382: How to Maximize the Tools You're Already Paying For

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners
Episode: 382: How to Maximize the Tools You're Already Paying For
Host: Libby Greiwe
Guest: Adam Holt (Founder, Asset Map)
Date: June 30, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Libby Greiwe is joined by Adam Holt, founder of Asset Map, to discuss a crucial pain point for financial advisors: extracting maximum value from the technology tools they're already paying for. Instead of chasing new tech, Libby and Adam focus on how financial advisors can become true “students” of their existing tools, fully implement them, and build business systems for greater efficiency and lasting success. The conversation zeroes in on best practices for tech adoption, the importance of ongoing training, and when (or if) to delegate tasks like data entry or fact-finding.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Shiny Object” Trap & Underutilized Tools

Timestamps: 00:00–04:26; 06:00–08:59

• Most advisors only use a fraction of the features within their tech stack, often defaulting to "just enough to get by" out of overwhelm or time pressure.
• Frequently switching tools is expensive and inefficient; often, existing tools have gained the features that advisors are "jumping ship" for—they just aren’t aware.
• Libby sets the scene:

  “One of the biggest opportunities I see missing for advisors, it's not necessarily finding the next great tool. It's fully utilizing the tools that you already have.” (Libby, 00:29)

• Adam offers an apt analogy:

  “It reminded me very much of...my garage. I found so many tools...I pay for it, use it once, and then it sits there getting dust. The challenge with software is that you're continuing to pay it.” (Adam, 09:04)

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2. Training is Where the ROI Is

Timestamps: 09:04–11:25

• Enterprises budget 2–3 times as much for training as for the software itself, ensuring higher adoption and ROI.
• Most advisors skip deep training, resulting in superficial implementation.
• Adam underscores:

  “They know that if they try to roll out a software to their force...if they don't train them, then they are wasting the first investment.” (Adam, 10:58)

• Libby’s lesson from rollout:

  “Probably lesson number one is: one thing at a time. Like actually pick something, adopt it, integrate it, master it, and then actually move on to the new thing.” (Libby, 11:41)

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3. Implementation Best Practices for Advisors

Timestamps: 13:25–15:43; 20:24–24:22

• Successful adoption combines intentional onboarding, ongoing scheduled training, and a clear division of roles.
• Asset Map offers one-on-one onboarding over several meetings, accelerating advisors who are truly committed.
• Best practices for team adoption:
  • Client-facing team members must know the tool inside-out to reduce errors and maintain client confidence.
  • Ongoing training keeps teams up-to-date with new features.

  “There's probably two things that are thematic...we now onboard one-on-one every single Asset Map advisor...and that is really, really...changed the nature of how people accelerate at their own pace.” (Adam, 13:25)

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4. The Delegation Question: What Can and Should Be Delegated?

Timestamps: 15:43–20:15

• Data entry can be delegated, but the critical fact-finding and client conversations should remain with the advisor, as that’s where trust and insight are built.
• The advisor’s presence in discovery allows for deeper nuance and personal context.
• Adam’s advice:

  “All the sales that we make, all the trust we earn is actually in the fact finding. It's how we ask questions and how we uncover challenges that we can fix…unless [paraplanners] have a nuanced understanding of what questions to ask, I think we miss the moment.” (Adam, 17:07, 18:40)
  Libby agrees:
  “I think it's really important that the advisor is hearing the stories and the connections and the whys...even just from a relational standpoint [that] is really, really important.” (Libby, 20:15)

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5. Quality Control and Client Trust

Timestamps: 20:24–25:24

• Mistakes, even minor ones (like using the wrong client name in a proposal), can erode client trust dramatically.
• Advisors must inspect outputs if they delegate—blind trust in staff, templates, or AI can backfire.
• Adam warns:

  “You put mistakes in front of a client and they find it, it destroys trust...the risk is being really, I think, embarrassed.” (Adam, 20:33)

• Memorable story: Libby shares a time when a template error referenced “Beth” instead of the client’s wife—turning into an inside joke but highlighted the need for thorough checks.

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6. Knowing Enough of the Tool—But Not Overwhelming Yourself

Timestamps: 25:24–29:53

• Do you need to master every feature? Not always. For some clients, certain specialized tools make sense; otherwise, stick to the essential functionality that provides consistent value.
• Be aware of new features, but don’t feel pressured to use everything.
• Adam notes:

  “The advisors I talked to...have been with us for 10 years, they don't even bother with any of the new features we built...They're still using the same thing that worked 10 years ago...” (Adam, 25:24)

• However, awareness of capabilities—without the pressure to use them all—is crucial to avoid unnecessary technology churn.

  “I think there's a fine line. Like, right. We want to be able to at least have that awareness around what the tool is capable, capable of even if we're not utilizing all of it.” (Libby, 27:28)

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7. The Cost of Tool Clutter & Intentional “Inventory”

Timestamps: 29:53–33:51

• Tool and subscription “clutter” carries not just a financial cost but also operational inefficiencies.
• Advisors should regularly inventory their tools: What are you paying for? What are you using? Could existing tools replace others?
• Libby relates:

  “It's just that kind of constant...tug of war that exists for advisors with the tools...is what I'm doing working?“ (Libby, 35:18)

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8. Actionable Steps: Scheduled Learning & Team Buy-In

Timestamps: 33:51–39:35

• The guests recommend carving out “learning time” for your team to avoid knowledge loss and drive adoption.
• Avoid having a single "tech champion" hoarding knowledge; share it across the team.
• Libby:

  “Really, at the minimum for me, it's having time on the calendar and not having just one expert on the team. Because if we lose that person and all that knowledge goes out the window.” (Libby, 35:24)

• Team learning fosters mastery, innovation, and implementation fixes.

