Building With Purpose: Culture, Calling, and Family Office Planning in Middle America with Vaughan Scott

💥 What if you could build a thriving culture—without tipping into cultish?
💥 What if family office-level planning wasn’t just for the ultra-wealthy—but for builders and business owners in your own community?

In this episode of Advisors Off Script, host Shelby Nicholl sits down with Vaughan Scott, founder of Axiom, an independent RIA based in New Albany, Indiana. Vaughan’s journey spans every corner of the advice industry—from regional broker-dealers to banks, to independence—and now, he's building something different: a firm grounded in mission, structure, and deep service.

Together, Shelby and Vaughan explore what it means to lead with intention and build a culture that empowers, not pressures. They reflect on purpose, legacy, and the moments that remind us why this work matters—including a personal story Shelby shares about her father-in-law’s end-of-life family meeting.

In this episode:

• The evolution from wirehouse to independence—and what each chapter taught Vaughn
• Why culture matters more than growth-for-growth’s-sake
• What it takes to bring true family office-level planning to Middle America
• The meaning of vocare—and how purpose shapes the firms we're building

Whether you’re building, leading, or reimagining what your next chapter could look like, this episode is a call to lead with purpose.

Hosted by Shelby Nicholl. Produced and edited by Aaron Sherman. Operations and Guest Coordination by Shelly Hadel.

Transcript

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/ We're very much We value everybody's input. It's because we created a collaborative constructive healthy environment for our team to operate in? It's interesting to me So many folks wanna talk about how great their culture is. Most of the time when people talk about great cultures, it's probably pretty bad. I always tell people, you can't spell the word culture without the word cult. That's well said. I love I like to say personality. I like your version of environment. that's just better. Like, let's not be a cult, please. What if you could build a thriving culture without tipping into cultish? What if family office level planning wasn't just for the ultra wealthy, but for the builders and the business owners in your own community? Today's guest is Vaughn Scott. He's the founder of Axiom, an independent RIA, that is bringing family office level services to middle America We're gonna hear the lessons of his moves, how he never got the timing quite right, but still succeeded anyway, and how he's creating an environment for others Vaughn and I share the belief that this industry is more than just a career or a job. It is a Ari, It's the Latin word for purpose, a calling, a summons to meaningful work So with that in mind, if you're ready to build and serve with purpose, let's dive in Vaughn Scott, welcome to the podcast. I'm so thrilled to have you here. Tell us a little bit about your journey.'cause I know you started in the broker dealer space first and moved to RIA later, What's your story? thank you so much for having me, Shelby. So appreciate you and all, all that you do across the industry and, certainly am humbled to have the opportunity to be a guest on your podcast. Thank you so much. I, I actually followed in my mother's footsteps. So I started out at a small southeast regional firm. I actually went on my first recognition trip, as they call'em, when I was 16 years old. it was fascinating. Gave me, you know, a great intro, into the industry. When I graduated from college, I looked pretty young. And so, wisely, the person who hired her suggested I go get some real world experience before trying to enter, the business. I, I, I had so many doors open for me when I joined. it was JC Bradford at the time that she had joined originally. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with them and then like so many others got sucked up into the vortex of, consolidation in the industry. transitioned to what was then the largest financial institution in the world because what could possibly go wrong there? That's was right before the great financial crisis. so, you know, inter interesting time there, transitioned to yet another, which had a stellar reputation at the time that, that the great financial crisis occurred. but as time went on, found that. Quite honestly, they were more concerned about, their brand identity and, the harm we could potentially do the brand. Meanwhile, they were doing far more harm to our brand in the, in the regional community, than we could ever do to their brand. And, and it just. became clear to me that there, there had to be a better way. And thankfully, at least at this place, they were also open to hearing concerns and some of the senior leadership there and they said, you know, we've got a new program, we're gonna launch. You know, a pilot program to allow teams of advisors. So out of about 1700 different teams across the country, we were one of 12 that were selected, to, to get outta jail free. And so that's how, that's how we got to independence and, to be where we sit today. And today you guys sit at a as a fully independent RIA. What, what made you make that leap to from that independent broker dealer channel into the true RIA channel? it was a, a couple of facets. One, I, I found that, because I've done a lot of work with family enterprises and have actually gotten to know a lot of folks in the, what is truly the family office space. It's a, it's a buzzword and a, in, in many ways a marketing, tool that's used too often. and, and I found myself spending enormous amounts of time with the head of compliance marketing, trying to explain that actually, I, I