John Swolfs with Advisor Circle

Intro: [00:00:05] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Saint Louis, Missouri. It’s time for Saint Louis Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:18] Hello, great listeners, and welcome to Doc’s Discussions here on Saint Louis Business RadioX. My name is Dr. Phillip Hahn and we always strive to have really fun guests who are inventive and really taking over the leadership mantle in their space. And this episode is no different. So I’ve got with me the Chief Content Officer and co-founder for Advisor Circle, John Swolfs. John, how are you today?

John Swolfs : [00:00:44] I’m doing great, thank you for for having me. Excited to to be joining you today and really looking forward to our conversation.

Phillip Hearn: [00:00:50] I am as well. I’ve been looking forward to this. So thanks for thanks for joining us. So always like to get a background. We know where you are and we’ll talk a bit more about that in the discussion. But tell me more about your background and your upbringing. How did how did we get to the john of today? What does that look like?

John Swolfs : [00:01:06] Yeah, that’s I mean, that’s a great question and probably a super long question. So there’s a couple different ways to to tackle that. You know, probably first and foremost, I grew up outside of New York City, in Westchester, stayed in New York, you know, through through college, went to SUNY Albany, where I studied history. The minor in education kind of had a thinking that that maybe I wanted to be a teacher. My mom was a teacher for 30 plus years, the New York school system. So that was sort of the direction that I had traveled. But through that, I’ve always been a huge baseball fan. Whether that was playing the game, whether that was, you know, working in and around the game. So I decided that after college I wanted to try to become a professional umpire. So I went down to a school down in Florida. The Harry Wendelstedt School of Umpiring took the six week course that they have down there. About 180 folks go down to it. They select about the top 20, 15 to 20 or so, folks. And then you go on to to another level. I unfortunately was not selected while I was down there, so I didn’t get kind of through that that first round. But my my love of baseball and wanting to be a part of the game never diminished. So so come back up from Florida and figure out how I can can work in baseball and was lucky enough to have a family connection that knew the Wilpons who at the time were the the current owners of the New York Mets and they had a minor league team out in Brooklyn.

John Swolfs : [00:02:30] They said, Hey, throw your resume into the pile with everybody else. They’re getting ready to do their seasonal hiring. I was lucky enough to get selected and work a season out in Coney Island for the Brooklyn Cyclones. And while I was there, I just sort of asked the general manager of that squad like, Hey, how do you stay involved in baseball? They said, You got to go down to the winter meetings. I went to the winter meetings and then just through, you know, general connections with the Mets and stuff, they have a their spring training facilities in Port Saint Lucie. The general manager of Brooklyn was close friends with the general manager in Port Saint Lucie. He thought I’d be a good fit for that job, went down and worked for a year for the Mets in Port Saint Lucie, doing everything literally from, you know, selling outfield signs to writing game day agendas to to wearing the mascot suit for slander of the dog driving players to the airport. So you really get this amazing exposure to how businesses run and all of the things that that goes into to trying to make an operation, you know, look like it’s running smoothly to the public when behind the scenes, you know, I forgot to hire a game day staff that day to wear the mascot suit.

John Swolfs : [00:03:39] So so now I’m wearing the mascot suit in those sort of things. So, you know, from there I then, you know, I did that for a year. Long story short, my now wife was in New Jersey. I was down in Florida. Long distance relationship just felt like it was more important for me to be back up in the tri state area. So I went back up, moved to to New Jersey and started working in Merrill Lynch’s Financial advisory Center in Pennington, New Jersey. And then from there, you know, did like a year or two in the call center and then went on to the internal wholesaling job with iShares and BGI and then BlackRock. And from there I joined Index Universe in 2012 where I started writing agendas, writing content, being involved in events. And you know, ten years later, here I am, a co-founder of Advisor Circle, one of the leading events businesses in the industry, creating, you know, awesome types of events. With Futureproof, we helped create the exchange event that ran in February of 2023, a couple of weeks ago, as well as the inaugural one in April of 2022. So long story short, yeah, I started off in baseball and now I’m, you know, creating events for financial advisors so you can see the direct line and how one would end up here.

Phillip Hearn: [00:04:54] Yeah, exactly. It’s a it’s a complete direct line, right?

