Empowering Your Team: Building a Self-Sufficient Firm with Erin Botsford

Erin Botsford [00:00:00]:
Know, you really have to focus on what do you wanna have happen on that last day. Because if your business depends on you to meet with every single client for the reviews, it'll have very little value in the marketplace.

Leah Alter [00:00:21]:
Hi there. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Leah Alter. And I'm Joanna Ehresman. And this is Women Share, a celebration of women

Joanna Ehresman [00:00:34]:
Advisor Authority, and we can't wait to hear her advice because she seems like a woman who definitely walks the talk. After spending the majority of her career as a successful adviser, which earned her many accolades, by the way, like being a Barron's top 100 adviser in multiple categories, Erin sold her practice. And she's now dedicated her career to helping other advisers follow in her footsteps through both her elite adviser success system training and her book, Seven Figure Firm, how to build a financial services business that grows itself. So, Erin, thank you for joining us here in Women's Share to share your story and your advice with our listeners.

Erin Botsford [00:01:11]:
Well, thanks for having me here. It's nice to meet you guys.

Leah Alter [00:01:14]:
You too. Erin, we're really excited to dig in. We love this topic and, you know, a different fresh perspective on building a firm. So, oftentimes, we you know, Joanne and I have worked with advisers for years and years, and and we see that the next step of selling a firm is retirement. Right? We see that happen all the time. But you took a different route and launched the adviser authority. So we're really excited to get into that. What compelled you to go with this kind of venture of helping other advisers have the same success that you've had?

Erin Botsford [00:01:51]:
Well, thanks for asking. So, from my personal background, I was raised in poverty. My dad died when I was 11. He left my mom with six kids and no money. When I was 16, I was involved in a horrible car accident as and someone died as a result. And I was charged with manslaughter. I went through a criminal trial, a civil trial. So, you know, I again, I I did not have even a remote good background to enter the financial services business, but I knew a lot of hardship, heartache, tragedy, and all that stuff.

Erin Botsford [00:02:20]:
But I walked in as a I wanted I was looking for a job as a secretary in a stock brokerage firm, and the guy said, I'm gonna make you a stock broker. And I was like, okay. I was in my young I was young in my mid twenties, and I didn't know the difference between a stock and a bond. I never heard of mutual fund, but okay. So as you can imagine, I struggled really badly for the first ten, eleven years to the point that I told my branch manager I was quitting. It was just too hard. And I just wanted to go get a job and make a paycheck. Right? And so he said, oh, Aaron, why don't you go get some business coaching? So I thought, okay.

Erin Botsford [00:02:51]:
You know, I'm not a quitter by nature, so, you know, let's do this. And so something happened in the third year of my coaching program. We were all asked to stand up and share our results over the past three years, and I got paired with this guy who happened to also be a financial adviser. And I was so excited about my progress. I wanted to go first, so I said, hey. I'm Aaron Botsford. I'm from Dallas, Texas. 3 Years ago, I was doing 300,000 in production.

Erin Botsford [00:03:15]:
Now I'm on target to do four hundred and four fifty, and I was thinking that's great. And then it was his turn. He said, yeah. I'm Paul. I'm from Virginia. I was doing 300,000 three years ago as well. He said, this year, I'm on target to do 3,000,000 in production. And he said, I don't meet with any of my existing clients anymore.

Erin Botsford [00:03:33]:
What I do is I he built a team around me. I go out and I sell the philosophy of my firm, and, you know, and everybody has to agree to work with various members of my team. And, of course, my brain starts wandering up, and I kept thinking, did I mention a coaching session? You know, like, how did he do that? So, you know, as luck would have it, I begged him to buy a few hours of his time, but instead, he he asked he said, why don't you come spend the day with me and my team? And so that was a game changer for me. And after one day with him and seeing what was possible, it's really all I needed to see. And I came home. I had one part time assistant that I shared with four other guys. And I went to my branch manager and said, hey. I wanna use her full time.

