Welcome back to the 252nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today's podcast is Kyle Moore. Kyle is the founder of Quarry Hill Advisors, an RIA in St. Paul, Minn., that oversees $165 million of assets under management for 137 households.
What's unique about Kyle, though, is that, while he’s been able to generate very strong growth for his advisory firm in just five years since launching it in 2017, the path hasn’t exactly been a linear straight line of growth, as Kyle has navigated a plethora of the all-too-common challenges and experiences that advisory firm owners face as they build their practices in the early years.
In this episode, we talk in depth about Kyle’s three main channels for growth, including local search on Google, his personal network and digital marketing through blogging; how one of Kyle’s first clients ended up being a super-referrer that gave Kyle’s firm a big initial boost that he was then able to compound as he continued to grow; and the specific steps Kyle took to become findable online, including building backlinks from directories like the FPA, asking clients for Google reviews and buying keyword-rich domain names that redirect back to his main website.
We also talk about how Kyle’s first entry-level job as an associate planner gave him the opportunity to learn as much as he could without the pressure to accumulate assets or sell products, how Kyle’s desire to be his own boss led him to turn down an offer to be a lead planner with the advisor who first hired him and instead launch his own planning firm, and the decision-making process that Kyle went through when he finally got to the point where he needed to make his first hire to help absorb the growth in his business.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Kyle shares why, despite building a business that was growing well, he decided to onboard a partner who ultimately had a different (but complementary) skill set, the process that Kyle and his (new) partner went through when determining ownership and valuing their merging practices, and the benefits that Kyle has gained from participating in practice management coaching programs like Limitless Advisor (along with some of the business-owner pitfalls that he’s been able to avoid as a result).
So whether you're interested in learning about how Kyle became "findable" using local SEO, how he merged his firm to form a partnership or how he grew his firm to $100 million of AUM in less than five years, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Kyle Moore.