Unconventional Beginnings: Christie Powell's Inspiring Journey to RIA Success

 00:00
Charlie Van Derven
Thank you for tuning into another episode of ria Collective. I'm your host, Charlie Van derven. I'm excited about our guest final, christie Powell. Her firm. Her ria is falcon Financial of Oklahoma. She's in edmond, Oklahoma, which is near a suburb, I suppose, of Oklahoma City. Christy is going to show you that really, you can start this career at any time. We're going to talk about christie's life leading up to starting her ria. I'm going to ask specifically about the most important piece of equipment that she has, and that's a story that touched me gave me chills when she told me. I'm excited to share that with you. She's an all around good person, and I'm excited to interview you, christy Powell. Welcome to ria Collective, and thank you for being my guest. 

 00:48
Christie Powell
Thanks, Charlie. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. I look forward to this. 

 00:53
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, you too. Christy, I've told you a couple of times now you've got a really unique path to this industry. You wouldn't know that because it's your path. By 20 years of working with advisors in one capacity or another, I know you've got a really unique path to this industry. I would bet there's not a whole lot of former dental hygienists who started their own ria. I don't know what that number would be. 

 01:19
Christie Powell
I have yet to meet another one. 

 01:24
Charlie Van Derven
I'll kind of segue us into this, christie, but when were getting to know each other, you were telling me you were maybe a retired or a semi retired dental hygienist. At 50 years old, you had a captive wirehouse advisor. You were extremely dissatisfied with the service, and basically you said, I can do this myself. Wow. 

 01:46
Christie Powell
Yeah, that's correct. My husband owned his own dental practice. We did not work together, by the way, so were always in charge of making sure we had enough retirement money for ourselves. Small business back then, there were no 401 for small businesses kind of thing. It was a tough slog to find somebody that you really trusted for your entire financial picture, not just your assets. 

 02:23
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah. You tried to go the traditional route and work with somebody from you don't have to share the brand with me, but I would assume when you're talking about a firm like that, we're talking a big brand. Right, right. You said, this isn't what I expected. It's not going the way I thought. You started by joining an investment club or investment group? 

 02:45
Christie Powell
I did, yes. Girlfriend of mine, she and her two sisters let's each get us five friends apiece and do this investment club. Kind of came out of the beardstown lady book with an organization called Better Investing. We formed a club and learned how to do some analysis for ourselves on picking growth, specifically picking growth stocks with the aim of making 15% a year. Was your goal how did you do on those growth stocks? We did fabulously well. We would have internal annual contests with each other on who did the best investment pick. I put all my eggs in one basket one year and won and then promptly told them, this is bad investments technique. It was a great fun, which started me on this journey toward learning more about investing market history, and that led me to the cfp program. Who my awesome. My husband had suggested I do it back in the way. 

 04:07
Christie Powell
I'm a hygienist. Anyway, I took the classes, and you have to do a three year internship to be a cfp. I was offered a job as kind of an intern with an SEC registered independent advisor. 

 04:28
Charlie Van Derven
Okay. 

 04:29
Christie Powell
Did my internship there, and I finished the coursework, and he encouraged me to take the exam. I took the exam with no expectation I was going to pass, and I was the oldest person in the room when I took the exam. Back then, it was a two day deal I'll be if I didn't pass the exam. Now what do I do with my life? I decided to go out on my own rather than work for someone else. 

 05:08
Charlie Van Derven
You had mentioned a couple of things about deciding that path of independence for yourself when were getting acquainted a week or two ago. There's a couple of things that are important there. Of course, we don't want to call it the name of the person or the firm or anything else, because as much as you like that person, respect that person. They came from this wirehouse background, and we're driving quotas and we're driving numbers. Right. You didn't see that as the way that you wanted to grow your ria. Now, admittedly, you said to me, thank God I didn't have to raise my family or I didn't have to pay for a whole life just getting started in financial services. You had something of a foundation to pick the path that you wanted to go. That's pretty unique in and of itself and being 50 plus at that time getting started in your career. 

 06:03
Charlie Van Derven
But, christy, what was it about that environment? Right. Talk more about the kind of the quotas and maybe that kind of wirehouse drive numbers feel to that. That didn't sit well. 

