Ep 070: Taking Leaps Of Faith As An Introverted Career Changer To Build A Successful Advisory Firm with Sue Stevens
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2018
⏱️ 102 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest on today’s podcast has had what I consider one of the most fascinating journeys into the financial services industry. After making several major shifts in her career—which she began as a freelance and professional cellist who played in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra— Sue Stevens founded Stevens Wealth Management, an advisory firm in the Chicago area that serves 150 clients with nearly $350 million in AUM.
In this episode, Sue shares how her unique ability to take leaps of faith led to her leadership roles at Morningstar, Vanguard, Arthur Andersen, and now Buckingham Strategic Wealth. Listen in to hear how she navigated multiple career changes, what she did to craft her own dream job description as the owner of an advisory firm, and her advice for tuning in to your own intuition on your path to success.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/70
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.1 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.5 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.5 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.0 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.6 | Welcome to the 70th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's |
| 0:33.6 | podcast is Sue Stevens. Sue is the founder of Stevens Wealth Management, an advisory firm in the |
| 0:38.5 | Chicago area that serves 150 clients with nearly 350 million in assets under management. What's unique |
| 0:45.0 | about Sue, though, has been her ability to take leaps of faith and making several major shifts in her |
| 0:50.0 | career, both in the decision to launch her own advisory firm to create her own job opportunities, |
| 0:55.2 | major companies like Vanguard and Morningstar, and her decision to enter the financial services |
| 0:59.4 | industry in the first place and eventually get her MBA and become both a CPA, a CFA, |
| 1:04.3 | and a CFP professional after spending her 20s as a freelance and professional cellist who played |
| 1:09.7 | in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. |
| 1:12.0 | In this episode, we talk about the leaps of faith that entrepreneurial financial advisors have |
| 1:17.1 | to take. Why, even as such an entrepreneurial person, Sue still took an entry-level job and |
| 1:21.9 | worked for years in a lower paying apprenticeship position when she started her career change. |
| 1:26.8 | Why building your own self-confidence |
| 1:28.5 | is such an ingredient for success as a financial advisor, and why managing your own personal finances |
| 1:34.0 | is also a crucial ingredient for success, both as an advisor and an entrepreneur who sometimes |
| 1:39.4 | needs to take leaps of faith. We also talk about Sue's own advisory firm, including how she cultivated clients |
| 1:45.5 | over time as an introvert through writing on Morningstar.com, why she started out with a flat fee |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -2523 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Kitces, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Kitces and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.