did have some expertise in the area and, and no, there wasn't somebody else at the firm, you know, who had, you know, any more expertise. and, and it just, it, that became frustrating. And then we had different situations at each of the institutions where there just are conflicts of interests that cannot be ever be resolved. And they're, you know. Don't need to go on the wise or where force, but I do believe that that it's impossible for a very large institution, you know, to, to resolve all of the conflicts of interest that exist. and, and we try to, you know, avoid them at all costs. Yeah. And when did you guys go to RIA? We, we launched three weeks before COVID. So, thankfully we were in the same space and had, you know, we're able to move in our technology overnight because we, we'd done it with this particular institution's blessing and, that made a huge difference. But, We, we did three, three weeks before COVID. and suddenly we found that, we were working remotely, which thankfully we had provisioned everybody on our team, in a way that they could, they could work remotely, not just advisors, which a lot of, you know, a lot of teams had done previously. So Gosh, Vaughn, it seems like, you know, pandemics and, downturns in the market. You've got a great sense of timing for all these transitions, right? Well that is definitely memorable. And then you guys really, when you, when you win RIA and you and formed Axiom in, in total as the RIA, your goal has always been around this idea of family office quality services for the core affluent, right. And the, and the community that you're in. talk about why that mission was so important to you and what you mean by that. my, my wife's family actually was a family business, so they went through a horrific situation where they had gotten all the proper financial advice, they had gotten the best lawyers, that they did everything they should do from a tax perspective. But unfortunately the family wasn't really prepared for the other realities of that kind of a transition. And so it, it launched my interest or you know, and there's gotta be a better way. And so thankfully I first got introduced to the Family Firm Institute. Back in the early two thousands, and then have had the opportunity to be part of several other groups. actually thankfully for FFI, I'm on their, their 40th anniversary committee. So, it's really been a special place to be, but what I've found is, is there are so many things, of course, when you're talking about the resources that that. Families who can either develop their own family offices or, or who can work with what are legitimate. And there are very few, what I would call truly legitimate family offices in the country. Not nearly as many as, as promote their services as such. but there are many things that we can do that you don't need substantial economic resources to do. But there are things that you can do in different ways. But also in ways that are very meaningful. And, and it is, we can, we can help create a very different experience for families, even for those who don't have family office level economic resources, but, but really have the, the needs to really think very differently, about their family, about their business in the community, about the foundations that they may, you know, be a part of or want to continue to support, or the ones that they want to, you know, endow themselves. It's really special. And I think, I haven't shared this with you before, but, we recently lost my father-in-law and through that process though, we had this really beautiful family meeting, where we brought. Together, the sons and the wives and and my in-laws. And it was just such an incredible moment where we were able to walk through all of the practical matters, right? The passwords and the daily bills and the income coming in, but then also all of the accounts, how everything was titled, where the trust was, all the things right. And it was such a really beautiful moment. And I think about family office kind of quality services as being able to. Sort of manifest that for so many families and to create that openness even. And also some protection in there too for families. A a. Absolutely. It sounds like what, you did a really great job of it. What is, what I would refer to as you, you dealt with the transactional aspects of, of that transition and we talk about, succession planning and all these other, again, buzzwords. The industry more for sales purposes. And at the end of the day, they're all about transitions. And in this case, you know, having lost a loved one and I'm so sorry that, that you have, it sounds like you had a really good blend of both the transactional, how do we deal with the basics, but also then the transformational. What does it mean for us to be a family and the future? What do we want to do together? What are the things maybe we don't wanna do together? And so, so many of those conversations you have to really have all of the nuts and bolts down from a financial planning and estate planning perspective to then those are really just the transactional elements. And so many people pat themselves on the back and say, Hey, done deal. It's, you know, that's it. We're done. And it's, well, what about the transformational stuff? What's gonna make a difference? And let's face it, the next generation of clients for us. They don't care about the transactional stuff, they don't care about the money as much as they do the transformational elements. And so we really have to be mindful as an industry I believe in, in that, you know, we better understand that it is so much about the balance of both because both are critically important, And this feels, when you talk, when you say those words, it feels