Erin Botsford [00:04:14]:
And I she was 20 years old right out of college, and I said, okay. Here's the deal. I'm gonna go out and bring a new business, and you're gonna do everything else. And lucky for me, she said, okay. And so we proceeded to build a very, very large lucrative practice. We had, you know, 18 employees, two offices. My claim to fame is that I always had seven conference rooms filled with clients of my firm, and I wasn't in any one of them because I wanted to build something like Paul had built. And I I really wanted to have something that I could monetize someday.

Erin Botsford [00:04:46]:
And if your listeners don't learn or remember anything, else, but I'm what I'm gonna say next is that is, you know, you really have to focus on what do you wanna have happen on that last day. Because if your business depends on you to meet with every single client for the reviews, it'll have very little value in the marketplace. The buyer is going to discount the value of your business because they might risk existing clients going away because of that dependency on the adviser. And so knowing that I built a different kind of practice that really operated with or without my day to day involvement. And, so, anyway, after selling my firm in 02/2017, I decided, you know, this business is really hard, and could I make it easier for the next adviser coming, you know, out of series seven training? You know? I mean, that's about as much training as you get other than just product training. And so in fact, in 02/2016, I started get after I made the Barron's top 100 in multiple categories, I started giving being asked to give speeches. And I up until that point, I was like, why would I train my competitors? I really didn't know why I would do that, but I thought, you know, Erin, it's time to give back. And so when I went to give my very first speech, what I did was I, I put up a sign and said, hey.

Erin Botsford [00:06:03]:
Why don't you guys come spend the day with me and my team? Kinda like I had spent the day with Paul, and I had 18 people sign up. And so I came back to my office and I was like, oh my gosh. We have 18 people coming. I didn't have a program. I had nothing. And then long story short is after doing this for about two years and having advisers just come through my office, what I gave them was two hours of time with any member of my staff, but they had to submit their questions in advance. And then I realized they all had the same questions. So I asked myself the question, is there some way and, of course, I didn't know anything about online training programs.

Erin Botsford [00:06:38]:
This is in 02/1617. But was there some way that I could create something once and, you know, and be able to have be kind of be a force multiplier. How can I help these advisers? How can I help them make their journey a little bit easier than my journey was? And and the good news is, as of this recording, we've trained in the last four years about 1,600 advisers. And the really cool part about it is not only are they getting the same results I got, they're doing it much faster. And that makes me just super proud. So so I'm having a ball.

Joanna Ehresman [00:07:12]:
Wow. What a story. I'm just

Leah Alter [00:07:14]:
know. That's what I

Erin Botsford [00:07:15]:
know than you guys expected, but that's the real deal. So

Leah Alter [00:07:19]:
No. That's that's so great too. But and and also being able to, you know, I I think a lot of times, the ego gets in the way. Right? You you mentioned, you know, not having to be in the room and, you know, training your competitors and all of that. And I think a lot of times, our egos get in the way of us doing that. And the fact that you recognize that, we're able to kind of shut that out and just focus on the bigger picture Mhmm. Just shows that that's where the sick you know, that's where all the success can come in. It's hugely inspiring.

Leah Alter [00:07:56]:
Thank you so much for sharing that.

Erin Botsford [00:07:58]:
You're welcome.

Joanna Ehresman [00:07:59]:
Well and it's so interesting having worked with so many firms, so many sellers, right, that were looking to join the firm I was with and kinda integrate that for the most part, it seemed like this plan to get themselves out of the day to day of the business was, like, maybe one to two years before they were selling and not embedded in how they operated from day one. So I think that's really interesting that your business was built, you know, from the ground up to not be centered around you, and that seems like a really key insight and something for our listener to reflect on. Right? If you're leading, a firm, is this something that, you know, can thrive without you and be marketable to your point?

Erin Botsford [00:08:42]:
Can I I'll I'll I'll make a, a point on this? And the reason I know how valuable this is is because and, again, the first eleven years were a train wreck. Okay? I was it's a complete train wreck. So it really was the last twenty years that it all came together. Thank god. You know? But the the same day that I sold my firm and I had multiple offers competing against each other because they all knew that the business did not depend on me showing up. That was super, you know, advantageous for me. But the same day the buyer bought my firm, they bought another woman's firm. I'm told she had about the same amount of AUM as I did.

