What Is Ironstone Business Coaching?

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This is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series where we take a look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On this episode:

Vendor name:

Ironstone Business Coaching

Vendor category:

Practice Management

Episode host:

Brad Wales

Episode guest:

Andrea Schlapia

Vendor contact info:

Website

Full Transcript:

Brad Wales – Hi, I’m Brad Wales with Transition To RIA, and this is the Transition To RIA Vendor Profile Series, where we take a look at the solution providers powering the RIA model. On today’s episode, we’re answering the question, “What is Ironstone Business Coaching?” And there’s no better person to help us with that than the founder of Ironstone, Andrea Schlapia. Andrea, thanks for coming on.

Andrea Schlapia – Hey, thanks Brad. It’s great to see you.

Brad – We were just chatting before I hit record. However, I didn’t point that of all the people I could conceivably have on this series, past or future, I think you are the person that I’ve known the longest that I could potentially have on so I especially look forward to this one. We go back well over a decade and I appreciate you coming. For those that have seen Andrea, she was on my regular Q&A series several years ago so it’s exciting to have you back on for today’s conversation.

Andrea – Absolutely, I’m looking forward to it. Yes, I cannot believe how many years have gone by, but here we are a little bit older, maybe a little bit wiser.

Brad – Seasoned, we’re more seasoned, I think is the right terminology.

So with this as a little lead-in to our viewers and listeners, this conversation today is not so much something you would necessarily use during the transition, but part of one of the big advantages of why advisors and teams are transitioning to the RIA model is the increased flexibility they have to be business owners. They will not just be a practitioner as a financial advisor, but will also be that business owner with all the flexibility that comes with that.

But being a business owner is a whole different skill set compared to being a financial advisor. And, which I’ll have Andrea get into it, that’s where something like Ironstone comes into place. Now that I have this business, on the other side, how best can I manage that and grow that going forward?

So with that kind of lead-in, not to give away the spoiler, but Andrea, if you could start by kind of giving us that high level, “What is Ironstone Business Coaching?”

Andrea – We are a practice management firm and our number one passion and focus is helping entrepreneurial financial advisory teams to gain control, boost morale, grow their business, and ultimately unlock freedom to exit.

So what I just described is the whole entire path of becoming a true, successful business owner versus a financial advisor, because the mindset of going from advisor to business owner is a different animal. And running a business isn’t easy.

Brad – But it’s exciting, though it’s not easy. As Andrea knows herself with her own business and I know with mine, that at times it can be a lot more work, but it’s also your baby and it’s more exciting. However, that doesn’t make it easy to figure out. And it’s always something you’ll never fully figure out. And that’s where your help can come in, Andrea, on that.

You did use the term practice management. That is kind of a common framing out there. So what does someone get when they’re working with someone like you? What does practice management really mean? What does coaching look like for someone that’s implementing your service?

Andrea – Great question. We’re helping you look through the lens of what is the majority of the needs that the business has in and of itself. So if we can help shift your mindset to say, what are we doing for strategic planning, business development, operational effectiveness, and the human element, that’s called our Fundamental 4 Lens. We have lots of ways that we can work with advisory teams and those that are transitioning or desiring to transition to RIA, but helping you look at it through a business-owner lens or mindset.

So from that perspective, what kind of plan do you have in place? Is everybody 100 % on the same page from the vision component? What kind of accountability do you have in place so that everybody’s actually running on that vision and actually functioning on a day-to-day basis to execute? And then how healthy is your team?

Literally the number one advantage that every team has is organizational health because running the business, product, people, all of those are going to happen no matter what. We’re helping business owners to get healthy, their team to get healthy, and how to look at it from a business ownership perspective versus, again, an advisor seat perspective and all of those different sleeves that I mentioned in the Fundamental 4.

Brad – Hopefully they recognize if things aren’t going well and there’s opportunity for improvement. But how does someone know that it’s like, hey, the business is seemingly moving along and everyone seems to be happy and we’re making some money. But perhaps there’s a lot of opportunity to do even better, but they don’t necessarily recognize that.

How do you help folks that are maybe in that middle ground? They say, I don’t know, maybe we could be doing better, but it doesn’t seem to be broken, although there is possibly room for improvement. How do you help folks kind of decide on that?

