Swift Chat Compilation Episode from the 2022 T3 Technology Tools for Today Conference

In this special edition of Swift Chats recorded at the T3 2022 Conference, Marie Swift and Jonny Swift interview a range of guests from their booth in Podcast Alley at the event. The interviews features:

- Joel Bruckenstein, President of Technology Tools for Today
- John Mackowiak, Chief Business Development Officer at Advyzon
- Nitin Seth, Chief Executive Officer at Incedo, Inc.
- Daniel Crosby, Ph.D., Chief Behavioral Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions
- Michelle Feinstein, General Manager/Vice President at Salesforce
- Rich Cancro, Chief Executive Officer at AdvisorEngine
- Robb Baldwin , President and Chief Executive Officer at TradePMR
- Eric Clarke, Chief Executive Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions
- Mary Carlson, Ph.D., CFP®, AFC®, President at Financial Behavior Keynote Group
- Henry Zelikovsky, Chief Executive Officer at SoftLab 360
- Land Bridgers, Chief Executive Officer at Integrated Financial Group
- Kelly Vick, Client Service Coordinator at Stone Wealth
- Joe Saari, Founder and Head of Product at Financial Fitness Group
- Robert Pyle, CFP®, CFA, AEP®, Owner at Diversified Asset Management, Inc

    I really do think that we're taking things to the next level. Finally, advisers are waking up. They know they need to compete with Amazon. They need to give that same kind of great experience. And luckily a lot of the vendors in the room are delivering on those kinds of experiences.​​"  ~ Joel Bruckenstein, Technology Tools for Today

Listen to Podcast/Audio Version

Transcription of Conversation

GUEST #1: JOEL BRUCKENSTEIN

Marie Swift: Alright. Welcome to hot and happening at T3. And I am here with Mr. T3 himself, Joel Bruckenstein. Joel, welcome to the show.

Joel Bruckenstein: Thank you for having me, Marie.

Swift: So here we are in beautiful Denton, Texas. And tell us a little bit about what you're seeing, what people are saying, what you're hearing.

Bruckenstein: There's a lot going on here and it's hard to pinpoint a few things, but there have been a few consistent themes throughout the conference so far. One is about being a good steward of your data, controlling your data, making use of your data, being able to monetize your data. And also to use your data, to create a better client experience, which is another ongoing theme.

But I really do think that we're taking things to the next level, right? Finally, advisers are waking up. They know they need to compete with Amazon. They need to give that same kind of great experience. And luckily a lot of the vendors in the room are delivering on those kinds of experiences.

Another theme is just coming out of the COVID period. Many advisors were not, let's say, great with some of the technologies they needed. A lot of advisers had never done a podcast, never used video conferencing. Never did remote work. And so 2020 March came as a bit of a shock to them and a shock to their businesses.

Luckily, most of them, with some help, were able to get up and running and functional pretty quickly. But I think there was a lesson to be learned there that coming out of COVID they need to be much better prepared for next time. And business models are evolving-- not everything is going back to the way it was in 2020. And so business models are evolving and the technology needs to evolve with it.

Swift: So this is the biggest ever T3, and we've got T3 Advisor happening for the first three days. And then you've got the T3 Enterprise day tacked onto the backend because COVID disrupted the way you used to do the two separate events, one for enterprise buyers and one for advisors and others who support them. So talk a little bit about why you think there's such a big demand right now. What are we at? 975, maybe a thousand?

Bruckenstein: We're over a thousand.

Swift: So, what would you say about the pent up demand to be together, to see the new technology?

Bruckenstein: I think there's a couple of things at play. One is, I attended a lot of virtual conferences over the last couple of years and we even did one a small one ourselves. And what I rapidly found out is, virtual conferences are just not the same as an in-person conference, for a lot of reasons. A lot of the magic happens in the halls, in the Exhibit Hall, after hours at the bars. And that's where a lot of the business gets done. And you can't really replicate that experience virtually. And on top of that, this is a technology conference.

