From the Mound to the Market: Building a Business With Purpose with Jason Bottenfield

[00:00:22] Doug Heikkinen: Can you share a little bit about your personal journey into wealth management and what inspired you to start a career in this area?

[00:00:29] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, it's a great question. It's a little bit of a unique story. I didn't grow up in a family that had money or really dealt with finances from the perspective I could remember as a kid. But I had the opportunity to play a little bit of professional baseball and I was in for a couple of years, blew out my shoulder as a pitcher, blowout's a big term, but had surgery and basically was ineffective at some point. But, I was doing rehab at our spring training facility in Florida and basically out of about a six month period, the last three months, I knew, i'm not going to, have the opportunity to continue to play. I had some mentors within there, Brett Saberhagen being one, 20 year veteran, and I ate breakfast with him every day and he would say, is your arm going to come back? And he said, if it's not, you need to find life after baseball. Don't drag it out.

So I had three months to figure out what I wanted to do. And when you play professional baseball, you see people with money. You see people at young ages, older ages, which in baseball is like 30. But from 18 to 30 there's a different dynamic. And so it was around the time I was drafted in 99, so it was the tech bubble was going on, things like that.

And so I said, look, I want to look into this financial advisory and what that really meant, and I had no idea. So I went to a website called the PrincetonReview.com, and learned what I needed to do and I didn't have a finance degree. I had a, going for a criminal justice degree out of college.

And so I basically, it laid out exactly what it said you needed to do to get in this business. I didn't know anything. And I started calling around to these firms and saying, Hey, I want to get in. And they were like, it doesn't work that way. And I knew I wanted to go into this business.

I knew I had to go back and get my finance degree. So when I left baseball, I went and got my finance degree. And then I started working with a company which was basically, it was, Cit And Citi owned Smith Barney. And so I got in into the mail room in one of their other companies, and I knew if I could get into the mail room, I could get into the email directory as I was finishing my finance degree and I'd be able to email these managers because nobody was giving me the time of day.

They don't know who you are you're 22 or 23. But I did have some life experience playing baseball. That's really how I got into the business was I set out a course of what this website said that financial advisors had as far as a degree, what they needed to read and do. And I set a course, like you would do playing sports, which is you need to have a game plan and then you need to practice it. You need to implement it, and then you just work hard. And so that's how I got into wealth management. I didn't have influences from the outside that said, Hey, this is a place you could have a great career and make a lot of money.

It was really, I had to find something after baseball.

[00:03:28] Doug Heikkinen: Can you tell a little bit about your mindset, from something you want to do as a little boy and you're really successful with, and then is taken away from you? And it probably really had to affect you as a person, such a young person to try to recover from that and move forward.

How did you do that?

[00:03:43] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, no, it's, and that's what sports I think does for people. And I think, you'll see a lot of, whether it's our business or other sales businesses, that sometimes people that played in these, highly competitive sports arenas, we have a lot of humbling moments in our life.

I had one early on in high school playing baseball actually as a freshman, I got cut. And I was a great baseball player. It was, this was like out of the blue. That's essentially what you're asking about now going into wealth management. And then, as a pitcher, you go out there, you think you're great and first pitch of the game, you thought you were going to blow it by this guy and he hits a home run, right?

So there's all these humbling moments and it prepares you over time to be able to take those hits and you know if you take the hit and then get back up, life is always going to be better. I think that's what happens is that people take hits and they feel like, I can't get out of this. I'm never going to be good.

But sports teaches you that if you just keep working your plan, keep dedicated, that's essentially my mindset was there was, look, I was going back to college, essentially had a degree that was finished, but it was in criminal justice. Now I'm going back for finance. I'm two or three years older than the oldest person in college, the normal age range. So I'm like this old guy on campus that doesn't go to the parties, sits in the front of the class, and then all of a sudden I'm on the dean's list, I'm an A student. So I just set this course of action and I think it was all because of my sports background, and that's how it was easy for me.

I wouldn't say it was, you still have to check yourself mentally of, I don't get to play what I wanted to professionally as a kid, but I felt you know what? I mean, what percentage even makes it to the little slice that I got into. So I used that and just said, look, I had an opportunity and I did it the best I could and it didn't work out, but it's not going to take me down.

[00:05:34] Doug Heikkinen: Alright. Let's talk about Park Cities and Steward Partners. You've been at Steward Partners for a while now. After your initial welcome, what were your first impressions and how did you feel about joining the firm and its culture?

[00:05:44] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, we came in 2019, so the firm was, I think we had 10 billion or so in assets.

