[00:00:00] Kraleigh: Frictionless doesn't mean effortless. The future of growth isn't about doing more. To me, it's about missing less. Fewer missed opportunities, fewer missed conversations, less time wasted on things that don't work

[00:00:20] Taryn: Hello, everyone, and welcome to If You Could with Matt and Taryn. I'm Taryn Huget, and well, he's Matt Enyedi.

[00:00:27] Matt: Whoa, do we have somber Taryn here? Do we have sullen Taryn here? Or do we just have pensive Taryn? You do not sound like yourself. You got something on your mind?

[00:00:35] Taryn: I know. You're right, I do. I mean, I've been thinking a lot about my new role leading growth activation for LPL, and really I've been talking with a lot of advisors lately, listening and learning, and no matter how different their businesses are, they all seem to have the same question: "How do I keep growing my business?"

[00:00:55] Matt: Question they've been asking for as long as I can think.

[00:00:58] Taryn: But growth keeps getting harder, Matt, especially as you get bigger. What got you to your first milestone isn't necessarily what gets you to the next one, and more clients, more complexity, more decisions, more demands on your time, and I can tell you from personal experience, the clock doesn't magically add more hours to the day.

[00:01:18] Matt: Yeah, I hear you. It's clearly not an aspiration problem. It's becoming a denominator problem, and the bigger that denominator gets, the more challenging it becomes to grow.

[00:01:28] Taryn: Exactly, and every successful business hits a ceiling somewhere. And what I've found is that for a lot of people, the instinct is just to double down and do more, find more clients, work more hours, but the more approach doesn't always work, and when it doesn't, well, eventually people just stop trying.

[00:01:48] Matt: So maybe we can give them a different approach, one you've been thinking a lot about.

[00:01:53] Taryn: It is one that I've been thinking a lot about because the next breakthrough in growth isn't about working harder or doing more. It's about scaling back, and that's what so many of our teams are focused on today, identifying the research-based insights that drive growth and then using technology and AI to bring those insights directly to your business.

[00:02:18] Matt: There's our friend AI. I knew he was gonna come into the picture.

[00:02:21] Taryn: He's there.

[00:02:21] Matt: Because look, we set it up in our last conversation. When talking with Greg Gates and Peter Nolan, we talked about LPL's new agent Cyan, and we mentioned how our next conversation was gonna be on the next leg of growth, including how we leverage Cyan growth to get us there.

[00:02:37] Taryn: And there's no question that Cyan is gonna be an absolute game changer. But beyond the technology, we're learning that sustainable growth doesn't just come from hustle, but it comes from leverage, and few people think about growth leverage more than today's guest, Kraleigh Woodford. Last year she joined us to talk about building a growth engine, and today we're talking about what's changed since then, and how AI and agentic capabilities are expanding what's possible.

[00:03:06] Matt: The goal hasn't changed, folks. Grow faster, serve clients better, create more value. What's changed is the mindset.

[00:03:13] Taryn: And the toolkit. So let's get into it.

[00:03:16] Matt: Yes, let's. If You Could grows now. Kraleigh, welcome back to the show. We are so excited to have you here today.

[00:03:25] Kraleigh: Thank you for inviting me back.

[00:03:26] Matt: It has been a minute, and you guys have been busy, and growth has been moving. The world, in fact, has gone completely haywire since we last saw you. I mean, uh, AI's gone from generative to agentic, the sun no longer sets in the west, kids no longer play outside. It is pandemonium. Okay, I'm being a little bit dramatic, but we have seen a lot of change. But the cool thing is, is you guys have been driving a heck of a lot of change as well. A- and growth has become not just critical, more important than ever. Obviously we're gonna spend a lot of time on that today. But before we do that, I do wanna take a moment and level set on why growth is so important and, and, and potentially more important than ever. And the word that I like to use when talking to clients about why growth is so critical Is because growth gives you rights. It gives you the rights to the best talent. It gives you the rights to reinvest into your business. It gives you the rights to have the highest valuation, and it gives you the right to take your business to the next level.

