50. Financial Strategy Meets Entrepreneurship with Tracey Lundell
EPISODE 50
Tracy Lundell shares her journey from banking to entrepreneurship, revealing how she built a wealth management company that breaks industry norms while providing better client service.
Catch the Conversation
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Tracy Lundell shares her journey from banking to entrepreneurship, revealing how she built a wealth management company that breaks industry norms while providing better client service.
With 30+ years of expertise in finance strategy, Tracey helps women investors and entrepreneurs navigate the complex world of wealth by building smart future-proof portfolios.
Women often face unique challenges when it comes to finance and Tracey, with her tailored strategies that go beyond numbers, works closely with them to help align their investments with their entrepreneurial ambitions, life goals, and family legacies — whether it’s women who are newly widowed, divorced, or suddenly in charge of managing an inheritance or severance.
Currently a Senior Investment Advisor at Harbourfront Wealth Management, Tracey’s approach to investment planning is deeply Canadian — fair, transparent, and sensitive to clients who need an extra layer of attention. She is industry-certified as a Chartered Investment Manager.
Tracey is a passionate advocate of empowering women’s financial futures and was recognized as one of the Top 50 Leading Women in Wealth in 2023. She has also been a consecutive Excellence Awardee for the Wealth Professional Advisor of the Year (2021-2024).
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1:03
Tracy's Journey from Banking to Entrepreneurship
6:06
Taking the Leap into Business Ownership
11:39
Money Stories and Financial Education
17:30
Building a Wealth Management Team
22:55
Learning to Delegate and Culture Building
31:45
Future Growth and Strategic Decision Making
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Julie: 0:04
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur and a growth and leadership coach who co-founded, grew and exited an eight-figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going.
Julie: 1:03
Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure 8. Today, I am in conversation with Tracy Lundell, and Tracy is an expert in financial strategy and she works with women investors and entrepreneurs to navigate the complicated world of wealth and to build future-proof portfolios, which I think we all know in today's world is something that's really important. And, Tracy, I'm very interested in our chat today. We have similar stories in how we got started, in that banks lured us into management training programs when we finished university and, although our paths have been different here, we are both entrepreneurs and I'm so interested in talking to you today about your journey.
Tracey: 1:49
Awesome, I'm excited too. Thank you for having me today.
Julie: 1:52
Welcome, Welcome.
Julie: 1:54
And so had you worked at a bank at all when you got lured into. Lured I call it, but I mean invited. It was probably a great opportunity.
Julie: 2:03
It was for me.
Tracey: 2:11
So I'm out west here in British Columbia and I went to the University of BC and uh, to help afford my life while I was at school. I worked part-time at Canada Trust back then. So it was a great, uh, because our hours were so long. It was perfect for a student Like we. I was able to work after school shifts and so I'd worked in. I started when I was 17,. Actually, my mom had to sign my employment contract because I was not of legal age.
Julie: 2:37
No way, oh, that's interesting.
Tracey: 2:39
It is interesting, exactly. So I basically started in first year and then worked part-time, right?
Julie: 2:45
right, and so our stories are really very similar, because I was also 17 when I started working part-time and put myself through university. It was a great job, it paid really well at that time and, yeah, I mean, who knew that that would be the beginning of something that would lead you to where you are now?
Tracey: 3:01
well, and I went to school to become a diplomat, I thought that I lead you to where you are now. Well, and I went to school to become a diplomat, I thought that I was going to join the foreign service and see the world, and you know all the romantic aspects of that role, which is a much more complex?
Julie: 3:14
Do you speak multiple languages?
Tracey: 3:16
I did then, like I, I spoke French quite, quite nicely, and some Spanish and English, and those were enough. But but honestly, it's been so long now that I can barely I mean I can barely hold a conversation anymore in French. Enough time has passed. I can read it pretty well, but uh, yeah, conversationally it's. It's definitely gone downhill. But I was ready. I was ready to join the foreign service, but the year I graduated they put a five-year freeze on the entrance exam and I was like, oh, I guess I need to find something else to do.