I was the 102nd advisor. We're up in close to the 300s or something now. So the firm was still small from a relative standpoint. We have 40 billion in assets now. But coming over, we were at a major wirehouse firm. I had spent my whole career there. Never left. It did change hands, firm to firm, from when they got bought by another firm.

But, the culture of what we weren't necessarily running away from something, but we were wanting to always have our own business. And so in our world of wealth management, in some cases, they do make you in these other firms, make you feel like you have your own business. But at the end of the day, they come in and say, look, you don't really own anything. You're working for us. And so when I came over to Steward Partners, that's essentially the reason why we came over was that we had that autonomy that we owned our business, that we could do what we needed to do, and that the firm was going to back us up.

And we needed, we didn't want to make the full jump over to being fully independent, meaning that I had to take care of the light bill, I had to take care of the office bill. Because remember, we're sitting in these major wirehouses where you just come in, and you manage your clients, and everything else gets taken care of.

Steward was the perfect fit, had created that opportunity for us, and when we came over, it's exactly what we fell into. And you had to take the leap of faith. People tell you lots of things. We're in the sales business, they'll tell you whatever it takes, but it really was.

And then also having Raymond James as the custodian really gave us that safety factor of, at that time, nobody really knew Steward Partners. Steward Partners is a great name now. But at the time nobody really knew it. So we had that to fall back on and so that, it was as billed and it's only getting better.

[00:07:37] Doug Heikkinen: So how do you feel you and your partners have been able to grow professionally and personally? Are there any things that stick out to you?

[00:07:45] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, I think from a personal standpoint, just knowing that we're growing a business that we own is, really meaningful, but that's not really why we do our business.

We do it for our clients and we do it for the love of financial planning and investment management. Steward Partners has been so welcoming in that avenue to where if we have an issue or a, not necessarily a problem, but something that we know wouldn't have been able to be done at another firm.

They never say "no." They say, let's see if we can do it. Even though they think that they haven't done it before, they just always explore other avenues to get it done. There's been a handful of instances. And one instance didn't really impact assets under management.

The other one was to the tune of $150 million account that we were able to provide a solution for that couldn't have happened. Really at many firms because it was a specific situation and Steward and the team, and the operations team and everybody went to bat and said, we haven't done this either.

Let's figure it out. And they did. And so that, just having that and knowing that is just so powerful and meaningful that know that they're going to be there for you. And if they can't do it, and look, we're big enough to understand that some things that you want, you can't get. But at least it's not a instant no.

[00:09:08] Doug Heikkinen: How do you feel that your firm and Steward partners stand out in the industry?

[00:09:13] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, I think from a standout comparison, it really is for, at least from where I came from, from one of the big wirehouse firms, is that they've created this independence with infrastructure to where I can do what I love the most, which is financial planning and investment management.

And the standout part of that has grown over the years. So when we came over, that was the big thing was, we just wanted to do our business, do it the way we wanted. Now the firm has so many different channels now, to where if we have advisors that are our friends or that work at these other larger RIA firms that are regional to the Dallas area where I'm at, we have opportunities within Steward that they can, we can provide that same platform to them and the company is just growing and developing into these different channels, and it's just, it's really interesting to see where, there's not a stone or an opportunity that we can't be involved with. And I think that that's just a testament to where Steward's name to where in our industry, we talk to a lot of wholesalers and a lot of different people at these different firms.

And now they all know Steward Partners. So it's putting us into areas to where we couldn't have gone before. And that's just been rewarding from that aspect.

[00:10:29] Doug Heikkinen: So your team emphasizes a boutique, highly specialized approach for complex wealth needs. How does this model benefit your clients and what does the elite service you offer mean?

[00:10:41] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, basically from that standpoint, I'm a certified financial planner and there's a lot more certified financial planners now these days, but I got mine in 2006. I was on the Dallas-Fort Worth planning associations board, and I saw these other, and this is while I was at a wirehouse.

I saw these other financial planning firms regionally and what they were doing with financial planning and wealth management, and you can't invent the wheel, but the way that you can service and provide a different approach was different than what you could have provided at one of these bigger firms because they layer so much compliance and so much other stuff around it that you really can't offer some of this boutique stuff. You see it a little bit in what you might come across as individuals of a hundred, 200, 500 million providing family office type approach. So we're trying to get close to that. But we don't implement estate plans and attorney work and things like that.