And so people really want to be able to experience the technology. They want to touch it. They want to feel it. They want to demo it before they buy. And you can somewhat replicate that experience online, but not in really a big conference.

Swift: Yeah. There's nothing like being together and you never know who you're gonna meet in the hallway or at the bar. I've had some really great chance encounters with this many great influential people here. And the innovators are really here. Speaking of innovation, the Exhibit Hall, people can just spend the whole three days in the Exhibit Hall and walk away very well-informed and richer for the experience.

Bruckenstein: Well, I think some people do. People who are here specifically to buy software. "I want to buy CRM," for example, can spend the whole day looking at CRM providers, trying the software, asking their questions. There's also a lot of people who just come every year to say, "what's new? What should I know that I don't know?" And we try and make it easy for them with the emerging technology section.

So we highlight all of the firms that are either new or have new and exciting products. And so we try to make it as easy as possible for people to get up to speed on what's been developed over the last two years that they may have missed.

Swift: It's very exciting. I think over a hundred people are here demonstrating what they've been creating, what they've been working on while we were all in lockdown mode.

Bruckenstein: Yeah. I mean, there's about a hundred vendors here. Many of them are perennials that have been coming here for 18 years, but even those folks, a lot has changed over the last few years. Orion has bought a few firms, MoneyGuide has been busy developing some really cool stuff. They just rolled out their Wealth Studios. So yes, there's just a lot of innovation and there's a lot of energy in that Exhibit Hall.

Swift: And the sessions we'll touch on that and then we'll wrap up, well, we have to talk about the survey. So two more things. So the sessions, you've got some rock star speakers, and many of them are women. So talk a little bit about how you got some of those heavy hitters here.

Bruckenstein: Well, people know me and I know people, so that helps a lot. And you know, really T3 is the only place for technology for advisors. And so we tend to attract like-minded people. We have made a real effort to bring a little more diversity to our program. And, as you saw yesterday, almost all of our keynote speakers throughout the day, the general sessions were almost all women.

I'm always thrilled to have Neesha Hathi here. In my opinion, she's one of the best in the industry. For the first time we had Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton. We had Tricia Haskins. She did a fantastic job talking about the future of the industry and what advisors should be paying attention to from Fidelity.
And the list goes on and on. So we are just thrilled that we can attract this caliber of speaker.

Swift: And you also had a Diversity Panel, I think Suzanne Siracuse, formerly at InvestmentNews, now her own consulting firm, she led that.

Bruckenstein: Absolutely. Yeah. And I think that was pretty well attended and people enjoyed it.

Swift: So last thing, let's talk about the survey. So every year everyone's just on pins and needles waiting to see who ranks and what the sentiment is on the software. So what stands out about the survey this year?

Bruckenstein: Well, I mean, there's always just so many data points it's hard to condense it into a few sentences, but a few things jumped out at me immediately. One that's very troubling, and that's around cybersecurity. We're fiduciaries. We're custodians of folks' personal information and we really need to take care of it. And it troubles me that roughly 80% of advisors have never, ever hired a third-party cyber expert. And even of those who probably said they did some of them didn't because they don't know how to distinguish between a third party IT firm that's holding themselves as cyber experts and true cyber attacks.

Swift: Alright. Well, so T3 Technology Hub, there is a lot of great information there. We're doing a Daily Digest of all of the news and announcements, and there are many, many, many announcements, some stunning ones, and some just make you smile announcements. And then we also have T3 Conferences. Where's the conference going to be next year?

Bruckenstein: Well, we're planning to do it in Southern Florida, but we haven't secured a hotel yet, unfortunately. There's still a bit of a COVID hanging. A lot of the events people at these hotels lost their jobs and they're rehiring people.

And there's a lot of chaos still in the exhibition world right now. So it's taking us a little longer than usual to get the proposals back from the hotels. But we hope to have an announcement, over the next few weeks.

Swift: So watch social media T3 on LinkedIn and Twitter and also on Facebook and the websites.

Bruckenstein: Obviously the website.

Swift: I think you have to go speak or something.

Bruckenstein: I do have to do something in a little while.

