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July 7, 2021

Ep. 2 Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable ft. Bobby White, Founder and CEO of RFG Advisory

“Fear only will slow you down. Fear will only make you hesitate.”

Podcast Introduction

Welcome to Disruption Blueprint, the podcast for independent financial advisors who want to crush everything and take their A-game to the next level. This episode is brought to you by RFG Advisory with your host Shannon Spotswood and Bobby White, Founder and CEO of RFG Advisory as guest. Bobby White is our fearless leader, devoted to helping advisors pursue their dreams and maximize the value of their independent practice.

“Finance had always been intriguing to me,” Bobby says. With 22+ years of industry experience as a financial advisor, Bobby lends his life lessons and hard won wisdom in this episode. But like all heroes, the story doesn’t begin there.

In this episode, Bobby guides us through the varying stages of his life, laying down brick by brick the foundation of what would be RFG. We discover a bit about Bobby’s childhood, Bobby’s career background, and the story of how Bobby founded RFG. We were built from the ground up, torn down, and built again.

There are a lot of gems in this episode. Thanks for joining us for our kickoff episode of Disruption Blueprint, where we empower independent financial advisors to be the CEO of their practice, not the COO.

Join the conversation to hear about:

  • Big welcome to Bobby (02:57)
  • Rookie of the Year: The history of Bobby’s career background (03:47)
  • Identifying what you do and don’t want to do in a career (07:32)
  • Growth Crusade: the story of how Bobby founded RFG (09:22)
  • Starting an RIA during a financial crisis and thriving (010:55)
  • Tripling the size of the firm over an 18-month period. What’s next? (17:02)
  • How Bobby and Shannon connected (18:22)
  • Building RFG 2.0 (20:52)
  • Be the CEO of your practice, not the CEO (25:46)
  • The importance of surrounding yourself with smart people (27:29)
  • Disrupting yourself and disrupting the status quo (32:50)
  • Scaling up and building the RFG 2.0 capacity (37:00)
  • Bobby tells us a bit about his childhood and growing up (41:57)
  • Moving out of the family home and building confidence (49:00)
  • What Bobby calls “the best sales presentation I have given in my entire life” (51:40)
  • Get 1% better every day (56:36)

 

Podcast Overview

Welcome to Disruption Blueprint, the podcast for independent financial advisors who want to crush everything and take their A-game to the next level. This episode is brought to you by RFG Advisory with your host Shannon Spotswood and Bobby White, Founder and CEO of RFG Advisory as guest. Bobby White is our fearless leader, devoted to helping advisors pursue their dreams and maximize the value of their independent practice.

Bobby is a financial advisor with 22+ years of industry experience. “Finance had always been intriguing to me,” Bobby says. But like all heroes, the story doesn’t begin there. In this episode, Bobby guides us through the varying stages of his life, laying down brick by brick the foundation of what would be RFG. We discover a bit about Bobby’s childhood, Bobby’s career background, and the story of how Bobby founded RFG. We were built from the ground up, torn down, and built again. Let’s scroll back a few chapters, shall we?

In 2003, Bobby had what he calls a fairly sizable practice, but he sought out for something bigger. He and his partner at the time took three or four of the top advisors in the Birmingham area, and built an 8,000 square foot office building. “We occupied half of it, we rented out half of it to the person I bought it from,” Bobby says. In total, the team consisted of eight people including admin.

By 2007, Bobby was ready to shake things up again. He went to his Chief Compliance Officer and said it’s time to start looking at setting up our own IRA. RFG Advisory formed its RIA in 2011 and continued to grow to the point where we were at about $450 million dollars assets under management.

“Everything was going according to plan, everything was just taking longer than I wanted to,” says Bobby. That’s where mindset comes in. The path to success isn’t a streamlined one but you can armor yourself with a razor sharp mindset to forge the path. It’s all about purpose, walking that road step by step.

“I went on a crusade to double the size of our business over a 12-month period of time,” says Bobby. “I wasn’t able to do that, but I was able to triple the size of the firm over an 18-month period of time.”

RFG Advisory went from $450 AUM to $1.2 billion. While some would be content staying in the  bubble of success, Bobby was ready to step out, over, and beyond. He was ready to craft RFG Advisory into something bigger and better. Again.

RFG 2.0 came to be when Bobby’s friend Doug Coltharp introduced him to Shannon Spotswood, Doug’s neighbor who owned a lifestyle business. Bobby and Shannon sat down for a 45-minute meeting and felt so energized by the end of it, both Bobby and Shannon canceled the rest of their day to continue talking.

“Two and a half hours later, we finished up my office with a legal pad about 10 pages just scribbled all over, where we outlined what RFG 2.0 would look like. And now, here we are,” Bobby says.

“There is nothing more energizing, more motivating, more inspiring than to build something,” says Shannon Spotswood. Building the RIA the future is so much more than solely being a platform. It’s more than state of the art marketing and technology and compliance and access to capital and culture. It really has become about how you’re going to live your life. What’s your mindset? Who are you, truly?

There are a lot of gems in this episode. Thanks for joining us for our kickoff episode of War Room Huddle, where we empower independent financial advisors to be the CEO of their practice, not the COO. You want to build a practice that works for you, one that allows you to do what only independent professionals can do. Your preferences and priorities are different from other advisors, and that’s why we believe the opportunity at RFG Advisory is right for you. If you’re looking to get more out of your career as an independent advisor, join RFG.

A wealth of tips

Don’t miss Bobby’s wealth of tips throughout the episode. Put in those AirPods and listen up! Utilize these three strategic concepts to help you crush your next victory.

  1. Don’t give into fear. You must be willing to not only disrupt things around but also to challenge the status quo. You’ve to be willing to disrupt yourself a little bit, too. Get comfortable being uncomfortable, and you’ll never be uncomfortable. “That takes the fear out of the equation,” says Bobby. “Fear only will slow you down. Fear will only make you hesitate.”
  2. Don’t contract the excuse disease. If it were easy, everybody would do it. We as humans can be complacent. Too many people allow themselves to make excuse after excuse until they accumulate.
  3. Get 1 % better every day. As Bobby explains in this episode, if you get 1% better today, that’s not much better than yesterday, but it is better. It is still better than the day before. Think about if you do that every day for seven days, for 90 days, for 365 days. “You’re going to become a force multiplier,” Bobby says.

 Referenced materials

Securities offered by Registered Representatives of Private Client Services (“PCS”). Member FINRA/SIPC.Advisory services offered by Investment Advisory Representatives of RFG Advisory, a registered investment advisor. Private Client Services and RFG Advisory are unaffiliated entities.

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