In the Suite

19. Building Great Teams and Creating a Culture of Innovation with Kelly Waltrich, Chief Marketing Officer of Orion Advisor Solutions

September 10, 2020 Tina Powell | Kelly Waltrich Season 1 Episode 19
In the Suite
19. Building Great Teams and Creating a Culture of Innovation with Kelly Waltrich, Chief Marketing Officer of Orion Advisor Solutions
Show Notes Transcript

Today we’re excited to welcome Kelly Waltrich into In The Suite. There’s so much to talk about in this episode. Kelly is Chief Marketing Officer of Orion Advisor Solutions. At Orion Advisor Solutions, they help advisors find success by offering personalized financial management continuum, including advisor technology and investment solutions.

Kelly is like a butterfly. There’s art in the metamorphosis. There’s beauty in change. Kelly believes in adapting to change as it comes, which it inevitably will. Change is always looming, always near. Just be ready for it. You’ll hear Kelly talk about “change all day every day” and the conversation that made a gigantic impact on her first week at Orion.

Join the conversation to hear about:

  • Kelly beliefs about building trust with your peers  (5:55)
  • How to hire and find the right people (8:20)
  • Ways the Orion workflow has shifted since COVID (12:30)
  • Latest big news and updates at Orion (17:10)
  • Thinking about the steps of the Orion client journey (19:20)
  • Orion’s unique spin to content (24:00)
  • Hosting events in a post-COVID world (26:45)
  • Why you need to design your own career path (30:20)
  • The reason why welcoming change is so important (36:00)
  • Why we should lift each other up and build your community (43:50) 
  • How a conversation changed Kelly’s life (46:10)
  • Tips on staying connected with your team and showing you care (51:40)
  • How Kelly champions her superpower every day (56:20)

Referenced Materials


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Tina Powell  00:08
Hi, this is Tina Powell host of In The Suite where I sit down with top women leaders and some of the biggest names in the financial services and the wealth management industry. Together we'll discover some of their best secrets and top strategies to grow great business build a strong brand and lead teams in the 21st century. I hope you'll enjoy hearing their amazing personal stories of triumph, trepidation and transformation in hopes of becoming better leaders ourselves. The time for you to lead is now and you're In the Suite Kelly Waltrich is the Chief Marketing Officer of Orion Advisor solutions since 2017. Orion Advisor solutions founded by Eric Clark offers Personalized financial management platform at scale, including best in class financial technology, comprehensive investment solutions, and responsive support services to help fiduciary minded advisors and firms of all sizes realize their unique visions for success. In 2019, Kelly Waltrich received the prestigious wealthy award and was named Chief Marketing Officer of the Year by Wealth Management calm. She received her award while she was nine months pregnant with her son Dylan, now 10 months old, her other baby goes by the name of marketer, namely Orion's all in one online marketing tool suite just launched this year. Now in their 21st year in business Orion Advisor solutions has 1 trillion of assets under administration serves over 2000 advisory firms representing 3 million accounts. Their subsidiary organizations include Orion Advisor tech, Orion portfolio solutions, CLS investments constellation Trust Company, and most recently Brinker capital, like her parent company, Orion. Kelly is a marketing powerhouse. Before Orion. She was SVP of Marketing and Communications at E money. And a VP at Janney, Montgomery Scott. She spent 15 years in financial services, and earned a Bachelor's in Business Administration, marketing and communications from James Madison University. And one of the many gifts you'll discover about Kelly in this episode is her ability to build great teams and create a winning culture that is innovative and agile. Whether it's moving an 800 person company overnight, or planning one of the industry's most popular events. Kelly knows exactly how to build a marketing team that is on the cutting edge of innovation and ideas In the Suite Wow. So here we go. It's So excited to welcome Kelly Waltrich into the suite today. We have so much to talk about. The last time I saw you was January 22 2020. New Kelly. Oh my gosh.

Kelly Waltrich  03:14
Yeah. It's it's been wild. Absolutely wild. And I'm so excited to have this conversation. I know we've been trying to do this for some time. So lots of stuff to cover.

Tina Powell  03:25
Yeah. And I feel like Wow, so much has happened again, I know a lot of us are saying it, but really, so much has happened and I was visiting you. It was January 22. King of Prussia. PA. I was coming to I couldn't wait to come to Orion's marketing your whole marketing team, your your marketing center. I don't know what you call it. What do you I don't have a name for it. I wish I did. I guess I'm gonna have to come up with something. Oh my god. It's like it is the coolest place and now we're here and now. It's kind of it's it's Coronavirus. Well how old is baby Dylan now?

Kelly Waltrich  04:02
He's gonna be nine months in a couple days. Do you believe that?

Tina Powell  04:05
Oh it's so good he was so cute So cute though wow I think about what all the different situations that you you've had to balance and it's it's a you know nine month olds in definitely sleeping right now i'm sure but you know all that situation your team so impressive I can't tell you the culture that already existed at Ryan and that you've been able to bottle that effectively and bring it to the marketing power of Orion Advisor Services so impressive to see that it felt so great. Let's let's start there. Um, you know, let's bring this back to the beginning of the year when marketer that was a Ryan advisors marketing effort now, that's plugged into the ryan Connect suite. So kind of tell us about that and how the team is doing.

Kelly Waltrich  04:57
Yeah, Tina. It's such a shame because We that day that you came to our office in January, we had so many amazing ideas planned for our in person conference. And I just think back to that day and how creative we were getting and then, you know, this year, of course happens. So I really hope that we get to implement some of those things in 2021. So fingers crossed on that. Yeah, we're not

Tina Powell  05:18
going to tell you guys listen. Right. Cool. That was another one of the things that I think it's a great quality about you, Kelly. It speaks very highly to you and the team. And I should mention again, congratulations, Kelly was Chief Marketing Officer of the year Wealth Management.com industry awards in 2019. I was there you were very pregnant on stage, doing incredible time you're going to be able to look back and show him that is like a little baby picture like here you were dealing. But one of the things that you really great at Kelly and speaks to you and the culture at Orion is just thinking out of the box.

