Colleen Bowler began her financial-planning career as a single mother earning $14,000 in her first year. She says persistence carried her through the early years, but the deeper breakthrough came when she stopped believing she needed every answer. Better questions helped her understand the future clients wanted, decide whether she could help them reach it, and build a practice that she says eventually managed half a billion dollars in assets.

That experience taught Colleen that saying no can be a growth strategy. Right-fit clients create energy, challenge a team, and make room for the work a business does best. She also explains why collaboration matters: leaders can surround clients with specialists, hire people whose talents complement their own, and protect excellent team members from clients who create damaging friction.

Colleen carried those lessons into C&J Innovations, where she and Jeanne Hurlbert co-created The Passport Package. The assessment helps financial advisors explore the human side of planning—the mindsets, motivations, purpose, and life changes that financial software alone cannot capture. Her goal is a repeatable process that helps advisors hear quieter voices and keep qualitative insight present in prospect conversations and annual reviews.

Throughout the conversation, Colleen returns to a practical leadership principle: systemize the predictable so people have more capacity to humanize the exceptional. Markets, businesses, and families will change. Leaders may not control those shifts, but they can control how they listen, how they show up, and whether their systems leave room for human judgment when clients and teams need it most.

Key Points with Timestamps

• [02:28] From divorce and full custody to financial planning: Colleen explains how becoming a single mother with a three-year-old led her to seek flexible work and say yes to financial planning.
• [03:14] The $14,000 first year: She recalls qualifying for the earned income credit, leaning on family and friends, and persisting in an industry that was overwhelmingly male.
• [05:32] Persistence and comfort with “no”: Colleen describes the slow climb, the value of repeated conversations, and learning that rejection was part of building the practice.
• [06:16] A half-billion-dollar practice built through collaboration: Rather than mastering every specialty, she surrounded clients with experts—a “moat” of complementary talent.
• [08:08] Ten years to real momentum: Clear positioning, leverage, and treating “no” as a growth strategy helped the firm focus on right-fit clients and return on involvement, not only investment.
• [10:48] Collaborate sooner and stop doing low-value work: Her advice to her 1991 self is to bring in smart specialists early, learn from them, and preserve her own highest-value contribution.
• [16:27] Unique ability and empowering a strong team: Craig and Colleen discuss hiring people who love the work the founder dislikes and giving talented employees room to solve problems.
• [18:34] Client retention and listening to the quieter voice: A 98% retention rate came from understanding the human side, especially people whose needs are often overlooked in advisor relationships.
• [20:28] Selling the firm to scale a new impact: Colleen let go of the practice to create the Passport Package, a repeatable assessment process that helps advisors understand client mindsets.
• [21:29] “Systemize the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional”: Reliable systems free teams to notice individual needs and deliver unusually thoughtful service.
• [24:49] Be the stable base in a sea of change: Leaders cannot control markets or broad disruption, but they can control how they show up, communicate, and care for people.
• [27:16] How the Passport Package works: Two five-minute mindset assessments—accumulation and “walk away”—surface issues such as purpose, preparedness, passwords, electronic records, and life transitions.
• [29:52] Assessments as both qualification and annual review: Advisors use the process before prospect meetings to identify fit and during reviews to track the qualitative, human side alongside financial data.
• [32:29] Design a calendar around joy and value: Colleen recommends highlighting work that energizes the owner, uses their strengths, and excites the people around them.
• [33:37] Replacing a $10 million client to protect the team: She recounts ending a Sunday-only relationship and learning the client had mistreated staff—reinforcing that an A+ team member is harder to replace than a client.
• [36:32] Right-fit clients reduce friction and refer more of the same: Constantly reshaping the business for poor-fit prospects burdens the team and displaces work with clients the firm can serve brilliantly.

Connect with Colleen Bowler

Want to learn more about Colleen Bowler's work? Check out her website at https://thepassportpackage.com/

Connect with Colleen Bowler on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleen-bowler-cfp%C2%AE-09576796/

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://podcast.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work at allies4me? Check out his website at https://allies4me.com/

Transcript

[00:00] Craig Andrews — Opening

[00:00] I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die.