Erin Botsford [00:09:17]:
She had, you know, same same size practice. I I'm told she actually had employees that work for her, but she clearly had not empowered them to meet alone with her clients. And she had two big things going against her. One, all of her clients were dependent on her. And second, she'd had a massive stroke, and she had to sell. She ended up getting I'm told she got 25¢ on the dollar compared to me because of the way she had structured her business to be have clients dependent on her. And I I teach a lot of advisers, and I interact with them every single day. And I'm like, is that an outcome that you'd be proud of? I mean, you'd start you step away and go, woo hoo.

Erin Botsford [00:09:58]:
Look at that. I got 25¢ on the dollar. And I really want that to sink in for people, your audience, because there's no reason for that. You know, our businesses should be the single greatest asset that we have. We have to protect it with all that we have, all that we are. It's certainly bigger than a four zero one k we could invest in, etcetera. And so to disregard what it has to look like on the last day to get an ultimate, you know, outcome is to just to at at your own peril. Right? And Mhmm.

Erin Botsford [00:10:28]:
I guess I thought of it a lot earlier. Maybe because my dad had died, I always wanted to protect what I was building for my only son and my husband. So I was always that was in the forefront of my mind. Yes. I could have bought a ton of life insurance, but here I was sitting on this great asset. Why would I not protect it?

Joanna Ehresman [00:10:44]:
Yeah. Oh, that's so smart. So smart. Curious to hear, based on your work with advisers, what are some of the biggest organic growth challenges you find that are limiting them from adding new clients? So you obviously highlighted, like, don't make it all dependent on upon you, but what else is hampering their organic growth? Because it's such a pervasive issue in this industry.

Erin Botsford [00:11:07]:
How much time do we have? No. I can really nail I can really nail that down into a couple of things. First of all, advisors are limited by their imagination and their skill set and their confidence. So what I try and teach is I try and teach them how to move up market and work with higher and higher net worth clients. Typically, they do not have the skill set or the confidence to do that. Why? I have no idea. I think the training is sort of for the mass affluent market, and so they're limited by some some level. Right? And so what I teach them is, you know, to me, it's no harder to close a $30,000,000 prospect than a $500,000 prospect.

Erin Botsford [00:11:47]:
You just have to know what to say, front of them. What I teach is most advisers, they learn, there's two sides of a balance sheet. One, there is the investment and retirement side. The other side is the risk side, and I focus on my training on the risk side of the balance sheet. And the reason I do that after my one day with Paul, I came home. I hired an attorney because I was working with you know, I would take a $50,000 client. You know, if they could fog a mirror, they were my client. But I didn't wanna do that.

Erin Botsford [00:12:20]:
I knew that was not in my best interest, in the business' best interest. So I hired an attorney for a year. She came every Monday to teach me what are the issues of those ideal clients that I wanna work with because I didn't know. I I was a poor girl. I came out of the projects for goodness sakes. And if anybody had no confidence to meet with somebody, it was me. Right? So but after a year of realizing, I know exactly now what the attributes, what do what does a high net worth client look for? And one of the things high net worth people have is they've made their money and they don't wanna lose it. So you going in and pitching your, you know, manager selection process or your, you know, how you're gonna make them money is almost ridiculous.

Erin Botsford [00:12:59]:
What they want is they want somebody to focus on the blind spots they have, the risk side of the balance sheet. Like, you know, sometimes they're unaware as to how much umbrella liability insurance do you have. Well, I got a million dollars. Okay. Well, you're worth $20,000,000. So let's plan it play out a scenario. Let's say your teenage son, you told me he's driving a car in your name. He's down at Texas A and M.

Erin Botsford [00:13:19]:
He gets in a car accident. He it happens to be with a plastic surgeon, and now you're being sued for $25,000,000. How's that million dollar umbrella liability insurance going to protect your assets? And and usually, I mean, they're they're stunned. And so that's that risk side of the balance sheet is where all the magic happens. It's not on the retirement and the investment side. So I have found 22 different places, conversations to go, and these are true vulnerabilities that exist in these prospects' lives. And for whatever reason, ladies, the industry does not teach that. It's they think it's the long road to get to the assets.