like this is like, not theoretical for you, but it's, really about helping those neighbors, helping those families, the people that are building those real businesses and their real legacies. how have you structured your offering suite in order to, to solve for them? it takes a team, so, you know, we, we continue to add people to our team and, at present really have mostly folks that we have brought in and, and are mentoring. And so, as you well know, We've got sort of a two track approach that we're, that we're wanting to take. We want to, we wanna work with those and we're working very closely. Like we have a young man that I, I, I think, you know, well, that, that hopefully is gonna join us from, another part of the Midwest. And our hope for him is, is he comes here, he works us, us for three or four years and then we help him open an office under whatever brand he wants to open it under. But obviously using the tools, that we have developed, with him in, in large measure too, as. By that time. and then he'll have, you know, a new opportunity back in his hometown. simultaneously we wanna find people who are in other markets like ours. I'm sit as I'm sitting here. It is, that is really the background from our conference room. you know, we sit, if I turn, turn this around to 180 degrees, that's the river, pointing to Louisville, Kentucky. And so we sit in a small community, new Albany, Indiana, as I always say, the thriving metropolis of New Albany, Indiana, to those who, you know, I, I I have the opportunity to, to interact with from, from. Many major metros but I find there are a lot of advisors like us, and so we'd love to find partners in other communities like ours who feel like they, they, they don't have the opportunities or they need some additional resources, and that their communities like ours have lost capacity in the consolidation of the industry. And that we need to bring capacity back to the communities that we want to continue to live and, and love our, our families in. Yeah, and I think in so many of those small communities, right? I, I came out for, for a long time. I had about a decade at the Edward Jones Home Office. So a lot of those communities are served by an Edward Jones office, but those folks can't go quite. uh, far enough in terms of tax advice and planning, estate, conversations, those kinds of things. How do you see what you're able to provide to clients in that area as, as different than what, you know, maybe an an Edward Jones advisor might be able to today Yeah. And, and and they're doing a fine job. Yeah, great, great firm. They've done, I mean, I, I give a lot of credit to that firm in terms of really being the first to approach markets like ours. I, I, I think generally what, what I see that's different about the way we want to approach things. And don't get me wrong, there, there are others who are probably doing it just as well. I would. Believe strongly that it, we'd be hard pressed to find people who are doing it better. Is that, that we really do take a more systematized approach to how we work with clients. So it feels very personal to them, but simultaneously behind the scenes we're digitalizing our business in, in ways that many firms. At, at, at some level. Can't yet. They will, they'll get there eventually, but it's just, it's much harder as when you have a larger firm, the systems, just can't turn on a dime. But we also want to make sure that we're focused on providing each advisor on our team, or each team that we're supporting, or each partner that we're supporting, you know, in other markets. We want to make sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful, and that we're optimizing the time that they're spending in front of clients and prospects, and simultaneously systematize in the way that we give really high quality advice. And we even have a group, of our team that meets, that do more of the, the planning work and the, and the, the, the client. Meeting work per se. Obviously incredibly grateful for the people who do so much of the preparation work for those meetings. But, but we really talk about, you know, how do we make this better? How do we systematize this and, and we don't want to compromise the, the experience for the client. We don't want them to feel like, constrained by our systems and, we're somewhat robotic, which is the way a lot of people in the industry want to be very natural, organic, but simultaneously really bring a better experience and candidly, better quality advice because we're working collectively as a team and we have access to, to other experts and other, professionals that, that we work closely with in our community. I love that and I think that systematizing is really how we scale and we know that with, you know, succession and such looming on the horizon that that advisors in the future and given the low. Number that are entering the industry are probably gonna have to serve more clients than they used to. So that systematizing is something that'll just continue to fuel an individual advisor's growth. Yeah. And, and ironically I wrote, during, during COVID I, we, we started and, and we did research on, on an article for venture capital, the, the actual academic journal and, and co-authored it with, with some folks that one was in Europe and one was happened to be in, in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia. and we did it on the importance of digitalization, you know, in terms of ensuring small businesses thrive. And it, it's fascinating to me today as we sit here, I mean, it's, it's an enormous opportunity. I'm more excited than I probably have been in my entire time in the industry because the ability to digitalize is here and at the same time, few people really understand