[00:04:25] Taryn: When I think about it, I think the word that I would use is control. Growth gives you control. It gives you control over what you can do next and your purpose, and I know small business owners and entrepreneurs want to be in control of their journey ahead.

[00:04:42] Kraleigh: Well, here's the good news. You're both right. Growth gives you rights, and it gives you control. And the reality is, regardless of their business size, advisors actually want to grow. Trying to convince people to make growth a priority isn't the issue that we have. The real challenge is actually turning something that happens occasionally, so occasional growth, into a business that's built to drive sustainable growth over time, and that's what we're trying to solve for, right?

[00:05:09] Taryn: So, Kraleigh, what gets in the way? I mean, they set the goal and have ambition, but according to the numbers, fewer than half of advisors are delivering growth consistently. So what's the difference between wanting to grow verse building for growth?

[00:05:25] Kraleigh: I think the difference is focus, right? So it's about knowing what to prioritize and what's gonna make the most sense for your business. It's not about doing everything. It's about being intentional. The way I say it is, it's about doing the right something, and to me, that actually starts with a plan. I know you and I have talked a lot about that, Matt. It's about getting clear on where you wanna go, about being honest about where you really are so that you're able to prioritize what's gonna deliver the results that you seek. Growth doesn't come from doing more things. It actually comes from doing the right things consistently over time.

[00:06:00] Matt: One of the other things that drives growth is knowing well whether you're growing or not, knowing well how your competitors are growing or not, and what, like you said, are those drivers to the growth. And you guys kicked this off, this was the context of our last conversation, with this incredibly well-researched advisor growth study where you looked at thousands of advisors over years of history to understand who's growing, who's not- What's driving those outcomes, whether it be accelerated growth or those who are just struggling every day to stay above water. Before we jump into what's next, take us a step back in how we started to really lean into understanding the drivers of growth and then building the tools and capabilities to bring that growth to life.

[00:06:43] Taryn: Yeah, and you guys have built transparency.

[00:06:45] Kraleigh: We did. So right, last year it was our inaugural advisor growth study, and the idea was to set out to answer the question, what are the fastest- growing advisors doing differently? And so we studied thousands of advisors, hundreds of variables over six years of performance to make sure that we really understood what was driving the fast NNA growth that we were seeing, and we found our answer. The secret is that top growers are consistently doing four things They set the right growth foundation, they segment and serve their clients intentionally, they are deepening existing relationships, and they're acquiring new clients strategically. They are not growing by accident. They have built businesses that are designed to grow, and those are the insights, Taryn, that turned into the Advisor Growth Index. And so the Advisor Growth Index is a tool that we created that gives advisors an objective view of where they stand, how they compare to their peers, and where they've got an opportunity to drive future growth. And the exciting thing is it is working. So early adopters of the AGI, as we call it, are actually growing twice as fast as their peers. That study last year, it gave us the formula for growth, and that prompted another question, which is: how do we actually help more advisors put the insights into action? And that's the focus of this year's study.

[00:08:10] Matt: Hey, this is really incredible. Certainly the work, but the outcomes more importantly, and I want to just zoom in on the outcomes that you said. The folks who are leveraging AGI, the Advisor Growth Index, are growing twice as fast as those who are not. Can you just share what that means and how it's come to be?

[00:08:28] Kraleigh: Yeah. So we've seen their growth rates double starting after about six months. The thing I think for us is you need a runway. So what the Advisor Growth Index is doing is it's giving them a spotlight on the data. They're picking an area they want to focus.

[00:08:42] Matt: So give an example of something on the growth index that they might see.

[00:08:45] Kraleigh: Segmentation. So they have not enough of their revenue being driven by small households, right? And so it takes time to actually change that metric and to take action against it. And so what we've seen is about a six-month window where after they've started putting the activities into place, we start to see their growth change. And so 12 months out, they're growing twice as fast as their peers. And so each path's different based on what the data saw. So it could be I needed to re-segment my book and change my service model. It could be that I needed to drive deeper into advisory because I didn't have enough penetration in my book of business. The lever is different, but action, measurement, and results are what we're seeing.

