2024 GWBC LACE Awards: Meredith Moore with Artisan Financial Strategies

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from the Georgia Aquarium at the GWBC 2024 LACE Awards. I’m so excited to be talking to my next guest, Meredith Moore with Artisan Financial Strategies. Welcome.

Meredith Moore: Thanks. Good to be here. Good to see you again.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, great seeing you. For folks who aren’t familiar, tell us a little bit about Artisan. How are you serving folks?

Meredith Moore: Absolutely. So, basically, we’re a full-service financial advisory firm. But most people that come to us, they already have a CPA, they already have an investment person or insurance professional and a trusted estate attorney, but nobody’s talking. Balls are getting dropped, and so we’re jumping in and coordinating. And our sort of market that we’re primarily serving are entrepreneurs and C-suite. But I doubled down in 2017, and so it’s women, it’s women entrepreneurs and women in senior leadership.

Lee Kantor: So, you’re kind of the quarterback of their kind of financial future?

Meredith Moore: Exactly. I’m sitting in CPA meetings. I’m sitting in attorney meetings. But we’re also scenario testing, looking at various financial strategies – go figure – getting at what’s possible.

Lee Kantor: And so, it goes beyond just an investment portfolio?

Meredith Moore: Absolutely. That’s simply an implementation or an execution of a big picture master plan as the quarterback. So, building the map, the plan, and then the execution, certainly maybe insurance or investments, but a lot of times it’s a lot of legal work, too, and some retooling on accounting and entity structures, and things like that.

Lee Kantor: Now, the folks that you’re dealing with, are they open to this type of relationship because it’s a little untraditional. Usually they have different siloed experts that really don’t talk well with each other.

Meredith Moore: That’s exactly right. So, that’s why I have a whole business and that’s why I get hired. It’s how do we create differentiation in our space, and that’s what I’ve done.

Lee Kantor: So, now you do this as a kind of a fee, like they’re just paying a retainer for your services?

Meredith Moore: Exactly. Right. I charge them a monthly consulting fee. And then, after that first year, once we figure kind of the general plan, we figure out what needs to be implemented to handle that. And then, typically their projects that aren’t completed, life is dynamic, things pop up, businesses are constantly changing, so we relook for the next year what’s the scope, what are the projects that need to be done, and charge commensurate with that.

Lee Kantor: Now, are they typically still working when they’re beginning to work with you or they retired?

Meredith Moore: Oh. No. So, I don’t really work with a lot of retirees anymore. It’s they own businesses, usually starting around 5 million in rev or household income. If they’re on the corporate side, it’s half-a-million dollars. So, they have advisors and they’re very much working in their business and trying to move towards an exit. So, in those engagements, it’s what do we need to do to get ready for that? And then, it’s almost like project management, because every scope I do is so different client to client.

Lee Kantor: Now, are they asking you kind of as a business coach, almost, or a financial coach?

Meredith Moore: It’s financial because the reality is a lot of people – take this crowd here at GWBC, there aren’t many financial advisors that understand entrepreneurship. Well, you know, I’m a business owner just like you all. I’ve been running a seven figure plus business for the better part of five, six years, even though I’ve been in practice for 25 years, so I understand the issues of people, strategy, execution, and cash. So, it certainly positions me even more not just doing it professionally, but living it as well.

Lee Kantor: So, when you made that pivot, how difficult was that transition for you or did it just kind of organically occur?

Meredith Moore: That’s always what we were doing. But I increased minimums, so some of the issues, instead of being more broad, they became more myopic in the same issues over and over again with these two sort of groups of people, if you will.

Lee Kantor: So then, once you made that transition, now you kind of have a true north. It’s kind of clearer who you serve and how you serve them. So, now, it’s just a matter of just finding more folks.

Meredith Moore: Right, exactly.

Lee Kantor: So then, what brings you to this event tonight?

Meredith Moore: So, after knowing about WBENC and GWBC for a long time, I couldn’t figure out why do I need to do this, how does this monetize my business.

Lee Kantor: Right. What’s the ROI?

Meredith Moore: What does it give me that I don’t already have? Yeah. I mean, I’ve been in practice for 25 years. And so, I had a friend of mine, were both on the board of EO or Entrepreneurs’ Organization here in Atlanta, and she built her business on a relationship with Chick-fil-A, really, through WBENC. And so, she’s like, okay, you got to do this maybe for the corporate contracts, but also for the network. And I was still a little skeptical, so I literally was at this event a year ago with her. I was on the verge of finishing the certification. I met Roz, certification got done within a week – go figure.

Lee Kantor: Good for you, that’s a record.

Meredith Moore: Yeah. Well, with the business I’m in, like, procuring all those documents, I know what they are, I know where they are, I know how to do it.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, exactly.

Meredith Moore: So, that wasn’t that heavy a lift. So, I did that, and then I wanted to understand the ecosystem more, so I went to the National conference, which was kind of bold because I didn’t know a single person, but I wanted to understand it and really what it was about, and it went well.

Meredith Moore: And I’ve started a dinner series called Rich Conversations that I do here in Atlanta for women entrepreneurs usually that are, again, doing at least 2 to 3 million plus. And it’s casual. We talk about issues that we’re dealing with in our business and we’re dealing with personally. And it’s all women, of course, and certainly other GWBC members that I know fit that criteria, I invite. And we’ve been doing that every month for the last year or so.

Lee Kantor: Now, are you going beyond just this RPO to the other ones around the country?

Meredith Moore: I haven’t yet. I’m still figuring it out.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. So, if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the best way to connect?

Meredith Moore: So, website is www.artisanfsonline.com, and message through there.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Meredith, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Meredith Moore: Thank you, Lee.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor, we’ll be back in a few at GWBC 2024 LACE Awards.