Swift: Thanks for being here.

Bruckenstein: Thanks for having me.

GUEST #2: JOHN MACKOWIAK

Jonny Swift: Hi, I'm Jonny Swift and I'm here at T3 2022 with John Mackowiak of Advyzon. John, thanks for joining me. And I know the annual survey came out yesterday, so tell me how Advyzon did.

John Mackowiak: It did come out yesterday. Thank you for having me by the way. We're thrilled.
We're thrilled. Again, fifth year in a row, we have incredibly high client satisfaction scores in all of the categories that we're listed in. All-In-One, I think we're five years in a row at the top of that list, but you know, Portfolio Management and CRM specifically, we've gotten the question over the years, 'Jack of all trades master of none,' and we're just thrilled to see that that both of those independently were very high near the top of the list there, beating out some much bigger, more well-known names.

CRM specifically, I'm excited about. Because that was the big challenge that we had. "Why would you guys do that?" Well, the comprehensive platform is definitely something that advisors have certainly come to embrace. You're seeing that throughout the industry with some of the recent acquisitions that providing more tools in one platform is definitely appealing.
So it's been, it's been cool to be a part of that.

Swift: Yeah, that is really cool. So what other highlights of the conference have there been for you so far?

Mackowiak: For me personally, it's really about seeing everybody again. Been a long time since we've had everybody in one place, there's been a lot of change in our industry over that time.
So seeing everyone connecting over the last, day and a half here has really just been great.

Swift: Well, thank you so much for joining us in Podcast Alley, and we'll talk to you soon.

GUEST #3: NITIN SETH

Marie Swift: So I'm here at the T3 conference with Niten Seth. And Niten, you just gave a great talk to a full house about digital transformation. So what are some of the things that you think are hot and happening in the T3 wealth management space?

Nitin Seth: So first, just this conference, I think it's amazing that 900 plus people are together, I think this is like a celebration. Of life and business coming back to some kind of normalcy.

So first I just wanted to mention that from how I look at things, the wealth management industry is at a very important point of inflection. This has been a very, very successful industry. But it is now facing some headwinds and some of the headwinds are market-driven.

We are now reaching the tail end of a very, very successful bull run, where everybody made a lot of money, but that's not going to go on for forever. We are also seeing some very big shifts happening in terms of the investor base. A lot of wealth is going to shift from the Baby Boomers to the Millennials and they are going to behave differently.

So the industry is at a point of inflection and that's why I find the timing and the content of this T3 conference to be fascinating. So the thing, which I feel is very important is, how do you use this disruption as a very big opportunity? This disruption fundamentally is about how do you really win in this digital age? And for that what I really want to share with the audience is that you need to have a very, very different mindset. You need to have different rules of business. In the digital age, the age that wealth management industry now is in, the fundamentals are changing and you need very, very different rules.

And that's really the big excitement that I feel that, hey, what a great time it is, what a great opportunity it is, to really talk about and discuss and brainstorm, how this industry should really go forward.

Swift: So you're here at the Incedo booth and you brought 200 copies of your book, and I know that it's on Amazon. What would you say about the book, just in closing?

Seth: The book is all thanks to COVID, it gave me the opportunity of really getting my thoughts together and writing this book. Digital is a very complex beast. This is like, the elephant in the room with the seven blind men, each of them look at a different part and think that that is the reality.

So for some digital is all about, you know, a portal for some, it is about an app. For some, it is about AI, for some it is about blockchain or crypto. Now the reality is that digital is all of that. And I have always, in my twenty-five years career, and my career has kind of coincided with the growth of the digital age.

What I've always been fascinated by is what a complex and vast kind of landscape digital is. And in my book, what I've tried to do is to simplify it. So if you're finished with a complex problem, what you do is you break it down into simpler blocks, that you can then build it.

So that's truly what I've tried to do in the book. I've broken down the entire concept and process of digital transformation into seven building blocks, which should, if you go through them, you will increase your chances of success with digital.

