The WealthTech Podcast

M & A Minefields: What Advisors Miss in Tech Integrations | Linda Bready

Mark Wickersham Season 2 Episode 7

What really happens when advisory firms merge—and the tech doesn’t play nice?

In this episode of The WealthTech Podcast, Mark Wickersham sits down with Linda Bready for a candid conversation about the real-world challenges advisors face during M&A activity and post-deal integration. With decades of experience navigating complex tech ecosystems, Linda shares her frontline perspective on why so many integrations fail—and what advisors need to know to avoid the common pitfalls.

The discussion dives into the cost of poor data, the disconnect between executive vision and operational reality, and the overlooked human element in tech transitions. Linda highlights practical lessons for advisors who are evaluating new platforms, merging firms, or onboarding clients from acquired books of business.

 🎥 Watch on YouTube

About Linda Bready
Linda Bready is the president of CleverCX and founder of CleverX Consulting. A longtime innovator in financial services, she has helped shape the evolution of advisor technology and operations for more than two decades. She founded B-Ready Outsourcing, which was acquired by Envestnet in 2010, served in executive roles at FolioDynamix and Envestnet, and has consulted with industry leaders including Fidelity and eMoney. Today, she works with RIAs to improve operations, prepare for growth or acquisition, and lead successful post-sale transitions.

Company Overview
CleverX Consulting helps RIAs improve operations, strengthen teams, and prepare for M&A or growth—with a hands-on, practical approach that drives results.
CleverCX is transforming financial advice by seamlessly connecting investment products with simple financial planning, wrapped in an intuitive client experience.

About The WealthTech Podcast:
The WealthTech Podcast is a bi-monthly interview series hosted by Mark Wickersham. Each month we present conversations with various industry leaders that focuses on the challenges family wealth firms face with technology, people and process. The podcast is produced by Brad Oliver.

The WealthTech Podcast is brought to you by the generous support of Risclarity. Risclarity fills the technology gaps family wealth firms face when serving the complex needs of ultra-high net worth families.

M & A Minefields: What Advisors Miss in Tech Integrations | Linda Bready



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Mark Wickersham: Linda. It is great to have you on the podcast it's been a long time since we've had a chance to kind of connect. I won't. I won't say how long, because I I kind of ages, both of us. But would you mind doing giving a kind of a brief introduction


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Linda Bready: Sure, sure happy to, and I am thrilled to be here like you said. It's been a long time since you and I had a chance to catch up


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Linda Bready: brief bio dropped into the industry longer ago than I will admit to, because that will age us. I started in an advisor's office, learning the back office and all of the the things that happened there held my series 7 for a while, and then in 99, I realized there was a gap in the marketplace, and I started. Be ready outsourcing, which provided back office


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Linda Bready: to advisors. That firm was then acquired by Investnet in 2010,


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Linda Bready: and I stayed with Envestnet, helping their RIA. Side of the business until late in 2016, which I went when I went to Folio Dynamics.


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Linda Bready: which was then also a year and a half later acquired by Envestnet.

 

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Linda Bready: So I decided I was going to go back to consulting my son decided to go away to school in the UK. And he said to me one day he said, You know you can consult from anywhere I'm like, Yeah, actually, you're right. So I did. I packed up and popped around Europe and the UK. For 2 and a half years while he was starting school.

 

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Linda Bready: Which was a blast, and if anybody can figure out how to run their business remotely, they should do that.

 

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Linda Bready: I came back to the Us. Late in 22 at the beginning of 23 to work with the team at clever cx. And that was great. And so that's where I am. Currently I'm at clever. Cx. Late last month, actually beginning of February. My apologies. We launched Clever X to add a consulting arm to clever Cx. And I'm currently wrapping up a book on the M and a space called the Exit Equation.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Right.