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9. Do-It-Together (DIT) vs. Do-It-Yourself (DIY)

Timestamps: 38:22–40:04

• Libby emphasizes the power of real-time, collaborative learning (“DIT”):

  “Instead of just like giving people stuff and being like, here, DIY, I've kind of adopted what I'm calling DIT. Like, let's just do it together. Let's carve out the time. Because when it's on my calendar, I show up and I do the thing.” (Libby, 38:22)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Training Investment:
  “Enterprises budget two to three times the actual cost of the software in training...advisors always miss. They buy the product...and then they don’t actually learn it.” — Adam Holt, (10:58)

• On Adopting New Features:
  “You have to set up the right conversation and then facilitate it…and I think that's the real key.” — Adam Holt, (38:36)

• On Team Training:
  “If we lose that person and all that knowledge goes out the window. But how do we as a team carve out time to continue to be a student of the tools…?” — Libby Greiwe, (35:24)

• On Client Trust:
  “You put mistakes in front of a client and they find it, it destroys, destroys trust.” — Adam Holt, (20:33)

• On Delegating Fact-Finding:
  “All the trust we earn is actually in the fact finding. It's how we ask questions and how we uncover challenges that we can fix.” — Adam Holt, (17:07)

• On Clutter:
  “Clutter has a cost...When you have too many, you can’t see the things you use and need all the time…your staff is feeling stressed out that they’ve got 15 tools that they got to learn.” — Adam Holt, (31:56)

• Watermelon Knife Analogy:
  Libby’s story about owning a specialty watermelon knife but forgetting to use it is a metaphor for underused tech capabilities:

  “I spent 25 minutes cutting that stupid watermelon by hand when I could have just used the watermelon knife…” (Libby, 34:03)

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Action Steps for Advisors

1. Take Inventory: List all tools, costs, and current usage.
2. Schedule regular (preferably weekly) team training/learning sessions.
3. Don’t delegate discovery: The advisor should handle client fact-finding for context and relational value.
4. Quality Control: Review client deliverables, especially if tasks are delegated or handled by AI/templates.
5. Team Sharing: Don’t rely on a single tech champion; spread knowledge to avoid business risk.
6. Stay Aware: Don’t chase every new feature, but remain aware of upgrades and integrations.
7. DIT not DIY: Reserve calendar time for “do it together” sessions for key tools.

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Important Upcoming Event

• Live ‘Do It Together’ Asset Map Webinar
  Date: July 28, 4pm (see show notes for registration)
  What: Advisors get hands-on experience with Asset Map, build their first map live with Adam Holt, and accelerate adoption through collaborative learning.

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For more details, see the show notes for event links and more resources on systematizing your advisory practice.

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Tone: Engaging, conversational, and practical—directly aligned with Libby’s and Adam’s focus on actionable advice, relatability, and efficiency.
Attribution: Quotes and anecdotes are attributed to the appropriate speaker with timestamps for further reference.

Transcript

[Libby Griwe]

Have you ever gotten really excited about a piece of technology? You got super into it for several days and then got busy and maybe realized at some point you were only using about 10% of what it can actually do? Yeah, me too. Welcome to the club. One of the biggest opportunities I see missing for advisors, it's not necessarily finding the next great tool. It's fully utilizing the tools that you already have. Whether it's your CRM, planning software, AI, or a platform that you've maybe been paying for for years, the chances are there's a ton of untapped value sitting right under your nose. In today's episode, I'm joined by my friend Adam Holt, founder of Asset Map, to talk about what actually separates advisors who are successfully adopting technology from those who are constantly chasing the next shiny object. We dig into implementation, training, delegation, and why becoming a student of your tools can have a bigger impact on your business than buying something new. So we're going to get into, like, the what are the best practices that we've seen that Adam has seen over at AssetMap of people fully adopting a tool? And so if you've ever felt overwhelmed by all the technology available to advisors or wondered if you're really getting your money's worth from the tools you're already paying for, this conversation is for you. So grab your coffee, open your notes app, and let's dive in.

[Jen Becker]

My name is Jen Becker and I'm a financial advisor in Faribault, Minnesota. I went through Libby's program and her coaching is hands down the best training I've had in my 16 years as a financial advisor. Each session I come back with dozens of new ways to streamline my processes, and I can get it all done in less time. Libby gives you all the tools and templates to truly build out your systems. I've tripled my revenue while working less since signing up with the Efficient Advisor. Your business is worth the investment of your time, your energy, and your money. You will not regret going through this program.

[Libby Griwe]

I'm so excited that we are currently registering for the August round of group coaching. So if you've ever wanted to reclaim your time and stop feeling like your business is running you instead of the other way around, to feel like you're working proactively instead of reactively in your business, you are not alone. So many advisors reach that point where business is going well. Referrals are coming in, clients are happy, but behind the scenes, it's a little chaotic. If you're playing catch up, maybe you're winging it or constantly reinventing the wheel. That's exactly why I created the Systems to Scale Group coaching program. A 10 month experience designed to help you take control of your business and finally build those backend systems that make everything run smoother. We focus on the actual processes that move the needle from onboarding to client service model to calendar design, to start to finish financial planning and so much more. You'll get a mix of live coaching and pre recorded modules, office hours and small group masterminds. And of course, a big old dose of accountability. It is for advisors who are ambitious, who have a vision for their firm and are tired of being stuck in overwhelm. And so whether you're further along and just need to clean things up or you're still getting established and want to build your business the smart way, this program is for you. Our next cohort kicks off August 20th and registration just opened up. Come as you are and leave a well oiled machine. Get all of the details [e-mail] under Group Coaching or in the show notes below. And look, I know you're here. You're listening to this podcast because you know it's possible to have an abundance of energy leftover for your family and still have your dream business if you're new to the Efficient Advisor.