GUEST #4: DR. DANIEL CROSBY

Marie Swift: So I'm here at the T3 conference with Dr. Daniel Crosby. And you and Eric Clarke just delivered a presentation on the Main Stage, tell us a little bit about that.

Daniel Crosby: Thank you. It's great to be here, Marie. We just introduced Protect-Live-Dream, our new behaviorly informed goals-based investing framework.

What we're trying to do is change the industry by embedding behavioral finance within the very fabric of what advisors are bringing to their clients on route to driving better investor outcomes and better advisor outcomes. We believe that our industry has a huge amount of untapped potential, and we believe the way to meet that untapped potential is by embedding behavioral finance in tech.

Swift: Fantastic. Anything else that you're looking forward to at the conference?

Crosby: So it has been great to see so many people that I follow and respect and love and have not seen in many cases in two or three years. So I'd be lying if I didn't say the human connection was the number one thing I'm looking to.

But the second most important thing is just learning new ideas. Seeing where the industry's headed. There's so many brilliant folks. And people that really care about doing right by investors. And so it's a pleasure to sort of sit at their feet and learn from the best.

Swift: Dr. Daniel Crosby. Thank you for being here.

GUEST #5: MICHELLE FEINSTEIN

Jonny Swift: Alright. I'm Jonny Swift. We're here at T3 2022. And I'm here with Michelle Feinstein of Salesforce. Michelle, what has been the biggest highlight for you so far at the conference?

Michelle Feinstein: Hi, good morning, Jonny. So I think the biggest highlight for me is the fact that we actually have a real conference to attend.

It's been my first time traveling since the pandemic began. And so it's just been like a big reunion to see all the people that I've normally interacted with across the industry and just great to sit in the audience and listen to them all share their strategy so openly. So I've seen lots of conversation and listened to all these plans on how to enrich client experiences and empower advisors with technology, AI-powered experiences, automation, personalization, integration. And all these different competitors here, they're all sharing their roadmaps and just looking for ways to partner to make it better.

Swift: All right. Thank you, Michelle for joining us.

Feinstein: Thank you.

GUEST #6: RICH CANCRO

Marie Swift: So we're here at the T3 conference and we're talking about what's hot and happening. And joining me right now is Rich Cancro of AdvisorEngine. So Rich, what is hot and happening in AdvisorEngine land?

Rich Cancro: Well, first I'd like to talk about the conference because I love to see if Joel Bruckenstein will get on a bull tonight. That would be fantastic to see Joel on a mechanical bull. At AdvisorEngine, wwe're continuing to talk about our transformation of our CRM. So it was formerly known as Juncture, is now AdvisorEngine CRM.

One of the most proudest moments I've had since founding the company was the recent delivery earlier this year of the new experience of the CRM.

Swift: So everywhere I turn here at the conference there's AdvisorEngine branding. From walking into the lobby to the elevator ramp. I think I saw a QR code, something about "experience a digital transformation"...what's that all about?

Cancro: Yeah, that's all about the journey that we've been on since acquiring Juncture four years ago. We really set out a plan to really transform the entire tech stack and ultimately the experience the advisor and their staff has with the CRM. So we started first, year one was all about infrastructure, years two and three was about integrations.

And we to continue to do more integrations. But now we're fully focused on data and experience and the delivery. Earlier this year was a big uplift of the entire experience of this CRM.

Swift: So in closing, you gave a talk earlier this morning to a full house. I believe you were the first main stage speaker. What's one thing from the presentation that you'd like to leave with our audience today?

Cancro: Well, a big part of what we talked about is connection, productivity, and growth. And having a platform mindset really connects all three of those. So that one, if you're thinking in terms of platforms, experiences, data movement, things like that, you can really connect growth, productivity and connection with your clients and prospects.

Swift: Alright. Rich Cancro, thanks for being here.

​GUEST #7: ROBB BALDWIN

Jonny Swift: Alright. I'm Jonny Swift. We're here at T3 2022. I'm here with Rob Baldwin of TradePMR. Rob, thanks for joining me. So I know that the survey results came out yesterday, how to trade PMR do?