[00:09:29] Matt: So knowledge is power because the study tells us what works, and

[00:09:39] Kraleigh: then you guys have come up with these different variables that they can actually go focus on and see how they compare versus benchmarks. How do they activate it?

[00:09:39] Kraleigh: I think it depends on the lever that is the opportunity area for them, right? And so we talk a lot about being intentional, picking a single thing. I think what we see advisors do sometimes is they throw spaghetti at the wall- Yeah ... and they're trying to do too many things. So what we often say is pick one thing. If you see three areas of opportunity, don't try and solve all three at the same time. Pick one thing, stick with it, give it time. It takes time to change these variables, and then ultimately wait and watch for the results to come.

[00:10:12] Taryn: So instead of choosing 10 different goals, focus on one, be intentional. I do think it's interesting that a big thing that this study is unpacking is what separates those that say they want to grow versus those that are actually achieving it. So moving us forward, tell us more about what the next iteration of this study has uncovered.

[00:10:34] Kraleigh: I'd love to. So the headline from this year's study is that top growers create their own growth, and much of it is actually sitting inside their own business already. They don't wait for the market to carry them. The market explains only 36% of top growers' growth compared to, say, 80 to 90% for their peers, and they're growing their revenue 14% faster. But I think the biggest insight is where the growth is coming from. It's coming from clients they already serve. That-

[00:11:03] Taryn: And I'm sure that's shocking for many of them.

[00:11:04] Kraleigh: It is, right? Like, the biggest insight is where the growth is coming from. It's coming from clients they already serve. Seven in 10 LPL advisors are experiencing negative growth from their existing clients, while top growers, when you look at their existing clients, they are actually growing at 5% or more organic growth with those existing clients. That's a huge difference, right?

[00:11:26] Taryn: There's gotta be some relief when this is uncovered and we're having conversations with advisors. It's like, "I can work with people that I'm already partnering with."

[00:11:34] Kraleigh: Absolutely. And I, I think the other thing we say all the time is, we're not saying something's good or bad or right or wrong. Yeah. We're trying to help you understand what's happening in your book of business so that you can make the right choices. And we see so many of our advisors are actually saying, "The way I'm gonna drive growth is actually to focus on winning more relationships," where in reality, the bigger opportunity is actually working with the clients that you have, right?

[00:11:58] Matt: Well, let me play devil's advocate, though- Yeah ... a little bit because I spend a lot of time with advisors, and for the most part, what they tell me is they have 100% wallet share of their clients. And we know that's not accurate. At least someone somewhere doesn't have it. But I think many advisors feel that they actually have a very high concentration of their clients' wealth. What does the data tell us?

[00:12:18] Kraleigh: Well, I think the difference we're seeing now is we actually can be more precise. We have more precision in the data. We're no longer just saying, "Hey, go work your book," right? We actually can show them exactly where the opportunity is, which client segments are driving it, and where a different action could change the outcome. So I'd call out a couple of specific data points here when we're thinking about top growers. Top growers are actually outperforming across every age and every asset segment. They are especially strong when they're working with clients between the ages of 30 and 50, but they are also managing the natural outflows of older clients more effectively. And I think the lesson here isn't that every client can grow or grows forever. That's not realistic, right? It's that every stage of a client relationship presents a different opportunity, and the top growth advisors are taking advantage of that.

[00:13:12] Taryn: We've heard this challenge about the aging client base. Mm-hmm. But what I thought is a limitation, you're saying is actually an opportunity when you look at that, that older client base.

[00:13:23] Matt: Right. I remember your last study was showing if you have a high concentration of advisors over 70, you're gonna have a real challenge growing your business. But I think what Taryn is saying is, like, you actually are saying 70-year- olds actually might be helpful, too.