Julie: 3:49
Right, and so there you were, already working for a bank and got invited to work full time, and it seemed like a great opportunity.
Tracey: 3:58
Well, it was good because I got to join the management training program and that's where I took my first step into the whole leadership side of things and loved it. So I love it still. So it's not past tense.
Tracey: 4:11
I still love it.
Julie: 4:12
And so what was the journey that took you from sort of that post-university job invite great training, becoming a leader of people to the investment side, and learning that you love to help people build wealth.
Tracey: 4:28
Right. So I mean I think in a bank you can have lots of different careers under that same umbrella, which is an amazing opportunity. So I'd had the chance to work for the retail bank, the insurance part of the bank, td securities at one point, which was awesome because it was like the fixed income foreign exchange part of the business. And then I worked at the commercial bank as well. So it was a good breadth of experience and I was leading most of the time. Sometimes it was hands on with clients, but most of the time I was leading teams. And I just got to a point where I was actually leading teams for a different institution.
Tracey: 5:07
It was on the wealth side of the business, so all the licensing and all of that had to all get refreshed and I just realized how much I missed the hands-on advising piece, like it was a lot of putting out fires and and that sort of thing. It's funny because I love the hands on piece and then I was starting to miss the leadership piece when I was doing the hands on, like helping clients and all of that I do love that a lot too, and all of it's about relationship at the end of the day, no matter who it is that you're helping. But this is perfect. This, this job I do now it's not even a job really. It's this world that I live in now. I get to both help people directly, but I also get to lead a team, which is so it's like the best of all the worlds. It's not two worlds really, it's so many worlds all colliding, but it's the best of all of them.
Julie: 5:58
That's so good. And how did you get to here, to where you are today?
Tracey: 6:08
Yeah, so when I was leading teams of wealth advisors, I was like man, if it were me, I would do this differently. If it were just me, I would do this differently. And then, um, my partner that I started our company with felt the same way, and she and I worked out of the same location. So when everybody like we were there before anybody and we were there long after anybody left at the end of the day, and we would just talk about that, oh, you know, if we could do it our own way, we would do blank. And then finally we're like wait a minute, why aren't we trying? Why don't we? Yeah, so, and that's that's kind of how it all started, and it was.
Tracey: 6:41
I mean, it's a huge leap of faith to jump from a salary job into one that isn't into kind of entrepreneurship, but it was. I'm comfortable with that. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family and I kind of experienced that growing up. So we took that leap of faith and everybody else says in retrospect, I wish I'd done it earlier. And I do too. I wish I'd done it earlier. It was. It's great, like the autonomy part of it appeals greatly to me and my personality, and for her as well. So I think that it was a natural next step, but it does take some courage.
Julie: 7:16
Yeah, yeah, for sure it does. You gotta bet on yourself.
Tracey: 7:20
You do right.
Tracey: 7:21
You've got to absolutely trust that you have everything you need, or at least the ability to be able to learn along the way and to take those chances and to be nimble and anyway. So those were all the things that you go through in your mind. You're just like, oh gosh, like I'm giving up, like a benefits plan and a pension plan and a salary, and I mean both of us had moved up in our careers to a point where we were very comfortable, both the main income earners for our household.
Tracey: 7:50
So it was a big. It was a big development, it was a big change.
Julie: 7:55
Yeah, and how do you think growing up in that entrepreneurial environment in fact impacted you and what did you learn from it?
Tracey: 8:08
I think that it was. There's an element of creativity. Even though we're in the financial industry, I think there's an element of creativity that you have when you are developing your own company and you're trying to find your own place, kind of, in the world and where you fit and how you can best deliver what you have to offer.
Tracey: 8:26
And I think that watching my parents go through that it wasn't always easy and a lot of that was in the 80s, when interest rates were like 21% for mortgages and like all sorts of it, was not an easy time financially for them to be running a business. So I heard the challenges as well, but I think you could see the creative energy on oh, we get to add to our team and oh, we have this contract now, so we're going to be able to do this, this and this. And I think that just listening to how they grew their company, you just kind of I mean I was a child, but you can learn it through osmosis I mean I was a teenager for part of it too. So so I remember those conversations and they would include us in some of the things that were that were age appropriate. So I think we just talked about that kind of thing around the dinner table and that was helpful.