Erin Botsford [00:13:58]:
Right? When in fact, it is the absolute best, fastest way to get to all of the money because they want all of their money protected, not just a little bit. So not having that skill set. The first of it is it's not having a skill set to address those issues is the number one problem. But once you have that skill set, you create this confidence. You create this aura about you that you know without any shadow of a doubt, you could walk into any situation and end up with, you know, a prospect meeting, you know, or or something, the next step. Because a lot of times, I get asked the question, hey, Aaron. You know, I'd love to work with, you know, $20.30, $40,000,000 prospects. I'm like, they said, can you help me find them? Like, of course, I can.

Erin Botsford [00:14:43]:
That's where I played. Right? But I'll say, well, let's imagine I put you in a room full of $20,000,000 prospects. There's 50 of them. Would you have any idea what to say to get a meeting with them? Would you have any idea once you're in the meeting how to close them? And I teach how to close in the first meeting. None of these one, two, three discovery meetings. That's ridiculous. It's a complete waste of time. And so most advisors will say, if they're honest, no.

Erin Botsford [00:15:09]:
I don't have I don't know what I would say. But once they learn, it's, like, magical. They're they become like this prospect magnet. There's this aura about them, and and people are attracted to them because, man, they know what to say at the at every turn. So when you ask what the issue is, it's skills first, but skills produce confidence. And I think all problems can be solved by those two things.

Leah Alter [00:15:33]:
Wow. That is a yeah. I mean, I think I feel like a lot of people's, little light bulbs are going off for sure, you know, talking about the two sides of the balance sheet. I think you're right. I think a lot of people focus on how to just make people more money. So, I think that's really interesting. So you talk about how growing a firm is more than just acquiring those new clients. It's also in how you put your team together and the structure of that team.

Leah Alter [00:16:06]:
Can you talk a little bit about the team structure and the management to help, other advisers kind of picture how to put together a team so, like you said, you don't have to be in every single meeting.

Erin Botsford [00:16:24]:
Yeah. It's really quite easy. I always recommend start off with a personal assistant who is not licensed. And I I specifically don't want that person to be licensed because they're gonna have an interesting role, and they can qualify teach them how to qualify people that call in and want a meeting with me or meeting with one of my team. They can if somebody says, well, what kind of stuff does Aaron recommend? They can say, well, sir, I'm not I'm not licensed. I can't discuss that. And so I don't want any I don't want the prospect to have any preconceived notions about what's gonna happen when they walk in. So that person is able to say, I can't discuss that.

Erin Botsford [00:16:58]:
The second one is I like to get my advisers I like to get them right out of college with degrees in financial planning. There's a lot of places that you can go to get those because, again, they don't have any preconceived notions. I wanna train them the way I want them, and I can also get them relatively inexpensive. So I have a three step process for then training them because the biggest issue that advisers have is, you know, it's so hard to bring on a new client. And the reason it's hard is because we subject ourselves to the prospect of rejection every single day. That's the hardest part of our business is somebody saying no. So once we get a client, by god, we don't wanna lose them, and we don't want some Yahoo in a room with them ruining the relationship. Right?

Joanna Ehresman [00:17:42]:
Right.

Erin Botsford [00:17:43]:
So so how do you avoid that? I remember, one of my early mentors, she said, well, Erin, you know, because I've gone to Paul's office and my he had, you know, he had seven conference rooms filled with clients of his firm. Of course, I wanted to just replicate that. But, Minh, doing it was so scary, and you always say, well, nobody can sit in there. Nobody can do it as well as me. And so she challenged me. She said, well, what if you had seven conference rooms filled with clients of your firm and you had licensed people in each room? What if they could only do it 65% as well as you? Would that be good enough? And, of course, I have to get a calculator. I'll go, well, would that be good enough? You know? And I determined, yes, it would be good enough. In fact, in practice, what I found out is they were way better than me.

Erin Botsford [00:18:24]:
Because you're not again, so what I teach advisers is break down your clients. If they haven't if your advisers haven't done this, they've gotta break it down between a, b, c, and d. And so you're not going to turn your 22 year old employee in the first year over with your a clients, but there's a three step process that I use. So for instance, this adviser, you've got him now. You know, he's working for you. He's maybe even be getting his license. So in the first year, they meet with every single one. They're with you on every phone call, every Zoom call, every meeting, and they do the follow ups and the downloads and the paperwork, and they follow-up with the clients.