[00:13:35] Kraleigh: We are, absolutely. The real power that we're seeing from top growers' clients is that they don't just stay, they actually lean in. In 35% or more of those households, clients are adding more than they withdraw, and age is actually only explaining about 10% of that performance different. So it's not a demographic story. I think that's the thing we often talk about, right? It's, "Oh, it's aging clients- Yeah ... it's the demographics." That's not what it is. It's an experience story. Advisors who are creating deeper relationships, broader conversations, adding more value, they're the ones that are giving clients a reason to consolidate, and those clients are staying more engaged. And when you think about it, what the top growth advisors are doing is they're just starting with the foundation. They're fixing the foundation of their business first, and then they're focusing on something to drive growth.

[00:14:25] Taryn: What do you mean by foundation? What does it mean to fix the foundation?

[00:14:28] Kraleigh: Yeah. The way we think about the foundation is really just the current state of how your business is operating. It goes back to starting with the data, because often the data tells a different story than what your instinct or your gut tells you, right? And so we have the opportunity to talk to advisors of all different business mixes in different parts of the country, working with different client segments, and there are so many great stories that we have. But one that comes to mind for me is we actually recently talked to a team who felt very successful, right? They would have told you that they were growing, and in reality, when we started digging in with them, their net new assets were flat. Their book looked healthy on the surface, but the market was actually what was doing the work And what we saw them do is they changed kind of what they were measuring. They made NNA their scorecard. They set a quarterly target, so for them, their quarterly target was 2%, and they actually began reviewing flows of every client on a monthly basis. And what we've seen already is their net new asset growth rate moved from zero to now it's close to 2%, so close to their goal. And really what changed, they changed what they measured, which changed where they focused, and it changed their results drastically. Well, I

[00:15:39] Matt: think that comes back to something, Taryn, you started with, which is yes, I said that growth gives you rights, but you said growth gives you control.

[00:15:45] Kraleigh: Mm-hmm.

[00:15:45] Matt: And I think this is what's so critical because we've seen this time and time again. As you said, so many advisors measure their growth based on revenue, not on organic growth. And if it's based on revenue, oftentimes the biggest driver of revenue growth is market activity. And when you strip out market activity and you see what actual growth is... And look, advisors will tell me, "Matt, markets go up. I grow my revenue." I don't care. But I think what ends up happening is this: there will be a market downturn. And when that happens, you've lost control because no longer do you get to reinvest in your business, no longer can you spend on marketing or building new capabilities because suddenly that cash flow that you had that came from market growth, not organic growth, is gone. And what you thought was control was actually a flag in the wind.

[00:16:33] Kraleigh: That's right. Control matters so much. We talk about net new assets as kind of the golden variable, right? Because it is something that you can control, and when you are acquiring net new assets, it will drive your revenue, it will drive your valuation. So it, to me, becomes the single most important factor that you can measure and that you can drive if you're trying to improve the trajectory of your business across a variety of measures.

[00:16:58] Matt: Yeah, we talked about this last time too. That's right. We know so many advisors who are entering the later stages of their career are thinking about monetization and thinking about valuation, and market growth is the commodity. The organic growth is the differentiator, and that organic growth, if, if done thoughtfully and consistently, drives a significantly higher valuation.

[00:17:19] Taryn: Give us another example.

[00:17:20] Kraleigh: Yeah. Look, I think the other thing that we see often is advisors will have a plan. It might just not be focusing in the right area, right? So I think about an advisor we worked with recently whose entire growth plan for driving growth was focused on winning new clients, but his growth index actually showed that his existing households were shrinking by, like, 3% a year or something, and that was really the bigger opportunity. So he course-corrected. He completely changed his focus, reviewed 50 of his top households, asked about held away assets, started engaging with the next generation of those clients. The growth that he needed was already sitting in his book. He just hadn't asked for it or activated against it. And I love the way he described it to us. He talked about it as, "Hey, we're focused on winning back the clients we already have." I think that's such a great way to think about it.

[00:18:10] Taryn: That is such a great way to think about it.

[00:18:12] Matt: It's very cool too because, the idea of, "Hey, I'm in this business for 25 years. I'm 50 years old. I've done the cold calls, I've done the knocks, I've done the seminars. I don't want to do those any longer." And I think for some, that becomes an inhibitor to growth because they think that's the only way to go. And what you're saying is not only is it not the only way to go, in some instances if you're not careful, it might be another inhibitor to growth because what you actually have in front of you is so rich.

