What if the secret to long-term success wasn’t disruption, but translation?
In this episode of Beacon: 1% Better Every Day, Chip Kispert takes us behind the scenes of Beacon Strategies, sharing the story of why he built a consultancy that prioritizes listening, independence, and deep partnership with wealth firms and providers. Chip reflects on 19 years of running Beacon Strategies, the power of independence, and what it really means to help a client, sometimes by walking away, and sometimes by diving back in. This isn’t about selling services. It’s about solving problems.
What to expect:
* Why translating between wealth firms and providers still matters* How culture shapes every client engagement
* Lessons from Beacon’s early wins—and quiet exits
* The hidden cost of tech fatigue and how Beacon helps firms cut through the noise
[00:00:00] RJ Malyk:
Welcome to the Beacon Strategies Podcast with your host, chip Kiper. I’m RJ Malyk, producer of this podcast and Chip, welcome to podcast number two. How are you doing today,
[00:00:10] Chip Kispert:
RJ, I’m doing great. I’m here with you.
[00:00:14] RJ Malyk:
Okay. All right. Let’s, let’s, let’s jump right into it Now, you know, we, this is your second podcast.
Let’s get a little bit deeper into your business and, and. How it got started and well, I Why, why did you feel you had to start this business, I guess would be the first question I should ask? Why, what was the impetus behind you saying, you know what, I need to start my business?
[00:00:40] Chip Kispert:
You know, it’s a great question. I, I, um, I think that when we started the business and, you know, is interesting. Uh, earlier last month, I had an anniversary date, 19 years that Beacon Strategies LLC has been opened. Um, and you kinda go, wow, time flies when you’re having fun. Um, I started the business with really a simple premise of wanting to be the bridge between wealth firms and provider firms.
I felt that at the time. And ironically, this hasn’t changed one iota, um, that wealth firms and provider firms speak different languages. Hmm. And I felt that at the time that someone to translate was needed. And guess what? 19 years later, I still, I. Hold fast to that belief that there needs to be a translator between wealth firms and provider firms.
[00:01:56] RJ Malyk:
Are there many companies now like yours? Or is, [00:02:00] are you still, you know, there are a
[00:02:00] Chip Kispert:
handful out there. There, there are a handful out there, I would say, um, I think we saw the clearing firms traditionally try to create their own consulting, right. Um, groups, for lack of a better term. Mm-hmm. I think it, um, I, I think that.
Over the years. Um, you know, it’s hard when, when you roll out that type of consulting because there is some bias, right. Um, but I think that one of the things that I take immense pride in is where our independence, um, I’ve had over the years, I’ve had our customers, um, come to me and say, wow, I, I, I, you guard your independence with such ferocity and I, and we do.
I. Uh, and we do for a reason. And that reason is I feel we have a duty and in some instances, a fiduciary duty to our customers to provide them [00:03:00] with unbiased advice.
[00:03:04] RJ Malyk:
Okay. Um, would you like to talk a little bit about your team? And maybe
[00:03:09] Chip Kispert:
introduce them and I would, you know, we have a, we have a fabulous team and you know, the, the, the interesting thing that I look at is our team is, has an abundance of experience in clearing and software and investment management.
Our team is made up of pretty thoughtful, curious individuals that put the client first. And you know, I think on average we probably have 25 plus years of experience per person. That’s a lot, right? Yeah. And you know, it’s interesting ’cause I think, you know, if I look back to COVID and kind of that immediate time after COVID, there was kind of this, hey, you know, the young have all the answers, right?
Have all the new answers. The reality is we have a lot of answers. We know how things are done. We, our team really is a boots on the ground, agile little SWAT team for our customers. We can do things faster. And probably have broader knowledge than, than our customers do and help them achieve their, their aims quicker and, and with greater depth.
[00:04:32] RJ Malyk:
How do you go about, uh, acquiring, uh, your clients? Is it word of mouth or is it, are you in trade magazines? How, how do people, uh, find you to do business with you?
[00:04:43] Chip Kispert:
So that is, that’s an interesting question. So, you know, I think in our prior discussion we talked a little bit about the round tables. So we host half a dozen round tables a year, right?
And in each segment we bring in, as in 20 wealth firms, and typically eight [00:05:00] to 10. Provider partners. So we look at, you know, we bring those in for compliance, we bring them in for operations, we bring them in for practice management, marketing and recruiting, uh, and leadership. Over the years, you build a pretty good following of folks.
People need things. The hardest. And I, I remember one of my sales coaches early on telling me, you know, you don’t sell anything to anyone. You don’t sell something to someone. People need something and they happen to, you happen to be first of mind, and then you have a great, and then you have a terrific solution.
And we pride, our team prides itself on providing a white gloves service in everything we do.
[00:05:50] RJ Malyk:
With, and, and, and I’m, you know, I’m getting the impression that your company is in a unique position. So [00:06:00] being in a unique position, finding people to join your staff, are you looking for specific, uh, I guess for a lack of better word, qualities in, in your.