Kelly Waltrich  05:57
Yeah, I mean, I feel very lucky that I have a phenomenal team that I do, you got to meet a lot of the great people on my team, and the broader Orion in general. But I think that we do we do try to make an extra effort to, to be innovative, to be forward thinking to not copy what everybody else is doing and be original so and you know how hard that gets, you know, you're in the grind, you have a million things to do. You're trying to keep up. The pace is fast in this industry, but definitely at Orion. And so sometimes I have to remind myself to step out of my comfort zone and, and really push the boundaries. And I think we you know, we should all do that more often if we can, right.

Tina Powell  06:39
Yeah. And I think where it comes from is the culture of the organization, the leadership that exists at Orion, Eric Clark, it's it's so I am so indebted to Eric Clark. He is the quintessential leader. How does a leader like Eric Clark articulate? How does he give you liberty to fly?

Kelly Waltrich  07:03
That's a really good question. And you're right. Eric is such a phenomenal leader. And he is so humble. And I think, I think and I hope that he would agree that we've built a sense of trust over time, he knows that, that I'm a perfectionist is sometimes a crazy degree and that I'm gonna only deliver what's in the best interest of Orion to our advisors. So I think it's about building trust. And he's, he's done that with our entire executive team. And I think that that's why we're able to move fast when you have people in the right roles. And I see that on my own team. You know, and we have people in the right roles that you trust, it's kind of unlimited what you can accomplish.

Tina Powell  07:41
So yesterday was national intern day, and I know you saw my my video on her. And one of the things that really impressed me about my visit to King of Prussia that day, was the team. I felt like oh, wow, I wanted to pick up I wanted to move my house. I want to work for Kelly. I want to be part of what's here because this vibe was so it was so intoxicating. What would you say about as it relates to national intern day and new team acquisition, you seem to be really good judge of talent? What would you say? Like, what are some of the things that Kelly Waltrich looks for?

Kelly Waltrich  08:19
Yeah, no, that's a really good question. And Tina, you know, marketing in general. And you know, this as a marketer, it's an interesting time because, you know, a really good marketers can really pick their own path, they can freelance, they can work for agencies, they can go in house, they can really sort of create their own destiny. So to get really great people is hard. It really is. So you kind of have to create an environment where, yes, we work for an organization, a financial services organization, but we almost had to create our own little Innovation Lab, our own little, you know, center where we could just be creative and bounce ideas off of each other and create that marketing and innovation field. That, that you know, there these people are looking for you have to, you have to really create it. So that's what I try to strive for. And listen, you're so kind in the way that you're describing my team, it did not come together that easily I would be lying if I said that it did. It's hard to find good people. We talk a lot about grit as one of the major things that you need to have to be a part of Orion. And fearlessness is a new core value that we're adding to the Orion core values. Because when we think about the people that are really coming in every day, and succeeding in great ways at Orion and on my team, it's those who are willing to evolve and change and pivot and try new things and test new things and fail and try again and get better that are truly successful. And that is that's a those are hard qualities to find.

Tina Powell  09:51
Yeah, and I think that some of the earlier cultures it depends on the type of environment that you came from, because some of those earlier cultures Other types of backward thinking or even mediocrity, I'm really proud of our industry as a whole. However, if you've been conditioned in an environment that doesn't allow you the freedom of expression, chances are that when you show up in a new opportunity, you're going to be very ultra conservative about raising your hand and saying, Oh, I think this and I think that and and you hit upon a really important point. Look, people are people cultures are culture and we are all by our very nature fallible and dysfunctional. Right. You don't know what you don't know about the person that you're working with that they might be dealing with a significant problem, especially because of Coronavirus right now. It's a leadership lesson. Eric Clark handbook I would say is just to be empathetic and just to let your people lead to your point Kelly, and then let people do what it is that comes naturally and let them explore those great gifts because that that in itself is going to be attractive,

Kelly Waltrich  10:57
I think at the end of the day, As we were building this team and you know, Megan, you know, Felicia, you know, the the women on my team that I try to try to empower and who do a phenomenal job for me. We spend a lot of time talking about talent, and how do we make sure that we're doing right by them? And how do we make sure that we're creating a feel amongst people that they just love coming to work every day, I want to hire people who have a serious passion about what they do. I feel like if you think of it as work, then it's going to feel like that passion, then you're going to be much more likely to dig in and give what it takes to be successful. So it takes a certain kind of person and I'm always on the hunt for them.

Tina Powell  11:47
What does it look like working virtually, he probably already had the virtual illness. But what was the next set of business chops or marketing chops? It's much harder I find them to be in a perfectly virtual environment. Because you do miss some of that, like physical with that day that I was there, for example, like we had a great lunch, right? And it was like, Yeah, you're talking to people on the buffet line. You know, we're all like eating at different places. Like it was just great. It felt like a party atmosphere that say, in a really cool way. It felt like we were all having like a team picnic. What kind of things are you doing right now and the virtual side to bring that feeling?