Tracey: 9:18
It made it slightly less scary because I'd seen it in action because I'd seen it in action
Julie: 9:22
Yeah, yeah, which is interesting, right, because I think it's, yeah, one of those things of you absorb almost without realizing, in a lot of ways.
Tracey: 9:42
Yeah, but it is interesting because it creates this money story I often talk about, like what's people's money story? What are the things that happen to them when they're younger, that impacts their lives all the way through. And for me it was like, oh, you know what? The security of a paycheck is a really awesome thing to have two weeks you're going to get at least like a set amount and sometimes bonuses, and like that's an amazing way and you can take a lot of comfort in that. But then I was kind of missing the creativity, autonomy of being able to run your own business your own way. So I think you just learn. You just learn that there's give and take, so you give up maybe some security in some ways, but then you can create it for yourself eventually anyways, like I think you just have to have enough faith in your own abilities to be able to deliver what you always were able to do all along. It's just once. It's just from pay structure, that's all right.
Julie: 10:38
Yeah, and do you feel like you ever looked back from that moment where you made that choice to start your own business and let go?
Tracey: 10:48
I think you can't help but look back, especially in the early days.
Julie: 10:52
Yes, Because it's harder then. Hard days, the lean days right, the lean days.
Tracey: 10:56
I mean I think you save and you prepare yourself for that. But when you're a person who I mean I would say I'm, I'm, I'm a very fiscally responsible person, so like to make that kind of decision, you second guess yourself a little bit. But I think you just have to, you have to go with it right. You just have to like okay, this is what it is, now I know I have the capacity to be able to do these things. I know I have the knowledge. It's you just say, yeah, you have to take a chance on yourself. So did I second guess it a little bit? Probably. I think it's natural at the very beginning, but not much and not for long.
Julie: 11:31
Yep, yes. And what do you see in the kinds of clients that come and want to work with you, or the clients even that you are prospecting for the clients that you want to work with. What do you see in them? You know you work with a lot of women, a lot of women entrepreneurs. What is that like?
Tracey: 11:52
So I think that I was lucky coming into entrepreneurship with a financial background and I think that most people when they are starting there are most women, but all people when they're starting their own business, they know their business inside and out, but the overlay of the financial aspect of it is sometimes challenging, hard to access. They may not have had experience making some of those financial decisions. Like that part was not hard for us because we came from that and I think that you can. That gives a lot of confidence and I think that when people are really good at what they do, they can be fantastic. But they don't necessarily have the financial knowledge to get themselves to that next level and that's where we come in. I think that that's the best spot Like we can help fill that gap.
Tracey: 12:41
So the knowledge that you don't have, it's okay. I there's a lot of things I don't know and I build a team around me to help figure those things out for me. Um, like I think of technology and all these. Like there's other things that I just I mean, I know a little bit about, but I'm by no means an expert, so I'll build a team around me for that. So I'm happy to be the part of the financial aspect of teams that people professional teams that people build around them as they grow their business and then they can focus on what they do best and they're confident in. So that's who we help and how we help. I would say we fill that gap for a lot of people who don't have that confidence kind of background or knowledge.
Julie: 13:20
Well, and there's like a fine balance, I would say, between working with somebody that you trust and who will advise you well and in educating yourself enough to have you know, to be able to kind of like have that big level picture and also kind of you know understand on some level what's happening with your money.
Tracey: 13:45
Oh for sure. I think there's a big educational component that goes along with it and even leads up to you even asking or asking for assistance or building that team around you. You have to know the right questions to ask, you have to know the areas that you're struggling in in your business. So I think it's a very realistic kind of conversation. It's like how do I, how do I take my business to the next level if I don't really understand all the different elements in there?