I'm Libby Griwe and I started from

scratch and built and sold by age 37 a 100% referral only planning practice that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year. I'm here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do the exact same to help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for for organizing, scaling and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business. We are about to transform your practice. So move over exhaustion and get out of the way Advisor Add it is

time to take that one right next

step to build a business and a life that you love. So let's dive into this conversation with my friend Adam Holt.

All right, so one of the conversations we've been having a lot inside of our alumni community and as we've been doing these online live CEO days is around tools and tech being one of the most beneficial things for advisors, but also one of the biggest pain points and one of the things that I've noticed and I did this in my own practice is right we bring in, we hear about this cool tool, we bring in a tool to our practice. We freak out because we don't have enough time to actually adopt it, but we want to start using it. So we learn like, what are the bare actual minimums? What is the lowest amount of information I need to know to get some sort of viable output that I can use, show people, etc. One of the problems that we've been trying to solve that I want your help solving today is how do advisors actually truly adopt a tool and stay up to date with all of the new integrations and add ons and all of the cool stuff that they're adding? Because I see advisors doing this all the time, and I'm sure you do too, where maybe it's a CRM. They get a CRM and then they hear, oh well, this CRM does this thing thing. And maybe the CRM that they had didn't do that thing when they adopted it, but now it actually does do that and they're just not even aware. So they're making all of these massive shifts, very expensive, time wise, effort wise, money wise. When the tool that they already have, they would just become a student of the tool. It could do so much more for them. So thank you for being here. Adam, tell the folks a little bit about you. They've heard from you a thousand times before on my show, but give us the scoop. And that's kind of how I wanted to set up the convo for today.

[Adam Holt]

Oh, well, first of all, it's awesome to see you and it's always fun to spend time with a fellow recovering advisor because you've lived it and now you're coaching to it. And you know, I think for myself, I joke these days that I'm a recovering advisor. And by the way, a lot of people are asking, well, Adam, what does that really mean? 27 years, 28 years now, actually, as a practitioner CFP. And I guess about halfway through that, I realized that nobody cared about my analysis. They wanted me to have confidence and then tell them what to do and basically educate them and so forth. And that's why I created AssetMap, you know, many years ago, really mostly to help myself communicate the complexity. And that of course, as you know, has taken off, is now touching Thousands of advisors, 20 countries using asset map, multiple languages. It's quite amazing because. Yeah, yeah. And I just got back, as I was telling you, from a conference where I spoke. 70% of the room was international. And you know, they're all basically doing mega production. We're talking production in hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars. So this is advice is not just a US Thing. It is a global thing. And what people need is they need to understand what's going on in their financial life. So that's. That's really what we've been doing at Asset Map. And there's so many of your people that have been great supporters, so thank you for that as well.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah, well, we love Asset Map. It is one of those things that, you know, I. I feel like this all the time. So I sold my practice at the end of 2019. I mean, it was like, honestly, it was like perfect timing. If I had to pick a time to sell.

[Adam Holt]

That was a good time. That was my time too, you know, Although.

[Libby Griwe]

That's right. Although I would say multipliers are much higher now than they were back in 2019.

[Adam Holt]

Oh, my goodness.

[Libby Griwe]

Oops.

Oops. So, yay. And.

[Adam Holt]

Well, hopefully you put it in the S and P. Right?

[Libby Griwe]

That's right.

[Adam Holt]

You bought Tesla or Nvidia. Right. We all knew to do that perfectly.

[Jen Becker]

That's right.

[Libby Griwe]

Well, and so. And when I sold, I remember, like, I had. And I say this all the time because now I look at these tools and I'm like, man, there's no better time to be an advisor than right now. Like, all of these tools that I created manually or these processes like note taking and stuff, that we had to come up with some really killer ways of doing it quickly. Now with all of these, like, Azimab is one of those for me. Like, we would build these family trees and these flow charts of where does the money come from and if they

have a trust and where does it go.

And now it's like, all available, which is so cool and at the same time, so overwhelming for advisors, because everywhere they look, there's a new tool or there's a tool that they have that's adding something. Like, there's always something new. And so I'm curious, you know, and I have some ideas around this, but I'm curious, like, what we did in our own practice versus, like, 100 years ago, you know, what are advisors doing now? Like, what do successful advisors do? Like, when you see people come onto Asset Map, really not just adopt the tool, but genuinely integrate it and tap into its potential and the value that it has. What are some of those things that

those advisors are doing that kind of

separates the cream from the milk?