[00:11] When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me.

[00:19] Freelancers reached out to my team and said we will do whatever it takes as long as Craig's in the hospital.

[00:26] I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career. My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders in Legacy podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves.

[00:39] At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

[00:51] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Introduction

[00:51] Today, I want to welcome Colleen Bowler, a CFP professional and co-founder of C&J Innovations and creator of the Passport package, an advisor facing assessment and client engagement platform.

[01:08] You may not be an advisor, but from what I can tell, what she's going to talk about.

[01:14] This is something the concept at the very least is something everybody will benefit from. Our work explores how better questions can help advisors understand not only what clients want to achieve, but why those goals matter and why what may be influencing their decisions along the way.

[01:33] Again, I think any business would benefit from these type of insights. Colleen, welcome. Hello Craig. So we just met and we were chatting up in the green room and you made the comment, we could probably talk for three hours and I believe that.

[01:57] But you mentioned something and I deliberately didn't pull this thread because I wanted to hear it live.

[02:03] I wanted to experience it with the audience firsthand. You started off as an advisor, single mom, making 14K a year.

[02:17] Now I'm assuming this wasn't 1970, that would have been a handsome income in 1970. But what happened?

[02:28] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Starting a Financial-Planning Career

[02:28] So like many, life happens and we get to decide what we want to do with it. And I was in the middle of the divorce and I was awarded full custody of my son at the time he was three years old and I knew I needed to do something that wasn't incorporate because I needed a lot of flexibility.

[02:56] And somebody said, "Hey Colleen, you're good at math. Why don't you do this thing called financial planning?"

[03:01] And I said, "I am good at math. Okay fine." And I think so many of us as business leaders, as individuals, we find ourselves at crossroads.

[03:14] I just said yes to it and the first year I made 14,000. I qualified for earned income credit.

[03:21] So no, that was not a very good income. Without family and friends helping, I would have never made it.

[03:28] Plus, the industry is 85% men. So there were a lot of people who were telling me you should just go home, which I don't know how I was supposed to be supported with that, but I couldn't.

[03:40] The second year I made 16,000. Along the way what I learned that I think all of us in business hopefully learned is I didn't need to have all the answers.

[03:59] But I needed to have those really good questions about where someone wanted to go in their future.

[04:09] And if that was a future that I could be in, if we could partner together to help them get there, then it was magical.

[04:21] And I use the same thing with team members, I use the same thing with clients, I use the same thing with you.

[04:28] If I could figure out where you want to go in the future and I can help you, that's what I want to do.

[04:36] So tell me about the climb out, I mean, because 14k a year. Again, that was 1970 and neither of us were even thinking about working in 1970.

[04:48] I started in '91, so yeah. '91, okay. Earned income credit. That means no money. I think, I'm trying to remember, '91 was when I got out of the Marine Corps, I'm trying to remember if I was making more than that or less than that, but it was somewhere.

[05:09] But that included, I had housing and food and everything paid for. And I didn't have sold custody of a three year old.

[05:23] But so what did the climb out look like, you know, what was year two like? It was just as difficult.

[05:32] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Persistence, Questions, and Collaboration

[05:32] I read this, I keep this quote right on my computer, a river cut cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence by Jim Watkins.

[05:47] And I think what year two led me to is more persistence, more conversations, more nose, a lot more nose.

[05:57] I had to get really comfortable with hearing the word no. And along the way what I learned was I was really good at asking questions and I really didn't like life insurance or long-term care or disability.

[06:16] I really didn't care about investments. And when I sold my firm, we had a half a billion of assets under management.

[06:22] So obviously we became very good at it. But what I learned was there were other people that I could collaborate with, whether it was on my team or an outside collaborator, which there's a lot of outside collaborators now, that their specialty was that.

[06:41] And so I could say, Craig, you know, that's a great question. I have no idea what the answer is.

[06:49] But what I do know is the people who can answer it, who are the experts. And I would just bring in the experts and I call it building a moat around our clients.

[07:01] You know, we build a moat with all the different people that we know are really good at what they do.

[07:07] And I think a lot of business owners do that if they're on the human side. Yeah, I know when I started my business, I was, you know, we're going to do everything for everybody.