John Swolfs : [00:04:57] Yeah, absolutely. I’m surprised more people aren’t on the path.

Speaker4: [00:05:00] Yeah. I mean, what are they doing? Feel like they’re being slackers? No, I’m teasing.

Phillip Hearn: [00:05:03] So I did read up about you looking to become a major league. I’m kind of geeking out. So when I was in high school in college, I was an umpire. So I’ve heard of that actual school that you talk about. Harry Wendelstedt school. What? Take me a little bit. Let’s go back a step. Take me a little bit through that experience itself. How did you know you wanted to be an I know you said you had a love for baseball, but most people, when they say they have a love for baseball, they’re going, Hey, I want to be a pitcher or a center fielder or a shortstop, not I want to be the guy behind the plate or calling at the bases. What? Take me through how you got to that particular point.

John Swolfs : [00:05:37] Yeah. So I’ll paint a picture for for your audience. So those that that are unable to see me, I’m closer to 2582262. So one the physical size there to play any and all of those positions you mentioned wasn’t there. So after about sophomore year of high school, I sort of realized like, hey, you’re probably not going to be able to to play this sport sort of professionally. And from there, I just wanted to figure out how I sort of stayed involved with the game. And through that it just kind of became like, Hey, what’s something you can do? And umpiring was something that that became of interest to me. I started doing high school games, I started doing college games. I started doing, you know, summer woodbat men’s and college games, which were really exciting. And I felt that one, I was decent at it and two, I enjoyed it and I didn’t mind being out there. Obviously it does come with a little bit of grief, as we all know. You know, you’re always making 50% of the people upset. 50% of the people are happy with you. But but once you can move on from that and not really worry about it, the more you do it, it just becomes sort of second nature and reflexive. And that’s what I really liked about it. When I got to that point of really doing more of the sophisticated, you know, college games, they’re quick. It’s well played baseball and it’s a lot of fun. And that’s sort of what kind of cemented my interest to want to continue to do it and try to do it professionally.

Speaker4: [00:07:06] That’s amazing. I love it. I love it. Yeah.

John Swolfs : [00:07:08] And you want to hear about your your stories there, You know, What made you give it up or stop. Maybe you still do it.

Speaker4: [00:07:15] No. So I gave it up right after college myself, but I enjoyed it.

Phillip Hearn: [00:07:19] It was fun. So it was one of the summer jobs that I had when I turned 14. So you could be young enough to still be an umpire and an umpire game. So I’ve umpired everything from preschool games all the way through like freshman, you know, fall ball type games. So I enjoyed the process. I was still playing even during that time in high school. But again, I’m a big sports nut. So that was that was an easy job for me. And and they paid me. So I went, oh, okay, I get paid to talk and coach, you know, and umpire baseball. Excuse me. So I was like, this is a no brainer. Let’s do it. So, yeah, but you’re right, that 50% piece is 100% correct. You’re going to make someone mad. So it’s almost like you got a full crash course on conflict resolution, Right? Because someone was upset at almost every call that you made. So, yeah, it was it was definitely interesting, to say the least. So. So what all did you learn, uh, when when you look at baseball and again, you have a natural love for it, right? So growing up in the New York area, you’re a mets fans, not a mets fan, not a Yankee fan. So did pick that up?

John Swolfs : [00:08:27] Any fan? Let that be known. I am a Yankee fan. I think that’s what made it easier to work in baseball was the Mets. And not being a fan of the team. Now I support the Mets, having worked there in that sort of stuff, and I do like the organization. But you know, certainly if they were on the field playing each other, I would be, you know, pulling for the Yankees, you know, wholeheartedly.

Phillip Hearn: [00:08:45] Okay. All right. So, see, that’s interesting because you might be one of the only folks in the tri state area that that likes the Mets but still can root for the Yankees. So with all of your experiences in baseball, how did you take what you learned and that and you talked about that experience in Port Saint Lucie, where you’ve been everything from the game day staff to the mascot, which I’m going to need pictures for that. I’m just saying we’re going to have to keep this time. I don’t know.

John Swolfs : [00:09:10] If there’s any more slide of the dog pictures. And besides, I’d be behind the mask, so you’d never know. But we’ll see if we can dig something up for you.