[00:18:40] Kraleigh: Well, and if you're not engaging and you're not talking to them, someone else is, right? And I think- I hate when they do that. I know, and that-

[00:18:47] Matt: Stop talking to my clients.

[00:18:50] Kraleigh: But I think, look, part of what we're trying to do is bring more and more of that client-level data to our advisors and institutions so that they can see when their clients aren't actually performing at the same level or in the same way as other clients in that segment, right? And I think the question is, you know, if you're thinking about somebody who is our age, right, working professionals, it's your peak earning years, right? If I'm not saving with my financial advisor, either I'm spending too much money, I'm stimulating the economy, shopping, whatever it may be, or I'm saving somewhere else, and an advisor has got to think about that, right? And that's what getting to the household level, the segment level lets us do.

[00:19:30] Taryn: So it's interesting because as you said, there's really three ways to grow. You bring on new clients, you grow existing clients, and retain the clients that you have, and you really can't lose sight of any of those while working on another piece.

[00:19:44] Kraleigh: No, you can't, and we say all the time balance is so important, right? To me, every advisor should be asking, "How much of my time is being spent with clients who represent very little of my revenue?" If half your clients generate less than, say, 7% of your revenue, that's the, the measure that we see in the study, your service model is actually working against your growth strategy, and that's a problem. And that's an opportunity for you to think about kind of making some changes to the foundation of the business that we talked about.

[00:20:12] Taryn: So for most advisors, this isn't an if, it's a reality. And I've seen the data. 50% of their clients are generating less than 10% of their revenue, and for other advisors it's even worse than that.

[00:20:25] Kraleigh: Yeah, again, in the study what we see is you want to be generating at least 7% of your revenue from that bottom half of your book.

[00:20:32] Matt: That, that to me just sounds insane. That's the goal, is that half of your business generates 7% of your revenue- It's 7%. That is wild ... and the other half generates 93%.

[00:20:41] Kraleigh: Think, think about that. Like, here's another real-world example, right? One advisor that we worked with found that her smaller households were producing about 4% of her revenue, but they were consuming 15-plus percent of her time. So she moved the relationships to a junior advisor, she introduced a planning fee, and she really focused on, like, ways to redirect that capacity that she created, and she chose leaning in on CPA referrals. That was the lever that she thought would drive the most impact in her market. It wasn't that she was kind of finding more hours in her day or in her week. She just created the room and the space to grow, and then chose, "Hey, I'm gonna go deep in this area instead." And I think that's a really important thing to think about when you're trying to tackle kind of different opportunities that you see in the data.

[00:21:28] Matt: Maybe you can help me connect the dots here though. Mm-hmm. Because I know previously we've said, hey, top growers are actively pursuing seven different growth opportunities, and on the flip side you're saying go deep in one area. I'm confused

[00:21:40] Kraleigh: It goes back to prioritizing, right? So to me, it is about looking at the data, not picking too many things. Pick one thing, commit to it. Repeatable action, right? Measure it, and that's ultimately what is gonna drive the growth that you seek, right? So again, for this advisor, she chose referrals with CPAs. She thought that was the best fit for her business and for her practice, and that's where she leaned in. For others, it could be driving more financial planning. It could be lead gen or, um, a new marketing experience, right? Lots of different opportunities, but to me, going deep means picking one area of focus that is aligned to what you're trying to accomplish and committing to it.

[00:22:22] Taryn: I wanna go back to something you said earlier. I mean, you said top growers don't wait. They act with intention. They start with the foundation. They build from there. They leverage and create control within their business. And honestly, a, a few years ago, I'd say that doing some parallels to LPL, like, we needed to do the same because we hadn't really been laying the foundation and creating our, our own control when it came to growth. And we were sharing ideas, you know, publishing research and cheering for growth, but it, if we really wanted to be a differentiated partner, we had to get more intentional About helping our clients achieve it. And that's what led to the growth study, the growth index, business planning, and more, and we've been on our own growth journey. I think we all could agree, like learning that success comes from focus, strategy, accountability, and now we're seeing that show up in our results. So pulling this back to our clients, like what is still getting in the way for our clients?

