In today's episode of the "The Runway Decade Podcast," hosts Bill Bush and Pete Bush, advisors at Horizon Financial Group are talking with Brett Harrison, the CEO of Cetera Advisors. Brett began his career in Georgia with a predecessor firm to Cetera, and he has had a very successful career in financial services.
Episode Highlights
- 3.29: Brett started as a CPA out of College in Georgia, in Atlanta. He learned quickly and he didn't like having to be perfect all the time, nor be a historian because it was a little bit restrictive for him as per his personality.
- 4.16: Being 56 at this point brings a lot of different perspectives on the profession as well as relationships and things like that, says Brett.
- 7.38: Brett probably had three or four mentors in his business throughout the years and for whatever reason they put their arm around him and took pride and helped him along.
- 9.46: Brett talks about his 50th birthday, how did he celebrate it? What happened to him mentally or psychologically as he went over that half century mark.
- 11.11: As per Brett 60 is the number that he wanted to be well, in a way of providing benefits to this world in a different way.
- 12.57: There are lots of different aspects of being in your 50s and it does provide a lot of experience and a lot of wisdom of how to help people and think through different kinds of situations in life, says Pete.
- 14.07: Bill got a chance to see Brett speak in front of a group not that long ago and the average age of advisor was mid or late 50s. Brett talks about the challenges that brings to the financial services industry in speaking to advisors in age 50s.
- 15.22: Brett is getting a lot of good satisfaction with the ability to use his background and his knowledge of all these years to help advisors think about things they have never had to think about before.
- 20.52: In COVID we have tech advisors who helped to create digital presence and be more favorably recognized in Google searches because when everyone is remote and they see you the first time, they Google you.
- 21.22: How you show up out in a digital presence is a perfect example of some of the benefits that we have been able to help advisors think about and implement their businesses as a result of COVID, says Brett.
- 23.09: As per Pete, you have to be somewhat of a chameleon in how you are dealing with the different personalities and different situations that you have to run into and what they think about shutting down or remote work or not remote work and all that.
- 24.52: Brett's first job was to help the one person wash his horses after practice, squeeze them off with the squeegee, put a big blanket on them, then you walk them around and get them to cool down. It was his first paying job for about 2 bucks an hour.
- 31.05: The book, The Runway Decade", gets your mind going on things that you may or may not be thinking about. It's not too technical, but it'll have you start asking, all the right kinds of questions as you prepare for your runway.
Three Key Points
- Brett shares his journey and how his career folded. He talks about his guiding force and who gave him good advice along the way and encouraged him in some way?
- Somewhere down the line, Brett Harrison is going to go off into some version of retirement. Brett shares his thought on what does retirement means to him.
- Brett talks about his bucket list and what he plans to while he still has his health.
Tweetable Quotes
- "I fell in love with the financial advice profession about 26 years ago and I have spent the better part of my career in those 26 years working at the company that I helped and lead a division till today." – Brett
- "What I am really enjoying is helping advisors think about what's the next step for their business and as an executive leader with the firm that they are affiliated with can be helpful in that." – Brett
- "After retirement, I want to give myself an opportunity to let my brain kind of clear out and during that time, I would like to formulate, how can I do things to feel like I'm continuing to contribute but it won't be on anyone schedule with mine." - Brett
- "We don't have to get together all the time but when we do it's really valuable." – Pete
- "My first concert I ever went to was in the eighth grade. It was called the Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga; TN and it was Molly Hatchet but for me best till now was few weeks ago in Nashville." - Brett
Resources Mentioned