Tracey: 14:11
But that's like the first step is like okay, how do I find that information, even if I don't necessarily know how to go through it all and figure out what it all means in relation to me. But how do I even access it first off? And how do I know what questions to ask to get the right advice in the first place? And you kind of learn along the way. Like I think that it's a learning journey for everybody and as you go through that process it's handy to have a guide, I suppose. And then you, you, you just learn. I think that that's that's how it kind of comes along, and everybody comes at it from a different level of experience and knowledge right, so that's the other and trust is huge, right, like that's the thing.
Tracey: 14:55
You have to be super open. It's almost like therapy, like financial therapy to a certain extent, right, and people need to understand what their history is, and that's where that money story comes in Again. Are you a spending person? Are you a saving kind of person? Are you do even think about those things? Are they like what? What has been your experience your whole life? Have you always been in your own, like business for self? Or have you earned a salary and now you're jumping in own, like business for self, or have you earned a salary and now you're jumping in and it's scary? And so I think that, like where people come from and their experience that they've had can really guide where you start, and then the journey after that as well, the learning journey just continues on.
Julie: 15:37
Yeah, well, and it's interesting too, because you know, the more people educate themselves, learn about their money story, learn what they really want out of the investments they're making, I think it evolves too over time.
Tracey: 16:29
ideally get ahead of things before they even happen, but at least be in a position to react if things happen that you didn't expect.
Julie: 16:37
Yes, yes, and, and I mean I would venture to say things happen always that you don't expect.
Julie: 16:44
yeah, that's you know whether they're big or they're small? Yeah, you know that's life
Tracey: 16:50
yeah, it is, I mean, and it would be boring if it didn't happen that way, but it adds stress for sure, I think, when unforeseen things happen but unforeseen good things happen too so both good and bad things will happen along the way, and you want to be able to take advantage of both the good opportunities but also put yourself in a situation where, if something not good happens that's unforeseen, you're okay.
Julie: 17:14
Right, yeah, yeah. So now in your own journey I mean you a time came when you decided to take your practice outside of the bank confines and, you know, into a more private wealth management company environment. Um, what has that change meant for you?
Tracey: 17:35
Oh, autonomy, like I'm going back to that word again but the freedom to be able to grow our team the way we want to, to really focus how we look after our clients. It's just. It's just that much more freedom to be able to build the way we want to and work with the people that we can help best. It's kind of a less of a, it's less broad and now we can be much more focused. But I think that that's helpful because now we can be kind of more experts in our field because, like we, we see a lot and there's a lot of learnings that can be had across different clients. Obviously, everything's private, but we still learn along the way.
Tracey: 18:23
So I I think that has been huge, and the ability to be able to grow our team kind of organically as well. So I, our industry is horrible for onboarding. Like it's not an ideal scenario for someone to start earning nothing and then be providing advice but you still have to pay your rent and put food on the table, but you literally start with zero as your salary
Julie: 18:47
Like is it a little bit sink or swim Like what would you?
Tracey: 18:51
yeah it is, and I just don't think that's a healthy or comfortable learning environment. And so if you're learning and you're stressed, and you're financially stressed yourself, like how can you be in a position to give good advice financially when you're just doing your best and you're new in the industry? So I think that that's just hard. Um, so I have a big uh desire.
Tracey: 19:19
We like to bring people on. They can kind of learn the ropes, but they're on a salary, so they don't have to worry about the rent or the mortgage payment or the food on their table or their other expenses while they learn. And then they're getting the mentorship of all of us more senior, because now there's a, there's a few of us, it's not just me and my partner anymore but they get that mentorship and they get that support and then, when they're ready, then they can kind of launch and they can start building before they come off that salary. And that's a great succession planning tool for us too. So we have employees in their 30s, we have employees in their 40s Me and my partner we're in our 50s, right. So I think that it's nice to have that kind of succession planning. Not that we're ready to exit soon,
Julie: 20:07
but no, but you know you will exit
Tracey: 20:10
yeah, one day we will.
Tracey: 20:11
And we know now that we've got all these people that we trust and we know exactly what they bring to the table.