 06:15
Christie Powell
Well, the emphasis was on going out into the dental community, particularly, and trying to pick up business from my husband's colleagues, and I just felt like that would endanger his relationship with his colleagues if I were to do that. When I interviewed, I told the gentleman I could not sell blankets to eskimos. I'm telling you, I don't have a sales bone in my body. My dad was a salesman. It's not that I think it's a horrible career. It's just not my where I am. The pressure to come up with names to get out there and make the calls and go see the people is just not for me. I'm too old to play this game. I'm not out there to try to win the prize for bringing in the most business this quarter, that kind of stuff. I started researching what it would take to open my own. 

 07:24
Christie Powell
I knew it was something called an ria. Got on the Oklahoma Department of security's website and read up on it and did some research, learned that I needed something called a 65 and went out and studied for that and passed it and got an attorney to pull up an LLC for me. We filed that and I opened my business. Yeah. Hang up my shingle in my breakfast room. My office out of my home, people say, what is your niche? You got to tell me. Who are you after? I've struggled with that for years, and I've finally discovered that my niche is people who enjoy sitting around somebody else's breakfast room table in their jeans. They're not interested in the paneled walls with all the stuff hanging on the walls about how great you are. We just sit and talk, have a cup of coffee or a glass of lemonade together and talk. 

 08:40
Charlie Van Derven
I would think that fits your location very well. Right. You're not on either coast, and Oklahoma City is a good sized city, but I'll call it down home or comfy or whatever it is. It's not the hard drive of La or New York or Chicago or Atlanta. I picture it. I'm stereotyping completely. I've been through there in my car several times, but it's not like I've hung out in Oklahoma City, so I just expect that's what it's final. Christie Powell. 

 09:16
Christie Powell
Parts of town are very three piece suit. No, but, Charlie, I have clients that I have never met in New York and Florida and Pennsylvania all over that we have never actually met in person. They came from a referral from a friend, one of my existing clients, or they heard me give a talk somewhere with the nonprofit that I work with, and they reach out. Probably half of my clients, we meet on Zoom or if I'm heading to Seattle anyway to see my kids, I schedule clients in Seattle while I'm there. 

 10:02
Charlie Van Derven
That's awesome. That's so cool. What great flexibility we have nowadays. 

 10:06
Christie Powell
Yeah, it's pretty great. 

 10:08
Charlie Van Derven
Now I want to get to the most important so you were telling me 2007, right? Difficult time for a lot of people, actually, right before that's, when you hung your shingle up. Interesting time to start a business, and an investment business at that. You were telling me your most important piece of equipment, and here's what I expected you to tell me, christy was your coffee maker. Right? Sit around your breakfast nook and have a cup of coffee. But you said something different in 2007. Keep in mind where we're at. 2008. 2009. What's that? Most important piece of equipment. 

 10:48
Christie Powell
You're going to find out as an independent advisor where you get involved in people's lives that your most important piece of equipment is a box of kleenex. 

 10:57
Charlie Van Derven
It's amazing. 

 11:00
Christie Powell
You get down into some really sensitive parts of their life just talking about their life. You're not talking about their money. You're talking about their life. Tell me about your goals and what happened to your parents and things like that. Oddly enough, it was more men than women that teared up. My first response was to try to fix it here, have the kleenex, and let's all take a step back and move on. I learned to just have the box on the table, and when they needed a kleenex, they could reach for the kleenex. We just sat there and cried together sometimes while they were telling me their stories. 

 11:46
Charlie Van Derven
So I'm 50 years old. I'm going to call you privately. My wife's not here right now, but head of household, I'll say, right. She would disagree completely, and I would imagine right, because finances are something that you don't talk about a lot, and of course, you have a confidential relationship and an advisor. The moment you open that I can imagine it just flows. I can almost picture that setting, right. Where maybe a person reluctant to talk starts talking, and they haven't had an opportunity to have this conversation in a long time. You almost go into therapist at that point, where, again, not solving problems, but at least creating a comfortable environment to get everything out. 

 12:36
Christie Powell
No had this very conversation with a blue collar worker gentleman and his wife the other day, new clients, where we're gathering all their information, and she told me over and over again, he's not going to tell you this stuff. He never tells anybody this stuff. I went into it with a Mr. This is why I'm going to ask you these questions. I realize this is going to be really tough. First of all, remind you I'm a fiduciary because I have the marvelous privilege of not just being his advisor, but his extended family, which has been a total surprise. 

 13:20
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, wonderful. 

 13:21
Christie Powell
I'm not telling anybody else about you. And with one little question, he answered. I asked the next little question he answered. By the time were finished an hour later, I had gotten all the information I needed that his wife told me. He will not tell you all that stuff. He never tells anybody. 