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Mark Wickersham: When's the book coming out

 

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Linda Bready: I am wrapping up the drafts. I'm hoping to have a final draft of mine in my editor's hands by the weekend, so I'm thinking. All things considered, I'm really hoping to have it out in the market

 

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Linda Bready: mid to late April, at the latest. I have a I have a webinar I'm doing with a firm called Plan Confidence, which is great. They do a lot in the Orisa environment, and they're hosting my a webinar for me where they wanted me to talk about the book and my process

 

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Mark Wickersham: Well, I I hope that you know, in this, podcast. Really, one of the themes is is kind of getting into


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Mark Wickersham: M and A, we'll talk about kind of the the 3 stages. What to do, pre acquisition, what to do during acquisition and post acquisition. But before we get into that, every time I have a chance to talk to a founder. I always love to hear the the founder story and the founder journey I mean you created. Be ready outsourcing back in 1999. You know, just for perspective, you know, Wikipedia didn't come out until 2,001. So to talk about an early Fintech

 

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Mark Wickersham: pioneer. What did you see in the marketplace, and and tell me a little bit about kind of what you learned from from founding a firm and and some of the the lessons that taught you

 

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Linda Bready: Sure. And I'm just gonna say, mentioning 99 and Wikipedia, you have now aged both of us. I'm just putting it out there

 

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Mark Wickersham: What I

 

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Linda Bready: Found. 1st of all was that as I was at my

 

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Linda Bready: when I was working at the advisor's office in Nashville, I then went to Boston, and I was working as the director of investments for the 401 K. Side of

 

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Linda Bready: New York Life Agents, book of business.

 

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Linda Bready: And what I realized was that we were lacking a consistent, easy way to present to clients their performance, information, their billing information, and any other insights about what we were doing with their money. Yes, there was a lot of tech in the space. But

 

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Linda Bready: advisors are really good at relationships, and they're really good at managing the money, or explaining to their clients why they need to have their managed in a particular way. What they're not so good at about at is

 

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Linda Bready: running the actual tech to do those things, and quite frankly, it's not their best and highest use. They shouldn't do that.

 

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Linda Bready: They shouldn't be focused on the little nuances that? Yeah.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Not why they get

 

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Linda Bready: Billing software is right? So I realized that there was a gap in the marketplace. I was actually Schwab called me. There was an advisor in South Boston who was having trouble with their software at the time called Portfolio Center.

 

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Linda Bready: and Schwab had recently bought performance technologies and Portfolio center. A year or 2 earlier, as I remember, and the guys at performance technologies knew me. And they said, Hey, Linda's in Boston. She can go there and show the guy how to work it and what they need to do. So I did. I got him all set up, and God love him! He was a wonderful guy, total technophobe, scared of the machine. But he was so good at his business and

 

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Linda Bready: as I was, I was moving to Charlotte, and I was leaving Boston, and he said, Can't you just do this for me?

 

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Linda Bready: And I thought about it. And I'm like, you know.


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Linda Bready: I have the Internet. Yes, it was still slow. I am smart, I can do it. So that's what I did. I had one computer, one client and me.


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Linda Bready: And by the end of the 1st year I had 10 clients. By the end of the second I had 25, and in 2010, when investment acquired the firm I had over 115 clients. We managed over 38

 

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Linda Bready: in Aua, and we had over a million dollars in revenue.

 

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Linda Bready: It was hard work, but it was eye opening to get into the details of what happens in an advisor's office, and where

 

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Linda Bready: the best skill sets need to be put to use

 

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Mark Wickersham: I mean, you're really early on what became a major trend within the space around outsourcing right? So

 

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Mark Wickersham: I guess you're you're talking to that advisor. And the advisor needs helping you think. And there's gonna be other people like this that probably are in the exact same situation right

 

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Linda Bready: Well, exactly. And and it was funny, because, you know, back then, you know, you had the big 3 or 4. You had portfolio center Advent was in the marketplace. DB Cams was in the marketplace.

 

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Linda Bready: This was right before Morningstar Office came out.

 

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Linda Bready: But Cam's advent and Portfolio center were the Big 3.