[07:22] Yeah. And we all have to start there, right? Yeah. Well, you're just looking for any type of income over time.

[07:32] I mean, I had that conversation this morning where somebody was going to send me a referral and it turns out he was in my strike zone, but I said, are you talking about so-and-so and he said, yeah, that's how I can't help him.

[07:47] And you know, which, and that was, it's hard to say no. It's hard to say no, but you have to and so that's good.

[08:00] So, I mean, so your one wasn't very good. You're two about the same. It took me 10 years.

[08:08] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Right-Fit Clients and Growth

[08:08] Yeah. It took me 10 years, really, to start really making money. And I hired half a person, I think my third year, you know, it's when you start leveraging other talents, we all got to put in the 10,000 hours.

[08:32] Right. But then it is getting really clear on who you best serve and that no, just like what you said, no is really a growth strategy.

[08:46] No, it's not a right fit because, you know, what I do best, if somebody was just interested in return on investments, let's talk about that.

[08:57] I would say, sorry, but this won't be a right fit because what we really do well is return on involvement.

[09:06] What are the things that you want to have happen in your future? And how do we help you get there?

[09:14] And return on investment is a piece of it, but is that the only piece you want? That's not us.

[09:20] But we can help you find somebody that that's what they, that's all they care about, right? We have a thing as we're further and further along in business.

[09:30] As we, if we keep saying yes to our not right fit clients, we'll lose reputation because entrepreneurs get bored when it's not the right fit.

[09:42] We do. We get bored. We don't. Yeah. When we, when we operate below our pay grade or whatever you want to say, we get bored.

[09:51] So staying in that you call it a strike zones, I call it staying with right fit clients.

[10:00] However you want to say it, it challenge you, it brings joy. You create the most value. They are the most excited about it.

[10:10] It makes doing the work really fun. Yeah. So one of your ahas in that, that growth area was realizing that you're going to build a mode of experts around you, where there, where there's some other aha moments, if you were to break down, if you could go back to yourself in 1991, self, yes, and say, focus on these three things.

[10:39] Here's why I've learned over the last 10 years, focus on these three things. What would you tell yourself in 1991?

[10:48] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Building with Specialists

[10:48] Collaborate as soon as possible. In the industry that I was in, one of the things you could easily do is split a case, like bring somebody in for insurance who they're the expert and it's my client.

[11:05] So many people won't do that because it's splitting the money coming in. I would have done it sooner if I could tell myself something, find really smart people in the things that you're doing.

[11:19] Like now, I'm not an expert in marketing. I have no clue. You and I were talking about what things could be doing, being done.

[11:27] I was like, oh, that's interesting. Oh, that's interesting, right? Yes. Could I become an expert in marketing?

[11:36] Maybe. But why do I want to spend my time there? That isn't where I add the most value.

[11:42] I think a lot of us, a lot of business owners are doing $25 an hour work. When we look at, oh, I'm so busy and I do believe in the beginning of our businesses, we've got to spend the time learning.

[11:59] It takes a lot of hours, right? But the sooner that we realize others' expertise can be brought in and you can learn.

[12:12] I mean, sit in the room, learn from these people, learn from team members, find smarter team members than you are in whatever the field is, and learn from them.

[12:24] But don't do their work. Yeah. You know, I think there's a lot of people that are afraid of hiring smart people.

[12:33] Yeah, I love smart people. Yeah. Well, when somebody tells me something, hey, Craig, that's really brilliant. I'm like, let me be clear, if everything I do, I stole from someone else.

[12:46] And my genius is I hang out with smart people, but the, but there are people that are afraid of that.

[12:56] I think they're afraid of a loss of control. Yeah. Yeah. And smart people get smarter because they love whatever it is they love.

[13:08] Like there is Heckerling Institute for Advanced Estate Planning. I mean, these people are wicked smart. I went there, you know, just shoot me now.

[13:21] But these people were so excited and they wanted to learn more and more and more and more, right?

[13:30] You become smarter in areas that you really care about and you build skills quicker that way. If you're not naturally saying, hey, yeah, I want to learn this, like I love to learn about the human side.