But that's really what we mean by boutique is that we're doing the services that we can provide from a financial planning investment standpoint, and then we're coordinating with the other trusted advisors in that client relationship. And I think sometimes that gets missed. And then the other part of that gets missed is that even though it's not something that we get paid on, which is estate planning and tax work, a lot of times what I see is clients get all this stuff done and they pay thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to do.

But they're told they implement it on their own. And so we help them implement it and keep them to the fire because just saying somebody to do it, they may forget, life gets in the way. So that's that boutique approach as to where we're trying to just encapsulate the client and help them through that, these different decisions and processes through their life cycle.

[00:12:22] Doug Heikkinen: The financial industry is evolving and attracting the next generation of advisors are crucial. But you're a young guy but, what are you

[00:12:31] Jason Bottenfield: Youngish.

[00:12:33] Doug Heikkinen: What are you and Steward Partners doing to mentor, attract, and retain, the next gen advisors?

[00:12:39] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah. So I do, I try to do a lot of work on the outside, especially with the financial planning association, but also just trying to cultivate any new individuals that may come into the branch or the firm, or even in symposiums or conferences that we get involved with, having phone calls. But it really is just being out there and available for people to learn from. And I think that's one of the biggest things at Steward Partners is really we're a small family and we're all looking out for each other, not just ourselves. A big firm sometimes is just focused on revenues to where, I'll give advice to, we've had many interns over the years and I, we've had them go get their CFP, do this or do that.

But really telling them, look, you're not stuck here. If you have an opportunity to go somewhere, I'm going to give you the tutelage and that will be of value. This is stuff that I've had to learn over 22 years and I'm giving it to you upfront. It's some things that if you just aren't involved in, it's tough to know what you don't know. And, going through that, I think that's the biggest thing that we can offer. And Steward has open doors about, helping out and being in the community and trying to foster that next gen with committees and things of that nature.

[00:13:54] Doug Heikkinen: Park Cities Group leverages strategic alliances with major financial institutions like Raymond James and Pershing.

How do these partnerships enhance the client experience in your ability to serve complex needs?

[00:14:05] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, so that's a great one and that goes back to this kind of multi custodial focus that the firm has to where we're bringing on different custodians. But for instance, there's, Raymond James is a phenomenal custodian and we just love that we have, majority of our assets custodian there.

But Persing also offers a different avenue. And now I talked a little bit earlier about a complex situation that came up, and it's not to the fault of Raymond James. It's not just. It's just not a business that they're in. So by having that multi custodial opportunity, we were able to do some business at Pershing and they allowed what we needed to do, which, having that flexibility, if you're at a captive firm and they say you can't do it?

You can't do it. And, even if you're a small firm, and so it goes to the point of why would somebody ever want to come to Steward Partners or something like that. Steward Partners has a lot of leverage because of our size. So the conversations that can be had from our operational team, because they are experienced and also we have leverage of assets and size now, that's how things are getting done. And you just can't do that on your own. Even if you thought, if you have a billion or 5 billion in assets, you don't have 40 billion. And so that gives you a different leverage point that as an advisor sitting at the ground level, we're able to access through management and the operational channel.

[00:15:28] Doug Heikkinen: What excites you most about the future of Park Cities Group in Steward Partners? Are there any new initiatives or trends you're particularly passionate about?

[00:15:35] Jason Bottenfield: Yeah, I think the excitement is always there in wealth management. It's kind of a, finance is not that exciting and it can be ups and downs and clients get stressful and things like that.

But, the buzzword these days is ai. Before, it was online advisory services. But technology has been very rewarding in our business and it's constantly enhancing the ability for us to help clients. It's just, over the years from the early two thousands till now, just the opportunity of a client to be able to log in, mess around with some of the planning tools that we have.

We put in the data, we put in the complex information and ask the questions. But for them to go in and do some shorthand modeling on their own, that's something that we've had for probably 10 years in our industry, but it's just going to get better and better. And just the technology applications that are available on how we do our job just enhances the capacity for us to do more and to just really enhance that client relationship. So I think, a lot of people say, look, at some point some AI robot's going to be doing our job. That's impossible because it's behavior, it's emotion.

There's a lot of that goes into money. And so that's really the side that you can't really do with robotics. But the robotics can allow us to have more of those behavioral conversations and more deeper conversations to where we're not sitting there doing Excel spreadsheets and things of that nature.

[00:17:04] Doug Heikkinen: It's going to give you what you need most, which is time.

[00:17:06] Jason Bottenfield: Right. Get your time back. Capacity.

[00:17:09] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. What advice would you give to someone considering a career in wealth management or to an advisor thinking about joining and a firm like Steward Partners? That 22-year-old you today? What's the advice?