Robb Baldwin: We did really well. We had the highest score of satisfaction with our advisors of all of our competitors, which we were really pleased of.

That's now three out of the last four years. So I'm very excited about that. It takes a lot of effort to make that happen and the results were very favorable for us and it's really remarkable to see, I'm very proud of our team.

Swift: So what other highlights have there been for you at the conference so far?

Baldwin: Truly the speakers that we've had this year have been really impactful, very informative, very educational and not a lot of fluff. So that's been really nice to see from an advisor standpoint to be able to sit down and learn, all of the advisors that we have that are here are very excited about what they're learning.

And just to see that kind of information passed on makes T3 a valuable proposition for everyone who attends. And of course, from a vendor perspective, for all of us, we are just excited to collaborate with everybody that we can in this space. That's what T3 is about. It's a remarkable venue for that.

Nothing else can replace it and thank goodness for Joel creating this and allowing us to be a part of it. It's remarkable. And I think we're on our about 14th year of being here. So that's pretty neat.

Swift: Awesome. Well, thank you for joining us in Podcast Alley. We'll talk to you soon.

Baldwin: Thanks so much.

​GUEST #8: ERIC CLARKE

Marie Swift: So I'm here with Eric Clarke and he is the CEO of Orion and Orion is doing so many great things in the industry. Thank you for what you're bringing to the financial planning community. Tell us what's hot and happening at Orion.

Eric Clarke: Well, Marie, this morning here at T3, we were able to announce the launch of our Protect-Live-Dream bucketing approach, helping investors better connect and understand the resources that they have available to them.

And quite frankly, help our advisors understand and better connect with their investors in such a way that will help them solve the investor problem, as opposed to just being focused on solving investment problems. I think our industry has done a phenomenal job at solving the investment problem.

In fact, I think the investment problem is solved and now being able to take the thought leadership of Dr. Daniel Crosby and infuse that into our technology experience in a whole myriad of ways, we feel like will be revolutionizing the way that we help our advisors solve the investor problem. And today's announcement of Protect-Live-Dream is just the beginning of making that a reality.

Swift: And now you're off to another conference. I know it's a busy week, isn't it?

Clarke: It is, you know, it seems like just as soon as COVID shut everything down, almost immediately, it has started right back up. And there are some wonderful events taking place this week, but most importantly, so happy to be here at T3. Be able to spend some time with the advisors, with our integration partners and Joel and his team. This has been wonderful, Marie.

Swift: And you've been a part of it since the very beginning. I remember you back in the day when we were just in a very podunk hotel.

Clarke: And you know what? I have to give Joel all the credit in the world. He believed in us. He thought we could be something great at that time. I don't think we really believed in ourselves, but Joel did.
And he has really created this community. He's not only helped us become great as companies, he's helped us work together and helped us understand the importance of fusing integrations in such a way that the advisor wins and the client benefits.

Swift: Beautiful. Eric Clarke, thank you for being here.

Clarke: Thank you.

GUEST #9: MARY CARLSON

Jonny Swift: I am Jonny Swift and I'm here at T3 2022 in Podcast Alley. I am here with Mary Carlson of the Financial Behavior Keynote Group. So Mary, thanks for joining me, and tell me a little bit about your new initiative.

Mary Carlson: I am really excited to launch it. In the past, one of the things that we've struggled with is there's the world of academia and then there's the world of practice and the two have not really merged before.

And so one of the things that I am working with in this group is that academic, really not even academic, it's evidence-based research that is being applied into practice. And that's what this new group does. There's several of us that come from academia, but really speak to a financial planning community, or even more likely to a consumer audience and being able to apply what really matters to clients and to advisors to help build their business.

And that's what this new group does. We do speaking, we do consulting and really working on that human element of financial planning to really get to behavior change. Financial behavior change is the ultimate goal.

Swift: That's very compelling. Well, thanks for sharing. What are some other highlights of the conference so far for you?

Carlson: Well, of course I can't go without saying Dr. Daniel Crosby's opening speech, I think, because that is just where I live and where we're in this space of financial behavior change. But I'll be honest-- my favorite place at T3 every year is the Exhibit Hall.