Tracey: 20:17
Um, so that freedom we got when we made that big move
Julie: 20:21
Well, and it just strikes me that you know it's the kind of business where people are like oh well, you know that's fine that you have a great team, Tracey, but I work with you right like there is a succession um concern, I think, because people feel like it is a very tight relationship and it's very it's got a lot of trust
Tracey: 20:43
Pretty intimate, like really
Julie: 20:44
Very intimate.
Tracey: 20:46
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so it is hard, but they get to learn. So the way we structure it in our team because now we have the privilege of being able to do it this way I guess is everybody has certain things that they're really great at and all of us can do all the things, but that doesn't mean that we're all really great at all the things. So my partner loves to do the planning, so she'll do all the input and all the number crunching and all the scenario running the 30 page reports.
Tracey: 21:14
It's not what I love, but she loves it. So she gets to focus on that. And then we've got another advisor that does all the portfolio management and we she gets to focus on that. And then we've got another advisor that does all the portfolio management and we have the same licensing. I could do it too. I don't love it. I don't love. I mean I that's not the piece that I love the most. And then we've got another person who's more on the risk management side of things, so he really understands all the insurance elements and all of that.
Tracey: 21:36
Again, I'm licensed for that. It doesn't mean that I couldn't do it, but it's not my forte. Like I'm, I do a lot of the big picture strategy, tax planning kind of stuff, especially when there's corporate structures involved or like multi-generations involved. Like I, that's the stuff I really love and I love the team building, so I get to take that on for the team and it's so everybody eventually will get to know everybody and that's, I think, going to be helpful one day, like 10-15 years down the road, because they're going to know everyone.
Tracey: 22:10
So and that's really the beauty of being able to build a bigger business yes, right, it absolutely is, and it's definitely a long-term perspective, like I think you have to build it. It's a culture building perspective too, like I'm not just going to grow the team for the sake of it. Then it needs to be the right people that are involved in the mix, because there is a huge trust element for each of us relying on each other, for our clients to be able to rely on everybody there, like that's the part I love. I love the team building and the culture building and the like, even just within our own smaller team yep, yeah, you are happy to let other people do things well, I'm getting, I'm learning.
Tracey: 22:51
That is a journey for me. I'm way better at it now. If you'd asked me five years ago, I was not a good delegator, not even delegating. I just had to. I think that's a hard thing to let go of when you start your own business and you've done everything.
Julie: 23:02
Yeah, tell me a little more about that.
Tracey: 23:06
So I was very I mean, I was very capable and had a very full schedule and I would just do the things. And now that we've got other members of the team that could do those things much better than me, it was a trust. It's a trust thing for me too. It's like okay, I know you can do this, I know you're capable of it. You're going to do it better than I can and probably faster. So, but I had to learn that I had a hard time letting go. I mean, I'm a I'm a control freak, of course.
Julie: 23:33
I think that comes with the territory of being an entrepreneur and then layer on top. Like you're, you work in a highly regulated industry, so you know those two things playing together. Uh, I think it makes sense that you would be. How did you, how did you know that you needed to delegate what started happening in the business?
Tracey: 23:53
um, I, I got stretched way too thin and I let myself get stretched way too thin. My, my calendar is still busy, but four or five years ago that thing was crazy, it was real, it was hard, a hard, a hard thing to manage for sure, and it was back to back and then I just didn't feel like I was like I think my clients were getting everything they needed. I certainly wasn't getting everything I needed. I didn't have a lot of downtime for me to take care of. I was exhausted.
Julie: 24:25
Yes, I was going to say that's where you'd start to like head down the lane toward burnout and and all of the things, and and I think the other thing that happens too, though, is you become the block in the yeah, and everybody's waiting for Tracy and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, because you, you, just I don't want to be that yeah, so you.
Tracey: 24:45
It doesn't take long to realize it, but those are habits that are hard to change, so you just have to keep reminding yourself, and and people will make mistakes along the way, as they're learning, of course that's totally okay.