Andrea – That’s what we call our business health check. We want to get everybody involved on the team. So it’s not just the primary advisor, business owner, but literally helping the whole entire team to take a diagnostic look into what’s working and what’s not working about the business. So our business health check looks through that Fundamental 4 lens. We have a series of questions that we ultimately use to do an audit on the business. There’s 32 line items that we ask questions on.

Everyone gets to answer those questions and score and rank how healthy it is from a one of we have absolutely nothing at all documented or no clarity on the subject to we are perfect and we’re role models in the space and we’re teaching others to do it. So we’ve got a scale of one to six. And guess what? With that one to six there’s no average and the reason is because it’s really easy to say we’re average, we’re good, we’re all good. But part of that question is either you’re above or below average.

That’s our business health check to really get a clear picture of the current condition and to identify why it might not be broken to your point. Like there are wildly successful teams. I had the opportunity to be on site with a team last week, a billion-dollar firm that wanted to do a business health check. There were 14 people involved. They all had the opportunity to score this survey that we provide. I got to spend time with them individually and my team and I collected all of that information.

We ultimately provided a summary report of what are the findings based upon perspectives from all of the team members, not just one or two, and identifying some first simple steps. I use that as a formula of what is the first simple step. And so much of the time, Brad, it is about role clarity, who is doing what, how are we doing it?

Process and system and roles and responsibility are why people show up on our doorstep and really affect the outcome of looking at what are we doing next to even get better. That is a foundation of team health, of clarity, role, responsibility, expectation, and operational effectiveness.

For example, have you memorialized the operations of the business or is it just in somebody’s head? Because if it’s in somebody’s head, the valuation of the business is a lot lower. Because if I can’t scale that business and, again, the institutional knowledge is in somebody’s brain, that doesn’t help to increase the value for your business.

Brad – I should have prefaced this conversation by pointing out that Andrea’s primary, I wouldn’t say sole, but overwhelmingly primary audience is financial advisors and has been since the founding of the firm. She was in the financial services industry prior to that for 20-plus years. So while I’m sure there’s some wonderful across-the-board coaches out there, Andrea’s entire focus for the better part of two decades has been the financial services industry. So it plays right into that.

But related to that, you have mentioned “team” a number of times. I think something that’s probably helpful, and I welcome your thoughts, is that a part of your service is to create that safe space where feedback can be obtained and kind of packaged up and presented as a whole. Sometimes it can be hard for people to tell the boss that things that aren’t going well or there are things they don’t agree with or there might be shortcomings.

I would assume that part of your and your team’s value, from the way you’re talking about gathering data from the team, is that something you do see is that sometimes people are more open when someone like you is in there helping facilitate that kind of conversation?

Andrea – 100% and it’s everything that you said of creating that safe space. That’s the example that I gave last week. I spent time individually one-on-one with each of the 14 team members, not just the business owners and partners, but all of the players on the team to get their perspective.

Not every team member knows what it looks like from an operating cost, or understands what the succession plan is, or has clarity on what the segmentation and service metrics are for all of the clients. It still is the outlet to get to know the perspective of all the team members of what’s working and what’s not working on the practice and in the business so that we can come to a consensus of saying here is literally the current condition of the business.

Where do we go from here? And everybody’s had a voice. That is a key and positive tipping point of getting everybody on the same page, aligning everyone beyond partners, owners. It is the whole entire team. And we’ve seen amazing results.

I took a picture of this group last week and I said this is the first day of the new mindset for where you guys can go together because you have such amazing brain power, yet communication is the Achilles heel for everyone.

No matter who I talk to, no matter if this is a 250 million- or a billion-dollar practice and everything in between, the more you hire people, the more complex your business becomes. And the Achilles heel is always communication or rather miscommunication. That’s why I say healthy within a team is what will differentiate you. It’s not your product, it’s not your operations, but it’s how healthy is your team.

Brad – We’ll get shortly into how a new engagement starts, but just along this theme, are your typical engagements kind of a one-time exercise? Or is this a we do this exercise and that might be spread out over multiple months and then folks revisit this every couple years? Or is this an ongoing thing? What have you seen is kind of typical for a reasonable size firm?