Kelly Waltrich  12:31
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I have to give props to Orion in general, we moved an 800 person company, virtual overnight. And I think so many companies have done such a phenomenal job of that, you know, Brad Burgess and Eric are so on top of that. And I think what's even better is that they're that Eric is in our executive leadership team are so forward thinking about the future of business that we're trying to figure out ways to, to let people maintain this flexibility if they want it, but in terms of new skills, it's interesting. You know, I've sat on, I've listened to a lot of panels and a lot of talks, and everybody talks about zoom and slack. And, you know, all these tools that they're using to collaborate at the end of the day, what was hard for me was inspiration, and energy. So, so much that I that our team didn't know how to communicate, because that's our job. And we're sort of remote anyway from the Orion headquarters. So we had to learn that along the way, but it was more about inspiring each other and creating an energy that we could all vibe off of, because I think is an extreme extrovert, I think you can probably relate to this. And as a marketer, you need that kind of stuff to keep to keep your blood flowing to keep you excited about things to keep you thinking creatively. So we've, we've taken a lot of extra steps as a team to, to sort of create that ongoing energy. So we provide a quote of the morning and we tagged the next person every day, so whoever's day it is has to provide quotes and it's really fun in the morning because it's usually Great music lyrics or, you know, a poem that they've heard or a quote that they saw. And then we spend, you know, the rest of the day, sort of thinking about that and playing on that. We've also come together to think about different volunteer opportunities that we can do as a team virtually. So we've been spending some time doing that. We've put together a wellness calendar, a marketing wellness calendar, I'm so proud of my team for this, Felicia led this effort. So during the day the team gets together, and maybe the thing of the day is to go for a quick walk, or it's to do burpees imagine that my team likes to do burpees or it's just ways to do some self care. So we've just, it's been less about the tools and technologies and the the corporate side of things and more about how do we keep a high energy about what we're doing?

Tina Powell  14:51
That's so so important, but it's so incredible, the way that you just articulated and never really thought about it like that. How It is a lot. Some of it happens on its own. But when you make a concerted effort, I love the idea of this wellness calendar question for you real fast on those exercises, is everybody doing it at the same time then, when I'm outside walking, and I'm doing burpees? Am I like seeing everybody else is doing it with

Kelly Waltrich  15:18
me? Yeah. So the outside walking, no, but the new log on to do some of the exercises. So yeah, it just depends. And the whole team plays into it. They all pick different things. They're just sort of really committed to staying close as a team and keeping each other energized. And to be honest with you some of the time they do some of this stuff outside of me, which is awesome, because I said to my managers, Hey, guys, this is your responsibility to keep this team connected. And so Felicia came up with the community involvement stuff, and Lauren Sanders came up with the wellness calendar. And you know, Megan, it's like a mile a minute, all day long, but so everybody's sort of coming up. their own ways to motivate each other, which has

Tina Powell  16:02
been really nice to see. That's so funny. On our side, we use Basecamp. Every week, I have some different questions and every day ask some questions. And this week I said, Okay, you guys, I said, put together your like, top, your top playlists, your high energy, like what's gonna get me out of playlist and it was like, I love it. It's so funny. When you take technology, you add a little personality to it. And that's exactly you know what you're talking about with precise, it's like we're, hey, we're connected anyway, whether or not it's through one vehicle or another, but let's kind of personalize it and let's add some, let's add some zest to it. So I I love those strategies. We're gonna Of course add them to the to the show notes. Since you and I spoke and I saw you that day and the timing of this episode couldn't be better because Ryan's always in the news, let me just say Orion's always in the News unlike when, when is a good time for Kelly to be on and take huge piece of news boom, Orion acquiring Brinker capital. That was huge, huge news. Congratulations to you and Orion. To Brad and yes, I'm a huge Brad Burgess fan. He's a football coach too. And I found that you're like that. But tell us about Brinker capital Now, what does it mean for Ryan?

Kelly Waltrich  17:28
Yeah. So I have to tell you, I love Brad too. He's the reason that no matter, Ryan, but that's a story for another day.

Kelly Waltrich  17:36
So yeah, you and I had tried to connect to do this podcast and I had to send you a note and say a last minute Change of plans. We've we've got some big news going out. So I appreciate you accommodating that. That it's awesome. It's really awesome. I think that we've spent the last couple of weeks really talking about how the coming together of our firms is going to benefit our clients and there are just so many ways, I think extending Are technology to the clients that Brinker works with extending their extensive investment management capabilities, especially all the things that they do around high net worth clients, to our advisors, there's just a lot of opportunity to make us both better. And that's what an acquisition should do. Right. That's what a merger should do. Take the best of both firms and make each other better. So I'm really excited about it. I actually headed over to the Brinker office because they're located right near my house right near the King of Prussia marketing office and spend some time with Noreen Beaman yesterday, which was really wonderful getting to know each other talking about what the future could look like how we're going to work together. Oh, you have to us women like to stick together. So I think, you know, Career Connections and building bridges for the future. It was really nice. So I I am really excited for what's to come. I think that this is going to be a phenomenal opportunity for clients of both sides.

Tina Powell  18:56
Yeah, and what I noticed with all of these M&A activity, and you see it on the RIA side and you see it on the technology service provider side is that you're not only getting that rock star technology and what else the other underlying things that they bring, but it's like instant Dream Team. So you're layering Dream Team onto Dream Team, Dream Team in your 10xing your dream team. And that was the really the exciting, the exciting parts about it is that all of a sudden you get new ideas, new people coming together and new people coming together actually breeds in itself a whole another direction and philosophy. So congratulations to everyone. Orion. That's really exciting. And I look forward to probably more announcements, because that's where the industry is going. Right. That's it. It's everybody joining each other now one of the precursor to that was a Ryan's announcement about marketer. And it was one of the things when we went to when I came to the office that day, I was really Really, really impressed. And I saw the the back end, of course was already familiar with Orion connects used in another capacity when I was in coming from a wealth management environment before he started consulting. And I very much loved Orion even as a marketer because I could go in there at a moment's notice and create reports on trends within the AUM trends within our practice, I could slice and dice the landscape in a lot of different ways and that lens that fit itself very much into like a quarterly marketing report or a strategic leadership off site. So tell us about marketers since the switch came out. I would love to know.