[13:44] I'm reading books about it. I'm getting questions about it. I'm, you know, doing, mastering the strings. I'm doing all these different things because I love it, right?

[13:54] And so I'm getting smarter and smarter in my area of expertise. Just like you do in your marketing, right?

[14:02] Yeah. I think it's just, and if you get a bunch of those smart people in a room because that's what they love to do, they will continue to learn.

[14:15] I'm reminded of a team member who came to me and asked me if they wanted to take, they could take an Excel, an Advanced Excel workshop.

[14:33] I mean, I don't even know how to do Excel. I ran a financial planning firm. I had all these people on my team.

[14:42] I ran a half a billion a day and I did all this stuff, but part of keeping myself on my side of the line, which is the human side, was not to learn it.

[14:54] But he came to me and said, can I go? And I go. I mean, would you or I love to do that?

[15:01] No. But that's why, that's why there's, I always say that's why there's chocolate and vanilla. We all like different things.

[15:08] Yeah. And I, when I did my first hire on my own, I deliberately mapped out the opposite of me.

[15:17] I'm going to hire the opposite of me. We don't need another me. Yeah. That's my, who loves the things I hate and, you know, she, she messaged me, dog on, she messaged me Sunday night.

[15:31] Not one, you know, we have the sun understanding that, you know, you check messages when you message me Sunday night and she found some detail that was off in the podcast promotion.

[15:45] And, and she just finds these things. And helps me fix them or fixes them for me. My favorite, my favorite time was one day she came up to me and this is when we were in an office together.

[16:00] She came up and started talking. Her name's Elena. She's amazing. And she comes up to me and starts talking and I'm listening, I'm listening, I'm listening.

[16:11] And when she's done talking, I said, let me see if I have this right. There was a problem.

[16:15] You found the problem. You fix the problem. And you're just here telling me, get, just give me an update.

[16:20] I know what happened. I said, right. Yeah. Like bless you. Please do that. Please continue to do that.

[16:27] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Unique Ability and Team Leadership

[16:27] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is in strategic coach, an organization that I'm a part of that's called unique ability.

[16:36] When we surround ourselves with people that this is so exciting for them. It becomes a joy to be there.

[16:45] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How cool is that for Elaine and how cool is that for Elaine? Because there's a lot of talent that is looking for a place to work.

[17:00] And for those of us who are business owners and have been willing to take that risk as entrepreneurs and that craziness that we do and, you know, every January, we start all over again and everything, having the ability to hire really wonderful people and let their talent shine.

[17:20] What a gift to them and to us. Well, my team ran my business when I was in my coma.

[17:28] Yeah. That's what I remember. Yeah. And had Libby had the hardest client conversations she's probably ever had in her life and she had to call the clients and say, need to tell you that Craig's in the hospital and they're not expecting them to live and but we're going to take care of you.

[17:54] And during that time, we only lost one client. Yeah. But when did so at some point, you decided to sell your firm.

[18:06] I mean, you built it to five billion. Many people would say, no, no, no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[18:11] Yeah. I'm sorry. Okay. I'll take the five billion though. Half a billion. You built it to half a billion and for many people, for my advisors, they'd be like, oh, this is great.

[18:25] I've got my book. We're just, we're getting coast or we're going to sell or something. What happened?

[18:34] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Retention and Quieter Voices

[18:34] Yeah. So like you, I was asked to speak in a lot of conferences and a lot of industry events about how, I mean, we had a 98% retention rate of our clients.

[18:49] Really the only time they left is when we asked them to, or we found them someone else.

[18:54] Widows in the industry, 70% leave their current advisors, which just breaks my heart because it is the hardest time.

[19:01] I have a good friend who lost her husband, my best friend actually, all four of their advisors.

[19:08] I mean, she left all four of them. One of the most difficult parts of her life, right, having to learn all these new things and everything, because it's listening to that quieter voice in the conversation, whether you have clients or whether you have team members, there's always someone with a quieter voice that if you let them in and ask them questions, you can learn a whole lot and empower them to add.