it. I've also, thankfully. Because I was bored, you know, in corporate America. I, I launched a couple cloud-based ventures, you know, previously, so have a much better understanding and again, much better access to experts in, in those areas as well. and it just creates a, a unique environment and, and again, we can't do it without the team that we have here, and who are gonna help us realize the vision. Oh, that's great. And you have such a learning mindset. You're constantly, I think, like pushing into some new topic and learning all the time, and I'm sure that filters down to everybody on your staff. Like that's probably a core thing that you all want in someone. we are, I mean, we're very much about being a team. We value everybody's input. one of the newest members of our team actually is introducing a, a, a software tool that we're likely to adopt, and it really wa it's because we created a collaborative. Constructive environment. it, it's interesting to me 'cause it's so many, so many folks wanna talk about how great their culture is. Most of the time when people talk about great cultures, they really don't have 'em. In fact, it's probably pretty bad. we're really focused on do we have a healthy environment for our team to operate in? those are the things that we're gonna think about and think differently about. rather than just trying to, different carbon copies or you know, different versions of what other firms are. Yeah, I, I appreciate that you also kind of like change it to say we wanna provide that healthy environment. We wanna have that collaborative environment. And I always tell people, you can't spell the word culture without the word cult. And so I like to say. That's well said. I love I like to say personality. I like your ver version of environment. I think. I think that's just better. Like, let's not be a cult, please. Yep. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, you ta you touched just a moment ago on, the Venture Capital MA Magazine article and how that was really aimed at business owners. Can we talk for a little bit about. How does your kind of family office for Middle America, kind of the, the family office like services and offering suite that you're offering, how does that model kind of set you up with business owners?'cause I think that's been a, a core focus of your client set I would bet 60 to 70% of our clients. Came from, or were referred by either part of a family referred by a family. We team members of a family business, you know, that we served. but, but it's, it's, it's quite a large number. overall and, and. Part of what, thankfully I've been able to develop and, and yes, technically I own the intellectual property around it, but, but have been able to get, you know, trademarks and, and copyrights, you know, there's an enormous amount of content. you know, anybody that visits our website can see, there's just at least a graphic illustration of what we call next chapter, planning, which, which really focuses on. A number of different facets. There are actually nine elements. I won't spend time going through all nine of 'em, but, but the first five, you know, what I call the fundamental five, are just critical. It's trust, relationships, responsibility, Responsibility is binary. It's both financial and social, and especially this generation, they really do care as much, if not more about the social responsibility as they do The financial responsibility, but at the same time, we as financial advisors know better than anyone that you know because of the financial foundation, if the financial foundation does not remain strong for the family. Then they're not going to have the same number of choices. So it can't be one at the expense of the other. It has to be, you know, a symbiotic relationship, that continues to grow and thrive. but being able to have those conversations, know, is really important. So, so again, trust, relationships, responsibility, the binary, social and financial time. And then health. And then health, I really developed it, this, this whole process around, working with families in transition of leadership ownership or both. What's interesting is, is that those themes actually apply, whether it's a business or an individual, and as I just described earlier, people say, well, what's health got to do with the business? Well. A, it's the health, yes, financially the business, but also is it a healthy environment for team members? Do they want to be there? And we all know we can go into any business and you can tell the difference of whether you've got an engaged team or you've got a team that really would rather not be there. It it, it's very obvious today. I like it that you mentioned that word of transition too.'cause there's so much just transition in life and that's a, that's a big part of, adulting when we're younger, you know, I'm in very much this like sandwich generation time, right? Parents are getting older, but we still have young kids at home. I also have a grandchild now, which is crazy to me. but he's, he's the best thing ever. we just like to have babies all the time. in the nickel family. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're plenty old enough to have babies, so it's wonderful. But we still have a 6-year-old also in the house. so and what you're describing though, Shelby is a great, I mean, it's emblematic of the, of the world that we live in. And guess what? It's also gonna be emblematic of the teams that we work within. I mean, it's really, I mean, you're talking about this transition. Was it your father-in-law that you lost, you know, here you lost the father-in-law, but now you also have a grandchild. And so these are exactly the things that we're all wrestling with, and. We as financial advisors, obviously we, we want to make sure that we're preparing people financially for their futures, but once that's pretty understood, because let's face it, unless there is a strong financial foundation, people don't have the luxury of thinking about other things Fortunately, we also tend as an industry to have the opportunity to work with those who do have a lot more resources. but if we as advisors are not also creating different kinds of conversations and finding ways to help our current clients engage us in conversations with the next generation of their families and their friends, then you know, we're gonna really struggle to be relevant into the future And I think about that, you know, just all of these multi-generations that you're serving, those family businesses that you're serving in that way. one of the things I think that, that you and I have talked about before is this idea of building a hundred year firm. And I can remember even when I was at Edward Jones, they were coming up on their a hundred year anniversary and I would be like, I want this firm to last for another a hundred years. Right? My family lives a really long time, and at that point I thought I would retire from there. I didn't, I've gone on to form this, Now I think about, okay, how do I create this as a durable business? What does that look like? Am I creating a hundred year firm? I don't know if I am yet or not, but that's something in your business with these multi-generations of families that you're serving that is so important to you. You're really playing for that long game. you're creating this really wonderful environment, but then what kind of advisors and partners are you hoping to attract so that it can continue to grow and and become that a hundred year durable firm? Especially in the Midwest. No disrespect to the, to the people on the coast, but especially in the Midwest, there are a lot of communities like ours. And our hope is, again, we don't want to come in and subjugate people to what, you know, what our intentions are. And, we all get calls every day. You know, I wanna be in the market, you know, it's, we wanna partner with people that are in the market, so we'd rather find a partner. You know, obviously we're willing to put our money where our mouth is and make an investment in their community with them. where we'll be able to bring some very unique services that have not so much to do with, bringing new business to us directly, but more about how can we help ensure that team members in the communities that we operate in, and, other folks, essential service workers, you know, how can we help support these folks in the community, which are so critical to these communities. At a time when if you sit in a much larger, metro like Chicago, New York, Boston, Phoenix, Austin, San Francisco, even Minneapolis, you know, these are what I call money centers in the US where, much of the private equity, much of the incredible amounts of wealth tend to migrate, especially as they come in and, you know. Buy businesses or, or portfolio companies that are coming and buy businesses out of these communities if we're not thinking about how we can work together, in a strong partnership with other folks that are in similar communities like this. I think there's a lot that can be done thanks to technology, never has there been an opportunity for us to compete in, in ways that we couldn't have possibly before. and again, that's, that's what makes me excited is finding people in communities like ours who say, you know what? I share your value of wanting to serve the community. You know, I grew up here too. know, I want my kids to grow up here. I want my grandkids to be here, and there are, there just, there I think are so many good people probably sitting places already that, you know, again, all we, all we want to do is help, help them better serve their community. and if they wanna keep their own brand, great, we're happy to do that. They wanna leverage our brand. Great. Otherwise, you know, we want to have, provide 'em with the tools, resources, and if needed, the capital to, to really grow. that's wonderful. And I think back to the very beginning of the conversation we talked about. At these communities stre across and how there was sort of an absence of service right? Outside of maybe a couple of firms like Edward Jones or some others. There's been this absence of service to so many of these communities, they've lost that access to capital. I can remember doing some work on community banks and there's a lot of statistics that if you lose your bank, if you lose that local bank in your area, the wealth just. really evaporates too, right? It's just another piece in that puzzle. And so what you're saying is, Hey, smaller community folks, let's band together. Let's support one another, use each other as resources and operate and bring the same level of quality and service, et cetera. That major money center areas can have, and you can have greater impact that way. I remember, you know, the two,'cause they're no longer here. JC Bradford, as I mentioned earlier, and then Hilliard Lyons was right across the river. And I mean, when I think about those two, especially in the greater Louisville area, I mean there, there are so many good people that worked at each one or both of those firms. Who still stay in touch, and, and what was interesting and what I understood about both of them was, is that unfortunately, while they were really great about service and, and they really got, you know, client first, we need to really focus on the team otherwise, and make sure there, there was a lot of nepotism, you know, and, that didn't always serve people well. And so, you know, we certainly, we certainly