[00:23:23] Kraleigh: Yeah, I'm really proud of what the team has done and the, the progress that we've made, but the reality is, it is still too hard to find the information that you need to manage your business, to know where you stand, to know where to start. Advisors should not have to hunt for this information. They shouldn't have to kind of hunt and peck around for performance metrics or benchmarks or next best actions, right? So we've gotten better. The, the growth index is a perfect example of that, but there's a lot of room to improve here, for sure. I think the other challenge, I don't know that it will ever go away, candidly, really is time. Even when advisors know what to do, they just may not have enough capacity and enough time to do it consistently. And so when I think about making sure the information is readily accessible, and then how we can help them create capacity, those are probably the two biggest driving forces behind the tools that we're leaning in and creating as we move forward.

[00:24:21] Matt: Look, Kraleigh, you mentioned a couple things. Yeah. You mentioned how it's still too hard.

[00:24:24] Kraleigh: Yes.

[00:24:25] Matt: You mentioned that even if it weren't too hard, there's still time conflicts that make it challenging for us to find enough time in the day to pursue all of our interests and all the things that make our business better. But we have a good friend. His name is Artificial, his last name is Intelligence, and he is creating more time in many ways, and creating outcomes and bringing them to us so we don't have to look so hard. And we talked about it last, uh, episode- Mm ... with Greg and Peter Nolan on Cyan and, in particular, Cyan Growth, and you're really the brainchild behind that from a business perspective. How are things like Cyan Growth, the Growth Hub, changing this outcome too?

[00:25:01] Kraleigh: If we think about where we are today, the Advisor Growth Index gives advisors and institutions a view on where they stand, but it's a static report. Cyan Growth changes that into a conversation. So instead of opening a report, opening a PDF, you're actually able to ask questions in plain English. How am I performing? Where's my biggest opportunity? What client should I focus on? It uses your data, it uses the peer benchmarks that we have, client-level insights, to point our advisors and institutions to the next best move. Now, what it doesn't know yet, and yet is a, an important point here as we think about the future roadmap, it doesn't know the things that are personal to you. It doesn't know your intent, what your goals are, the priorities that you have for your business. That's actually gonna come later. And the way I think about it is we're moving from, "Here's what your data says," to, "Here's what you can and should do next." Yeah. And today that's generative, but tomorrow or in the future it's going to be agentic. It won't just surface the opportunity. The agent will actually help draft the outreach. It will help drive the action and activate the campaign, and so that's where we're headed. We're not quite there yet, but that's the journey we're on.

[00:26:13] Matt: So how far is this future?

[00:26:14] Taryn: I know. Tomorrow sounds exciting.

[00:26:16] Kraleigh: Well, it does, doesn't it? I mean, we're in pilot now with Cyan Growth, which is really exciting, but I think for us we're really focused on next year, how do we bring all of these things together in a connected experience that combines, I call it a front door- Yeah ... you know, one place to access all of the information with the power that Cyan Growth brings?

[00:26:36] Taryn: Give us some stories. Help us bring it to life. I mean, I know we have some pilot users in it. Like, tell me some of the stories from the field of what they're experiencing.

[00:26:44] Kraleigh: Yeah, we do. One of our power users in the pilot actually said Cyan nudged him to take a look at the bottom half of his book. He talked about how he made a call that he wouldn't otherwise have made, and that call actually surfaced additional assets and existing needs that he just didn't know existed. And the way he talked about it was like, "Hey, if Cyan hadn't nudged me, I probably wouldn't have made that call." And I think that's actually the point of tools like this. It's not giving somebody another dashboard to check. It's about uncovering the move that they would have missed otherwise if we hadn't actually signaled it for them.

[00:27:19] Matt: And I think the cool thing, like you said, as it moves to agentic, it will go from a nudge to actually delivering the outcome.

