you have

23:36

to outwork your peers, right? This

23:38

is the most competitive business in

23:40

the world. And whatever skills and

23:42

attributes you don't have, you can

23:44

make up for them by out

23:46

working everyone else. Where does your

23:48

relentless come from? into your life

23:50

where you probably don't need to

23:52

work anymore and you're doing fine,

23:54

yet here you are just still

23:56

crushing it. So where does that

23:59

motivation and drive come from? Listen,

24:01

I've always thought personally is your

24:03

goal should be to be extraordinary.

24:05

And any job I ever took,

24:07

I would say to my boss,

24:09

tell me what the best person

24:11

you ever hired did. And they

24:13

would say, why are you asking?

24:15

I said, because I'm going to

24:17

do more than that. So that

24:19

is a outlook and an attitude

24:21

that our management team shares. We're

24:23

not here to be ordinary. We're

24:25

here to be extraordinary. Right. And

24:27

that's what we want to do.

24:29

And that's what we are doing.

24:31

So we embrace that so heavily.

24:33

And I would say, we'll all

24:35

slow down when the race is

24:37

over, right? When someday comes and

24:39

you retire, you can slow down,

24:41

right? But for now, you're going

24:43

to run at full speed until

24:45

you get there. The simplest thing

24:47

in the world is you never

24:49

stop if you keep increasing your

24:51

goal. So the original goal 10

24:53

years ago was, what if we

24:55

could build a firm with 10

24:57

branches that did $100 million in

24:59

revenue? If we stopped there, I

25:01

would have retired six years ago.

25:03

Right. So what we keep doing

25:05

is we keep increasing the goal.

25:07

So now the goal is a

25:09

billion dollars in revenue and probably

25:11

$120 billion in assets. That helps

25:13

you stay very focused on the

25:15

road ahead, not the road or

25:17

the accomplishments behind you. Your role

25:19

is clearly not a stress-free role.

25:21

So what would you say keeps

25:23

you up at night? What's a

25:25

challenger concern that really causes you

25:27

to lose some sleep that you

25:29

don't often share publicly? Honestly, I

25:31

can't think of much. I don't

25:33

worry about our people or the

25:35

firm or things like that. When

25:37

I wake up and I call

25:39

at the 3 a.m. board meeting

25:41

with yourself, you're playing there in

25:43

bed thinking about what's on your

25:45

mind, what's on my mind is

25:47

going, oh, I have to follow

25:49

up with so and so and

25:51

I owe that person to call

25:53

back from yesterday and I got

25:55

to make sure we get that

25:57

offer out to so it's more

25:59

almost like a refresh of my

26:01

rolling work calendar in my head.

26:03

But I'm not a nervous person

26:05

by nature. I don't get worried.

26:07

I don't mind. All this stuff

26:09

is fine, right? It's part of

26:11

the job, right? There's litigation and

26:13

competition and you worry about making

26:15

sure we're competitive, which I do

26:17

worry about that. But yeah, we

26:19

have such a wonderful team and

26:21

an organization around me. It's not

26:23

at all what I do is

26:25

what the team does, and I'm

26:27

just fortunate to be the leader

26:29

of the team. You mentioned that

26:31

you think this is one of

26:33

the most competitive industries out there.

26:35

What would you say is a

26:37

hard truth about building a successful

26:39

advisory firm, a hard truth that

26:41

most people don't really want to

26:43

hear? The hard truth is that

26:45

99% of the people are going

26:47

to give up and not give

26:49

it the time and attention it

26:51

needs to be successful. I told

26:53

my wife when we started Stewart,

26:55

and she said, so what's the

26:57

plan? I said, look, the plan

26:59

is either way you and the

27:01

kids are going to be fine.

27:03

And she said, what does that

27:05

mean? I said, I'm going to

27:08

kill myself to make sure this

27:10

is a rip-woring success, or I'm

27:12

going to drop dead of a

27:14

heart attack trying to do that,

27:16

and you guys will have the

27:18

life insurance money, so you're fine.

27:20

And she said, let's go with

27:22

door number one there, big guy.

27:24

That sounds much better to me.

27:26

the story you just told you

27:28

about your wife and what you

27:30

said the two potential outcomes are

27:32

here. So what's the why behind

27:34

why you were working so hard

27:36

here? I wanted to show the

27:38

industry that you can build a

27:40

great firm and what people remember

27:42

as the good old days can

27:44

still be today. And the industry

27:46

got so far away from that

27:48

and it's run by consultants and

27:50

what have you that We lost

27:52

that and that was really the

27:54

whole genesis of Stewart which was

27:56

saying we're going to build an

27:58

organization and give people advice. and

28:00

their teams, give them what they

28:02

deserve. Right? Because advisors are

28:04

very simple people in a good way.

28:06

They want to have a firm that

28:08

says, hey, I'm here to help you, right?

28:10

I'm here to support you. I'm never

28:13

going to get between you and

28:15

your client. Don't play around my

28:17

comp plan every year. And when I

28:19

need your help, help me. And gosh,

28:21

if I can enjoy spending time with

28:23

you, we can have a little fun.

28:26

This might be the best place they've

28:28

ever worked. Jim, as we get ready to

28:30

wrap up here, is there anything else that you

28:32

want to share that I haven't asked

28:34

you yet? Listen, I would share that

28:37

again, I do profoundly have gratitude for

28:39

the opportunity I've had, and I love

28:41

to help mentor and help others who

28:43

are behind me, and I'm always happy

28:45

to take a call. So I think

28:47

there's a pay it forward that people

28:49

do, and I think that's a wonderful

28:51

part of our industry. I think this

28:53

is the best industry in the world.

28:56

I think unfortunately the industry gets painted

28:58

with a brush of tarnish. And I

29:00

would say no one makes a movie

29:02

about the millions of people that work

29:04

in this business, that work hard every

29:06

day and deeply care about their clients

29:08

and go home tired every night and

29:10

wake up and come back and do it

29:12

again tomorrow. because no one's going to go

29:14

watch that blue. They want to watch Wolfa

29:16

Wall Street or boiler room, right? So unfortunately,

29:18

I tell for people who are not in

29:20

the industry that might hear this, I would

29:22

tell you it's the best industry in the

29:24

world. It's an industry that you can really

29:26

impact in a meaningful way the lives of

29:28

others and do a great thing for you

29:31

and your family as well. All right,

29:33

that's all for

29:35

today. Make sure

29:38

you like and

29:40

share this podcast

29:42

through your favorite

29:44

social platforms. And

29:46

for more great

29:49

podcasts, visit

29:52

us at barons.com/podcasts.

29:55

Take care and

29:58

be safe. On

30:00

a a recent episode, I I

30:02

spoke to Myalare, about how how

30:05

investment banks are adapting in

30:07

the rapidly world of private markets.

30:09

It has has changed for sure.

30:11

If we on the the deployment

30:13

side the the private capital

30:15

and on the private credit,

30:18

it has helped us in

30:20

a lot of situations, in

30:22

the sense that there were

30:24

times in the last 18

30:26

months there there was no syndicated

30:28

non -market available. And as deal practitioners,

30:31

we we needed private capital

30:33

to make deal So in that case, there

30:35

case, there was no competition.

30:37

was actually us bringing all

30:39

this private capital provider to

30:41

be able to enable us

30:44

to sign deals, to do

30:46

acquisitions. Find crafting capital at partners.wsJ.com/UBS, Spotify and Apple podcasts.