Joel Worsfold partnered with Carson because he was looking for a more streamlined client experience, a better tech stack than his broker-dealer offered, practice management tools for dealing with his more complex clients’ financial plans and improved advisor operations for behind-the-scenes support.
With Carson in his corner, Joel’s business was growing faster than it ever had before. And now Joel – Managing Director, Partner and Wealth Advisor at Carson Wealth in West Des Moines, Iowa – had his sights on a different kind of growth: partnering with another advisor.
For his entire career, Joel had operated as a solo advisor, so this would be his biggest step yet into serving as a true CEO for his firm. And the person he looked to for advice was his long-time Executive Business Coach, Greg Opitz.
Joel’s first instinct was to hire “another me” – an advisor with a similar skill set to his – but Greg counseled him against it.
“’Absolutely not,” Joel says Greg told him. “‘You are not hiring another you. The last thing we need is two of you running around here.’”
Greg encouraged Joel to find an advisor with complementary skills to his own, and that eventually led him to Matt Friedrichsen.
Joel now calls Matt “one of the best hires I’ve ever had,” but he admits he might never have considered him without Greg’s insistence.
“He is nothing like me,” Joel says. “But Greg just kept me on point, ‘Don’t forget what we’re trying to get accomplished here.’ But I would have never ever done it that way. Not in a long shot.”
Joel has since added two more advisors to his firm, Jason Juhl and Rebecca Albers, and that’s led to a big shift in his day-to-day work.
“Now I’ve got three different people with individual goals,” Joel says. “And we want them to do what they love doing, otherwise the passion’s gone. And so how do I keep everyone working as a team?
“They were looking to me for help. They wanted my advice, and I didn’t have it, for the first time.”
That’s where Joel leaned on Carson’s Business Consulting team, especially Bobby Steinau, VP, Business Consulting, and Alex Rodawig, Managing Director, Carson Wealth.
“They’re good at listening, because I’ll rant and rave on a few things,” Joel says. “Some people take it as anger, and it’s just my passion coming through. And both of those guys can see that, and they’re really good at listening, letting me kind of get done with it, and then guiding me.”
You can learn more about Joel’s journey with Carson by downloading our case study, “Reaping the Rewards: The Journey Through Coaching, Partnership and Succession.” It covers every step of Joel’s Carson journey, the lessons he learned and the challenges he faced along the way – all with a true partner in his corner.