[00:17:22] Jason Bottenfield: It's the advice that I always give, which is, you need to continually be focused on working hard. There's nothing going to be easily given to you. Now, if you're an advisor and you're seasoned and you're looking to come over, that's a different conversation. But the 22-year-old me, what I didn't know was probably good for me.

What I did know was is that I just work hard, work hard, work hard, and I always had this mentality of if I'm coming in on a holiday and pitching or doing whatever I was doing in baseball, I knew the other person that was better than me or equal to me wasn't. So I'm getting better than them. So that's the focus that I brought into wealth management was in the early days, right? Now it's a little bit more flexible and I can take vacations and I can be off on the holidays. But when you first come in, you've gotta really think about the, the next two or three years really need to be putting some things on hold. Having some life balance, but try to get that work life balance later on.

If you try to do work life balance early on, unfortunately it's very hard to make it unless you're helped by another team, come in underneath them, or you've come from money. If you came from an avenue like I had, middle class, didn't have a bunch of wealthy friends to bring in, you've gotta really put in that work.

But it's so rewarding because you get paid for your work later on in life in anything you do, whether it's wealth management or any job. And I think right now, if I was the young 22-year-old, which I speak to, I was the president of the investment club at my university when I was finishing my finance degree.

So I go back and I talk to them and I say, Hey, look, here's the real life of this stuff. I'm not here to sell you anything. I'm not here to bring you on as an intern or whatever. I don't have anything to sell you here. I'm here for you to ask questions. And basically what I tell them is that it's not that hard to be better than the other person right now. A lot of people just aren't putting in the extra hard work. And so the 22-year-old, that's all I would say is just keep working and don't think that the results are going to come quick. But the results will come if you just listen and get in front of interesting and smart people that are in the business that you think are successful.

Take a little bit about from both. Because there's, if you had 10 advisors, there's 10 different ways that they're building their business. Take one from each one and try to see what fits for your personality and what you can do. I think from the flip side, as a 48-year-old, and I think, what was I, 42 or so when we moved coming to Steward Partners, it was scary.

We had never moved, right? So, as much baseball and as much humbling as you can do, you build a business and then you just say, it's zero? So, I'm going back to the 22-year-old where I have zero clients. So how do you get past that? But you know that your relationships that you've built, those people are coming over for you.

They weren't stuck at that other wirehouse name. Even though they thought that they were their clients, they were really there for you. And so if you're looking at Steward Partners and all the other due diligence and things that you go through, steward Partners has really created a top notch infrastructure so that you're not going to lose what you had and you're going to bring your clients over.

So I would say, do your due diligence. Talk to people like me, talk to other people in the firm, in the region where you're at. Get some conversations going from that standpoint. But Steward Partners from an infrastructure standpoint and the size we are now is just phenomenal. And, that's exactly what I would tell somebody to move over is, do your due diligence.

Talk to people like me that have been here six plus. There's people who've been here for 10 years. Not everything's perfect everywhere you go. But that's the thing as I go back to, is that they'll, they're trying to make it as good as it can be because we have to deal with regulators and industry. But Steward Partners is really carving that cutting edge and you're seeing it. You're seeing it with, vendors and big asset management firms that want to have conversations with us.

They don't have conversations with people that they don't know. And that's just a big powerful statement. And I have no regrets. I'm so happy that I'm at Steward Partners and I would tell anybody to come over. Okay.

[00:21:20] Doug Heikkinen: Do you still have time to be involved in baseball in some way, shape, or form?

[00:21:24] Jason Bottenfield: I do. I'm actually involved in probably too many things. I'm involved in baseball. I do some hobby racing. I have a Texaco Camaro that, it has a little bit of a national brand in our little space. But yeah, baseball is still the number one passion. But I'm 48. Things are getting a little crinkety.

I've gotta take more Advil before I pitch. it's, at some point it's getting tough, but everybody's getting older that I play with too, so I'm not trying to go play against 18 and 25 year olds, but, yeah. Yeah. It's fun. It's fun. It's all about just having fun in anything you do.

[00:21:58] Doug Heikkinen: Yeah. Jason, thanks so much for joining us.

[00:21:59] Jason Bottenfield: Thanks for having me.

[00:22:00] Doug Heikkinen: To learn more about Steward Partners, please visit stewardpartners.com. We are on all social media platforms @Advisorpedia. Please give us a follow. For our producer Tory Miller and everyone at Advisorpedia, thank you so much for listening.