Phillip Hearn: [00:09:17] Yeah, just to say we knew somebody in the suit, right? Yeah. Very true. So what what did you take from all of those experiences being basically in every position, working with that that minor league team with the Mets? How did you translate that into your passions and your focuses when you talk about business?

John Swolfs : [00:09:37] Yeah, absolutely. So I think there’s a couple things that you can take away from it. One is sort of the the humbling nature of it, right? That, you know, the no matter what the job is or what the role is, if you do it and do it well, it’s helping the organization and it’s helping to advance things. So, you know, don’t think that you’re ever above any sort of job that that may be offered. I mean, some of the jobs are super fun, like, you know, getting to go and, you know, drive a player to the airport. That’s a lot of fun because you’re talking to, you know, a professional baseball player, you know, taking some of the guys to the local elementary schools and those sorts of things. That’s a lot of fun. To do those sort of things. But then, you know, having to to do some of the stuff behind the scenes where, you know, a game starts at 7:00 at night, we worked a typical 9 to 5 and then between 5 to 7 we got ready for the game. So you understand it’s a really long day. So you really hone in on your work ethic. It’s something that you like to do. So it doesn’t always feel like work, even though you’re tired and exhausted. So there was that element that I really kind of as a first job out of college, was super long hours. So it helped establish a pretty strong work ethic from that standpoint.

John Swolfs : [00:10:48] So, you know, in business, anything that you’re doing, it’s going to take time, effort and energy. So you better be committed to that grind. If you’re not, it’s going to show. So that was something that you definitely saw and you saw it even like in taking inspiration from the players that you saw coming in at, you know, 9:00 in the morning to to work out and be around and at the field knowing they didn’t have a game until until 7:00 and what they were doing to grind to try to be a professional. You see that, you know, at every level or no matter what you’re doing that you have to you have to work hard. So there’s the humility part to it. The other thing that I learned from it is like, be excited about what you’re doing as well, right? So you can be humble about it, but you know, be excited. Be be a cheerleader for your own team. Be a cheerleader and try to get folks into the stands. Try to make sure that the folks are having a great time while you’re you’re there. And then the other thing that you take away from that is like the little things matter. So if you can help a fan out that might be having a a rough moment or something didn’t go their way and you can solve their problem no matter how big or small it is. It feels like the world to them.

John Swolfs : [00:11:53] And you’d be surprised, you know, like somebody’s having a bad experience or they thought they were supposed to have tickets here and they’re not together. And you solve that, you know, you’ll see them three weeks later at the game and they’ll come up and say, Hi, how you doing? Thank you again for that and those sort of things. So you understand that, you know, customer service really matters. You understand that if you treat every person and every individual as if their problem right there is the most important thing for you. They feel that. So those were kind of the three things that I really learned in being down in baseball and working there. And the other one is that it rains every day at about 4:00 in Florida. So you better get ready to run out in the field and pull the tarp on to to the field before it floods, which is never my favorite because it had like snakes and mice and stuff all wrapped up in it. And that stuff is not for me, but that’s part of doing the roles and jobs that you may not be all that excited for, but you know, you just got to get out there and do it because that’s what the the job requires. So yeah, a lot, a lot of different things. But most of it is, you know, very core business, basic things and a lot of attitude as well.

Speaker4: [00:12:57] Absolutely. And I love.

Phillip Hearn: [00:12:58] The humility and the customer service aspects that you talk about, too. I think a lot of people, again, would just hear that you worked in baseball, but you were in all the inner workings, including and not not excluding pulling out the tarp. Right? So, yeah, yeah. I don’t know if it’s got snakes and all that stuff in there. I think I’m out too. I think it’d be cool to pull out the tarp once just to say I’ve done it. But yeah, I’m with you. If it’s, if it’s got all that in there, I’m out.

Speaker4: [00:13:23] I’m good. I’d rather not.

