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Celebrating Advisors at the Fearless Investing Summit 2019

6 min • 14 Oct 2019

What do you get when you put 650 fearless financial professionals, the founding president of Ritz-Carlton, NBA legend Bill Walton, and 60+ Riskalyzers into a historic Boston hotel for three days?

The 2019 Fearless Investing Summit, of course. 

Last week we wrapped up this year’s annual Riskalyze conference, and now we want to bring as much of the energy, education, and ideas from the event to you.

Let’s rewind and cover what you might have missed if you couldn’t make it this year.

Keynotes You Can Take with You 

The best keynotes are the ones that leave you feeling like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself, but that also has enough fine detail for you to make some actionable changes in your business or life.

The Fearless Investing Summit delivered on both fronts.

Hope Takes Root

We kicked things off with our CEO, Aaron Klein, delivering an update on Hope Takes Root, a new company that provides software solutions for Ethiopian businesses. Hope Takes Root has raised $150,000 in nonprofit donations for startup capital and is ready to make good on its mission. 

Aaron Klein, along with his wife Cacey, are also co-founders in Hope Takes Root, and he summed up the reason for its existence in one swift sentence: “The most important job in our lifetimes is to leave the world better than we found it.”

Investing in Change with Jon Acuff

From there, Jon Acuff took the stage as the first keynote to speak about how change, and our attitude towards it, affects success. Even though he wasn’t the closing night comedian, Acuff had the crowd laughing while he delivered savvy business insights like these:

“Read less minds, ask more questions.”

“Choosing empathy is cheap, losing empathy is expensive.“

“We’re not just afraid of change; we’re afraid of looking foolish.”

Brian Wesbury’s Economic Outlook

Later on, Brian Wesbury, Chief Economist for First Trust Portfolios, gave what is likely the most enthusiastic and energetic talk about the economy you’ll ever witness.

Using live drawings to illustrate his points and make charts a living part of his presentation, Wesbury brought a focused and direct look at how monetary policy affects the American economy.

Forming An Experience with Horst Schulze

On the conference’s second day, the founding president of Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Horst Schulze, gave the crowd a lesson in how to build a Ritz-Carlton experience for everyone in their firms. 

Schulze emphasized the need to make everyone in an organization feel like their job was important and to help each individual feel the honor in their work.

Riskalyze Product Update

The Riskalyze keynote had so many new product announcements, we can’t cover them all here—because we’ve already got a post dedicated to each one right here.

Here’s a quick rundown:

  • New plans: Riskalyze Select and Riskalyze Elite
  • Next-Gen Risk Assessment
  • Interactive Advisor Marketing Kit
  • Individual Security Analysis
  • Detailed Portfolio Stats
  • Connected Trading, powered by Flyer

P.S. You can still catch the keynote! Click here to watch every moment.

Creating Raving Fans with Redtail

If you’ve never heard Ricky Redtail himself (Redtail’s Lead Subject Matter Expert, Rick Williamson) give a keynote, you need to put it on your bucket list. Ricky gave advisors four tips for how to turn clients into raving fans:

Connection – Put effort and care into putting people first.

Collaboration – The greatest asset in business is the relationships you build—tapping into shared interests will create great relationships.

Consistency – Anyone can provide a service, but it takes effort to create a clearly defined culture and connect on a deeper level.

Celebration – Find out what’s important to your clients and recognize the small details all the way to the big moments.

Leadership Class with Bill Walton

Bill Walton overcome birth defects in his feet, a broken back, and stuttering to become an NCAA and NBA basketball champion multiple times over.

In his closing keynote session, Walton empowered advisors to pursue excellence and train to become a champion in all that they do—especially when the path is its hardest.

During his dissection of what it takes to be a great leader, Walton used a quote from legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden to illustrate success: “Success is the peace of mind that comes from the self-satisfaction of knowing you have done your best.”

 

Partner Store Updates

The Partner Store’s collection of free and subscription-based models is always growing, and several new offerings have made their way into Partner Store—including some at the Fearless Investing Summit.

Fidelity Model Portfolios from Fidelity Institutional Asset Management is now available to advisors inside their Riskalyze accounts.

Additionally, advisors can access twelve outcome-based model portfolios, designed to create better outcomes for clients’ investment goals, from the other newest member of the Partner Store, Franklin Templeton.

Appreciating Our Fearless Advisors

The Fearless Investing Summit wasn’t just about keynote speakers, it also provided about 70+ training sessions for Riskalyze users to hone their skills and serve their clients more effectively.

But outside of training hours, each year the Summit also gives us an opportunity to celebrate the awesomeness of our advisors and show them how much we appreciate them and the important work they do.

On night one, we got together on the Spirit of Boston, the biggest yacht in Boston.

And then on night two, advisors got a dose of Tom Cotter, the first comedian to ever be a finalist in America’s Got Talent, before ending the night with a celebration of our new partnership with Flyer to power Connected Trading.

We loved being with you in Boston and we can’t wait to see you in Palm Springs next September for the Fearless Investing Summit 2020. 

Thank you for working with us to empower your clients to invest fearlessly.