It not only has fantastic swag, but there's fabulous people. And I'm just amazed every year that I go, booth by booth, how much incredible technology is coming available and how it makes our lives easier as advisors and how we're able to help people in such a different way than we ever were before.
So the Exhibit Hall is not to be missed in this conference. It's incredible.

Swift: I agree completely. Well, thank you so much, Mary, for joining us and we'll talk to you soon.

GUEST #10: HENRY ZELIKOVSKY

Jonny Swift: I'm Jonny Swift and I am here in Podcast Alley at T3 2022. I'm here with Henry Zelikovsky of SoftLab360 .Henry, can you tell us a little bit more about Softlab360?

Henry Zelikovsky: Yes. First, thank you for inviting me. It's my first time at T3. Softlab360 is a reincarnation of a 20 year old business. We turned 360, 20 years later. It's an existing company with existing software. Softlab360 is a software engineering technology company with subject matter expertise in fintech, in particular, in wealth management as a subsection of that. We also have electronic offerings in other areas, but wealth management is our largest coverage.

Swift: So I know this is your first T3 conference. What's been the best thing about the conference for you?

Zelikovsky: So I'm here to see how we fit into our changed marketplace. I have not been to conferences since the pandemic.

I'm very pleased to see that the market has moved in two important, for me, directions. There are lots of practically everyone here has integration capability through API and they decided how to integrate with each other. So it's no longer an open territory that usually a customer, like an advisor, would need to hire a specialty contractors to do.

We are a specialty firm to do that. But I think that the benefit is that the market had moved closer to understand how to do it, but there are gaps that we're filling. So essentially the gaps exist when you integrate with older systems and you would need engineering to do integration and engineering to understand the data and the subject matter area of this market.

We provide that knowledge. We also provide predictive data analytics, particularly in the behavioral science. We use base and concept to do behavioral anticipation. And I heard a number of commentary here that that's a preferred new direction since trying to anticipate customer behavior. And that will be an angle.

So the speed and accuracy and technology plus understanding the customer as behavior outcomes. It was very exciting for me to see. I'm on the right track there.

Swift: Definitely. That's fascinating. Well, thank you so much for joining us and we'll be talking to you again soon.

GUEST #11: LAND BRIDGERS

Jonny Swift: I'm Johnny Swift here at T3 2022 with Land Bridgers of Integrated Financial Group. Land, thanks for joining me. Why don't you tell us a little bit about IFG?

Land Bridgers: Happy to do it. First, Johnny, I have to say, you just have the best name for like a DJ. So the fact that you're Johnny Swift and I'm Land Bridgers. You can't beat this. This is going to be one of your best podcasts. So I would say Integrated Financial Group is is a group of consortium of independent financial planners.

So all of our advisors are truly independent. They have their own business, but we supply services and tools and resources to them to help them grow their business and really focus on what matters most, which is their clients.

Swift: And so, I know this is your first T3 conference. What kind of value do you get out of this conference for your group of advisors?

Bridgers: You know, it's so important, technology's changing so fast and it is just like telephone poles flashing by on the road. So it's really important for us to make sure that we know what's going on out there. There's people who've been in the space for a long time and seeing what's new that they're rolling out.

But also there's a bunch of new companies out here, which is really exciting, bringing new ideas and fresh solutions to the wealth management world. I think one of the things I really learned and you know, 15 years ago you could have gone down two roads, one road led to Netflix, the other one led to newspaper companies and you kind of see where we're going. If you're not paying attention to technology in today's world you can get left behind pretty quickly.

Swift: I agree completely. And so a last question here, what has been your biggest highlight of the conference?

Bridgers: I would say it's fascinating to me that I think there's about 900 something people here and only about 30% of them are actually financial advisors.

So you obviously have a lot of technology companies and vendors and big companies, but what's fascinating to me is that this other world exists. And I was just curious why other financial advisors aren't here and learning about the technology. And the thing that ultimately can be the one of the greatest assets to them to help them continue to afford and to better their client experience.

