Hi Reader,

I sat down in the large study room at the back of the Azle Memorial Library. Business as usual. With significant military responsibilities ahead, it was time to develop a professional Business Continuity Plan (BCP). The type that ensures the business keeps going in your absence.

I drafted the prompt in ChatGPT to start and hit enter. Of course, it got confused about whether it should draft the plan and Claude should review it, or vice versa. Has that ever happened to you?

Here is what it showed. Joshua Brooks, you made the business more complicated than a calculus professor teaching computer science to people in Cantonese. Too many tools, way too much strategy, and vendors for days. Not enough relationship-building. Ouch. That hurt!

Let's take it further. This is embarrassing. Here are the tools. (I can't believe I'm sharing this!) Maybe I should see a psychiatrist for software tool addiction:

This is an incredible tech stack - for a firm with 10 advisors. Not for Exponential Advisors. That's not even everything. Oh, my goodness!

Reviewing the numbers was like pouring rubbing alcohol on an open wound. The audit informed me that changes needed to be made. The situation was unsustainable.

I felt the weight of my failure. I knew the business could be successful, but I had to face the sobering reality that what I was running was more like an Inspector Gadget elephant than a lean, effective military wealth management firm.

I kept telling myself that adding another initiative would improve outcomes. The only thing it increased was complexity. I was lying to myself. I had been over-strategizing and under-executing for many months.

The old goal was 50 clients by 2030 and 100 clients by 2035. Way too small and narrow. Achievable, but not challenging.

Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson wrote The Science of Scaling. The authors challenges entrepreneurs, firms, and business leaders to set impossible goals because it forces them to radically eliminate anything that doesn't meaningfully and significantly contribute to accomplishing the goal. So, we have a plan...

The new goal is to achieve $1,000,000 in Founder-Independent Recurring Revenue (FIRR) by 2032. Sounds impossible, right? That's the point. The impossible goal, according to Hardy, forces you to focus precisely on what contributes to achieving the goal.
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In addition, the revenue will come from transition anchor households with a floor of $6,000-$8,000 per household. We provide life-changing, transformative advice, not generic discount investment management.

This week I have cancelled numerous software and vendor contracts. Instead of being distracted, discipline will be my watchword. Instead of buying growth, I will build relationships and create content. I will feverishly eliminate anything and everything that is not producing results.

Benjamin Hardy likes to quote Dr. Rumelt (a strategy professor), Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Michael Porter, and others in his book. This one is Porter's.

Three things remain:

1. Outreach
2. Video marketing
3. Email marketing.

I will not keep developing strategy documents. I will not succumb to constant vendor solicitations. I will not scatter my marketing efforts.

If you boil it down: financial planning isn't about financial planning. It's about marketing. Once you accomplish marketing, it becomes about financial planning.

Have a decision on the horizon?

A 30-minute, no-pressure conversation to map the five years around your military retirement. No forms, no documents, and a one-page next-steps summary you can use whether we work together or not. Spouses welcome.

805 Cedar Elm CT, Weatherford, TX 76085
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