[Adam Holt]

It's a great question. I have a hundred ideas here for everybody, and I'll share so that you understand the perspective. Those of you who are listening, you know, as a. As an advisor, as basically sitting in the same Seat. I will tell you that for years I saw a shiny tool. Perhaps it was some complex estate planning tool that would. I know it would solve the problem for three of my households. Or I saw something that I really needed right now. I needed a special Social Security analyzer. And if I didn't build it myself, I would buy it and then I would leave it on the shelf. And it reminded me very much of. Of my own. My own. What's it called? My garage. I just recently cleaned out my garage and I found in there so many tools. Because I'm a closet carpenter. I like to pretend to be a carpenter. And. And I need to make that cut. I don't have that saw. Let me go to the Home Depot and do what we call is rent a tool, which is basically you buy it and then you lease it to yourself, and it just sits there and gets dust on it. But it created utility. And I got the value out of paying that premium upfront, and I paid for it once with. The challenge with the software is that you're continuing to pay it. And we don't necessarily think of a lot of our tools that way. That we're bas. They're taking up shelf space, they're taking up inventory. They're not being used. And so I think we're being forced more than ever to really evaluate whether these tools that I bought for some purpose really serve us. And it's true. If you're not using even 20% of it, then that's. You're not getting the 80% utility. Right. The classic Pareto rule. Right. 80% of the outcome comes from 20% of the action. And I think that's the truth for me. Someone told me a bunch of years ago that enterprises, that's large companies that buy software budget, get this two to three times the actual cost of the software in training. They budget it.

[Libby Griwe]

Wow.

[Adam Holt]

Because they know that if they try to roll out a software to their force, their employees, whatever, if they don't train them, then they are wasting the first investment. So they're spending three times the investment to make sure they get the expected outcome. And that's where advisors always miss. They buy the product, they play around with it, they convince themselves they're going to keep it, and then they don't actually learn it.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah. So for us, I can remember when we rolled out Money Guide, and it wasn't a choice that we made. It was rolled out to us. We were using. Oh, gosh, what was it?

Nava Plan.

Do you remember Nava Plan?

[Adam Holt]

I do Remember, okay, we were using

[Libby Griwe]

NAVA Plan Money Guide, got rolled out to us and it was kind of

a forced switch for us.

But I remember like literally sitting down and like, okay, we have clients coming in next week that we're supposed to do this plan update for. Like, okay, let's like, what is the minimum output that we can trust? And it was the slowest, most painful adoption until we probably did this for six months because we were also adopting Salesforce at the same time. It was a big shift between the CRM and the planning software in the same moment. So that's probably lesson number one is like one thing at a time. Like actually pick something, adopt it, integrate it, master it, and then actually move on to the new thing. But I remember we finally were like, okay, this is baloney. Like, we were literally figuring out everything just in time. Like, okay, let's. We have a client who needs estate planning stuff. Let's figure out the estate planning module now. And we decided like, okay, no more. We are going to start setting aside time on our calendar every single week to actually go through the plethora of training modules that were provided to us that we didn't even know existed. And so figured out like, okay, what is going to be like a training program for us and then we are going to do it. And then like any good advisor, right? I was like, okay, I'm really busy. I'm just going to let somebody else do this. And then I didn't know the frigging tool and had to restart the process all over again. Six months later when I was sitting in front of clients needing to make modifications or adjusted or look for finding weird little anomalies that I needed to fix. So when you see people coming on to Asset Map, what kind of like, how long is it taking for the

people who really do a good job?

Like, what are they doing? So they're obviously investing in the training. Is it them looking at, do you

guys have a training plan?

Like, are they getting a training plan on the schedule? Is it. Everybody on the team is learning it. What are kind of the best practices?

[Adam Holt]

You know, every, every practice is different these days, right? So you have small practices, a single person shop is. And you have ensembles, people that have said, well, I'm good at this, you're good at that. Let's, let's team up. Sometimes they have power planners or assistants, sometimes they don't. Every firm is so, I don't know, chaotically different because everyone is reinventing themselves and what their practice looks like. There's really two. There's probably two things that are thematic. And the answer is yes, we now onboard one on one. Every single asset map advisor. Up to three separate meetings scheduled, one on one over. Obviously, zoom with an onboarding advisor. And that is really, really, I think, changed the nature of how people accelerate at their own pace. Because if you're gung ho and you took the whole night and you're like, I'm obsessed. I'm going to learn everything and you come to that meeting, you're going to be differently empowered, right? There's someone's going to be able to accelerate you. If you came to, if you came to the gym and you already did all your stretching, you're going to have a much better experience with your, with your trainer versus, okay, that's how you tie your shoes. And like, so you can always tell who's really committed to the investment they've made and wants the outcome versus somebody who's like, that was kind of. I was curious and I was, yeah, I just want to try it. And I think that's the one thing that we can all do ourselves, is how we show up to the game matters. The challenge, as you just mentioned, is that most of us are learning in real time because we need to solve a problem in real time. The irony for most of us though, is that that forces us to grow. Like, if we didn't have that pressure and that impending meeting coming up, or the client asked for something new and we're like, oh, we probably wouldn't do it. We would laze out and we would just be like, I've got. I know my strategy. I can talk through this thing. I'm so, you know, I'm confident enough that we have gotten really, as advisors, really, really comfortable on relying on our skill that is might still be a yellow pad. By the way, I, I met with so many advisors this week there. They were like, I use a yellow pad. How do you want me to do fact finding now? You want me to. You want me to put it into a system? And I'm like, yeah, man, you have to get off the. You don't have to. And telling somebody to change Libby is so brutal, right? Change management is almost our entire business these days.

