June 2025
In a recent review of my band’s last single by the folks at No Transmission say our lyrics don’t just speak of chaos, they wrestle with it in real time.
I can’t think of a better way to describe 2025. This year has forced many of us to confront hard truths:
- An uncertain economy has business owners fine-tuning their products and outlook, as well as their purpose and what value they deliver.
- Inflation, coupled with tariffs, has us rethinking big purchases and our constant drive to consume.
- Politics, which used to be more of an election-year phenomenon, has become part of everyday public discourse.
And there are personal truths, too. For instance, I just turned 40, and it came with some wakeup calls even the best planning didn’t prepare me for.
Back to basics, on purpose
I turned 40 this month. I didn’t expect it to be one of those profound milestones; my wife planned an amazing low key party for me and my youngest, who turned 4. It was on track to be the perfect, low-key birthday.
But then I started thinking about transitions. It occurred to me that for all the time I spend helping my clients successfully retire and business owners scale their firms —and for all the advice we provide about building and planning with the end in mind — I’ve rarely thought about my own end game for the business.
I’m 40 now. What happens when I’m 60? I love what I do, and I love my clients, so it almost felt like a betrayal to think about succession planning.
And wow. That’s a lot! There were a lot of emotions involved in something that essentially amounted to taking my own advice. And as I thought about why that is, and what it means, I came up with some takeaways that might help others who are trying to build wealth, build businesses and careers, and live meaningful lives.
Plotting a course
When we talk about purpose, one of the biggest benefits of this type of big-picture thinking is that it makes day-to-day decisions easier. When you know where you’re going, it’s easier to decide which direction to take.
However, it can be easy to forget to plan, especially when we don’t have trusted individuals in our network who can help us see the forest for the trees. Even if your compass is calibrated, you still need a map.
In my case, I’m building a business that aligns with my values, and prominent amongst them are the ideas of service and stewardship. These, and other values, guide all of my decisions.
Ultimately, I aim to create a business that positively impacts my clients and community through the power of great financial planning. And maybe, after 2-3 more decades of work, someone will want to buy or take it over.
And until the last year or two, that was powerful enough that I never figured out a plan or drew a map. How do I get from point A to point B? The good news is… all I really needed was someone like me. And you should know, I spend a lot of money every year on consultants, training, and education to make me (and my whole team) better for you (and all the people you care about).
What are they helping me do right now? We are drawing maps.
Read more about short-term versus long-term planning.
Purpose helps you manage (& wrestle) the chaos
While my birthday served as a major wake-up call to me that logistics are just as important as big-picture guidance, another event reminded me not to discount the big picture.
I recently had the opportunity to meet Katrina Purcell, an outsourced COO with a proven track record of helping startups scale and excel. Now, she has moved away from helping individual firms in-house and is putting that skill to work as a fractional Chief Operating Officer (COO). And it turns out the ideas that come up when we help retirees and business owners with their financial plans are the SAME IDEAS that come up when she helps businesses get organized.
Ultimately, it comes down to streamlining. What’s most important to you? Put your time there. What do you want in 20 years? Structure your business to accomplish that. Whether it’s Katrina helping you build workflows or me reminding you that how you incorporate your business could impact how much money you make when you sell in 20 years… it all comes back to purpose and intention. We talked about that this month on her podcast.
You don’t have to do it alone
Whether it’s figuring out how to incorporate your business or deciding whether you have enough to retire, one thing I am reminded of time and again is that it’s harder when you try to muscle through things alone.
I’m not here to weigh in on whether things are better or worse now than they were 30 years ago… but as someone who’s been around for four decades now, I can say with some confidence: Things are more complicated than they were.
15 years ago, smartphones were new, our cars didn’t need an internet subscription, and it sure felt like most of us had a rough idea of where we were headed. Now, many of us are uncertain about what the future holds. And that’s OK!
But it makes planning harder. There is no possible way to be an expert in everything. You can’t know the best car to buy, the most efficient financing options to take out, the best tax strategy to use… spend 40+ hours a week crushing it at your job… and still make it to your kids’ soccer game on time.
So my takeaway from my period of wrestling with chaos? Hire an expert.
Whether that’s working with an advisor (like me!), a bookkeeper, an outsourced business manager, or even a professional contractor to handle cleaning your gutters and servicing your HVAC—these expenses are worth it. (And if you do it right, hiring the advisor and accountant will help you determine how to pay for the contractor and business manager….)
Learn more about how we can help.
When the music takes you somewhere calm
We got your blood pumping last time… but our newest single doesn’t wrestle with chaos or help you manage it… it gives you a chance to escape it.
Introducing… Riverside. The ballad.