[19:42] And no matter how I shared what we did about asking questions and things like that, people were like, yeah, but do you have anything that, like, give me a system, give me a process, give me, give me the questions in a row, give me a, and so I was talking with this woman, Jeanne Herlbert, PhD, she was at LSU, she was an academic, 25 years there, and all she did was create in the last year's assessments, she's like, oh, we could do this really easily in

[20:15] the right-language gene, and it was all about mindsets, because those are the questions that matter most, you know, where are you now, where do you want to be in your future?

[20:28] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — The Passport Package

[20:28] And so that's what we created, and I was like, the impact with working with a whole bunch of financial advisors instead of just my planning firm really inspired me to let go, because as entrepreneurs it's hard to let go, and start something else.

[20:46] So that's what I did, I let go, and you know, we had incredible clients, incredible team, so that, and then to a good person, and then started this, the passport package is the name of the assessment, which is patent pending.

[21:07] So it's been an interesting process to see how advisors use it with their prospects and clients in a proven repeatable, scalable process on the human side.

[21:20] We have it on the financial side, but how do you do it on the human side? And I'm sure, with marketing, it's the same thing with how you're doing the different things.

[21:29] We all, the four seasons, Isadore Sharp would say, one of my favorite quotes of his, "System I ties the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional."

[21:44] And I think when we can get those systems in place, then we can shine, and that's what the assessments do for advisors.

[21:54] I love that. Systemize the predictable so you can humanize the exceptional. Think about it. You go into a four seasons, your bets made the same way every time.

[22:06] The bathrooms clean the same way. They don't have to think about any of that, so they can see, gosh, Craig's button is missing from his shirt.

[22:17] I'll go and make sure that gets fixed or Colleen's shoes haven't been shined in a while. And I come back to my room and the shoes are shined.

[22:25] They're able to think outside because they don't have to think about the process of cleaning. It's done for them.

[22:34] Just like the people on our team, the CRM systems, all those different processes that we have in our businesses, they're really there so that the thinking capacity can be used outside the system.

[22:52] Does that make sense? Am I making sense? No. You're making tons of sense, and as you were telling that story, it reminded me of -- this was many years ago when I used to fly American Airlines a lot.

[23:04] I didn't think they're the same that they used to be, but I was flying out of Austin and I was waiting in the Admiral's Club for my flight, and it comes time for my flight.

[23:15] I go down to the gate, and it's complete mayhem at the gate. Obviously the flight's been canceled.

[23:21] I turn around, I go straight back up in the Admiral's Club, and I swear I barely put one foot inside the door when one of the ladies at the desk looks up at me and says, "Mr.

[23:34] Andrews, we've rerouted you. We've upgraded you to first. Here's your new ticket." Yeah. I didn't even get a chance to ask a question.

[23:46] They anticipated the need, they solved the need, and it is one of those moments where, heck, I was paying for my Admiral's Club membership at the time.

[23:56] I was like, "That was worth it." I'm paying. I'm... Don. I'll pay. Next year's, you know, renewal, absolutely.

[24:06] And it just... But that's the humanizing, the exceptional, and you think about that moment of all geez, my travel plans just went topsy-turvy, and it's a moment of high stress, and they immediately took away the stress.

[24:26] When I hear you talk about these women and say big problem, these women who are leaving their advisors when they're, you know, frequently it's the husband that has the relationship with the advisor, and it's absolutely the worst time in life to be making those decisions to leave, but something failed leading up to that.

[24:49] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Leading Through Change

[24:49] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, Craig, from your American experience, you can say, "I'll write that check every time," right?

[25:00] And when we help people through the difficult times, the easier... And by the way, that's all I know.

[25:09] All I know is this is how life goes, and this is how the market goes. Somebody goes, "What's the market gonna do, Colleen?"

[25:16] I mean, this was... I hate to say this, but this was my answer all the time. It's going to go up, and it's going to go down.

[25:24] Yeah. And we're prepared for both, and for all businesses, you talked about things in your control and not in your control, our attitude and what we can control.

[25:40] Did we exercise this morning? How are we eating? What are we doing? I can't control what the market is doing.

[25:46] I can control how I talk to you, Craig. I can control who I am being with you, right?