 13:42
Charlie Van Derven
Well, christy, you're a pretty easy person to talk to, okay? I'm sure that's really a huge bonus for what you do now. 

 13:52
Christie Powell
Well, it is. You asked me the other day, what kind of goals would you like? The first goal I wrote down was, I'm growing. I've hired an intern myself with the idea that she will eventually be a partner and we'll switch roles kind of thing as I continue to age. My first deal to write down was processes. I now have to go to putting down all this stuff that I have in my head that I do automatically. Now I have to explain it on paper to somebody else. The second thing that I wrote down was I want to listen more. I feel like I talk too much. 

 14:40
Charlie Van Derven
I think we all have that right? But I need to learn that too. The people who work at Social Advisors will tell you that I can go on for 15 or 20 minutes. Honestly, doing this podcast because it's not about me, it's about my guest today. It's about you. I've had to become disciplined in asking my question and shutting up and being aware of that. That's hard for me. 

 15:05
Christie Powell
You're good at it. I've been listening to your other podcasts. You're good at it. 

 15:10
Charlie Van Derven
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I dream of and I think we'll probably start it pretty soon. Doing a monologue podcast where I don't have a guest, where I can impart. Something I've learned along the way in working with advisors over the years. Like a ten or twelve minute monologue every day. I'm probably better suited for that because I can go on and on. Christy, if you need to, you can tell me to shut up. I'm okay with that. You give back to your community quite a bit, right? Whether it's admin or the advisor community. You're still involved in better investing, right? 

 15:49
Christie Powell
I am, yes. 

 15:50
Charlie Van Derven
The group you got started with? 

 15:52
Christie Powell
Yes. 

 15:53
Charlie Van Derven
How cool is that? 

 15:54
Christie Powell
Marvelous organization. 

 15:56
Charlie Van Derven
What does that look like? What's that involvement look like? 

 16:00
Christie Powell
Better Investing was started over 70 years ago in Michigan by a stockbroker who wanted to empower individual investors. At the time, back in the Was, all your broker has all these secrets, nobody has access to anything, and you have to ask for their secret sauce. He wanted to empower investors to learn to do some their own analysis. He created a little worksheet which is now in digital format, online kind of thing that was built around clubs. In its heyday, there were half a million people in the better investing community. The numbers have gone down from there. As people age, joining anything, whether it's the Veterans Foreign Wars or anything else, has dwindled. So it is not that big anymore. We still have local chapters, we still have regional stuff and a national meeting every year that is just wonderful with some amazing people that have come to speak to be the keynote for us. 

 17:22
Christie Powell
It's a great organization. Earlier today, I was giving a small presentation to a spin off, little deal of the same like minded people that do a little extra because that better investing was not enough. I talked to them about doing a backdoor. Roth here's how you do that kind of thing. Very active with online classes. They have a great track record. The better investing index actually beats the S and P almost every year. 

 18:00
Charlie Van Derven
I love that. 

 18:01
Christie Powell
Very interesting place. So I've done that. And then the local financial planning association. Fpa. It's a small group here in Oklahoma City. There areas of the country where they are huge. The Florida chapter may be a lot bigger than Oklahoma City, but I have formed great collaborative relationships with Advisors. In fact, about the process question, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day that works for another firm, telling her I'm not sure where to start with this. She gave me some great ideas on how to start doing the process deal, how she did it. There are some great support places for you as an independent advisor. The Financial Planning Association became it was an automatic thing with me coming from a healthcare deal where you identify as being a professional, being a part of your professional organization was just a requirement. That's what you did as a professional. 

 19:13
Christie Powell
I was kind of surprised when I got into financial planning. First of all, that didn't consider itself professional. It's moving more and more toward that way. The idea of you have a responsibility to be part of your professional organization is still new with a lot of people in this industry. 

 19:39
Charlie Van Derven
Well, I think we have a few of them, right? If you include insurance, you've got nafa, you've got fpa, you've got napa, you've got gosh. We used to be part of an organization early in my career called sifma. I think there's just so many options in financial services. Social Advisors has sponsored fpa events over the years and mostly in Florida local events where we get an opportunity to go talk about marketing or content or LinkedIn or whatever we're talking about and great organization, great people. It's been a few years and probably I think probably we stopped some of that stuff with COVID and just haven't picked it back up. But it's time to rekindle those relationships. But yeah, great organization, love it. All the ce opportunities that come from that as well. That's great. Giving back to your community, that's awesome. I'll tell you, I'll make it out to Oklahoma City. 