 

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Linda Bready: And so I know where all the bodies are buried. Right? So that helped me, as I was growing the business to be able to know that when you're looking at the numbers, yeah, those are right, or those are. And then, as the other firms came onto the marketplace, I remember when Black Diamond came out. I remember

 

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Linda Bready: when Advent made substantial changes to their stuff before they bought Black Diamond. Orion came out, all of our office came into play, and what was great and bad about that was that suddenly there were all of these choices, and advisors are really, it's really hard for advisors to make choices because they get overwhelmed. They see all this, and and ultimately all they really want to do is serve their clients right. So the goal is trying to make it easy for them.

 

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Linda Bready: But the best thing about that is that it did create optionality and gave everybody an understanding, a better understanding of what was important to the client. You know, pretty.

 

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Linda Bready: There were some things out that came out and left really quickly. I won't speak names or anything. But you know, I still remember looking at those numbers, and they were.

 

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Linda Bready: and a advisor client came to me for consulting help, trying to decide on the software, and he said, But it's so pretty my clients will love this, and I'm like, yes, but Pretty doesn't help you in an audit.


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Linda Bready: Figure out what the client needs.


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Linda Bready: What they want is secondary. Yes, what they want is important. It will help your business grow. You will be good at what you do. But what they need is what's critical for you to provide just like in my consulting business. What I what you need is different than what you came to me and told you told me that you wanted me to help you with


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Linda Bready: right? So it's really important that you listen to that and all of that optionality there was. There's space in the marketplace for all kinds of reporting software. As long as the numbers are right, there's space for all kinds of billing software. As long as the numbers are right.


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Linda Bready: the key is to figure out what fits you and your clientele.


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Linda Bready: and it makes it easy for you to do your business not harder, you know.


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Mark Wickersham: I mean there is. There are a lot of options now, when you really look at the the Ra space, I mean, it's really matured. And you see significant players, I mean, you look at adapar, for example, which

 

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Mark Wickersham: you know, putting like a hundred 1 million in R&D into it. So you see, there's numbers there to be able to support the kind of growth in the industry I like. The.

 

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Mark Wickersham: you know the futures here just unevenly distributed. You look at the family office space. It's it's Ra adjacent. I think some of the trends that you see in the Ra. Space are are have been coming over to the family office space and the family office space is getting significant attention to


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Mark Wickersham: that there is this optionality now, and I and I like to say, you know, the good news is that there's the family offices have more option. The the bad news is, they have more options, right? So

 

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Linda Bready: It's a double edged sword

 

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Mark Wickersham: Confusion out there right

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, it's it's really difficult, though. I think

 

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Linda Bready: I think it will get better. I think we've got a lot of noise in the industry right now on the tech side, and I think it will get better as it settles

 

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Linda Bready: But I love the activity, it's exciting. It's and you know I love being right.


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Linda Bready: and I love saying, Oh, this is cool! This is the best thing for you, but you know what I make mistakes every single day. And it's okay for somebody to come up to me and say, Linda, you're flat wrong


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Linda Bready: and tell me what I'm missing because I learn that way right


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Mark Wickersham: You know.

 

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Linda Bready: I think the people who believe that their way of doing business


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Linda Bready: is the only way I mean their business is.

 

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Linda Bready: I run into this sometimes with advisors who have,

 

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Linda Bready: who really have been started from the one man band where they had to do everything. And then, as they started to hire people. They couldn't step away from the operations, because that was the way they always did it.

 

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Linda Bready: And and I'm like, No, it's okay to change. In fact, when you change, it gets better and faster.

 

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Linda Bready: I I could talk about that all day day long. Sorry

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, I mean, when somebody says it's the way we've always done it. That's that that definitely peaks the the interest and be like, well, I think there might be some room for improvement here.

 

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Linda Bready: I had it.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Giving. You know I see a lot of firms do is that they'll, you know, introduce new technology, new capabilities, and then then still try to do it the old way. So you're kinda you're kind of missing out on some functionality and some efficiency gains right

 

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Linda Bready: So I use that example in my book. Actually, I worked with a firm in Tennessee, where the assistant had been there since the founding of the firm, and they were

 

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Linda Bready: good and fast, and they had opening new accounts wired and documentation was sporadic in the firm. That's 1 of the reasons I was brought in was to help them figure out how to get better and they had hired a new staff member. So, documenting everything, it was the perfect time to get it all done and make sure it was understandable. Well, the account opening process. They had 2 different custodians.