[25:56] That's that human side, and any of our businesses, there's not a business I know of that doesn't go through big change.

[26:07] And I think one of the things right now that I see with entrepreneurs that is so important is being that stable base in a sea of change, because there's so much change in the market right now.

[26:23] And I'm not talking about the stock market, though, but I mean, in business, in family life, with individuals, there's just a lot of change.

[26:33] We could bring up AI, but that's just one of them. Yeah. Yeah. And there always will be change.

[26:40] Yeah. Yeah, I went back, not long ago, I went back to look at what fears people were expressing about the Gutenberg press.

[26:49] Amazingly similar to the fears they're expressing about AI, and centered all back to a loss of control.

[26:57] And I've forgotten about the Gutenberg, one of the biggest changes in society, right? Yeah. It's a word.

[27:05] Yeah. Yeah. Good on you. So this passport package, tell me about this. What is this? And what does it do?

[27:16] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — How the Assessments Work

[27:16] It is a quick five minute assessment. There's two of them under age 45, which we know of as accumulation and then over age 45, which we call walk away.

[27:26] I never had a client that wanted to retire. That word means to put out. Who wants to be put out that just, right?

[27:36] So it's walk away. Just walk away from what you don't love to do, walk away towards something, walk away, stay where you are, but only get to do the things you love, however you want to create it.

[27:49] And most business owners, just like me, they want to create something different, right? That's kind of their MO is creating things.

[28:00] So how do we do that? So the walk away. And it's all about mindsets. So here's one, and any of your listeners could take heat on this one.

[28:10] One of the mindsets is caring and that caring mindset says something happens to me. I'm in a coma, I get hit by a beer truck and I die.

[28:25] I somehow lose cognitive capabilities. Does somebody know where my passwords are, where my electronic files are? Everybody not only know, but can they get into them?

[28:39] As a financial advisor, you think about well, estate documents and all the policies and everything. But the passwords and the electronic files during COVID became huge because people couldn't communicate in the hospital a lot.

[28:59] So that's one that we all need to pay attention to. Peter and I, my husband and I took the assessment ourselves and we're like, oh, we have an update at that.

[29:09] We need to update that. So mindsets an all different purpose for entrepreneurs who built a business, who building money, once you have all those needs met, family taking care of college taking care, what gets you up in the morning?

[29:30] What makes it important to go do? How do you add value, right? Those kind of conversations, so they're great.

[29:38] So advisors love them. Yeah. And so how does this integrate? I mean, are these, are these assessments done before they meet with the advisor or what's the general flow of it look like?

[29:52] So normally an advisor will have them do it before they come in to meet with them, a prospect.

[30:00] Because if I'm, I'm the advisor and a prospect says, I don't want to do anything about mindset, I just want to know what your return on investment's been.

[30:08] And by the way, we had a great return on investment. It's not a good person for me to meet with.

[30:13] So I will remember that know how powerful a know is, you know, to be able to say, Craig, I appreciate you not wanting to do that.

[30:21] It is kind of the foundation of our practice though. So let me do this. Let me find you someone that I believe you could work well with.

[30:30] It's funny. When you say no, so many people want to come back, you know, they're like, no, no, right?

[30:38] So pay attention to the know, it frees up. It's its own growth strategy and that's in any business.

[30:45] And then advisors are using it on the annual review process. In the annual review process, I'm a CFP, we're supposed to keep track of quantitative and qualitative.

[30:59] Well, it's easy to keep track of the finances because we have all that software. But how are we keeping track of the human side?

[31:07] So it adds in every, every annual review. So I know someone, I'm not going to give too many details, but multiple people like him.

[31:22] And I actually talked to him. I said, you know, there are people that you're going to serve brilliantly and there are people that you weren't served so well, he's not a client, he's a friend.

[31:33] And it was all those words, like, where we're like water on a duck's back, they just washed away and what prompted it was he was telling me about a frustration where he'd invested a lot of time into a prospect and didn't work out.

[31:48] And I listened to it and I was like, okay, I think here's what you're dealing with because we deeply study the personas, a high net worth investors, and said, here's what I think you're dealing with.

[31:59] And I have a feeling that they're just kind of a mismatch for you. You don't speak the same language.