[00:27:24] Kraleigh: That's right. "

[00:27:25] Matt: Here's the nudge. I know you don't want to call Frank. How about I reach out to Frank on your behalf, either via an email or via a letter with a call to action for..." We'll keep calling him Frank. It actually is going to do the work for you.

[00:27:37] Kraleigh: Well, and it goes back to the challenges we see, right? The time, right? So if, if the agent can just cut the time in half, that's a huge win for our clients, for sure.

[00:27:47] Matt: Yeah, but also, I ca- I can remember my early days of cold calling, right? The hardest part of cold calling is dialing the number and saying hello.

[00:27:53] Kraleigh: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:53] Matt: And then all kinds of cool things can happen after that. If the agent is actually doing that initial outreach for you, you don't actually even have to pick up the phone anymore. It starts the conversation for you, and you just jump in and take it from there, and I think that's a really cool way to go.

[00:28:05] Kraleigh: It is, definitely.

[00:28:06] Matt: So look, I want to continue down this road.

[00:28:09] Kraleigh: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:09] Matt: And we were actually talking to the board about this earlier this week, and they were asking a question about AI fatigue. And that as exciting as it is, folks are starting to feel some fatigue, and they were asking Greg and myself why we thought it was. There's lots of cool things coming our way, but they're all disaggregated. Yeah. They're all over the place, and they're never leveraging the full set of data, and they're never giving us the full set of answers. And so we're still weaving and winding and getting incomplete information. Even if we're not getting a hallucination, we might getting a piece of the puzzle.

[00:28:37] Kraleigh: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:38] Matt: We're never seeing the whole thing because we don't have it all in one place. It's not organized, it's not concentrated, it's not integrated, and thus we are left wanting for more. That makes me fatigued.

[00:28:48] Kraleigh: Well, that's what we're gonna solve, right? I mean, I, I think the vision for us is how do we get to a single connected growth experience, one place where advisors and institutions can see how their business is performing, where they can set their goals, build their business plan, track progress, and then act on the things that they see? That for us, the front door is gonna be the growth hub. So that's gonna come to ClientWorks in 2027. It will become the home base for all things growth. It is gonna bring together goals, business planning, performance tracking, personalized recommendations, and more. So it will literally be the one-stop shop for growth. But then we're gonna connect it to Cyan Growth, and that is important because then that agent no longer is only responding to the data. It's actually able to understand the direction you've set for your business, too. So the data tells us where you are, your goals tell us where you wanna go, and the power comes from connecting the two.

[00:29:47] Taryn: Love this.

[00:29:47] Kraleigh: And that's actually the difference, right? That's the difference between the generic tools- Yeah ... or kind of the piecemeal experience- Yeah ... that we were talking about. It's a connected experience that's built around context that only LPL has. It's your business data and your own stated ambition. So now it's not just an agent that knows your numbers. Cyan's an agent that knows your plan, and so it's working alongside you as truly a member of your team. It's really, really powerful, and I'm excited about where we're headed.

[00:30:13] Taryn: And this gets back to something we've talked about before on our episode with Greg and Peter Nolan. The technology is here. The insights are here. The biggest constraint isn't AI itself, because that opportunity exists. It's actually the adoption of AI.

[00:30:32] Kraleigh: Taryn, you're so right. People rarely resist change because they don't want a better outcome. That's not what it is. They're resisting because they're not actually convinced that the effort is gonna pay off for them, right? And so- I

[00:30:43] Matt: actually resist it 'cause I don't want anything to change. I just want everything to stay exactly- Well ... as it is today.

[00:30:47] Kraleigh: Okay. We're gonna change, though so that's fair. That's one perspective. But no, if you think about it- We're gonna leave you behind quickly then ... we're gonna leave you behind. That's right. I live

[00:30:55] Matt: a Luddite lifestyle, and I enjoy it.

[00:30:59] Kraleigh: I think it goes back to, like, when people are looking at the data, when something is right in front of you, it clicks.

[00:31:06] Taryn: Mm-hmm.