 20:41
Charlie Van Derven
I'll get to one of your local fpa meetings one day. 

 20:43
Christie Powell
Okay. 

 20:45
Charlie Van Derven
I'm traveling all the time. Oklahoma City is kind of going to pass through, but if I'm going west, I'm passing through that area probably. Well, I won't use your kleenex box, but I'll use your coffee maker. I don't know. I don't know. 

 21:03
Christie Powell
You might make. 

 21:07
Charlie Van Derven
I want to ask you a few questions that I kind of hold for every interview because I think our conversation so far opens eyes like 50 years old. Dental hygienist. I'm just not happy with the service I'm getting. I'm going to go do this thing myself. Wow. I mean, that's inspiring. It's super inspiring. It's easy to say if you're a young advisor who finds yourself in the wrong place listening to this interview, listening to this conversation, you can move mountains at any time in your career. You're not stuck where you are. You can change that anytime you need to. I love the inspiration that you bring around that. Absolutely. Thank you for that. Christy, as you're starting your ria, maybe even going through your intern, starting your ra, is there anything you look back on and you think, gosh, I wish I'd have done that a little differently. 

 22:07
Christie Powell
I would probably have interviewed with more other rias before I took a job. Cool. Because I didn't understand the language. Open architecture meant nothing to me. I didn't know the difference between a state registered and an SEC registered. Those sorts of things, I would have probably been better served or maybe not. By doing what I did learn. He told me over and over again, you go out on your own, it's going to take you five years to positively cash flow. I had the benefit of not having to support myself or pay for college. I know many of the younger advisors, they're going to get out there and hustle a whole lot faster and build their practice a whole lot faster. You need to be and your significant other needs to be prepared. This is going to be a slog. There there are some things that take time for you to build. 

 23:20
Christie Powell
If you've been five years with a warehouse and you've got $60 million worth of business that you can bring with you without getting sued over, it, good for you. If that's not where you are, you need to have the support and the willingness of the people around you to understand that I'm building a business that's going to take time. 

 23:44
Charlie Van Derven
Brilliant advice. Brilliant advice. Looking back on the last 15 years or so since you started your ria, is there anything and maybe you didn't even recognize it at the time, christy, but was there something or a couple of things that you did that you can say propelled you into that successful future? There something the flip side of that is there anything you change, is what did you do? Well, we talk about technology. Maybe it's the technology platforms or anything. You can impart advice in that direction. 

 24:19
Christie Powell
Technology. Yes. I decided from the get go I was going to be as paperless as possible. That meant having a back office that was virtual, really. I started off with the morningstar office. It's a big, huge suite. It was extremely expensive for me at the time as a percentage of my total take, it was huge. It got me everything that I needed at the time. I'm registered at schwab, being under a custodian with that kind of reach, and they are doing all the time. They are doing a better job of supporting individual advisors. You're going to find that the product salespeople are doing a better job of supporting independent advisors than they ever have before. We'll reach out and help you with all sorts of research and ideas coming out with things that help you do a better job for your clients without expecting anything from you in return. 

 25:42
Christie Powell
That's awesome. Yeah, I take my hat off to them all. Seeing the wave of the independent advisor getting bigger and moving with. 

 25:54
Charlie Van Derven
That, there's such a catalyst to it. Right. I mean, when you started and you started 15 years ago, that's a different world, right. You look at all the consultants and all the resources that are available to somebody making that move today that didn't exist in 2007. 

 26:12
Christie Powell
Right. 

 26:15
Charlie Van Derven
It's easier to do it now. You might not have known how difficult it was then, but based on the way really you hire a consultant, they put you in touch with an attorney, they say, here's your technology options. What's the size of the assets? Do we need to register federally? Are we going to register with the state? They take care of all that stuff for you. Yeah. So I love that. And the custodians are coming along. One of the things I love about leveraging a platform like schwab is with falcon Financial of Oklahoma, not necessarily a household name, schwab is. 

 26:55
Christie Powell
Right. 

 26:56
Charlie Van Derven
You talk about your partners that you work with, that's a big credibility factor, I think, for a lot of independent folks who don't have the big brands that others do. I think that's a great benefit there, too. You shared with me your goal of growth. So you brought an intern on. That's awesome. I love that. What does that look like? You got the five year vision. The ten year vision. 