Andrea – It’s a hard question to answer because it so depends upon the team and the business, right? But I’ve already talked about the business health check.

Outside of that, we have a lot of arrows in the quiver, but what’s most important and where I love giving my time to anybody that’s considering it is to say, what is your number one need? What’s the current condition? What’s working? What’s not working? Why are you even considering a business coach now to come into your house, if you will, and pop the hood of this, right? Why, why now?

Beyond the business health check, a lot of people say, you know what? Okay. I’m an EOS implementer. And for your listeners, EOS is the entrepreneurial operating system. I mean, it’s the book Traction, right? So that’s a thing. My own business runs on EOS and Traction, but that’s another piece that we offer to say, if you’re considering EOS and want to explore that, let me share with you what actually that means.

Business is six key components that we’re trying to get 80 % healthy in. That’s one of the arrows in the quiver. You may just want a monthly accountability coach. And so we can build out that plan. And that sometimes correlates with that business health check to say, well, we’ve done this business health check and it’s, you know, two day minimum intensive. It’s based upon the size of your team because again, there’s one-on-one interviews, but what’s the outcome of that?

It may be EOS, it may be a monthly coaching accountability partner that you’re looking for. It may be what we call our P5C program where it’s more of an “as needed” and a spot check, if you will, because we have some people that are great implementers of all of the things that come out of the business health check. And then some people say, you know what? We love that Working Genius or we love that Myers-Briggs or we love that PXT Select, which are all assessments that we utilize. So there’s lots of ways that we can work with you.

So one, why are you looking at business coaching right now for your business? And then the next space is like, let’s just have an exploratory call to discover what’s best for you. The things that we offer may be one of those.

But the other fit, just like a financial advisor, you may not like the coach so it’s twofold. Is what we’re offering you really helping you to get to where you want to go and is my team and I, or are my team and I should say, the right fit for you. So it’s two things.

Brad – That starts from that first conversation you’ve kind of alluded to. I always like setting expectations to try to bring down any friction of folks maybe using a solution here.

So let’s take that scenario again, not the broken scenario, because maybe that’s an easy one, but the, “Hey, I’m listening to this episode or I’m watching this episode and maybe that is my firm, that we could use a coach, but I don’t know. I don’t know if this is kind of a fit for me.”

We’ll get to here in a moment how folks can reach out to you and your team, but in that first conversation, what does that look like? So whether it’s a scheduled call or whatever, they reach out. What are you diving into initially to try to figure out if this is something you’d be a good value for and are able to help them and whether they have a need for it?

Andrea – Perfect question. One, it’s exploratory and complimentary, and it’s really discovery of what is your number one need? Why are you even thinking about bringing in a business coach? And what are your expectations for the firm?

I love asking the question “What does success look like by the end of the year?” to anybody and everybody. So even between now, today is October 7th, and December 31st, what are the most critical things that you want to accomplish?

And if I said when we’re at December 31st and if we’re clinking glasses with our libation in hand, celebrating something, and you’re looking back, what are you celebrating? That’s going to help you to determine where you want your focus, whether a business coach is involved or not. But defining what success looks like, I think is such a critical question to help you to discern where you want to put your focus.

And I love to break everything down into 90-day chunks. What does the next 90 days look like? We could look forward at an entire year, but let’s reverse engineer it. I mean, when we get to December and look at all of 2026, what does success look like? What are we celebrating December 2026? And now what has to happen in Q1 for that 90 days, Q2, Q3, Q4?

That’s a much easier way to eat the elephant versus a whole huge list of things for 2026. Break it down into 90-day chunks. That’s my question always. And it’s just exploratory; I love to be in listen mode and just merely guide some of the questions to help you to think about where you want your business to go.

Maybe you don’t need any of those things, but if I can be a catalyst for helping you to find success and helping you think about the first simple step to get that success path going, that’s an awesome conversation. I love that.

Brad – This would be a tough question to answer and I certainly don’t expect any specifics because there could be such a variation between the engagements you might do, but for someone that’s never used any sort of coach before, how do you price something out like this?

Is this, we kind of figure out what that need is and we offer three different ways to tackle it and here’s how each are priced out? Is it just a discovery down to one process and here’s how that looks? How do you typically help folks figure out or determine the price? Then what would you say to folks that are maybe a little hesitant, that have no idea what to expect, and are they going to reach out and it’s going to be wildly different than what they might be expecting?