embrace the fact that we'd love for families to work, you know, with us. at the same time, we wanna make sure we've got excellent competence. you know, as we grow, obviously there'll be lots of different opportunities, but at the same time, it's critical to me that, that, that we have the competence and we have really talented people, there to help support the growth. as, as we grow in, in each community that, that we come to partner in. it's interesting you mentioned that, that sort of dichotomy or that that challenge really, because so many wealth practices are family businesses too. That's right. and so you're, you're saying like what we've, what you're experiencing or what you did at those firms or what they experienced, and then what you wanna build in the future is, you know, you, maybe you do want it to be a family business, but you also want it to be a business for everybody who's there. Yeah. I've spoken around the world on different, around specifically the next chapter planning, methodology. But, but also I've been part of and even led, different graduate programs and, and, U of L's, college of Business here, regionally, and I've been talking about for probably 10 years, this transition that's happening just, just globally and that we're leaving the era of what I call the institution, you know, where we rely on one institution to do so many things, and think of, I mean, you think about the huge brands in our lives, apple as a, for instance. I mean, you know, all the different ways that Microsoft, you know, all the different ways that they reach into our lives. Same is true of these of, of the firms in our, in our industry. You, there's just been enormous consolidation. But what's happening now and what I believe will continue to occur is that there is a significant transition to, to the era of what I would call federations. How are we gonna partner aligned strategically, partner, maybe it's an informal partnership or a collaboration. But because nobody's gonna bring down the behemoths. You know, they're, they're gonna be behemoths in different way, but at the same time, there are gonna be pieces and elements, and I firmly believe in the collective that there's, there's a lot more opportunity. I mean, I've been speaking about this for probably five years before I met merchant. you know, our, our permanent equity partner, And just, it's, that's exactly what they built. They built an incredible ecosystem already. and, and that's really, you know, you know, probably some people who may view this, as you would know, Shelby would say, how can this guy in New Albany, Indiana say he is got money to bring, you know, bring, you know, to help, to help. You know, thankfully we have a great permanent equity partner who really is living in, in a shiny example of what the federation model can and should look like and they're doing at an incredible scale. Yeah, it's interesting the federation model because I was just talking to somebody this week and they were thinking about standing up their own RIA, but they also know that they are going to need. next gen advisor training, right? Eventually their kids might wanna enter the business and how are they gonna train 'em up? Right? And the firm that they're with offers that today. So they're like, oh, should I stay? But I really wanna go RIA. How's this gonna work? Well, that kind of federated model is how, I guess, how we solve for that. That's, that's exactly right. And, and you know, at, at a significant scale, merchant merchants doing exactly that. So Yeah, because they have, what is it now? It's 120 ish practices. and we, we were partner firm, I think number 17, if, if memory My goodness, that was very early. Yeah. You jumped on the we're early adopters. What, what can we say? And, and, you know, so thrilled. I mean, just, you know, incredible people, top to bottom. And, I mean, it's, we're privileged to be a part of their, part of their team and, and, really value all that they bring to us. I think there is such an interesting model in terms of merchant being able to provide that capital, being able to provide just some top-notch talent at the very top that then is able to be filtered down to all of those practices that they're influencing and have in. And sort of their model. So super interesting. So, Vaughn, this has been a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate you being here and on the podcast. As you probably know, we always love to end with just a few little quick hit kind of questions for you. so let's do a, a quick lightning round. what is one thing that you wish you knew earlier as a founder? I, I, I'll say I, I've founded it in other businesses and other industries, which, which also gave me a lot of insights, I would say in this industry. I, I completely underestimated the heroic efforts it takes and, and the team that you have to assemble. to truly run and operate an independent RIA properly, I totally underestimated it. Interesting. What is like one of those team members, that has just proven to be truly critical? Is it like your chief compliance officer? Is it. well, comply. I mean, always comp you have to start with comply. I mean, you, you just, and, and not in the ways that a lot of the, the other places that she'll remain nameless, like to beat us around the head and neck with it. but, but it's really, it protects everybody, you know, protects the clients, protects the reputation of the firm, but it needs to be, you know, common sensical. So that one, that one is, is really, but, but it's really just the. It's, it's not just one, it's the number of roles somebody's gotta do the compliance. Somebody also has to deal with the tech stack. Somebody else has gotta deal with, you know, there, there, it