 27:26
Christie Powell
Well, she and I are talking a lot about what she wants to do because she is a 50 year old changing career. Kind of awesome. It is taking my practice in an amazingly wonderful turn because she's a black woman. Her first question to me was now we're in central Oklahoma and you talked about maybe I'm pigeonholing you . Her first question was to me, are your clients going to be okay with talking with a black woman? I would like to say yes, but I can't answer that question. But let's see. After we had met clients for three months, I sat her down and said, okay, tell me, how are we doing? Have you noticed any smidgen of hesitancy on the part of my clients because of your race? And she said, absolutely not. 

 28:39
Charlie Van Derven
That's wonderful. 

 28:40
Christie Powell
The advantage for me is, first of all, I have managed to find clients that are open, that are accepting that love people because they are human beings. It also gives me the opportunity I do not have a large number of black clients myself, I do have some, but not a large number. I am hoping that this opens a door both for falcon Financial of Oklahoma and for her to grow her practice. As we pull ourselves together in a great community, this is a great place to live, actually. 

 29:33
Charlie Van Derven
You're a supporter of community, not only the financial community, but also think about the educational opportunities to bring to now this African American community that you're vicariously becoming a part of. 

 29:47
Christie Powell
Right. 

 29:48
Charlie Van Derven
That's pretty cool. I'm going to plug because I know where you're at in your practice now, christy. I'm going to plug two friends of mine so they get a free plug. We don't really do sponsorship on this podcast, but as you're working through processes, somebody that you want to take a look at is a gentleman by the name of blaine wiese. Blaine, I got his Christmas card back here. 

 30:10
Christie Powell
Okay. 

 30:11
Charlie Van Derven
So blaine is provincial development group. Right. 

 30:15
Christie Powell
Okay. 

 30:17
Charlie Van Derven
There's he and his wife and his crew. Blaine helps ria with practice management. As you're defining processes, he might be a nice guy to tap into. I've got a good friend, cheryl. Hickerson. Are you aware of females in finance community? 

 30:36
Christie Powell
Yes, I have not joined females in finance. 

 30:40
Charlie Van Derven
Yeah, cheryl runs that community. She's awesome. They're doing great things for women in the industry. Just trying to propel women. I think it wasn't too many years ago that it was like 14% of advisors were women. Now it's like 26 or 27%. So that number is growing pretty quickly. I love to see it. My advisor is a woman. I don't know. I feel like there's a nurturing thing there that's nice when you're having difficult conversations. Right. So, yeah, I love to plug friends of mine when I can. Blaine and cheryl would maybe be great resources for you. If you need an introduction to either, please let me know. I'll make that happen. 

 31:19
Christie Powell
Sounds great. Yeah. 

 31:21
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. Now, christy, I think I already know the answer to this question, but are you okay with if we've got listeners who want to ask you about your experience coming up in this industry and starting at a second career? Are you okay being a resource for those folks? 

 31:39
Christie Powell
Oh, sure. Awesome. 

 31:42
Charlie Van Derven
I knew you would be. Put you on the spot, but I knew you would be. What's the easiest way to reach you? 

 31:50
Christie Powell
Email, probably. 

 31:52
Charlie Van Derven
Okay. Cpowell at is it Falconfinancial.com? Is that what it is? 

 31:58
Christie Powell
It's Falconfinancialok. 

 32:00
Charlie Van Derven
Okay.Com. Okay. The website then, falconfinancialok.com, christy, Paul, you're awesome. I am so happy that I know you bring a different spirit to our industry. You brought a different path to our industry. You're changing lives for people. You're an easy person to talk to. Thanks for being my guest today. 

 32:25
Christie Powell
Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate it very much. It's been a big help to me. Appreciate it. 

 32:30
Charlie Van Derven
Awesome. Thank you. Well, and I hope to continue to in whichever way I can. 

 32:34
Christie Powell
Okay? 

 32:35
Charlie Van Derven
For everybody listening today, I want to thank you for taking of time out of your day to listen to another episode of raa Collective. On behalf of myself, your host Charlie Van derven, and my guest final christie Powell of falcon Financial of Oklahoma in edmond, Oklahoma. Thank you so much. Just a reminder, we don't have big sponsors, so you sharing. This podcast helps us get the word out and on your favorite listening platform. If you wouldn't mind subscribing and giving us a quick review. Only good reviews, of course, give us a good review, and that'll help us bump up and get more listeners so we can help more people. Thanks for tuning in today.