Kelly Waltrich  20:43
what it is. Yes, absolutely. So Eric and I have a lot of conversations about the future of Orion and I think he and I and, and the rest of our executive team are really excited to start to evolve Orion from its core that it's been known As portfolio management to more of a firm that really powers the adviser client, journey and relationship. So as we started to think about that, and you're going to see a lot more of this coming from Orion we we started to think about the steps of the ryan client journey and it was really in our minds this idea of prospect, plan, invest and achieve. And on the planning part, you you all are well aware that we had acquired the advisor financial planning business now Orion planning on the investment part. We have the open architecture tab, we have CLS investments, and now the Brinker capital team as well. On the achieve side, we think of that as all the the core Orion components, all the ways that advisors can report on and show their value. So it was really that prospect bucket up front, that marketing piece of it that we had a gap and so we started to think about that and how do we sort of close the loop on the way that we power the advisor client journey, and marketer was the first Step in that. So marketer for those of you who don't know, is a marketing automation system. So think of your MailChimp or constant contacts your HubSpot, but with pre built omni channel campaigns around important financial planning topics so it's almost like your content library all already built into your marketing distribution system. We connected that really seamlessly to our Orion planning so that the calls to action within all the omni channel campaign components can push you right into Orion planning workflows to get the the planning conversation started to get consumers inputting their information around their financial goals. So so that's what that's what we did and and it's going really well we have lots of firms leveraging it. It's only been on the market for a few months, but lots of lots of interest and lots of adoption. So we're really excited about it.

Tina Powell  22:54
And here's what I love. So as a hands on marketer, what what I find which frustrate A lot of financial advisors themselves is that marketing tools are very fragmented, right? It was, I needed to have MailChimp, I needed to have Redtail I need to have Orion, let's say getting my content from somewhere, you could have five or six technologies, there were so many different things that you needed to make one thing happen. And when I looked at marketer, and then I saw the ability for an advisor or even anybody in that office, marketers and financial advisors have a lot in common and a lot of financial advisors aren't really good marketers they're just not accessing the systems that marketers usually do. Right? So now put pair these things together. And I loved your images. I loved the narration. I thought the copy was very inviting. And if I remember correctly to you're able to segment according to age group, I could pick the right campaign was already built for me The end and it was like it was on brand, the headline, the copy, and the images Boom, boom, boom. Didn't have to think about it just hit bam, execute.

Kelly Waltrich  24:10
Yeah, I think that that's such a good point. You know, we tried to make the copy sort of like Orion's brand presence in realizing that consumers are real people and their conversation on their casual and they don't, they don't think about their finances in such a just interesting the way that I think some of this industry has approached marketing content. So we tried to take it unique and sort of sassy, and casual spin to content that you would normally see. So I think that that's a pretty big differentiator. And you're right in terms of what we tried to package within the system, we took a look at how we launch campaigns as a marketing team. And we said if we could, if we could bottle that up for an advisor or as much of it as possible for an advisor, what would that look like? So that's, that's what what we have today. There's so much more I want to do with it. I To be honest with the team and just start, this is just scratching the surface. There's so many ideas. And Eric has ideas. And I think this is the very beginning of what you'll see from Orion in terms of prospecting and lead generation functionality over the next couple months. And then you're

Tina Powell  25:16
very, very cool. Well, we'll look out for that. And the other big part of your role at Orion is you are known for amazing events, amazing events that bring people together in a certain type of way that makes it feel like wait. This is just too much fun. This is great. You provide the tech support and the you know, the workstations right there to dig into Orion and to explore Orion while you're at a conference while you're at a venue. But talk to us about what it's like as a Chief Marketing Officer to be in this kind of holding pattern about events and how you've gone from giving me the most unbelievable experience of my life. And one of the things they used to say, I'll be very honest and transparent. I'm a second career person, I came to this industry after coming through a series of marketing events that Oh, included search engine strategies at Google. And that was an amazing conference. Amazing. And you absolutely you talked it was you even realizing it? And that was a hard one that was like, that was my top. That was my top conference. How do you now go into this next period? With the conference making it virtual? What can we expect about Orion ascent?

Kelly Waltrich  26:51
Yeah, you know, it's funny, Tina, I feel like I'll never forget after that event, somebody said to me, how do you know the Omaha team and Eric Clark hired? a marketing person from Philadelphia and answer to that is when they have a rap concert in Miami, Florida

Tina Powell  27:13
it was I thought like they were gonna be songs from the funny thing is you didn't even know this. So I saw all the headliners, Julio and Sugar Hill gang and I was like, we're gonna play music from and then we got there and I was like, oh, give me they're here. Oh, that was

Kelly Waltrich  27:34
so fun see this you have to have fun, right? You have to love what you do in moments like that. Really, you know, it makes you love your job. You know, this is a really crazy time for events and I feel for people because I think that there are a lot of companies out there that are taking big hits because they relied really heavily on in person events, to drive interactions to drive new business and we initially were nervous about this. Same thing. So while you know I mentioned this to you when we were talking before we hit record, but I miss everybody I am I'm certainly missing the energy and the conversation and getting together with all of our FinTech peers and, and hanging out. But beyond that we've we've really sort of shifted our strategy pretty effectively to accommodate the new normal. And just like everybody else, we're thinking or figuring out how do we go virtual? How do we drive new business and leads through virtual formats? And how do we do it? So it's not boring? Right? So we have, you know, I can't divulge our ideas just yet, but we have some pretty exciting and innovative things coming up in the next couple of months. It took us a little bit of time to decide what we were going to do and how we wanted to do it. But I think we're getting in our groove. We're doing webinars like everybody's doing webinars we're doing you know, virtual events like everybody's doing a virtual events, but we are starting to come into our own in terms of some creative things. that we want to do so. So stay tuned for that end of summer there will be some some exciting virtual opportunities through Orion.

Tina Powell  29:09
And how do we stay connected to Orion events to know what's happening and what's in the future?