[Libby Griwe]

Okay, you know that saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Look, you and I both know you can't do this alone. As a financial advisor, your time is super precious and there's just so much to do. Chasing down documents, updating CRM notes, rescheduling appointments, slogging through your inbox. And none of that should keep you from doing the work that only you can do, helping your clients grow their wealth and achieve financial freedom. The most valuable tool you have in your toolbox is delegation. And the right hire can transform your practice and your life. I know it did for me. Delay matches you with US based client service assistants and executive assistants who are background checked, identity verified, and here's the kicker, experienced in wealth management ops. And you guys, they can start at just 10 hours a week. You don't have to be ready to go get full time support in order to get some help. To learn more, check out the resources tab over on theofficientadvisor.com or click the link in the show notes. And to celebrate America's 250th birthday, they are offering belay services for $250 instead of 997. So make sure you check out the Efficient Advisor link and grab your time slot to just start exploring if it might be right for you.

[Adam Holt]

But I think the answer to the second part of that question is that we are seeing some advisors who have delegated, let's say data entry for fact finding into planning tools. They've delegated that to their paraplanners or to a junior because they see that as busy work. And I think for most traditional financial planning tools like NAVA Plan Money Guide, you would be right. That's the detail work that's required and the gathering of that from the details is really brutal. That's not the way we design asset map. We really wanted somebody to be able to plug and play day one in an hour I'm meeting with you, I can build this thing together with you, which I would actually recommend. I, I recommend actually building the map with the people because on the screen, because you're, you're, because of your co building allows for a different dynamic. I'm not trying to interrogate you. I'm trying to build this LEGO project with you. And when the LEGO piece is out there, I get to ask questions. I see you have this Ira and I see it's at XYZ Investment Manager. Why did you choose to put that money there by the way, since we're talking about it? Oh, I did it. And my cousin works there. You know, he just started in the business, he needed some business. I moved my IRA there. Oh, okay, great, right. How does that serve you by the way? Have you thought about, well, how's it performing? How does et cetera. So it's when we're talk, when we're opening up the box and looking at the item like what? By the way, why should we keep this? Or should we Marie Kondo and donate this? Like, the real key to fact finding, as I think we continue to learn, is that all the sales that we make, all the, all the trust we earn is actually in the fact finding. It's how we ask questions and how we uncover challenges that we can fix. So I know that everybody wants to delegate fact finding and early data entry to power planners, but unless they have a nuanced understanding of what questions to ask, I think we miss the moment. We miss an opportunity.

[Libby Griwe]

Well, it's interesting. I was just having this conversation with someone. We were talking about delegating data entry and I'm with you. I liked actually asking the questions like doing that, like tell me about this whole life policy. Oh, your grandmother bought it for you and you're emotionally attached to it and you can see yourself doing some sort of charitable donation or you want to eventually you want to set up a donor advised fund and have this thing go to that where maybe my recommendation would have ultimately been like, well, scrap this little goofy thing and do something better with it. I felt I had a really hard time in my own practice giving that question part to somebody else because if I was the one writing the recommendations or having to pitch this at the end, feeling disconnected. But I also thought, oh, and I have to be able to put those

numbers and I have to plug everything

in myself, otherwise I'm not going to know the details. And that I was able to delegate pretty, pretty successfully. But I actually, I want to echo what you said because I think it's really important that the advisor is hearing the stories and the connections and the whys and asking the is it still serving the original purpose that you purchased

that for the reason that you did that?

I think that even just from a relational standpoint is really, really important. Speaking of data,

when it comes to

the team is the suggestion from you guys. So Asset Mapper and other tool. Does everybody on the team need to know the tool?

[Adam Holt]

I think everybody who sees a client, everybody who's in, who's I think client facing that. We really designed Asset map to be forward facing and for traditional planning to be back office. Right. I, I don't show anymore. I don't show really any analysis to clients. I, I basically will send it to them that, you know, here's the. If you want to go to sleep, read this. Here's the supporting evidence that I've already gone through and I've vetted. Right. It's the same thing like these AI tools, right? Like we're asking them to do the research and then give us a conclusion or give us the next best, you know, answer. We, we can't just trust. We can't, we can choose to trust blindly, but when our, our very livelihood as an advisor, clients are buying our confidence and our process and you put mistakes in front of a client and they find it, it destroys, destroys trust. Right now the question is, how much risk are you going to take by trying to be so efficient and scale that you're not really paying attention to the work product because you've delegated it to your 25 an hour employee because it's more efficient than your 200 an hour work. Right, I get it. But there has to be an inspection process, otherwise we run the risk of being really, I think we'll call it embarrassed. And so the reason I answered it that way is because I think if you have a two person or three person firm, everybody needs to create a standard of how I'm going to communicate what you're currently doing as a household and whether that still makes sense. If my expertise is investments, I want my investment advisor to know all the different investment decisions they're making. If it's tax, I want them to understand how all those investment decisions are affecting their tax bracket right today and in the future, if I'm insurance or planning, etc. So I think what's interesting is that everyone who has a different expertise, that means they understand what questions to ask when, if they don't know what the current dynamic of the family is, the people, the trusts, the, the businesses and all the financial decisions they made. I don't know that they're coming into the room armed with the competence and confidence to help make a better decision. And if we're not all on the same page, then I don't know how you're doing it. And the context switching for clients is very difficult. So I recommend we start every single meeting and promote this for thousands of advisors. Start every single meeting just with the asset map in whatever form you have it. Good, bad, wrong, out of date, whatever. Here's your current closet financial inventory. Whether my staff did it or I did it, hopefully you looked at it beforehand to make sure there's no mistakes, spelling errors, whatever. And everyone looks at it and we discuss it and say, does this accurately represent your current life? And if not, please help me. Let's fix it right now and, and when you do that together, at least you level set. And I, I really recommend that every advisor, five minutes before the meeting, just look at the asset map and be like, oh, wait, there's some things we need to bring up. All right, so use it as. I use it as a meeting agenda effectively.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah.