Erin Botsford [00:18:59]:
So year one is all about having them listen to you. And when when the client walks out the door, you say bye bye or you turn off the Zoom call, you ask this person, tell me what happened in that meeting. Because you want them to articulate back to you what they heard, specifically how you overcame objections. So in year two, there's this the magic occurs. So now you've broken it down in year two when it comes to your c and d clients. In the first meeting, nothing changes. You sit here. They sit here.

Erin Botsford [00:19:28]:
You conduct the meeting. The second meeting, all you do is switch seats. And now your employee is actually conducting the meeting. And think about it. It's a c or d client. And they've been in every meeting for the last eighteen months, and they've done every follow-up, and they've placed every trade, and the client is very used to seeing them. So switching seats is almost not even noticed. And then on the third meeting that year, the last meeting of that particular year, you are conveniently late.

Erin Botsford [00:19:59]:
Now so it's it's a c or d client. And, you know, if they go away, you're gonna be sad, but not too sad. Okay? That's that's your only worry that somehow they will not be happy with this. Okay? But there that's never gonna be to happen. So I I created this amazing trick. You use this pen. You use a pen. So I'm conveniently late in the third meeting.

Erin Botsford [00:20:22]:
I walk in. I go, hey. How are you guys doing? I'm sorry I'm late. I do not lie. I don't say I was stuck in traffic. I was just late. Then you look for a signal. And if the your adviser, if they take their pen and they put it on the right hand side of their piece of paper that says everything's going great.

Erin Botsford [00:20:40]:
There's no need for you to say. They're happy. I've answered all their questions. And so you look for the signal. And if you see that, you go, hey. Everything going good. How are the kids? See you next time, and you're out. But if they take their pen and they put it on the top of their piece of paper, what that signal is, I could use a little help.

Erin Botsford [00:20:58]:
And so you look for the signal, say, you start to pull up your chair, say, what have you guys been talking about? Well, we rec we we were talking about we recommended this and they have some questions. Oh, really? What are your questions? And you overcome the objection, and then you never have to meet with them again. So, I mean, that little piece of this podcast is probably worth about $8,000,000. So, you're very you're very welcome.

Leah Alter [00:21:24]:
It's like, it's almost like a I don't know. We're coming off the Super Bowl, so I'm thinking football. But I'm like, it's like those it's those little signals and plays among teammates that alert you to, you know, information that they're getting. And I'm sure for those younger advisers, it's hugely helpful and supportive to know that, either way, they're they're gonna be fine. They're either they've learned what they need to learn and they're rocking and rolling, or you're there to help them, you know, finish the the meeting out.

Erin Botsford [00:21:59]:
Yeah. And then so that was your, you know, year one, they're learning. Year two, you do the transition of c and d clients. Year three, you start with the b clients. And I went ahead and I just converted all. I never no no client ever expected me with me. A, b, you know. So my job was really just to go out just like Paul, sell the philosophy of my firm, and bring in ideal clients.

Erin Botsford [00:22:18]:
And I always said, nobody gets me. Okay? You have to understand. This is the philosophy of my firm. Nobody gets me. You have to be willing to work with various members of my team, and they're like, okay. And and you you you make it sound like this it's in your best interest. If you, you know, if you find out I spend a lot of time in Africa, and you find out I got, you know, I got killed by an elephant, stamped you know, trampled by an elephant, I don't want you to ever think, oh my gosh. What happens to my money? So I built a generational firm, and we even worked with all the adult children of every client, etcetera.

Erin Botsford [00:22:48]:
So, you know, the nice thing about it is when you when you say your rules, you tell them the this is how we work. These are our rules. Guess what? They believe you.

Joanna Ehresman [00:22:59]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Leah Alter [00:23:00]:
Right? Yeah. And then when you

Joanna Ehresman [00:23:02]:
deliver that way yeah. The the expectations are set, and you just follow through. Yeah. Yeah.