Kelly Waltrich  29:16
Yes. So we have we have an events section of our website that's really easy to find the events link is in the footer of Orion Comm. But you can also follow our social media channels. You know, we're all over the place in terms of social media. So we'll make sure that it's out there loud and clear.

Tina Powell  29:37
you came to Orion, right. You've had other roles in the industry. And I want to just Can you tell us a little bit you just mentioned it before. Brad, can you give us the short version? Yeah. I think that there are a lot of women right now in particular, that it's the, to your point. It's a new normal and We've had a lot of great women on the podcast who have even made career shifts during COVID. Stephanie foster being a being one of them. And I'm trying to provide hope to people that yes, even in challenging times, there are opportunities if you just look for them. So do you have advice for women right now who might be rethinking, change of role a change of company and how to get their foot in the door somewhere?

Kelly Waltrich  30:29
Yeah, you know, I I spent some time recently thinking about my career path. I've been asked this question a couple of times lately and I went to school for marketing. I love this psychological piece of being able to figure out what makes people tick, right. But I landed in financial services by accident. This was not my plan. I thought it was going to be at some big ad agency being you know, creating commercials or something. But out of school, you need a job right. So I ended up at a at a wealth management firm and I had a mentor at the time, who I was thinking about this morning and definitely need to track him down. Because he he painted a picture of this industry. Now mind you, this was 16 years ago, he painted a picture of this industry and he just said, pick your path wisely because there are not enough strong women and for the right, women who, who are smart about their career paths, who are really deliberate about the way that they approach their careers, the opportunity in financial services is endless. And so, just long story short I, I set a very deliberate path through this industry in terms of I spent some time in a broker dealers spent some time in a wealth management firm. I spent some time in investment management firm some time in an IRA and then on to technology just to make sure that I, I could, I could, you know, speak the language and understand everything that everybody was every angle that everyone was coming from, and understand advisors really well and, and I think about that advice all the time, because it's so true. If you design your path and you you figure out what Where you want to get, and you just don't let anything get in your way, you end up being your only obstacle in my opinion,

Tina Powell  32:07
It is a path that isn't evolution. Sometimes you can take a make a decision, because you need the accumulation of knowledge and experience to get somewhere. I think that's really important. I was a great marketer coming in, but I felt like boy, I got a real slap in the face when I started working in wealth management firm and learn everything about compliance and client acquisition and reporting. And just being able to listen to client conversations and just seeing that kind of play out on a day to day basis and the challenges and, and the the amazing work that that advisors do on a daily basis. You it makes you become better in your craft, no matter what part of the

Kelly Waltrich  32:49
no matter what position or what role you play, it is a team effort, but you'll do much better at your job when you understand how the whole machine works. Yeah, and I think I was talking to So I one of the other fun things that I've done since COVID to connect with my team I you know, people call me k dubs, and I do coffee with K dub. So every you know, every couple mornings, I set someone to have coffee with them this morning, I was talking to a girl on my team, she writes content and she's phenomenal. Her name's Lauren Sanders, and, and she inspires me every day with her words, just the way she writes is phenomenal. And I was talking to her about how we set our own limits. And if you ever are in a situation where somebody else is limiting you, from the growth that you think you can have, that's where you pick your moments. That's where you make your changes. That's where you push for more. And so I just am someone who really feels like you have to take your destiny into your own hands and, and make the limits that you have only the ones that you put on yourself. And I think you know, you just hit on something else that I'll mention. As I'm as I'm hiring team members, and I think I talked to a lot of my marketing friends and I think that this is similar across industries. You're you have that conundrum it's Do you hire a phenomenal marketer? Or do you hire somebody who has financial services knowledge? Because they're not always one in the same, right. And it's an uphill battle on both sides. So I think, you know, I mentioned earlier that I've made a lot of mistakes. And I've learned a lot as I've built this team and Orion. But that's the ongoing challenge that I have. Because this industry is so complex, and it's evolving so quickly. And and once you asked for the financial services piece, there's the technology piece. It's really intricate and complex, too. So how do you get people? How do you find people that can really master all of those things? It's an interesting challenge, for sure.

Tina Powell  34:39
Well, it goes back to something that you said early on when we were talking and one of the core competencies and philosophies about Ryan and that is that grit component. Because there's not a day in this industry that you don't learn something and that's not changing. We see reg of the regulation landscape, changing the Technology landscape changing the even the generation landscape, right? The clients, just the, what I'll call the distribution of wealth is changing now. And so you come in and you think this is the perfect environment if you want nothing in your life to be the same if you want, it comes to financial services. If you want fun, come to financial services. If you want challenge, come to financial services, and you seem to be a person that is that takes a challenge looks at square in the eye and figures it out and surround yourself with great people to figure out the solution to get through the challenge. And it is a very complicated industry and that's what makes it so appealing. Yeah, because so if you figure this out,

Kelly Waltrich  35:51
you you've This makes the rest of your life seem easy. That's so true. That's so true. It's so funny. You know, my buddy Hi, he's my counterpart and head of sales. And we spend a lot of time together a lot of time talking. And I never I'll never forget, you know, my first week at Orion and he said, I hope that you love change. He's like, because that's what you signed up for. That's what this is going to be. He's like change every day all day. And it's so true. Here we are. I'm three years into Orion. we've acquired three companies, our leadership team looks different, my team looks different, our services are different. Our technology is different. He was so right and and it's and I think that's what makes this industry and and Ryan, especially really fun and really interesting, because there's never a day that's the same and there's no opportunity to get bored.

Tina Powell  36:43
How did you see the people in in our industry learning? It's great because there's so much virtual content right now with with webinars. But what advice would you give to the woman listening right now that's saying you know what, I want to leave my boring industry and I want to come And so it's like what we you and I collectively say to her, okay, here's here's what you want to do. Here's what you want to start reading here's what you want to start listening to hear the emails, things that you want to subscribe to hear of the people that you want to follow what advice what would be like a little bit of a cheat for that new that new superstar who's got everything that we've just tapped? Fire that magic?