Andrea – It’s horribly expensive, Brad. Don’t you know? [Andrea laughs.] It’s horribly expensive.

Brad – We’ll set the bar there and then we’ll surprise them the day after.

Andrea– Exactly. Again, we do a proposal for all the possibilities so that you can see all of it and everything ultimately is a flat fee. That way we can take away any like, it’s going to be this for this. So it’s a very clear investment for whether it’s EOS or the business health check or your monthly accountability.

And what I like to say to folks, because I know there’s always a hesitancy of like, my gosh, I’m in this thing and I don’t want to be in this thing anymore. We want to take away that anxiety by saying we’re a right fit. If we’re not a right fit, we can respectfully disengage. So nobody is ever stuck in any kind of an agreement or contract.

Yes, we have confidentiality that we want to protect with everything and value that confidentiality that we can provide to anyone that works with us. But you’re definitely not stuck if it’s not a right fit. So yes, we have pricing that is attached to every one of our programs.

Brad – Yes, I mean that’s fair. There’s so many variables that go into it of team size and needs and all that sort of thing. So obviously it just comes back to having an initial conversation and kind of seeing where the need is first and seeing where that leads.

Andrea – That’s right.

Brad – So I’ll get to here in a moment just how best folks can contact you, but I would point out I get no kickbacks or anything from Andrea. I’m just a big fan of hers and have been for a long time.

Andrea, you may not remember this. Andrea speaks at countless industry conferences and gives talks. I remember one year I was somehow designated the person to introduce you and I’m sitting off to the side after I introduced you and you’re giving your whole speech. I remember there were a couple of people in the Q&A that stood up and they announced that they were paying clients of yours. I’m thinking, but yet they’re still sitting in this speech from you. And they went on to explain to the audience that they still come to your talks because they gained so much from all the input and feedback you’ve given them.

Here are folks that are hearing it directly from you one-on-one and they on top of that like hearing you give talks. It really was probably 10-ish years ago but I distinctly remember being impressed by that so I think that goes to show just how much value you’re putting out there.

Andrea – See that, that’s my why right there. If I can make a positive ripple effect beyond the initial connection, that’s what’s most important to me of really making an impact on another human being. I love that and I appreciate that feedback. That’s really meaningful, Brad.

Brad – Like I said, it was more than one person who stood up, I remember distinctly, and they echoed the same thing. So that comes from your consistent reputation that has been built over time. So great job on that front.

Clearly, we’ve only covered this at a high level. So for folks that do want to have that first conversation, do want to see if there might be a fit here, what’s the best way for folks to reach out and get that process started?

Andrea – There’s lots of ways to do that. Visit our website, ironstonehq.com. There is a big orange button in the upper right-hand corner labeled “Let’s Talk” that leads to Calendly. And then you literally can pick how much time you want to hang out from 15, 30, 60, 45, 90 minutes, all of those.

You can email us directly at office@ironstonehq.com. Denyse Wiseman-Dennis is our client concierge and she is at the ready to get you on the calendar for us to explore and see if we’re a right fit for you and our contents are a right fit for you. Of course, I’m on LinkedIn. So just connect with us on LinkedIn, our website, schedule yourself via our Calendly link or reach out to us direct.

You can always call, too. A good old fashioned phone call, 800-917-8020. Notice phone number is 8020. 8020. It’s a reason why I believe in the 8020 rule. So I welcome any and all, and we’re ready to help those that want to work on their business. And we’re excited to again to help you and entrepreneurs gain control, boost morale, grow the business to ultimately unlock the freedom that structure actually provides you to exit wise at some point.

Brad– I love that advisors that are taking the step and moving to the RIA model now have this whole path ahead of them and can be that business owner.

But if you’re going to go through that whole process, you might as well make it the most successful and enjoyable business you can. And sometimes it certainly is worthwhile to lean on the experts to help you with that. There’s no better expert in this field than Andrea, going on like 20 years. I appreciate all you do for the industry and I appreciate you coming on to chat with us today.

Andrea – Yeah, Brad, it was an absolute pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. So much fun always to collaborate.

Brad – Thanks, Andrea.

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