Julie: 24:59
Like I think that's what you think. Like that's how that's how. Like that's how I learned things. That's how you learned things exactly. We don't want to let other people make the mistakes. We worry about the risk to us of them making mistakes well, and reputationally too.
Tracey: 25:13
When you built your own business, it's your baby like you have, that's it's. I think it's hard as a mom as well, to let your baby grow up and go out into the world and not have her mummy.
Julie: 25:24
Yeah, yeah and your business is a lot like that. Right, it is a lot like that yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tracey: 25:31
so I would say that was I was my biggest hurdle.
Julie: 25:34
Yes, that's where I think, though, that that ultimately starts to like, collide and rub up against the culture piece, because, in order to kind of create the culture that you really want, where people are super engaged and feel like they have ownership and want to come to work every day, that kind of culture does not fit with the lack of, you know, delegation and the control.
Tracey: 25:58
Yeah, you have to trust your teammates. Yeah, and I've been trying to bring this whole holacracy style of leadership into our dynamic, where everybody can sit around the table equally, no matter what role it is that you take, because everybody's role. You need everybody to be working at their optimal, you know best, in order for all of us to be doing the best work that we need to do. And, yes, does the buck stop with someone? Of course it does. It stopped mostly, mostly, with me. That's my role on the team and but, generally speaking, like when we have team meetings, it's everybody is there, everybody has an equal voice, because you need to hear what's going on at every level. So that, I would say, is kind of the management style. If that is even a man, I mean it is a management style. But that's what we're trying to bring to the table. I think they advisors especially. It's a very hierarchical industry, so that is one other way that we're very different in terms of how we operate.
Julie: 27:10
Yeah, well, and I think I see I see a lot. You know I've got I have a whole chapter in my book about delegation and things that. But it is the kind of thing that nobody really ever sits you down and teaches you no, and you just get to a point where I see one of two things I see either over control, like holding on too, tightly, microman tightly, or delegation, where you're like, oh, they're doing a terrible job but you actually haven't.
Julie: 27:40
You know, you're checking in all the way at the end when it's already kind of destined to be a disaster, or or or you're in a high risk situation because, like you said and I think it's an interesting example like the buck stops with you, yet you're effectively delegating, letting other people learn and grow, make mistakes, within some confines of you know what's acceptable in the industry and you know in your you know oversight role. But it is just that interesting piece of like, finding the right like spot between too much control and no oversight at all.
Tracey: 28:20
Well, we have daily check ins because our people are kind of spread out all over the lower mainland. So every morning at 830, from 830 to nine, we'll have a daily check in, and if there's lots going on, then that's a perfect opportunity for us to figure out who's going to be doing what today, to figure out, like, which client needs which things or, as a team, which things we need Make sure nothing's falling on the cracks.
Tracey: 28:43
Exactly right, like it's our best way to try and seal as many cracks as we possibly can, so nothing falls through. It's not a perfect world, so things will fall through sometimes, but I think we managed to do a lot of crack filling in those morning appointments. But most of the time, like some of the time, we don't have all of that stuff to talk about, and then it can just be fun culture building kind of conversations and more about like, what do you want to learn today? Like what, what's next on your list? Like what have you been seeing that you would like to know more about, and so it can be a little more proactive too and not just reactive. So I think that how teams all communicate with one another make everybody more effective, and that's kind of the main, and I think that's also different for this industry. I'm lucky to have had all of those years of leadership, support and training in this environment, because now I can apply it.
Julie: 29:39
Yeah, yeah and, like you said earlier, find the best of both worlds to fit together around the leadership piece and the relationship piece with your clients exactly so I mean, and do clients still usually call me first?
Tracey: 29:52
yeah, yeah, that's good, that's great. And then they know, sometimes if it's an administrative thing they'll just skip right over me, which is fine, because all I would have done is asked someone else on the team probably to do it, because I'm not usually in a position where I'm in front of my computer to be able to make it happen. And they know now. So it's a learning process, I think, for everybody, like the team, for the clients but I think it's also much more seamless when anybody goes on vacation.