Kelly Waltrich  37:26
Yeah, you know what? Okay, so, I am a lover of Scott Galloway, do you know Scott Galloway? So he's an a professor a Marketing professor at NYU, and I'm sort of obsessed and, and I'm not sure that our politics are aligned or any of that kind of stuff. It's more about how he thinks about marketing in the world. And, and so I have been listening to some of his podcasts and he now has a new TV show. And one of the things that he's been talking a lot about is the change in the format of education like education is undergoing this massive transformation that It should have undergone long ago, but now it's being forced to. And so I think one of the really cool things that's happening right now is that these amazing colleges and universities and classes and that you never would have had access to before you can now get at your fingertips all day every day. So right now I'm in the middle of innovation and entrepreneurial ism at Duke University, because because I can write because because it's not part of this master's degree that they make you take 10 other classes to get to it's not overly expensive. It's not, I don't have to fly there to go. All of these changes are putting that education and then those those classes in the opportunity to learn those skills right at our fingertips. So I've been thinking lately, like, I'm going to design my own MBA and go to all the colleges that I'd love to go to and I'm going to pick classes that I'm going to take them so I just think that's my advice is I think that if there's an it's never been easier to access knowledge and from amazing sources at reasonable prices, So figure out what you want to do and, and go on a hunt for, you know, the best sources of information because it's out there and it's easier than ever to get to.

Tina Powell  39:09
I met Scott. I taught at NYU for two and a half years. And so yeah, exactly in the School of Professional Studies where Scott is actually at NYU Stern, quite a little bit of a different is a different flavor. But he was he was so nice. We also had an event, women in ETFs years ago at Stern, and he's a, again, a powerful thought leader. And I've been a fan of a lot of people's work, but especially his work over at NYU. And now I see companies and Orion's a really good example, that internally, you've got the fuse show, and companies are now producing more of their own content. And that also too is a great mechanism to teach people the ropes and show them about your culture and your philosophies. And, and whatnot. So a big shout out. It was a lot of fun to be on the show with Ryan, and George, and what are your thoughts as we're talking about podcasting companies to put out their own thought leadership

Kelly Waltrich  40:15
to have guests to talk about the innovation projects in addition to the laying around some of those classes that that you're talking about? Yeah, there's there's so much good content out there. It's almost hard to to prioritize. It really is there's just so much and not enough time. So there's that. Yeah, there are some amazing things happening obviously, like this podcast, you've done such an amazing job, Tina, I love that you're empowering women through this. And I know that wasn't your original plan. But you know, all the women that you've had on here, it's been really, really amazing to see and I love listening to you lift people up and lift women up. It's it's really refreshing. And it reminds me that I need to make sure that I'm doing my part and doing that as well. Well, thank

Tina Powell  40:55
you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Kelly. It's so I feel like I've The Messenger, God gave me the platform. And I'm here to serve. I'm here to just say, you have a story to tell. We need to hear it. And oh, by the way, I'm going to go to General Assembly in New York City on a Saturday night. And then in the the Yeah, this is how this whole thing happened. It's kind of what you were just talking about, right? Well, I went to General Assembly in New York City. Well, first, I took an online data analytics class, and I paid a lot of money to do a week's intensive for tableau, SQL and Excel. And it was great refresher on Excel. I was like, Oh, yeah, that that thing? Oh, yeah, that formula. Oh, yeah, I forgot how to do that. And so I spent a lot of money on that. And then they gave us a 50% discount to take the course of their of what we wanted. And that was an online course. And I was like, you know, I can't wait to go into New York City. I was born in New York City's my favorite place. So I went there that night, I learned the art of podcasting, from the coolest, coolest coolest woman big shout out to Jen Glantz who has their own podcast. You're not getting any younger. She's young, she's millennial. She's badass. She came up she came wearing the best choose the best studded boots I've ever seen in my life. And it felt like an episode and I'm aging myself of like, Welcome Back, Kotter. Like, we're all a bunch of misfits, we all look different, right? We've all come different places. And we're all there to learn one thing, the art of podcasting, and I wound up hiring her we spend as a podcast coach, and we spent months so just behind the scenes preparing of like, what the first question she asked is like, Tina, why does this podcast matter? And I said, it matters, Jen, because there's the perception about the industry. That's number one wrong. Number two is that there's all these amazing women who are here that aren't advisors that needs to have their stories. There's so many different roles and so many different avenues. And you said it in the beginning what your mentor said to you, it's a great place to be picker. path wisely, but it's great. And, you know, that's how it evolved. I've already seen that this has helped to produce some really positive outcomes. And thank you for being here. I know you've given up a lot to be here today, we all greatly appreciate it's about learning from each other, right? We can take all of these online classes show up in really great cool classes in New York City. But the best learning is peer to peer.

Kelly Waltrich  43:24
Yep, I think you're I think you're spot on. And I I think that it's inspiring keynote really is the way that you try to empower everyone and help everyone's voices be heard. Because, you know, another great thing about this industry for any anyone out there listening, that is thinking about career changes or career moves is that we have a really tight knit, amazing group of financial services, people and executives and financial services, technology, people that really care about each other and come together and lift each other up and inspire each other and promote each other and And it's funny because we come from all kinds of competitive firms and and different types of firms. But there is a there's a real community here. And it's nice to see it really is. There's a, there's something amazing about the connectivity between all of us that keeps our jobs. You know, fun keeps us all here. It keeps us coming back for more so, and I think you're a really big part of that. Thank you.