I remember doing. I was doing a joint meeting with another advisor, and we were going through the recommendations, and it was a template that they had used, Right. And they had taken a client and copied it and adjusted it, and they had forgotten to update the wife's name somewhere. And so it was talking about leaving all of the money to Beth. And the wife's like, whoa, wait a minute. Who's Beth?

[Jen Becker]

Beth.

[Libby Griwe]

We're like, oh, shoot.

Rich didn't tell you about her?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's going to get, you know, most of the money. And it was. It was fun because it became a joke for us forever. But it was so embarrassing in that moment to have that detail. And it was like, oh, that's fine. We need to do quality control before

[Adam Holt]

that could become an inside joke. I will tell you a funny thing, just as an aside. When I went to do the speech for my stepmother's second marriage. Okay. You can figure out the dynamic there. I was late and I missed rehearsal. So I got up on the pulpit and I read verbatim what I was supposed to read. And they didn't tell me to switch the names to the two people that were being blessed. And so I said, congratulations, and to John and Martha. And I'm like, who's John and Martha? I was supposed to do so. Do you realize how embarrassing that is? Like, in front of the entire church so that. That can happen? Do you. You know, someone told me, wine, slippy. They said, if the first bite of your broth is spoiled, is it reasonable to assume that the rest of the soup or the whole vat is spoiled?

[Libby Griwe]

Right, right. Yeah.

[Adam Holt]

So you. When you lose confidence like that, and AI does this all the time, which scares me because a lot of guys are. People are sorry. A lot of advisors are really relying upon on the AI now to prep them.

[Libby Griwe]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Holt]

And it's what, what? And that's representing you. Remember, clients are buying you. They're paying you whatever. They're paying you for you. Not for your discount AI tool or parapliner who didn't know to check those details. That's where we have to be stewards. And I think it's really hard to go through 80 page reports if you're going to delegate them all but it's really easy to go through one or two page reports. And that's why I think. I think the advisors really need to get good at the 80 20. You opened with something really interesting, which is do advisors need to know all of the capability of their other tools? And actually, I don't think they do. I'll give you an example. So our firm uses E Money for seven clients. They love it. They are addicted to it. They love their portal. I can never take it away from them. It's only good for those seven people. 1600 clients in the firm use Asset Map. So all of them get Asset Map. Seven of them get E Money. I'm never gonna learn all of emoney because I keep it for those people and I learn it episodically when I need it. And that's great. That's fine. I'm still happy to pay for it. The thing with Asset Map is that if you get good at anything, it turns out there's like three phases. So we figured this out. What is the 8020 where you have the highest leverage, least amount of investment in time? Like, let's be. And number one, it is. It's just getting used to interpreting the map in front of a client. Just do that. The advisors I talked to in the last three weeks that have been with us for 10 years, they don't even bother with any of the new features we built. Like, we're all happy we built this stuff. They're still using the same thing that worked 10 years ago, and they grow by 20, 30%. And they're like, I'm not changing it. It works. I'm not. I'm not going to bother learning anything new because I'm happy with this stroke. It goes in the hole, whatever. Not changing. Okay? But I think the real key is for all of us is to recognize what is that point? What is the thing where, how do I get the most juice from this lemon relative to the work I'm willing to put in?

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah, and I'm with you. I agree. Right. That's totally how we operated in our practice. But when I see advisors wanting to make a switch, whether it's a CRM or a tool, because something else does it and they didn't even know that their tool did it. Or you guys keep adding cool stuff to Asset Map because it's enhancing. Right? Like, there's also this fine line of, I'm doing what works, and I want to keep getting better. I want to be able to offer more value, do things that are more relational. I think there's a fine line, like, right. Like we want to be able to at least have that awareness around what the tool is capable, capable of even if we're not utilizing all of it.

[Adam Holt]

It's true. You know, as a builder of these products, I, I have tried. I have tried. I don't know that I've succeeded of making sure that we stay core to what we're good at and not do other things not to scope creep. And that's evident in the fact that we said no. Every investment advisor has their own approach to investments. We don't believe that Monte Carlo or distribution rate is something we should build or argue about. Like we should allow the advisor to bring their own seasoning to that table. We're just going to provide the framework of the conversation. Contrast that with the fact that we have built so many other new modules in the past bunch of years that I know advisors are not using. They probably don't even need like tax location. We just built this, we're going to roll this out. Actually, they probably will need that one. Relationship maps priorities. Right. They might have other ways that they've solved those problems. They don't need our version of it. But we do operate, and I think most other tech firms operate as if we are the only tool that we're using that you're using. And so we build on the modules we think that support other functionality. Just like if you think about your car, it can do a lot more things than you probably use it for. You probably drive to the supermarket, drive home, drive to get the kids, like, but it can do all kinds of. My car can even like, I can press the button. It can talk to a concierge and make reservations. I didn't, I don't know. It don't care. Never use that. I guess I paid for it, but I don't, I don't care because.

[Libby Griwe]

But I will argue if you did it a few times, you might be like, oh, actually that's super helpful. I just made reservations while I was driving to the supermarket.

