Feedback

I wrote this on Sunday, October 27th. I said I’d write at least weekly, didn’t I?

Carey and I are 10 days into starting Herlaar Wealth Management. It’s been a whirlwind. I originally wanted to write a post explaining how the last 10 days have felt like both five minutes and five years, but I won’t. Ten days is too short a time. I’ll save that explanation for October 18th of 2025.

Instead, I’ll write about the feedback we’ve received so far.

Re. our website.

“Proactive beats reactive is overused in branding/marketing today,” and “You sound way too casual.”

I agree. Clichés lose impact, and “proactive” has been worn out. But the reason I wanted it as one of our three core tenets is because it holds us accountable in a lot of different ways. From a client service perspective, if we’re ever reactive, you get to let us know—and feel free to give us a hard time when it happens. By the way, it will happen. As much as I like to think we’ll be perfect, we won’t be.

It also applies to financial planning, investment management, risk management, the list goes on. We don’t want to react to things because reacting isn’t a plan. It’s an unnecessary outcome.

I want to sound casual. Nothing scares me more than taking myself too seriously.

Re. moving to Raymond James.

“Why?”

I wasn’t running from something. I was running to something. I have nothing but good things to say about my previous firm. I loved the ten and a half years I was there and will continue speaking with many colleagues regularly and for years to come.

Why then? I’m 37. I have at least another 25 years to dedicate to my career. I don’t think I’ll ever retire, but that’s a discussion for another time. I want to build a business that allows me to treat and care for clients exactly how I think and how they deserve to be treated. Much of that boils down to being able to communicate in my own unique way. Being able to just write a post like this is why I decided to join Raymond James. They allow me to communicate this way.

Re. learning a whole system.

“You talk about being proactive but even you don’t know what some of this process will look like,” and “You’re not replying as quickly as usual.”

I have high standards in business. It’s been 10 days, and already Carey and I are at least 100x better than we were on day one. But we still don’t know the new systems we’re working with all that well. Thankfully, we have a team of four helping us along the way. I’ll write about them in the future too. They have been great (even though the team leader is a Tottenham Hotspur fan).

Our client relationship management system is currently a spreadsheet and a lot of pieces of paper.

Things will get better quickly, but I can assure you that I will always get back as soon as I possibly can, every single time.

So here we are, 10 days in, taking feedback and criticism (direct and constructive) to heart and figuring it out one day, one hour at a time. If you’re reading this, you’re part of this journey too—holding us accountable and giving us the encouragement we need. It’s early days, and we’re just getting started. Thank you for being part of this with us.

Here’s to sticking with at least one post a week.