Tracey: 30:24
Yes, right, like you actually can go on vacation and not worry. I've got a vacation coming up in October. Most of my clients know about it because I'm super excited about it and I I share what's going on in my life too, and like I'm not worried when I go away. There's more than enough people to take care of everything for the two weeks that I'm going to be gone, and that, like five years ago, even wasn't the case. There were just two of us and it was a lot for the other person when one of the other right.
Tracey: 30:54
I think it's a really, really important point, though, for us, as entrepreneurs, to be able to build businesses that don't need us that's the goal, isn't it like, if that's the goal of successful parenting, but eventually your kids launch and can do like an adult and I think that's also the role of a successful business owner is that one day you can exit, or maybe not even exit, still lead, but you're not the one doing all of the things all of the time right Like. I think that that is a sign you make yourself redundant.
Julie: 31:29
Well, and ultimately, that's what makes your business, you know, sellable really is when you are redundant, yep, exactly.
Tracey: 31:38
Or when you create something that well, it's bigger than you at the end of the day, like it's not about me or my partner anymore. Already it's bigger than us. So that's kind of exciting actually that we're at that stage now, yes, and now what's next for you?
Tracey: 31:56
oh goodness, I think it's just continuing on this path, but building in the right way. So there's lots. Uh, I think, because of how we do business, we have a lot of advisors that reach out asking about joining our team yeah, so it's finding the right people for your culture and how you want to work exactly, so they have to be the right.
Tracey: 32:16
And then if we're going to do that, then we also have to have the right supporting people in place. So I think it's not about doing everything at a rapid pace just because we could. It's also about what's the right timing for everybody that's here already already doing the work for our own clients and making sure that we can build it in a scalable like it does need to be scalable. Sometimes it's process, sometimes it's just processes that can be streamlined, that make that build capacity, but eventually it's going to be having more folks as well, all kind of helping clients in the same way. So I that's that's what our path is over the next. Over the next, I would say like even 10 years. That's probably what the path looks like, but we don't want to be so grow for the sake of growing Right.
Julie: 33:05
No, you want to grow yeah. Yeah, you want to grow with the right people and the right culture and to be in service of the clients. That will be part of the mix.
Tracey: 33:17
Yep, exactly. So I think that's kind of the main that's, that's our main path anyways, and then just like do what we do already, but do it better.
Julie: 33:28
Learn more. Yeah, yeah.
Tracey: 33:31
I mean continuous improvement and and, and you know, leveling up kind of a mentality exactly, I mean, and all of that will just lead to growth of the of our group, too, and our bottom line and our ability to be able to do new and creative things. So I think it's always putting what like who are you serving? And yes, we're serving ourselves, because we need to make a living and people need to progress in their careers, and we're also serving our clients. So I mean, I think, as long as you have these touch points where you're like okay, this next big decision that we're going to make, who does it serve?
Julie: 34:09
yes, are we. Are we serving one at the detriment of the other, or can we find the balance that we need to make it be the right choice?
Tracey: 34:18
Or it really needs to serve both or it can't happen. Yeah, so it's that. I think it's those kinds of strategic decisions. But we enjoy having those conversations around the table too with the team and everybody has a different perspective. Like we don't hire people just because they think the same way would not be great actually. We want diversity of opinion around the table. So it's uh, it's fun. It's fun, we're at that. I think we're at that like this is my happy spot where we get to. We're still taking care of clients really well, but we're still we're also kind of expanding um and bringing all these like new people into the business, but in a very supportive kind of way, as opposed to the scary sink or swim, which is what this industry is kind of known for.
Julie: 35:05
Yeah, Good Well, I look forward to seeing how you continue to reinvent things and build a great team and do things the way you want to do them, so you have the right culture and the right people and you serve your clients in the best way you can.
Tracey: 35:20
Yeah, me too.
Julie: 35:22
Good Good Well. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I really appreciate it.
Tracey: 35:27
Thank you for having me.
Tracey: 35:28
It's been awesome.
Julie: 35:31
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