[Adam Holt]

That's true. You mean texting and like searching is not what I should be doing when I'm driving.

[Libby Griwe]

Adam, don't text and drive. Please be safe.

[Adam Holt]

What if I told you I had a self driving car?

[Libby Griwe]

Okay, fine, I'll allow it.

[Adam Holt]

No, I don't, I want one. I really want one. But that's, those are features. I think that, that we, we are all overwhelmed with the features. And I think you're, you're doing it right because you think about Intentionality. Setting aside time to actually learn the tool pays dividends that we don't know how to value.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah, it's interesting. And this is where, you know, and this is why I want to have this conversation, because this is where I get stuck. Right. So I use Kajabi as a platform for, for my business. And when I built my Kajabi site in 2015, I mean, we're talking like 10 plus years ago, it was capable of, you know, these five things. And I have a different story server for my podcast and I have a different community tool that I'm using. And now it's all integrated. And I see these things pop up.

I'm like, oh yeah, I should really learn that.

Oh, shoot, I should really learn that. But what I have is working now what I have is working. And could it even be more integrated, more efficient? Am I taking double steps? Is there opportunities for information to not connect properly? Because I am utilizing all of these different tools. And not that there's the right answer to this.

Right.

Like, there's definitely this, like, vehicle is the perfect. My car does all kinds of stuff. I barely scratch the surface. If it ain't broken, don't fix it. And what if it could do all these other cool things for me that I didn't even know that would be like, wow. Once I see it done that way, that changes everything because I think how frequently do we. Oh, the way I'm doing it just fine is working well. I go on a 20 minute walk every day. Now I throw on a weighted vest and my efficiency and calorie burn just doubled for very little extra effort.

[Adam Holt]

Yeah.

[Libby Griwe]

And so I think about tools in that same way. Or at least I've been thinking about them in that same way lately. Like that more is not necessarily more. And what if it is?

[Adam Holt]

Yeah, I mean, most of us, it's funny, depending on whether you're a real cooker or you, you have a kitchen that's robust. You know, we all have that drawer with like 1500 spoons. We only use the same two spoons all the time.

[Jen Becker]

Right.

[Adam Holt]

But somehow we keep that stuff. If we actually had to pay or view or actually visualized and saw a cost on our itemized budget every month, like that that spoon that we don't use cost us money, we probably would do something about it. But we don't. And I think we don't have a. I don't think we generally, as accumulators, don't have a. We'll call it. Call myself out that that inventory Has a cost whether you're using it or not. And I think that's the same, by the way, because clutter has a cost. When you have too many, you can't see the things you use and need all the time and keep things neat and clean. There's a cost to that. You just don't know how to. You just don't know how to kind of calculate it. I bet your staff does because your staff is feeling stressed out that they've got 15 tools that they got to learn. They got to feel, you know, they see the clutter because they're in the basement with all your junk. And I think while you have a nice clean office because you can make you look good for everybody. I think the point is, is that there's always a good opportunity to call yourself out as you do well with your community. Say, what am I doing that's intentional? How does it serve me? Why am I doing it? No different than an asset map. Like, we do it. Do an inventory of what we're doing and say, like, why are we doing that? Why is that over here? Should we do something better or can we do something better and then decide what you're going to focus on. I think with respect to the tools, there's no substitute for learning them. Like you said.

[Jen Becker]

Right.

[Adam Holt]

There are all of. All of the fintech tools out there have both Automated asynchronous learning probably webinars that are being held on the recurring as we do every single week there somebody who knows what they're doing is showing how to use the tool. Advisors need to actually do the secondary investment. Don't just pay the cost of the tool, pay the time of the tool and just get. And start to build that muscle. You'll actually find ways to make more money. Which is the irony behind it.

[Jen Becker]

It.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah, well. And you just reminded me. So I have this. I have a. My mom bought me years ago a watermelon knife. I don't know if you've ever seen a watermelon. It's humongous and it's super cute. And it cuts watermelon. It's like really long.

[Adam Holt]

Oh, it cuts watermelon.

[Libby Griwe]

It cuts watermelon. Like, you can cut the whole watermelon in like one.

[Adam Holt]

Like, oh, it's super cool. Like panini pressed with blades.

[Libby Griwe]

Kind of. Yes and no.

Kind of.

I. But it's like I have this in my drawer. I know I own it, but every time I buy a watermelon, I forget to use it and I do it the hard way. And then later I'm like, I see that stupid watermelon thing in my drawer. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I should have used the watermelon. I just cut that. I spent 25 minutes cutting that stupid watermelon by hand when I could have just used the watermelon, the watermelon knife. But. And so it is. But did it work? It worked, right? I didn't have to have the watermelon knife, but when I do use it, it actually makes it way faster and more efficient. So I think it's just that kind of constant pulling. You know, the tug of war that exists for advisors with the tools is like, is what I'm doing working? And so the question we've been asking in our CEO day as we're building out content to help advisors have quarterly CEO days where they're really looking at the operations of the business. The like CEO work like the profitability. Are we wasting time? Tools, are we not utilizing? Are we utilizing? Really trying to help them figure out how to assess the tool, how much they're paying for it, how much of it they're using, what else does the

tool do that would be helpful? Could replace.

Is the time and effort worth it.

But really, at the minimum for me,

it's having time on the calendar and not having just one expert on the team.

