I’m back in Charleston now, but I spent the first half of my week in Miami for Nitrogen’s Fearless Investing Summit.

It was a solid few days, and it was great to grab time with several of our clients and friends over a few days, host two workshops for advisors, and hear from Don Miller, Ray Lewis, and others. Congrats again to Dan Bolton and the Nitrogen team on what is always a great event.

Here’s what I’ve got on deck for this week’s Connected:

Taking Stock of Your (Tech) Stack — An Insight into Utilization, Satisfaction, and Licensing

Regulation, Education, and Adoption of Crypto in Wealth Management – Tyrone Ross 🎧

Optimizing Your Orion (Recap)

The Business of the NFL

Soundtrack for Your Focus Mode

Let’s get into it.

Taking Stock of Your (Tech) Stack — An Insight into Utilization, Satisfaction, and Licensing

If you spend time helping advisors navigate their future, you are probably very familiar with the simple question, “What’s your tech stack?”

Inevitably, this question unlocks a lot of feedback that goes well beyond the contents of the stack and quickly deep dives into shortfalls, disconnects, frustration, and a few highlights.

Needless to say, advisors we talk with regularly are not generally in love with their technology experience.

When we combine general discontentment with the natural tension caused by consolidation and often redundant CRMs, accounting systems, planning systems, and various accouterments – most tech stacks look like a car crash vs. a well-oiled machine.

Similar to how we think about wealth management clients taking advantage of the full spectrum of services your firm offers, the idea of utilization is a significant factor when you look at your tech stack.

Putting You Back in Utilization

It’s often surprising for the executive teams of wealth management firms to really get into the details of how little advisors actually use the technology that the home office sponsors.

To quote my friend Steve Gresham, in wealth management, “Adoption is the new innovation.”

Steve is right. The technology advisors actually adopt is generally remarkable and noteworthy.

Measuring utilization (aka adoption) and satisfaction will give you insight into the efficacy of your technology decisions.

Too much, Too Little, Too easy to Ignore

First, let’s think about satisfaction. Although the Rolling Stones had a hit without any, your team’s level of satisfaction is critical to retaining top talent and increasing efficiency in your firm. You might know if your team really dislikes a part of your technology (baseball bats to the office printer are a good sign). But to know for sure, you have to ask them. Often, the significant error I have observed inside firms is that surveys either overly complicate the questions around features or make too broad of brush strokes so that people aren’t able to be specific.

NPS Happiness?

Firms that have implemented a net promoter system might be tempted to jam in all sorts of questions in the context of a survey that only gathers around 13% of the population in a B2B context. To get a feel for the true happiness around your technology, you need data points over time. Too many specific questions will make you edit them each year, removing your ability to chart whether happiness increases or decreases.

All of this leads me to ask, “What if you simply could rate your technology the same way you would rate your meal at a restaurant?” You can obviously say things about your rating, but a level playing field of measurement creates a much more repeatable process to curate the experience you deliver. Write your questions with meals in mind, and you’ll likely stay on the right track to be able to quantify satisfaction.

Of course, the first step in evaluating a meal or your tech stack is to know what’s in it. It’s common for firms to lose track of all the technology they have at their disposal. Not until budgets are reviewed, or expense reports are submitted do we remember all the stuff we use in our technology suite.

What if we could provide something that helps you keep track of what you stack?

To this end, our team is about to launch a solution geared toward serving the technology analysis, utilization, licensing, and satisfaction for wealth management firms.

If you’d like a sneak peek, shoot me a reply, and I’d love to get your insight.

On the Pod

Regulation, Education, and Adoption of Crypto in Financial Advisory with Tyrone Ross

Episode 014: On this week’s episode of Milemarker’s Connected Podcast, Kyle talks with Tyrone Ross, CEO and Co-Founder of Turnqey Labs and President and Founder of 401 Financial.

Tyrone and Kyle discuss everything cryptocurrency, including its role in the financial services industry.

Here are a few key takeaways:

The importance of education and regulatory clarity in the crypto space.

The transformative potential of cryptocurrencies in providing financial access to underserved communities.

The growing role of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in the financial industry.

The episode is available now on your favorite podcast platform and a video version on YouTube. While there, please don’t forget to Download, Like, and Subscribe.

Orion Workshop Recap

Thank you to those of you who attended our workshop last week, where Kyle Van Pelt and Scott Klaassen answered some of your top questions on how you can get more out of your Orion experience.

If you weren’t able to join us last week, I wanted to share the recording below:

Since there were quite a few questions they couldn’t answer, Kyle plans to record an episode of our Connected Podcast to answer some more.

Email me if anything comes to mind, and I’ll shoot it over to Kyle for the podcast.

The NFL Business Breakdown – Acquired Podcast

Fall football Sundays bring a unique blend of excitement this year, at least in our household. Some of us are watching for the love of the game itself, while others (my two daughters) for the anticipation of catching a glimpse of Taylor Swift.

This past week, I listened to this episode of the Acquired podcast, where hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal provide an insightful and in-depth understanding of the NFL’s business strategies, including its expansion, media deals, and technological innovations.

If you’re a football enthusiast, you’ll probably enjoy this episode on many levels, but even if you’re not, it’s a good listen with many insights into the business behind the game.

TWO LANES – My Productivity Hack & Commute Soundtrack

There’s not much I miss about working in an office.

But I have to admit, as a music lover, I do sometimes kind of miss a reasonable half-hour commute time to explore new music.

Recently, on my daily drive taking my youngest son to school, we’ve been listening to Two Lanes — a music duo that combines live instruments, analog synthesizers, and electronic sounds to create their own unique sound.

My son and I both really enjoy their music, and it also creates a perfect environment for getting work done at the home office.

Give them a listen and let me know what you think.

Milemarker on the Road

Catch our team on the road at the following events or cities:

Schwab Impact – October 24-26, Philadelphia, PA

Tiburon CEO Summit – November 6-8, San Francisco, CA

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Enjoy your weekend! See you next week.

Written by Jud Mackrill

Edited by Amy Simpson and Kim Mackrill