[00:31:07] Kraleigh: It becomes clear what you need to do, what area's gonna move the needle for you. And so, you know, based on where you are in your journey, pick one or two things, and you'll have an impact. I believe our job, though, is actually making the opportunity clear enough, and then also helping make sure that the next step is practical enough that the action actually feels worth taking. Like, that's the role that we can play with them.

[00:31:30] Matt: And do you think we're getting there? We're trying to bring this along. We've been helping folks- Yeah ... I call it in a more analog way for a while. The digital capabilities are there. A- and now we're actually, like you said, moving from generative to agentic to fully integrated in, in, in a full view of the world and the outcomes that are possible, and then bringing those outcomes to life, at least theoretically.

[00:31:50] Kraleigh: I do. We are making progress. Look, our job, our role, is not to just be a provider of tools. Our job is actually to be their partner, right? It is to share what we know, to challenge advisors and institutions to think differently, to share new ideas, to make it easier to act. We can make it easier, but the fact of the matter is growth will take work. It just will, right? Technology is going to make it easier. Technology will help identify opportunities, eliminate some friction, but it's never gonna replace human ambition, judgment, and follow-through. I think the other great thing about our business and our firm in particular is our advisors aren't doing this alone. The peers that they have, right, the sharing back and forth, it really is amazing to watch. And so, you know, what we find is that peers often can be the best source of new ideas, but also the best sounding board for sharing what has worked and maybe what hasn't worked. And so there's a lot of power in that, too. So it's a combination of kind of I think the work that we're doing in, in the client success organization, Matt, on our growth team, but also tapping into the power of the knowledge that exists in the broader LPL advisor community.

[00:33:00] Taryn: Power of the knowledge and ambition creates that opportunity. So we started this conversation with the challenges of growth. Going to our if you could question, if you could look ahead where people are following this step by step, is there a world where you can imagine where outside frictionless growth becomes possible?

[00:33:22] Kraleigh: Yes.

[00:33:23] Taryn: Yes.

[00:33:23] Kraleigh: Yes.

[00:33:23] Matt: No, you just said no.

[00:33:24] Taryn: Yes.

[00:33:25] Kraleigh: Yes.

[00:33:26] Taryn: There was a hesitation.

[00:33:26] Kraleigh: But I'm, but I'm gonna make a distinction, and I think this is important. Frictionless doesn't mean effortless. We absolutely can, and we will, build a future where advisors don't have to hunt for the opportunity, th- and they're not wondering what to do next. Technology is gonna create the leverage so that our advisors can create growth. The future of growth isn't about doing more. You've heard me say that over and over and over again. To me, it's about missing less. Fewer missed opportunities, fewer missed conversations, less time wasted on things that don't work, right? That's how outsized growth becomes possible. So it's not effortless, but it is frictionless.

[00:34:05] Matt: I'll take one out of two. You take the friction out of anything you do- Great ... and then you get paid for the work. That's right. Like, and I, I think where people lose their momentum, they lose their excitement to change, is when they're met with obstructions, when they're met with people stepping in their way or things not going the way they want them to go. I think if we can live in a world where effort's still required, but friction is removed, we're gonna have more people following through on this ambition to grow and the work necessary to get that growth, and most importantly, the outcome of growth on the other side.

[00:34:36] Kraleigh: I agree, and I think the other thing here is when you start to see the progress and the results, so when you're measuring it, and you can see that it's working, it just fuels that cycle over and over again, right? It validates that what you're doing is working, and you lean in even further.

[00:34:51] Matt: Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.

[00:34:53] Kraleigh: That's right.

[00:34:54] Matt: Well, you've put a lot of light on this conversation, a lot of light on this opportunity. I didn't come up with that quote, by the way. That's a very famous quote. But it is absolutely as true as ever, and thank you for bringing not just sunlight to this growth opportunity, but sunlight to our studio today.

[00:35:08] Kraleigh: Well, thanks for having me. I'll come back anytime.

[00:35:10] Taryn: Thank you, Kraleigh.

[00:35:11] Matt: Thanks Kraleigh.