[32:04] And instead of him accepting that, he's stuck in this mindset of, I can sell to anybody. I can work with anybody.

[32:13] I am not limited by the people I can and cannot work with. And it's hard for me to tell them that because, you know, live advisors say, well, you're not an advisor.

[32:23] How do you know that? Well, you have been a very successful advisor, what would you tell them?

[32:29] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Calendar, Boundaries, and Team Protection

[32:29] Yeah, well, part of it is knowing where you can add value and you may or may not be able to add value if he doesn't want to listen.

[32:44] And it is for any business, right? That as you said, your strike zone is a place where you have joy.

[32:53] What I say to entrepreneurs is look at your calendar. Look at your calendar for the next month, highlight the areas where it brings you joy.

[33:04] You know, you're really good at it. You always want to learn at it and everybody around you is excited to be there, right?

[33:17] Most when you start might find two or three places in their calendar for that. And especially if you've been in business for 10 years or more, you've earned the right to have a calendar that is highlighted a lot and it and it is that letting go.

[33:37] I had a client had maybe at the 10 year mark, Craig, because I really was afraid to let anybody go before them.

[33:46] I mean, if you said I have $2,000, I'd say thank you, right? He had $10 million with us.

[33:54] That was like one of our biggest clients. And he said, "I am only going to work with you on Sunday evenings."

[34:05] And in the beginning, I did that and then I thought, "Why am I giving up?" I'm a single mom.

[34:12] Why am I giving up family time on Sunday? And I just said, "It was very hard." I said, "I can't do this."

[34:27] He goes, "Well, that's just stupid. My accountant does it and my lawyer does it." And I'm like, "I can find you someone who would be happy to work Sunday.

[34:36] It is my family time, it's precious, it's the weekend and it's just not going to work anymore."

[34:48] And when I let him go, my team came to me and said, "Thank you." And I'm like, "What are you talking about?"

[34:55] And they said, "He was so rude to us. He was never rude to me. He was great to me."

[35:02] And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" And they said some things and whatever. They said, "We wouldn't tell you because we knew it was one of our top five clients.

[35:13] But we didn't want to tell you." And I'm like, "Huh, lesson learned," right? So we started doing opportunity filters with our team about anybody that really didn't treat them well because it's not easy to find an A+ client, but it's really not easy to find an A+ team member.

[35:43] I would rather replace a client than an A+ team member. It's funny. I was talking about the personas.

[35:51] I can tell you which persona he was. What? There's a persona called a mogul. Their reason for investing, their primary motivation for investing is the power it gives them.

[36:03] They wouldn't be able to have enough power to influence outcomes, and you and his attorney and his accountant agreeing to meet on Sundays was continual proof that he had achieved his goal.

[36:19] They had enough power to make people do things that really just weren't right. Yeah. Well, they were right for him and he found another advisor easily.

[36:32] Craig Andrews and Colleen Bowler — Right-Fit Referrals

[36:32] I think it goes back to what you were saying, Craig, the guy that's like, "But I'm going to switch myself all around to make me work for that prospect."

[36:44] Maybe in the beginning, but the more we switch ourselves around, the more friction it causes to our team, to everyone around us, you are really crisp and clear about who you work best with.

[37:01] When you say no, we say it's a gross strategy because it opens the door that time that he's working with that person that's not a right fit and he's not happy and he's trying to change himself around, he could have done working with somebody that really is fabulous and refers to them all kinds of people like him.

[37:22] That's the other thing. They refer people like them. Yeah. So, do you want those people? That's a really good point.

[37:31] Yeah. Yeah. Well, Colleen, this has been amazing. We've gone way over. We already said that we could talk for hours and we wouldn't.

[37:41] But the, how can folks reach you? Let's see. The best way probably is LinkedIn, Colleen Bowler, CFP I'm on LinkedIn, and then the passport package.com or Colleen at C, A-N-D-J, innovations.com.

[38:03] But that's all on LinkedIn so you can easily find it. Well, thank you for coming on Leaders and Legacies.

[38:09] Craig Andrews — Closing

[38:09] Yeah, it was great, Craig. This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast.

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