Maybe future employees.
[00:06:17] Chip Kispert:
We are very much so we’re looking for, well, let’s put it this way. Um, one of the, the things I always looked at with management is that I always like folks that are self-starters. People that will ask for forgiveness, but take initiative. And people that put the client first with all their actions.
And so when we’re looking at at, at adding staff or looking at people to potentially join us, they need to fit in with that [00:07:00] culture. And culture’s huge to what we’re doing. We are a can do firm. But our whole goal is to help the customer achieve what they deem as success. Okay.
[00:07:14] RJ Malyk:
Do you ever find, and, and as you were talking, I, I was going back and looking back at, and, you know, my, as we spoke before, my background is radio and for a short period of time, I actually was selling advertising and because I wanted to get more knowledge about the business overall.
In a business like yours, I, I’m seeing similarities to what I was doing as an account executive, you, you are walking a fine line because you want to take care of your client, but you also have to protect the business. I. Is it your job to tell your employees, Hey, listen, you take care of your clients. I’ll worry about the overall business.
Or do do you, do you have to have, if I’m working for [00:08:00] you, do I have to have in my mind, okay, what’s best for the client and then does it fit with what we do?
[00:08:06] Chip Kispert:
You know, I think. It’s an interesting question. It’s a little bit of the chicken and the egg. If, if you just laid that Okay. As you laid that out.
Mm-hmm. Um, I look at what we do. Let, let’s put it this way. I get calls all day long from people asking for help, asking for advice. Um, and, and I’m grateful for that. Okay. Um, I’m also grateful that at this point in my career, I can make phone calls and 99% of the people I call pick up or they shoot me a text and say, I’ll be ready, I’ll be available in 15 minutes.
Um, that’s, I’m very grateful for that respect and, and. I, I’m very grateful that we’re, we’re seen in that light, but I think that our culture is one that we don’t want one engagement. We we’re not there for the short term, right. We’re not, you know, as an example, the Bruins traded. Brad hon. He went down to Tampa, or went down to to Florida.
He’s Florida. Yes. He’s he’s crushing it, right? Yeah. But that was a short-term window, right? Mm-hmm. He’s probably gonna be at a different sh a different team next year. Yeah. We’re, what we wanna do is we wanna build relationships with our clients. Do we wanna be like their go-to for all the time and be in their shop for years and years?
No. What we want to do is to help them with their problems. When they have their problems go away and have them come back to us because they like our culture and they like our recommendations, and they like our work ethic and we’ve helped them achieve the success. That we collectively talked about at the beginning of the engagement.
[00:10:18] RJ Malyk:
Alright, then, then let’s, let’s talk about that process. Tell us about what goes on with your initial call with a potential client or with a client. I,
[00:10:31] Chip Kispert:
and, and I’ll go back to, we do a lot of listening. Okay. And, and this can frustrate some folks, right? Because. I need help with this. And they just kind of expect my view is help me help you.
Right? So when we go in and, and have an initial meeting, we’re, we’re gonna be listening. We’re, we’re gonna say, all right, tell us what you, [00:11:00] what the problem is. Tell us what your vision is and what success looks like. We can help you in between.
But understanding, you know, where or the, the current status, understanding what the ultimate vision is. And then understanding how the firm wants the journey to go, whether it’s for a, a, an investor, customer, investor prospect, whether it’s for an in internal compliance or whether it’s operationally opening an account, and I’m just throwing examples out, right?
We wanna understand what the end vision really looks like. Yeah, because from there we can help to actually build on that vision, and we think we can add value there with our, with our focus on [00:12:00] process, our knowledge of the technology space that can support that, and ultimately these wealth firms being vendor stewards and not development shops.
Does that make sense? Yes.
[00:12:17] RJ Malyk:
Yeah. And, and I want to go back to something you were. Talking about before, ’cause I wanna make sure I understand this because when I was listening to you, it sounded like you, you go with a client and you talk to them and you figure out what, what, how you can help them. And then in my head, and tell me if I’m wrong, it seems like you can come to an end after you solve the, the client’s problem and you may never see them again.
Am I understanding that correctly?
[00:12:48] Chip Kispert:
Oh my gosh. And I’ll tell you a funny story, right, and I won’t, I won’t tell you the name of the customer at the time, but, uh, right. I think we were probably three or four. Four, no, two or three years in, so it was probably 2008, [00:13:00] 2009. We just worked with our first large broker dealer.
We’d worked with ’em for 18 months. We gave, we were in, just say we’re in New England. Okay. We gave our final presentation and recommendations and everything had come together and we finished the meeting and everybody starts walking out of the meeting and it was over. It was absolutely over and, and it was crushing.
Like it was absolute. It, it was like I had just lost 20 of my best friends and it was over, and I had this dead space for about two weeks. Um, and that was a valuable lesson, and I was, that was the true consulting lesson of, Hey, to some extent you’re a mercenary. Right? Okay. You, you’re right. [00:14:00] You’re.