John Swolfs : [00:13:25] Absolutely. It does. It does teach you a lot. And what you really learn is minor league baseball is nothing like the the big leagues and that sort of stuff. Like we had a permanent staff of maybe 6 to 7 people. And then we brought in like, you know, 20 plus workers to kind of help us get through the games to like take tickets and do those sort of things and be ushers and that sort of stuff. But it really was about 6 or 7 of us that were were doing a lot of the, you know, the heavy lifting to, to make sure that everything ran the way that it was supposed to, which was, you know, at times, you know, very trying and at times an amazing experience. I guess the one other takeaway I’d have from it is, I think, you know, after doing a season in Brooklyn and then a year in Port Saint Lucie, to me, I think I realized that, hey, if I wasn’t going to be on the field, I’d rather be in the seats and watching the game and being a fan of the game. And I think that’s really important as well because you don’t want to get stuck doing things that you might not enjoy because then those little customer complaints feel like they’re a nuisance to you and you don’t want to tackle them with the same zeal, energy and smile that you would. So it’s not one of those like, Hey, hang on to your dreams type of thing and it’ll come true. To me, it was more like, Hey, I think this is this has had its run and I enjoyed this quite a bit. But you know, the woman I’m in love with is, you know, 1800 miles away up in New Jersey. And I just think, you know, this has run its course type of stuff. And I don’t know that that’s necessarily a business lesson, but it was a very good life lesson for me as well.

Speaker4: [00:15:01] Well, I think that’s important, though, too. I mean, if you’re.

Phillip Hearn: [00:15:03] Losing the zeal, the zest for something and the zeal, as you mentioned, getting out of it when you understand that, I think is an extremely important piece, one that.

Speaker4: [00:15:13] I would say a lot of.

Phillip Hearn: [00:15:14] Maybe missed that.

Speaker4: [00:15:16] That opportunity or almost that calling to move to the next thing. Right. So I think.

Phillip Hearn: [00:15:20] That’s extremely important. So I’m really glad you shared that. So you make the transition from baseball now you head more into fiscally focused jobs, right? So you talked about your time at BlackRock. You talked about your time at Inside ETF. Tell us a little bit more about that transition, what that looked like and.

Speaker4: [00:15:39] What were some of those learning processes after leaving the baseball room?

John Swolfs : [00:15:43] Yeah, absolutely. So the first job I landed was with Merrill Lynch in their financial advisory center, and that was just a huge education and sort of understanding, you know, stocks, bonds, commodities, ETFs, an asset allocation, you know, understanding we’d be taking calls from inbound clients who typically, you know, may have been, you know, with an advisor in a branch that, you know, wasn’t quite the size that the advisor should be focusing on anymore. So, one, you had to learn to kind of ask the right questions, sort of understand what their goals, their objectives were. So I think I got a bit of a crash course in sort of what it was like to to be a financial advisor without having to, you know, go out there and try and grow my own book, but certainly understand a lot of those challenges. So what I learned there again, was one that kind of core investment, you know, time horizon outside of assets, risk tolerance, all of those sort of things. And what was really interesting is that when I went over to to iShares and internal wholesaling position, you know, I was sort of able to put my shoes very much into the or put myself in the shoes of the advisor that I was talking to on the phone and understanding some of the challenges that they may have had in their, their business. And in 2007, when you’re talking to an advisor with, you know, 25 years of experience and you’re telling them sell out of your mutual funds and buy ETFs, you know, they’re laughing you off the phone saying, John, you’re probably younger than my business is old right now.

John Swolfs : [00:17:06] Put my kids through college. What are you going to tell me about investing? And, you know, here we sit 15 years later and, you know, ETFs are gathering assets at record paces every single year, outdoing mutual funds. So it was really cool to be on the innovative side of finance as well and sort of leading the charge for for what is a you know, to some extent in my opinion, my opinion and my view, just a more efficient and better way to be invested in an ETF in general. So that was really interesting. And then you just learn again like, Hey, I covered advisors in the wirehouse in New York City. Then I had an opportunity to move to San Francisco and cover RIAs and understand that those worlds are completely different. So that when I got the opportunity to sit in the seat that I am now, whether that have been, you know, back in the days at Inside ETFs or now with the advisor circle and creating the future proof event is you can really understand the types of content and the types of challenges that those advisors have. And I think that’s one of the things that really helps set advisors circle apart from other traditional events companies, is we’ve had people that have come from the industry that have sat in those seats that understand those real life challenges that advisors are facing and want to provide real solutions rather than just create content.

Speaker4: [00:18:23] Yeah, that’s that’s absolutely.

Phillip Hearn: [00:18:25] Fantastic itself too. And and your unique experience of being in a full leadership position from the from going from that that crazy stretch of 2007 all the way to now. And at that particular point, being a VP and a CEO of Inside ETFs. I mean that that’s an interesting step just because you’ve got a chance.