Leah Alter [00:23:06]:
And if it's not for them, that's okay too because there's plenty of people that it is for. And and that's how you find your the those right clients that are gonna also be loyal and stay with you for a really long time.

Erin Botsford [00:23:18]:
Well and by the way, I've just disturbed the hell out of them on two or three or four or five things that are missing or awry in their situation that their existing adviser never mentioned. They can't wait to sign that piece of paper and abide by my rules.

Joanna Ehresman [00:23:36]:
Right. Yeah. Right. You've established that credibility. Absolutely. So, Erin, you've enjoyed a long career in the industry. How have things changed for women from your point of view? And where are some areas you hope to see change in the next five years?

Erin Botsford [00:23:52]:
I think things have changed a lot. My original the only person that was older in the business than me that I can remember was Alexander Armstrong. She and I used to win awards. I was the young girl and she was the older one in the business, and now I'm the older one. Right? So there it was very unusual, you know, when I got in the business in 1989 to be a female. And I I remember the guys used to actually take bets on how long I would last. You know? And I I outlasted a lot of them. I'm hoping I mean, I think things have come along.

Erin Botsford [00:24:20]:
I I I wish for women that they didn't think of themselves as women. I mean, there's it's kind of like, I never thought of myself as a male or female adviser. I was a business owner. Right? And I was always up against men, and I love the fact that I was different. I wore a red suit and real high heels, and I walked in and I commanded the audience. Right? I I used my femaleness as a total advantage because I was always because I worked in the high net worth arena, again, imagine me from my background getting to that point, I was always in a competitive situation. So they walk in with their dark suits and their dark ties and their white shirts, and I walk in with a red suit and manila blanc heels. And guess what? I look different from them, and I'd wait my turn, and they were all gonna talk about their manager selection process and all of that.

Erin Botsford [00:25:08]:
And I'd go in, and I could get a hundred million dollar guy sweating profusely because he had some areas in his life that one car accident could take away everything that he loved and valued. Right? So I loved being the female in that crowd. I worked it, man. I worked it well. Never in a, you know, bad way, but I'm just saying I liked being different than and I walked in with a whole different message. And guess what, ladies? I won every single time.

Joanna Ehresman [00:25:38]:
Yeah. I love that.

Leah Alter [00:25:40]:
So What? You

Erin Botsford [00:25:41]:
know, I'd get that red suit and some of those monologonic shoes and go out there and rule the day. Right? So

Leah Alter [00:25:47]:
Love that. On that same kind of vein, Erin, what is the best career advice that you ever received?

Erin Botsford [00:25:55]:
It was from that one day with Paul. He told me to read the book, The E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. And it completely I was at the, not Reagan National, but the Washington DC Airport. I picked it up. I read it cover to cover on the way home to Texas. It forever changed the way I view what I was doing. Because before that, if somebody said, what do you do? I would have said, oh, I'm a financial adviser. And after that, I would always say, I own a financial services company.

Erin Botsford [00:26:24]:
And the moments I had from the biz from that book, and I teach this, you know, to all the advisers is, you know, I don't know why this memo never made it to our industry, but in every single other industry, bar none, maybe the exception of real estate agents, but every other industry, the owner of the business hires other people to do the work of the business. And somehow that memo never made it to our our industry, and I'm not exactly sure why. But I give examples like, you know, my one of my friends, she owns the largest plumbing company in the state of Texas. And I and she's a Manolo Blahnik chick too. I mean, she's like you know? And I always think, do you think her name is Carissa. Do you think Carissa has ever gotten on her hands and knees and fixed the toilet? No. She hires plumbers to fix the toilet. I give examples like dentists.

Erin Botsford [00:27:11]:
When was the last time the dentist came in and cleaned your teeth? You know, they hire other people to they call the hygienist to clean people's teeth. And then when their expertise is needed, then they come in to do the root canal or the whatever. Unfortunately, in our business, we'll a lot of advisers are cleaning teeth. Mhmm.

Leah Alter [00:27:29]:
Yeah.

