The new podcast series offers listeners insights into building a career and a business as an independent financial advisor and forging a path to health in wealth management
PHILADELPHIA – May 30, 2024 – Good Life Companies (Good Life), a leading partner to independent financial advisors nationwide, today announced the premiere of a new podcast series, “Thinking Independently,” hosted by the company’s founder and CEO Conor Delaney.
In the series, Delaney is joined by guests from the financial services industry as well as entrepreneurs, wellness gurus, community leaders, and those who have influenced him personally and professionally. Together, they revisit experiences that led to wellness and success; offer unique perspectives on the trends and influences shaping the financial advice industry; and help guide listeners to resources and ideas to encourage their journey to a Good Life.
Delaney, 38, started his career as a financial advisor at 19, while still in college. By 26, he was the top advisor among more than a thousand at his firm. At 27, he launched his practice in the independent model, giving him a path to build something better. The business started as one financial planning practice serving a niche market of investors in small-town America. It has grown into a model of service and support to approximately 200 financial advisors and tens of thousands of investors nationwide, and the firm is ranked among the 2023 Forbes list of America’s Top RIAs. Delaney’s commitment to health and wellness launched Good Life Organics, Good Life Fitness Institute, and other companies rooted in a passion to serve others and encourage overall well-being.
Throughout his career, he has inspired an overabundance of ideas, fearlessly poked bears in the name of disruption and change, ran more than a dozen marathons around the world, and remained grounded in his faith.
Episode 1: “Going the Distance: Coaching, Goal Setting, and Finding Your Reason to Believe”
The premiere episode features Delaney and Ken Calcutt, a financial advisor and founder of Cornerstone Financial Management in Columbia, S.C. Calcutt was one of the first advisors to affiliate with Good Life in 2014, and unknowingly, inspired a path for Delaney. “10 years later, 10 marathons, and about to have our fifth kid in a couple of days. I became Ken Calcutt when I grew up,” Delaney said.
Episodes are available to stream on our website, Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music.
Excerpts from Episode 1
New advisors: The Struggle is Real
CALCUTT: “I didn’t realize the dropout rate, or the failure rate, in the industry when I got into it. [My manager] told me, “You got to give it five years.” He taught me how to prospect and how to do financial planning. That was the thing that kept me going the first few years. I would imagine I’m not different than most advisors…..I just kept persevering and kept pushing through, and literally, it was about year five when I started feeling like, ‘Okay, this isn’t as hard. I’ve got enough of a client base where this is doable.’”
Find your advantage
DELANEY: “I have one of my first clients from the time I was 19 years old. I just remember thinking, from a marketing standpoint, I couldn’t even take this guy out for a beer. But what I could do, I could always outwork the other guy. I didn’t have the knowledge, I didn’t have the experience, but I knew the guy who was currently trying to serve his needs wasn’t doing it with the amount of effort and intention that I could bring to it. That was a little bit of my differentiator early on.”
“You’re a product of the people you hang out with”
DELANEY: “A [client] of mine said, ‘Hey, for my 50th birthday, I want to do a 50k’……I’m doing the math in my head. … I’ve done 5Ks before. How hard can this be?….“It was at least 10 times as hard as the 5K. I remember, at one point in this race… the first seven miles, I was in third place, fourth place….Thought I had figured it all out…I went from third or fourth place to dead last….They’re closing the place off and I’m puttering into the aid stations, and, at that point, I vowed I would never walk fast again, let alone run….But then, due to you and a few others, I wound up taking that journey through the Abbott World Majors in Boston, Berlin, Tokyo, Chicago, New York, and now it’s just become a part of the DNA.”