So that's been a highlight to me is getting to learn and meet some of these people in network with them over the last couple of days.

Swift: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us in Podcast Alley, Land.

Bridgers: Thank you, Jonny. Take care.

GUEST #12: KELLY VICK

Marie Swift: We're here at the 2022 T3 conference in Denton, Texas. And I'm here with Kelly Vick of Stone Wealth Management. Kelly, thanks for joining me. And first question, how many of these T3 conferences have you been to?

Kelly Vick: This is my second. I was here three years ago in 2019. That was my first T3. Fell in love with the technology. I'm the technology person in the office, which isn't always the best title to have, but I get to enjoy this conference.

Swift: So what are you looking for here? What's interesting?

Vick: A little of everything. I think a lot of it is to confirm or challenge what we're doing in our tech stack. If we're doing the right things, if we're looking at the right things, if we're consolidating in the right areas. Today, specifically, there's been some marketing talk which has been, I think, beneficial in confirming what we're doing with you guys. And I can see hindsight is happening within our firm. So little of everything I think, but mostly just confirming or challenging what we're doing to make sure that our clients' needs are being met.

Swift: So you're a mid-sized RIA in Austin. Stone Wealth. And so you've got a nice tech stack.
What are some of the favorite things that are in your tech stack?

Vick: I would say our favorite things are going to be... which we just finished up the T3 Insider Information Survey. And I feel like this is said every year, but our CRM and our portfolio management, billing software, performance reporting software, Orion and Redtail which apparently going on in the future, they're going to be the same company, which gets me very excited.

I'm on the operation side. And so I'm seeing what Orion has been able to accomplish with all of the other things that they've got going on and the possibility for improvement and Redtail on the operation side is very exciting. But I would say those are our top two favorite things.

Swift: All right. Well, can't wait to see what the rest of the conference brings. Thanks for being here.

GUEST #13: JOE SAARI

Jonny Swift: Hi, I'm Jonny Swift here at T3 2022 in Podcast Alley. And I am here with Joe Saari of Financial Fitness Group. Joe, thanks for joining me.

Joe Saari: Hey Jonny. Thanks and great to be here.

Swift: Tell me a little bit more about Financial Fitness Group.

Saari: Financial Fitness Group helps financial service firms and advisors attract, build and cultivate deeper relationships with their customers through the power of interactive education.

Swift: That's great. Thank you for sharing. And what have been some of your top highlights from the conference so far?

Saari: You know, this is my first time here. We're a gold level sponsor, excited to be here. I think one of the things I've loved is hearing about the new product innovation, the new product launches, all the different visions on technology from aspects of the business that I know a bit about and things that I knew nothing about before coming here.

Swift: That's great. Thanks so much. Well, we hope to see you back again next year and we'll talk to you soon.

GUEST #14: ROBERT PYLE
​
Marie Swift: So I'm here with Robert Pyle and we are at the T3 conference in Denton, Texas. It's 2022. And Robert, how many of these have you been to?

Robert Pyle: This is my first one, because it was always really close to TD Ameritrade's conference.
So now it's open wide open.

Swift: So now you can be here and it seems like there's a rush of conferences right now because everybody was hungry to get back together. 

Pyle: Well, I've been in business 26 years and we work with a lot of small business owners, corporate executives, retirees, and single women. Helping them create a long lasting, sustainable retirement.

Swift: When do you pull in the name of your company is...?

Pyle: Diversified Asset Manager.

Swift: All right. So that sounds like a really great financial planning practice. What brought you to T3?

Pyle: My goal was to look at different software products and add some software products and maybe upgrade some software products.

Swift: So you can walk around in the Exhibit Hall and get up close and personal with over 100 of the software developers, including the chief technology officers. How cool is that?

Pyle: Oh, that's great. I just liked the visuals and talking with the owners of the company and the reps and trying to see how I can make our firm more efficient so we can serve more clients and better serve our existing clients.

Swift: Well, thank you for spending a little time at the hot and happening mic.
​
Pyle: Thank you, Marie.

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