Because if we lose that person and

all that knowledge goes out the window. But how do we as a team carve out time to continue to be a student of the tools that we have and make sure we are utilizing them in the best and most effective ways so that we're not scrambling or, you know, and again, episodically learning. Yeah, I was like, I didn't learn Cruts and Slats until it was a necessary moment in planning to learn Cruts and Slats. But how do we actually carve out time? And that's what I've noticed for advisors who deeply have added like agentic agents and have like really adopted AI is, it's. It's just really making the space and time to become an expert at those things. Which leads me to the webinar that we are going to be hosting coming up where the goal is to help advisors get started, like get them like that, 10, 20% deep, get people loaded into asset maps, see how it looks for their clients, get some things in there and help them play around with it so that they can kind of fast track the success that they're having with the tool. So I'm really excited and thank you guys for Doing that for our listenership.

[Adam Holt]

No, that's going to be fun. Like actually getting hands dirty and, you know, going in the garden and putting stuff is really fulfilling. So I hope that, you know, the advisors that are listening to this, that make sure they get this in their calendar when we post our date, because you're going to actually see. I'm going to actually do a bunch of stuff where I'm going to show actually how I make money and how I accelerate this process. I'll tell you, I've gotten, when I. At my peak time, which I can, which I could teach people and our team does teaching this, but it's, you know, sometimes it's different coming from the founder. Right. I, I was able to get my meeting Prep down to 15 minutes, if not five minutes. I would run back to back meetings on Tuesdays, eight in a row. That would be, that would be my entire meeting day. I met on Tuesdays. That was it. And then I did no other meetings the rest of the week. So literally I'm just stacked. And that was it. That was a kind of a fun goal to try to work towards. Yeah, I would walk in the meeting and, and I was already ready to go. I did have a pair of planners, but in five minutes I could prep for that meeting and then have an intelligent conversation where I was finding assets, helping people and earning trust. And, and I can show you how to do that. The key is to basically. Well, I'm going to tell you the key. The key is to forgive yourself and actually make this more collaborative. Instead of thinking that you have to show up with everything perfect that nobody's going to actually read. Set up the conversation to be perfect. Don't have to set up the presentation to be perfect. Because I love that because everything just goes sideways as soon as we walk in the room. Right. So I think the key is you have to set up the right conversation and then facilitate it and then of course deliver on the back end. But, but I think you're going to see how we've designed the platform to literally get you to that moment every single time. And that's the skill, by the way, if you can get asset mapped down to that one or two things, the rest of the stuff you'll just learn by hitting it and doing it. And I think that's the real key.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah. And it's okay. I've been kind of on this like, I don't know if it's a rampage or what it is this year, but 2026 for me was this year Instead of just like, giving people stuff and being like, here, diy, I've kind of adopted what I'm calling dit. Like, let's just do it together. Let's carve out the time. Because I have a gorgeous gym in my basement. Like, I have every. I have a Pilates reformer. I have a treadmill. I have every tool and you could possibly imagine, but yet I still pay a frigging trainer three times a week and drive 20 minutes to the gym to have some. Just because when it's on my calendar, I show up and I do the thing.

[Adam Holt]

You show up for them.

[Libby Griwe]

Yeah. And so what we're going to do is offer everybody a free trial of asset map. We're going to do it together. We're going to get them started, so then if they choose to stay in it, they can fast track those onboarding meetings. Like you said, they've stretched before they've gotten to the gym. And we're going to show people how to get in and start using it right away and have those immediate successes that they can then just build upon versus, like, yeah, I'm going to do a demo and then I'll go ahead and maybe a month from now actually, like, do it. And then, yeah, I've got to schedule those onboarding meetings. I'll make that happen.

So we're just going to create the

time and space for everybody, and we're just going to dit. We are going to do it together.

Cool.

[Adam Holt]

I love it. That's fun. That'll be fun.

[Jen Becker]

Well, cool.

[Libby Griwe]

Well, thanks so much. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate all of the wisdom that you guys. I know you have not only from your own practice, but have collected from having thousands of advisors using the tools, seeing adoption rates, seeing, you know, churn rate, seeing how long people actually stick with it, and the patterns that lead to successful implementation. So, as always, I appreciate your wisdom.

[Adam Holt]

Thank you, Libby. I appreciate your energy and also your grace to have us here. So it's. It's fun to spend time with you.

[Libby Griwe]

So I would love for you to join Adam and I on July 28. We are going to be giving you a free trial to asset map and we're doing what I'm calling, like a DIT, like, instead of a DIY, like a DIT, like,' we're just going to do it together, and we're going to go ahead and get you set up with your very first asset map. So, like, get you in there, get the ball rolling, be available for Q and A. So opposed to trying to. And of course you'll still get all your onboarding calls and all of the things from the Asset Map crew. But we really want to just get people going and actually experiencing technology. And I have a lot of advisors in our group coaching program that use the Asset Map software and just love and adore it. And I just want to show you what that looks like from a structured framework. Let's just get it set up, get in there, have Adam show you exactly how he's using it right now, live with his clients and you can have a fully completed asset map by the time we finish the call, which sounds amazing. So we're going to do it together on July 28th at 4pm Registration will be in the Show Notes. So on any podcast app just click the show notes and there will be the link there. And you can also check out my LinkedIn. You'll see me posting about the event with Adam Holt and the link will be there as well. Thanks so much and I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your week. And of course, if you are interested in our Systems to Scale Group Coaching program, registration is currently open. You can find that over on theofficientadvisor.com and over in the Show Notes.