Tina Powell  44:33
My experience in the time that I've been here is that I have seen a major move on the part of men in our industry, to help to promote women sponsor and advocate for women. So I would say there is no there's no better time than to think about how you might transition into a financial services capacity and in a role here Because it is so welcoming, and we're all trying to be better in the industry as far as like gender representation, people of color. There's so many things right now on the radar advancing in tech. And I just I love a body of knowledge that's constantly changing. Yeah, because like it's so it's it's that's what's so, so exciting that you never know the environments that you're going to be in.

Kelly Waltrich  45:27
So I think you know, you asked earlier and I don't think I answered the question you asked about, you know, how did I end up at Orion and I think that that's, that's a perfect story to tell in terms of men empowering women because Brad Burgess, who you and I both love, he oversees technology at Orion I think this industry knows him. Well. You know, I had worked at EA money for a long time. A lot of you probably know me from that. I was the CMO at EA money for many years, worked with admin and then with Mike Durbin once fidelity took over and then Ed O'Brien and and i It was sort of soul searching that business had changed a lot from the time I got there to the, to the time I left. And we did a lot of phenomenal things. But I was feeling like I was ready for something new. And I had a simple conversation with Brad. And then my life changed. He went to bat for me in a big way. He talked to a bunch of guys in Omaha into hiring a crazy woman from Philadelphia.

Kelly Waltrich  46:23
Somehow he did that. So I am forever indebted to him because this has been one of the best opportunities of my life. And then, you know, the the wealth management award that I won. Of course, Brad was behind that too. He's just sort of been. He's always been there for me. And he's he's always working hard to make sure that he's advocating for women on our team, so I'm really appreciative to him.

Tina Powell  46:45
Oh, wow, that's such a great powerful story. I think that one of the common themes that we hear in the suite is just asking for help. But Behind every successful woman, there has been some male ally. Who's been behind her rise in some way that he's had a hand whether or not he's made an introduction. I have so many people on that list for me, but one of them is Brad. And another would be Eric Clark because Eric Clark gave me an opportunity I came in. And I judged before fuse was originally started out as like a little mini, not little, I don't want to say little little sub battery is not exactly what it was. But, and more of an in house it was it felt like a reality TV show, actually, all the developers and all the different companies creating and architecting around Orion connect and making different things that didn't exist. And so that, to me, was really exciting and being able to judge and it was fun for me because I of course knew Orion from the wealth management firm that that it came from, and then getting to meet the people behind the technology and to look at the ideation phase, which was so exciting, and he gave me a shot, an opportunity to come out and be part of that event and I it changed me forever changed the way that I looked at things that changed my appreciation for how things work, how technology works, how these ideas get implemented, how hard people have to work to actually make them happen. Nine times out of 10 it doesn't happen right on the first time. And it was so invigorating and so intoxicating. It's one of the I will always always be indebted to Eric Clark, for giving me that opportunity for having me out at fuse.

Kelly Waltrich  48:34
Yeah, I hope we can have fuse in person again sometime soon. But to your point about Eric and I think that industry knows this. Well, I think if you can see it in the stories that are written about him, but he has been amazing for me and a lot of ways. I'm sure I drive him crazy. I'm sure I do. But I can tell that he knows and he's very in tune with the fact that I'm someone that has to be challenged or I'm going to be bored because you know I got to Orion and it was no sooner Why don't you build a team in an office? And then it was do you want to take on CLS marketing and then Orion portfolio solutions marketing? And then do you want to build a marketing product and then we have something new cookin that I can't tell you about just yet, but I feel like he's good for me. He keeps me on my close that keeps me excited, keeps pushing me to do new things, and I wouldn't have it any other way. So So yeah, I I feel very lucky. And I think that's, you know, this isn't a commercial for Orion by any means. But it is more so for finding the right people to inspire you every day right to finding whether it's your leader or your team members or your company in general. You have to you have to push each other and you have to inspire each other and you really have to vibe off of each other's energy or, or just or just simply a job, right?

Tina Powell  49:51
Yeah, yeah. And here's, here's what I'm noticing. When you have the when you're around the right group of people And in the right situations, but especially the person that you're reporting to, when that relationship seems like effortless, like it's just like, you know, you're both on the same page, that that's when you produce your best work when you surround yourself and you put yourself in an environment that is empowering. That's the way you do the best work because you're not blocked. You're 100% of your energy and focus is going to the thing at hand. as many women as we've had in the suite today be ultra aware, especially now with Coronavirus. I think it's a great time to just, it's time to reset but it's also a time to take inventory and just say am I working with the right leaders who allow me to do and I think Kelly everybody listening right now, I think this is such a it's a textbook example. I could bottle it and I could make it a case study. In business goal, what happens when the right leader gives provides an environment of accountability, safety, innovation, and says, Okay, I'm not going to micromanage you, you just do your thing. And that's, that's the takeaway, it's, I want you to make sure that you're in the right environment. I think Kelly would want to make sure that you're bringing vironment that you wake up and your suit, so super jazzed about going to, it's not even worth what I'm

Kelly Waltrich  51:28
calling it, I'm correcting myself that it's your role right now what all every day and become part of something that you really believe in and something that harmonizes with who you are. I had a new manager asked me, you know, I watch you and Megan every day, like how do I become as connected? How do you guys stay connected? Do you have one on ones? And I just sort of laughed and Megan laughed because were the people that you're connected so much more than a scheduled one on one right? You have to be constantly connected. We talk on the way to work. We talk on the way to lunch, we meet each other, we met each other during COVID and set with our masks on and eat doughnuts, you know, like we, if with the right people, a one on one is just silly, right? Because you're always in that.