just, the list goes on and on. And oh, by the way, are you monitoring, you know, proper, you know, employment regulations and every. Every community that you operate in. And then when you have somebody work remotely, but technically they spend more time in Colorado than they do in Kentucky, you know, you better make sure that you know, it, it, the list goes on and on. So it truly takes a, a, a much bigger team, than than I ever anticipated. I was naive to think you could outsource and it would all work out. You know, after going through our first exam with an outsource CCO, you know, I'm now the CCO and I, and I won't make that mistake again. It just, it won't happen. I mean, it, it, it's very, very, it, it, there's so much more to it and so many more challenges than, than, Yeah. any, anybody really realizes. I appreciate that comment. I think that's a really, insightful comment. It's one that people really do struggle with, especially in those first few years and getting their legs under them, so I can appreciate that very much. Alright, another kind of lightning round question is, what is one underrated tool or resource that helps you lead Yeah, I will take Blinkist. Blinkist the app, Blinkist the app, you know, so many leaders like, have you read this book? Have you read that book? Have you read this book? Have you read that book? You know, and then they, everybody gets excited and they wanna, okay, well they told me I need to read this book and then I gotta read that book. Well, Blinkist and, and again, thankfully knowing, especially in the family office, family enterprise space, knowing many authors of books that have. Gain prominence globally. There, there's a recipe around how books are written. Well, Blinkist essentially, you know, is cracked the code on. It's the old Cliff notes. For those of us who remember Cliff sure. in 10 or 15 minutes, you can listen to a book chapter by chapter. Or you can read it chapter by chapter. Either way now some get up to 20 minutes, but, and, and there are so many, just about the time that a book really gains popularity, it's available on Blinkist. And so it's, it's a great tool I've found so that people can invest in a single drive that can learn what would normally have taken 'em a week or two weeks sometimes. To read a book by the time you're balancing, you know, family and, and friends and you know, all the other things that, that go along with it. And so it's, a fantastic tool. And then I'll send, members of our team blanks, which, you know, you just send a link to the, to the new book. And, and it's, and in OneDrive they get, they get to, and then we can talk about it. Ah, that's, that's fantastic. I will have to use that 'cause I have. Constantly a big stack of books that I haven't quite gotten to. and I am doing some audio books, but yeah, that's almost like a podcast and you get the whole book. That's fantastic. Alright. What's one guiding principle as you build a hundred year firm? Great question by the way. love, love that question. and it's interesting 'cause I think it also points to the difference in what most. Firms, most firms that are recruiting other advisors and teams right now are doing, they're really focused on growth. Like their whole focus is around growth. And eventually that's gonna result in some kind of an exit. Or they're, you know, we're gonna get higher, multiple, you know, that's the sales pitch. I'm a firm believer in that we have to focus on retention. How do we retain our clients? And most importantly, especially now, how do we ensure that we build meaningful relationships with the next generation? And so. It's if you're going to build a hundred year firm, you better be focused on retention, not growth. Yeah. Super interesting. grow. You'll grow through that process. As well and much more. More of it will be organic, but I'm even more excited about probably seven, 10 years from now. because when you play the long game, those are the things you look forward to when the overwhelming majority of folks have advisors that were chosen for them that they didn't choose. And I like our odds when we get to that phase. Absolutely. Vaughn, thank you so much. You shared your story, the strategy, the heart behind kind of what you're building. What's one way our, kind of our last question of the day, what's one way that you are living an off script life today? That's it. You know, interestingly enough, I, I surprised my daughter and, and my wife. My daughter got married, in May. And, I've never sung, in public before. So I did two songs with a band, and, and. I think it surprised a lot of people, in the process. what's interesting is, is, and again, this is next generation, like the older generations are like, wow, you sung two songs. The younger generation, they're like, dude, you stage dived off the stage at the end of the, I mean, that was epic. I mean, you know, they're just, you know, that's what they couldn't believe. And so, since I'm a band member now, riffing on that, as they would say, I, I actually ordered a guitar recently and so I'm gonna start, I'm gonna take up guitar and, spend a little bit of time, learning how to do that. Oh, I love it. Oh, that's so fantastic. Well, that is it for today's episode of Advisors Off Script. Vaughn, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me, Shelby. I really appreciate it. Appreciate you and, excited, excited about the future for all of us. And so for our listeners, if this conversation sparked something in you, if you're leading a firm advising a family, looking for a mission with meaning, Check out Axiom. Share our podcast with a colleague, and stay tuned. This isn't just a podcast. We got some really nice. Playbook examples today, So Vaughn, thank you so much