Swift Chat with Rich Cancro: Thinking About the Future of Your Business

In this Swift Chat video conversation, recorded live while at the T3 Conference in May 2022, Marie Swift of Impact Communications speaks with Rich Cancro, Co-Founder and CEO of AdvisorEngine. 

The two discuss what makes the T3 Conference so unique as well as Cancro's T3 presentation on questions that an advisor should be thinking about for the future of their business and how to deliver a service to clients of which they're really proud.

They also take a look at the first issue of AdvisorEngine's new publication called Action! magazine and Marie gets the inside scoop on what to expect at AdvisorEngine's annual >drive Conference, which ultimately happened the week after T3 in Austin.​

To learn more about Rich Cancro and AdvisorEngine please visit: www.AdvisorEngine.com
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To learn more about T3 Conferences please visit: www.T3Conferences.com

Listen to Podcast/Audio Version

    When we think about experience it's not only delivering the client experience, what the advisor wants delivered to their client, it's also about the experience within the firm, the advisor experience, and the business operations experience. All three of those need to be connected so that everyone is having a great experience with your firm."
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~ Rich Cancro, Co-Founder and CEO of AdvisorEngine

Transcript of Conversation

Marie Swift: All right. We're here for another Swift Chat, but this time we're live at the T3 Conference and I'm joined by Rich Cancro from AdvisorEngine and Rich you are one of the founders and the CEO of AdvisorEngine and for many, many years, you've been helping advisors run better businesses through technology, but also just through their mindset and how they think about running their business. You gave a presentation today and I wonder if there's anything that you'd like to highlight from that presentation and just about advisors in general, running a better business.

Rich Cancro: Marie, thank you for having me here. So today we talked about the three questions that an advisor should be thinking about for the future of their business. One is connectivity. That means how do you truly deliver a service to your clients that you're really proud of and I’ll say that again, really proud of. We also discussed productivity. How can you do more with the set of resources you have today. The third we talked about was growth. How are you going to grow for the future?

One of the main themes we talked about was experience. When we think about experience it's not only delivering the client experience, what the advisor wants delivered to their client. It's also about the experience within your firm, the advisor experience, the business operations experience. All three of those need to be connected so that everyone is having a great experience with your firm.

Swift: That makes so much sense because if your people aren't happy, how can they serve your clients? There's always going to be something that's bugging them right. So, if the technology is clunky or they don't get along, I think, were you talking about that too? That people need to get along.

Cancro: Yes. We talked about that in general, but specifically at work. We talked about that to found the foundation of a company and operate well, you have to have camaraderie. That means from a culture standpoint, hiring and retaining and developing people that fit the culture so that people like to work with each other. And what that does is that then sets the framework for being able to innovate, evolve your company. People can be curious and not feel judged when you're getting asked a really hard question, but you're not thinking why is that person asked that question? You know that person's asking that question because they want to help you and help the firm deliver their services to your clients.

AdvisorEngine's Action! Magazine

Swift: And they have a shared purpose, passion, mission. So that meaningful work like what's behind the product or the service.

So, another thing that you announced here at the conference is Action! magazine, and I'm holding a copy in my hand. This is called the "feedback issue" according to somebody on your team who handed this to me, and it's a pretty impressive publication. I can't wait to really dig into it but what can we expect from Action! magazine?

Cancro: Well, the Action! magazine -- this is volume zero and we are seeking feedback on the magazine. What it really is, we have various types of people providing thought leadership to help advisors manage their business, grow their business, be more productive. We're getting feedback from our own team, we're getting it from our clients, we're getting it from people in the industry so it's a good collection of thinking that crosses different components of an advisor's practice.

AdvisorEngine's >drive Conference

Swift: And you also have your own conference. Is it a practice management conference? What do you do at the >drive Conference?

Cancro: Well, >drive 2022, which will be held next week beginning May 9th, is really a combination of thought leadership as well as user training so really educating people, training people for best practices. Ultimately my favorite part is the collaboration between all of the different people from all these different firms coming together and sharing their best practices and helping each other actually get better and better at what they do and how they run their firms.

Swift: And I know that AdvisorEngine likes to have fun. In fact, I hear that there's a craft beer tasting and maybe is there a whiskey tasting here at T3?

Cancro: There is. So tomorrow, Tuesday, there's going to be a beer tasting and we did this a few years ago and the beers were terrific. I personally loved the IPAs that were here last time. We're also going to be doing a whiskey tasting. We've done bourbon in the past and we switched this year to whiskey. We're excited to see what people like about the whiskey. We're going to do it again next week at our conference as well in Austin.

Swift: Anything else special about your conference?

Cancro: You know people talk about community, and I mentioned earlier about collaboration, but it truly is a community that comes together. I selfishly, when I leave our conference, I am so energized by all the feedback and the commentary and the collaboration that goes on amongst everybody, it's truly a great community. I'm excited to go.

Swift: No mechanical bulls next week?

Cancro: Well, to be honest, we were going to get a live bull, but then we thought about that and said is that the best idea to have a 1500-pound bull at a bar and we decided, well, maybe not.

What Makes T3 so Special
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Swift: Well, after all, we're just getting back into conferences getting going again right. There's about 960 people here at T3, the biggest and best T3 ever. You've been supporting T3 for a long time. What stands out? I know you mentioned Joel and how much he's contributed to the industry, and we have to give a shout out to David Drucker, who for many years built this enterprise up before he retired with Joel as his partner. When thinking back about your journey with T3, what comes to mind?

Cancro: I love seeing the new technology platforms that are out there. I love seeing what is new and where it’s going. Meeting people that have been in the industry for many years as well. Just reforming our partnerships, especially after the pandemic. I haven't seen many people in person other than on video for two plus years. It's great to see people in person and really be able to collaborate ideas and where the industry's going, so yeah, I love coming here.

Swift: All right. Well, thank you for your time. It's always great to speak with you. I'm looking forward to reading the magazine and seeing what AdvisorEngine is working on next.

Cancro: Great. Thank you very much Marie.

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