Tina Powell  52:14
And now also too if you're in some sort of leader could ship capacity. Here's what I'm finding the value of social media, we're both again marketing. And I find that if I go on to the people that I'm working that I'm collaborating with that on their Instagram or Twitter, even just that day, then I'm like, oh, wow, I love this, that that looks so cool. And that just creates a different interaction right from the get go. If you want great production in your team. If you want great ideas to flow if you want innovation, TEDx, just really show your people show your team that you care and go beyond a surface level in order to do that. Really be curious about who they are, what they believe in how they spend their time. What's important to them?

Kelly Waltrich  53:04
Yeah, I agree with that wholeheartedly. It's understand what makes them tick.

Tina Powell  53:09
So we can talk about this for we could talk about I know right it's like the time goes by so fast and the sweet that's one of the things

Kelly Waltrich  53:18
time speeds up ladies and gentlemen, when you're In the Suite, what is the best way for people to follow you k dubs on Twitter, obviously i think that's that's I don't what is my handle? I don't even know my handle anymore. Tina,

Tina Powell  53:31
we don't even look at each other say this. That's the thing about social media is that we're just looking at our pictures Hold on. I'm gonna I'm gonna get it right

Kelly Waltrich  53:39
now. And I'll just leave you with this. I I think we all move really fast, right? We have a lot going on. I I am a person who needs to be reminded every once in a while to stop and take a breath and lift up your head. So this is what I'm thinking about. And what I would like to get out of this podcast is I I want to reconnect with women in this industry. I want to I spent some time with norine yesterday and she was talking about how she had wine over zoom with Laurie Hardwick the night before and I, I want that I want to I want to pause for a minute every now and then and spend some time connecting with women in this industry. So that's that's what I'm hoping to get out of this. If you're listening and you're thinking to yourself, you know what I too want to get better connected with with more strong women and toss around ideas and share successes and failures. And I'm your girl. So

Tina Powell  54:33
let's get to Kelly for that, everyone. So first of all, you're going to follow her on Twitter@kdubs_waltrich. So it's I'm going to spell it for you kdubs_waltrich and then I think you have a similar handle on on Instagram. That's where it starts. And so just you know, follow Kelly follow Ryan. You know, reach out I think that this this podcast has made even conversations with women that I might normally not pause to your point like is causing the pause, kind of check in with one another, and this and love. So I love that, you know, you want to hear from more women. And they are they're out there. So we'll make sure again that your some of your contact information is in there and you're on LinkedIn as well. Yes. So she's LinkedIn, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. So now our final question is something that we ask every woman in the suite because there have been a lot of times that we need to call our superpowers and some people like carry around lucky charms. Some people wear certain things. Some people it's a shade of lipstick, some people it's a mantra or maybe something that they've done that day. Is there something that you have some sort of, you know ritual that you use to elicit that that super super power of innovation get you in the right mode to like you know think out of the box and execute

Kelly Waltrich  56:10
yeah this is not earth shattering and I wish it was but I am someone who definitely has a sort of a night time before bed before I go to sleep process of unwinding and unraveling and thinking about the day and how it unfolded and and was the person that I want it to be and is the reason for stress or should I let it go and so I I definitely have a process at the end of every day to sort of reflect on everything that happened to think about what went well and what didn't and to make sure that I start the next day with a clear mind and and on the right foot. So and that's not something that I've always done. I feel like you know, you mentioned in the beginning of this podcast, I'm a new mom so I have a nine month old and and layering that on top of of work was was scary to me and it's not something that I had ever planned to do in life. So I actually started this right when I became a new mom because I, I wanted to make sure especially for him that I was going into every day with a smile and a clear mind and a and an open heart. So that is that's the story. That's That's all I got for you. I know that's not earth shattering. But I think, you know, it works for me.

Tina Powell  57:24
And it's not about it's earth shattering. It's about a collection of ideas and that we're all we all have our different things that we are different rituals in life. And what I find it's it's refreshing to know that women of high achievement have some sort of ritual to begin with. So for the people listening on this episode today, that is just it's inspiring to hear that Kelly has a process and it might be too. Unbeknownst to you, Kelly, it might be some of the reasons that you are able to be so intense of at least this is what I'm noticing is when you have a clear mind, you have clear thoughts you again you're unconstructed, as far as like you're not talking yourself out of something, you can think freely, you can act freely and you can dream. So with that, Kelly, thank you so, so much for being here in the suite. Congratulations to on your son and being a new mom, and all the exciting things that are happening at arrive. Give Eric and Brad my best and the whole entire team, and congratulations to you on all your success. Thanks so much, Tina. This has been

Kelly Waltrich  58:33
a wonderful conversation and I just love spending time with you and I think anyone out there that gets the opportunity to be blessed with Tina's presence. soak it in for sure. Thanks so much.

Tina Powell  58:49
You're listening to In the Suite, a podcast that shares amazing stories of women in business in the financial services and the wealth management industry. Our producers are Tina Powell and Kevin Hirshhorn. Our editor at large is Kevin Hirshhorn. Our content writers are Simone Brathwaite, Carmen Varner and Tina Powell. Our research and technical assistance are Nitika Uprety, Anvitha Kosaraju and Rachel Powell. In this Suite podcast is sponsored by C-Suite Social Media and digital marketing and social media agency for C Suite leaders and brands in finance and technology. You can visit csuitesocialmedia.com to learn more, and for show notes from today's broadcast. And thank you so much for listening and subscribing to in the suite podcast. Please let us know how you enjoyed this episode with Kelly Waltrich from Orion and share your thoughts on LinkedIn #inthesuite #OrionAdvisor. I would also love it and it means so much if you could leave us a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you're going to listen to this amazing episode with Kelly Waltrich. You can follow her on Twitter at kdubs_waltrich and as always You would like to share the name of a successful woman in financial services we should interview please send it to me at tin@csuitesocialmedia.com we have received so many great names we've adjusted to a weekly schedule. Make it all possible for you. It's been tough but we are rising to the challenge. Thank you so so much for listening and subscribing to In the Suite.