You’re the hired help who is supposed to come in, swoop in, help us fix it, get us on the right path.
Right. And then you go away. But it also taught me that if you do a good job, they’ll invite you back because we were invited back later.
[00:14:21] RJ Malyk:
Okay. Okay. But that, that’s got, that is a, a, a jarring. Situation where they just leave and now you’re like, okay, they’re gone. Now what? Uh, now you’ve walked
[00:14:36] Chip Kispert:
away with a lot of knowledge, right?
You, you, you’ve really dug in and Mm. One of the things I also look at is that, you know, there, there are many, many different wealth firms out there. Um, everybody has their own differentiators, but the basics on how to run the business. They’re very similar. [00:15:00] Okay. Alright. So, so there could be di there are differentiators, there are different.
So process is gonna be largely ver similar. You may have different technology partners that fit into your e ecosystem better than others. The configuration of those is very important. Um, so they won’t all look alike. But they’re all trying to do very similar things. And that comes out in our round tables where, you know, our attendees say, oh my gosh, you know, we’re more alike than we’re, we’re different.
Okay.
[00:15:38] RJ Malyk:
Is uh, technology helping? I. Expand your business, make it easier to conduct your business. How, how do you view technology? Because I think everybody who’s in business now, no matter what business it is, is looking at the pace of technology. And you and I are, are old enough to be able to [00:16:00] look back and say, geez, you know, um, you know, I remember the dial up phone call, you know, the phone where I could, you know, have to put my finger in it.
Okay. Three, then go down to five and, and spin it around. Now, uh, you know, to me, and maybe that’s show I’m showing my age, things are just moving at a hundred miles an hour. Is it affecting your business? The same way? Of course.
[00:16:22] Chip Kispert:
Um, you know, is interesting, our most recent round table was the RIA round table.
So we brought 20 RIA firms in and that those ranged from broker dealer RIAs to traditional RIAs. Um, and for a day and a half we had conversations, right. Um. Two things came out of that that really stuck in my head. It was the first meeting where AI wasn’t front and center. Okay. And, and the, the basis of just about every conversation.
And then two [00:17:00] to the firm, there was this feeling of tech fatigue. Okay. So when we look at it. You know, technology as sold as packaged can be. Absolutely. Uh, is, is is a shiny metal fishing lure that can, that you, you chase and you follow and you know, it’s like go, it’s like going after the leprechauns pot of gold, right?
Um, the reality is you gotta put it all together. The reality is you have to teach people how to use it and it can be hard and technology done right is, is magical. Yeah. Technology done wrong. Yeah. Is, is, is a way of, of really hamstringing a business and all firm, all firms, and really struggle [00:18:00] with weaving.
The amount of solutions together. The other piece of that puzzle is tech tech’s not cheap. It’s not free, right? And so the infrastructure, um, and the budgeting, you know, there’s only so many dollars that advisor can spend on technology. So while technology can add value. It also, there’s a, there’s a huge responsibility for understanding it and weaving it together in such a way that it doesn’t become an anchor that drags a firm down and it’s people down because the people part, you know, they just, they’re tired.
They get tired. And that’s also part of the reason why we go into firms. We do work and we, we will get out for a while so they can digest and, and implement. I. And be successful. So [00:19:00] I just, I just wound a lot into that. Yes. Last 60 seconds. So you
[00:19:04] RJ Malyk:
did there, that was, that was a real lot. And we’ll probably have to revisit that at some point because it’s, it’s there, I mean, technology and how fast it’s moving.
Artificial, artificial intelligence, all of that. It’s here and we gotta make sure we, as you pointed out, it was just perfect. It’s a tool and you gotta use it. Right? And if you don’t, boy, it can blow up in your face. And that’s,
[00:19:30] Chip Kispert:
that’s, yeah. You know, and basic things, right? So think about, you know, you go, you know, I got a wellness doc, right?
And just getting on their portal sometimes can be a nightmare. Think about, everybody wants a portal, right? Your, your financial guy wants a portal. Your doctors want a portal. Your eye, people want a, everybody wants their own portal. Right? Right, right. So you gotta build it so it all comes together.
[00:19:56] RJ Malyk:
Yeah. Okay. Very good. Well, we are, uh, running outta [00:20:00] time here, so contact information, share it with us, chip.
[00:20:04] Chip Kispert:
Sure. Best way to reach me, uh, a go to our website, take a look@beaconstrategiesllc.com. Uh, check out what we do as well. Uh, reach out. Uh, DM me through my LinkedIn profile, chip Kiper.
[00:20:19] RJ Malyk:
Excellent. Thank you, chip, and most importantly, thank you for listening to the Beacon Strategies Podcast.
We ask you to share this podcast, rate it, and leave a review because this actually helps others find the show. Again, thank you for listening and for Chip Kiper and everyone at Beacon Strategies, I’m RJ Mallek, and we look forward to you joining us for the next podcast.