Speaker4: [00:18:48] To kind of.

Phillip Hearn: [00:18:49] Re-experience what you did in baseball, it sounds like, too, right, in terms of really maximizing all the different components. You understood the business from soup to nuts By the time you got to getting into advisory circle from what it sounds like to me.

John Swolfs : [00:19:03] Yeah, absolutely. Certainly, you know, you know, everything from writing content to sourcing speakers to working with vendors to to everything that that you need to do in order to to bring an event to life. I’ve had the opportunity to, you know, see all of that and experience that in numerous different ways. So it did allow me to sit and in the advisor circle hat that I have now and really have confidence in what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do. And then part of that as a leader is understanding who are the right people to go out and support you, to do those sorts of things and making sure that you have the right team, the right people in place. And I think that, you know, far and away sometimes exceeds the knowledge that might be in one person’s head because, you know, one person can only do so much, but a team can do a whole lot. And I think that’s one of the best things that we’ve been able to do at Advisor Circle is bringing people with a great set of experience, a great set of skills that know and understand our industry as well as being able to complement those folks with the different skill sets that you need, whether that be on a creative side or whether that be on a sales side. Um, or whether that be on a logistical standpoint. You know, we’ve been able to, you know, add complementary pieces across the team over the past, you know, two plus years that we’ve been around now to get to a team of 12 that is a, you know, just one of the best teams in the industry that I can think of and excited to to be working with those guys every day.

Speaker4: [00:20:34] That’s amazing. I love it. So as you then talk.

Phillip Hearn: [00:20:37] About Advisor Circle, tell our listeners a bit more about the mission and the purpose of.

Speaker4: [00:20:43] The company. I know you talked a bit about it through our conversation so far, but we really want to drill down on that and have a better understanding because it sounds like you guys are doing amazing work.

John Swolfs : [00:20:52] Yeah, I think it can be really simplified. So one, we’re a product studio that’s looking to humanize financial services. So, you know, what does that mean? It means that, you know, financial services for for far too long sort of use the the oak desk and jargon to kind of keep a distance between themselves and their clients and making sure that sometimes, whether it be advisors or whether it even be the traditional asset managers, that they kind of kept the seat of authority. And we believe that, you know, the culture around finance is changing. It’s tech driven, it’s more inclusive, it is going in a more human direction. And we just want to bring out that that human connection, whether that be in how you interact at an event, whether that be how you speak at an event, whatever it might be. We want it to feel like it’s part of your DNA, that it’s not forced and that we can help people make this human connection. So I know it probably sounds, you know, a little like pie in the sky and that sort of stuff, But but you’d be surprised how quickly you can humanize something just by being your authentic self. And that’s really what we’re trying to do. And we just want to help financial services get there a little bit quicker.

Speaker4: [00:21:57] Absolutely. That’s fantastic.

Phillip Hearn: [00:21:59] So let me ask you the direct question in your current position. So you’re a co-founder, chief content officer. What motivates you in your current position and responsibilities?

John Swolfs : [00:22:11] Yeah. So one obviously, like I said, is the team that we have, right? Obviously, you know, when you’re a leader, you feel that pressure to not want to let folks down and make sure that you’re doing the best for the business and the best for them. So so that’s that’s motivating. And then I do think that right now we’re we’re in a seat where, you know, folks have seen that we were able to innovate and do something different. So that motivation drives me to make sure that we continue to to widen that moat, if you will, and continue to be the trendsetter, the tastemaker, those that the industry is looking to, to learn from and follow. And that’s really, really motivating from where I sit is, you know, you want to continue to make sure that you you hold your spot as a as an industry leader and that that can really, really wear on you or it can really motivate you. And our team really has a way of using that to motivate ourselves and not let that be a barrier. But, but more of a motivation tool.

Speaker4: [00:23:03] That’s fantastic. That’s really cool. Again, it sounds like you guys have some great things.

Phillip Hearn: [00:23:07] Going and something that’s actually coming up is your next future proof event.

Speaker4: [00:23:11] Can you tell our listeners a bit more about it, the dates, what it all will entail?