Erin Botsford [00:27:29]:
You know, we're doing the actual work of the business, and so we do not think like business owners at all. We also don't invest in our business. And so advisers have such a hard time, like, hiring your first employee. Well, where am I gonna get the money? So they're used to making x amount of dollars. Oh, they make $300,000, and they wanna keep making 300,000 because now their lifestyle depends on it. So I say, okay. I also teach them, I think it's very important to charge financial planning fees separate and apart from AUM fees. And I say and once I teach them and believe me, once you've once you've charged a financial planning fee, I always say, will you ever work for free again? And they always say, absolutely not.

Erin Botsford [00:28:09]:
I had a girl, Bridgette, last September. She'd never charge a financial planning fee. She decided not to second guess my process and she started charging. Between September and the end of the year, she charged 53,000 in planning fees. She was smart enough to set that money aside to hire her first employee. So she found a new source of revenue to pay for her employee. And so, again, the resource of the e myth revisited started the journey, and then I've just expanded it a lot, you know, in coming up with how to justify hiring those people. Because a solo practitioner, is just is one illness away from extinction.

Erin Botsford [00:28:48]:
You know?

Joanna Ehresman [00:28:48]:
Right.

Erin Botsford [00:28:49]:
And they'll never get a high valuation on their business. It's just you don't really have a business. You have a job with a nice boss. You.

Joanna Ehresman [00:28:58]:
Yeah. Well said. Oh, interesting. Interesting. I love that. It reminds me to reread the E Myth Revisited. It's been a few years, but it's such a good and a good reminder of just that paradigm shift, right, of how you approach it, yes, your business. So outside of the success that you're having at the adviser authority and your successful career, what else can we celebrate with you today?

Erin Botsford [00:29:20]:
You can celebrate that. Since 02/2009, I've supported between 500,000 orphans at an organization called Ebenezer Foundation in Zambia. But because of the success of my training company, last year, my husband and I were able to take on 5,000 more orphans. So now we have I mean, I think it's 45 or or 5,500. I lost count, but, we support, and they mostly are in the country of Zambia because that's kind of where our heart is. We've done many, many safaris, and that's how we came across. And I think the orphan because I think because when my dad died my mom had to go back to work, and I came home every night to an an empty house and put myself to to bed. Right? And I I always wonder why am I attracted to orphans, but I am.

Erin Botsford [00:30:01]:
So, yeah, the celebration is, you know, I'm very dedicated. I don't need any more money. When I sold my company, I have all the money I need, but I'd like to be serving 50,000 orphans in the next couple years. So that really is my purpose in the driving force of everything I do. So

Leah Alter [00:30:17]:
Wow. Incredible. Certainly worthy of celebration. A lot of celebration.

Erin Botsford [00:30:22]:
Thank you.

Leah Alter [00:30:23]:
Erin, this has just been an incredible conversation. We have absolutely loved having you on the show. I know a lot of people are gonna want to find you and connect with you. What is the best place and how to do that?

Erin Botsford [00:30:36]:
Sure. Just go to, wwwerinbosford.com, my name, Com. I mean, there's so many free resources on our site. We're here to serve advisers, and, they can book a free strategy session with one of my team members and really talk about where are you in your business, and we're not here to sell them into our program. If we have a program, we have several programs. If they want help in their business, they want one on one time, whatever they want, we can probably serve them. And so, if they go to their site and request a strategy session, we're we're happy to talk them through. Sometimes just in a thirty minute strategy session, we can get them on their way and get them moving in a in the right direction.

Erin Botsford [00:31:12]:
So we're we're happy to help advisers as they come our way.

Joanna Ehresman [00:31:16]:
Wow. Well, and even just in our thirty minute discussion here today, you already dropped so many great nuggets and things. So it's a great advertiser to one.

Erin Botsford [00:31:25]:
This is $8,000,000. Use it.

Joanna Ehresman [00:31:30]:
Oh, well, this has been great, Erin. Thank you again for joining us. That's our show for today. So if ours is a mission that you want to share in, subscribe to Women Share on your favorite podcast platforms. With that, I'm Joanna Erisman.

Leah Alter [00:31:43]:
And I'm Leah Alter, and we will catch you on the next episode of Women Share.

Joanna Ehresman [00:31:56]:
Share.