John Swolfs : [00:23:16] Yeah, absolutely. So September 10th through the 13th, we’re in Huntington Beach, California. It’s a beautiful setting. It’s all outdoors. So we take over a half mile of a parking lot right next to the beautiful Pacific Ocean and we build all of the facilities outside. So you have this half mile boardwalk, if you will. It’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s airy. It feels like you’re at a festival, not at a B2B event. So it allows folks to be, again, their true, authentic selves. So you saw more people walking around in shorts and a golf shirt than you did in suits. You saw people wearing hats of the college that they went to, you know, or teams that they might support that helped spark some conversation. We created a very open environment that that led to people wanting to share. So, again, it’s September 10th through the 13th in Huntington Beach. You can register at Futureproof Dot Advisor circle.com, go ahead and get your ticket. But we continue to to innovate each year. So I’m currently working on, you know, the set of speakers that we’re going to have this year. We just closed our apply to Speak window.

John Swolfs : [00:24:23] We had over 350 applications come in in about a month window. So I have one the unenviable task of going through all of those. But I also have the amazing task of getting to see just how amazing our community is and just what great thought leaders that we have out there, which is really exciting, I would say. And I don’t want to do a commercial, but we do have a price break that ends on Friday. So I think between now and Friday is the the lowest price ticket you have the opportunity to purchase. So I would suggest that folks go and take care of that right away and get themselves in. Our hotel block will sell out. We take over for hotels. They all face the Pacific Ocean. So they’re they’re all fantastic venues. But we did sell out last year. We expect to sell out this year. We’ll probably have, you know, over 3200 attendees on site as well. So you’re going to want to act quick and get your your ticket and your hotel room before the they’re all gone.

Speaker4: [00:25:17] That’s awesome. No, that’s great information.

Phillip Hearn: [00:25:19] So it sounds like that block runs out or that pre ticket sale excuse me runs out on March 3rd. So here just in a few days from this recording itself, correct?

John Swolfs : [00:25:29] Absolutely. March 3rd. Yes.

Speaker4: [00:25:31] Awesome. Sounds good. Very good.

Phillip Hearn: [00:25:33] So last question for you and really thank you so much for your time. This has been a lot of fun. How do our listeners find you and connect with you? What are those ways that they can reach out and and chat with you if they’re interested in learning more about your organization and more about what you’re doing?

John Swolfs : [00:25:48] Yeah, absolutely. So there is LinkedIn. You can just, you know, John Smoltz, you can find me there. That’s Swolfs for those that that are looking for me. Same thing on Twitter. John Swolfs at Twitter, you can find me there. You can find more about Advisor circle at Advisor circle.com and you can certainly email us all from there. And then again, if you go to futureproof dot advisor circle.com, if you have any questions around the content or anything that we’re creating, there’s email addresses there where you can reach out. It comes directly to me. Like I said, we’re we’re a smaller organization, so we, we, you know, personally get involved in all of these sort of things. So that’s a couple different ways that that folks can can reach out to me. I’m happy to connect you on LinkedIn and Twitter. You know, I don’t want to say all day, every day, but but a few times a day. So won’t take long for me to get back to you.

Speaker4: [00:26:38] That’s awesome. John. It’s been a lot of fun to getting to know more about you.

Phillip Hearn: [00:26:42] And and your rise with with working at Advisor Circle. So thank you so much for your time.

Speaker4: [00:26:47] Really appreciate it.

John Swolfs : [00:26:49] Oh, appreciate it. And I guess one last thing I should mention. I might as well do a commercial while I’m here is this Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern. We’ll be doing a live Twitter spaces, sharing updates around Futureproof and just having a really great conversation and giving people an opportunity to see sort of some of the early results and sort of some of the things we’ve been working on as we get to. Of that six month out window from futureproof. So 3 p.m. Eastern. It’s a Twitter spaces hosted by futureproof.

Speaker4: [00:27:19] Absolutely. Yeah. So listeners definitely check that out. This coming Wednesday, 3 p.m. on Twitter spaces. That sounds like it’ll be a very good time. So thank you, John, for sharing.

Phillip Hearn: [00:27:29] And this has been another episode of DAX Discussions. I’m Dr. Philip Hearn and from all of us at Saint Louis Business RadioX, We appreciate it and we’ll see you next time. Thanks.