 

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Linda Bready: never got documented. The assistant who did it all the time was like, it's faster for me to do it than it is for me to write it down, or even to teach somebody. And everybody was like, Okay, that's okay. Well, I'm sitting here thinking, that's not okay. And sure enough, literally, 3 days later she's in an accident out of the office for 8 weeks.

 

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Linda Bready: and I sat the new staff member down. I said, call the custodians

 

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Linda Bready: document the process. Figure out how to get it done. He had it documented completely, even after he had to go back and forth with a bunch of questions in 2 days, and they increased the speed with which they were opening new accounts by 30%.


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Linda Bready: So you know, doing it the way they've always done it. It's just familiar. It's not, it's not great.


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Linda Bready: So


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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, that's the proverbial got hit by a bus type of scenario

 

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Linda Bready: Well, and it was that, you know you can't believe she got hit by a bus. She didn't get hit by a bus, but


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Mark Wickersham: Let's talk about M and a trend. So what are some of the major trends that there's a ton of activity, ton of M. And a activity in the marketplace.


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Mark Wickersham: There is dive in that

 

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Linda Bready: There is. Well, I think it's a perfect storm. Right? You have. Founders are aging out.

 

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Linda Bready: Scale is is fluctuating right? It's increasing, but it's getting expensive. Clients want more. They want it faster. They want it smarter. They want it. Digital 1st firms are realizing that it's getting really hard to keep up if they're solo.

 

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Linda Bready: I truly believe that M. And A. Isn't about the selling. It's about statement in the space, and with private equity pouring into the space deals are heating up faster, and competition is heating up. And it's

 

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Linda Bready: It's just momentum.


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Linda Bready: So

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, I mean, there, you see a lot of different factors, right? Like the average days of an advisor. What do I say? Like 56, or late late fifties. You obviously. So you have succession going on, or or should be going on. Then you have the wealth transfer a massive transfer of wealth coming coming down from the baby boomers, the the still, and it's been going on for 20 plus years. But the the transfer of assets from wire houses to the Independent Channel.

 

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Mark Wickersham: There's a good reason why private equity likes the space and and is driving a lot of activity. What are what, what firms are looking for.

 

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Mark Wickersham: they either acquire or to be acquired. Especially, let's, let's say, on the the acquired side, what what should organizations be doing to prepare themselves what they should be thinking about in terms of people, process and technology

 

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Linda Bready: So the exit equation is about that

 

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Linda Bready: right? The exit equation is about the fact that

 

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Linda Bready: m and A isn't just about numbers.

 

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Linda Bready: Yes, the financials are important. But a successful transaction is so much more than that. It's about people processes, technology and having all of that aligned seamlessly, so that you don't end up with a tangled mess post transaction.

 

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Linda Bready: You need to have clarity of vision.

 

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Linda Bready: clear understanding of where the firm is going, and how all those moving pieces are going to come together to support that direction. Right?

 

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Linda Bready: mostly. Because when firms ignore all of that, you end up with inefficiencies, cultural misalignment. Sometimes having to undo a successful merger. It's all costly.

 

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Linda Bready: So in actuality, that's what the exit equation is about. It's focused entirely on the Prep. Which I think is important. I put together the 7 pillars of the prepared firm, which is, I like that. There's knowing your why.

 

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Linda Bready: defining your exit goals.

 

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Linda Bready: You got to get your financials in order. That's where the the money comes in, but not the numbers for the deal. But the numbers about your firm.

 

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Linda Bready: You got to strengthen leadership and team stability. You have to optimize your operations and your scalability. You have to assess your client database or your client. Yeah, you have to assess your client base and retention risks. You have to maximize your technology and your data systems. And finally, you have to address legal and compliance and risk management management issues

 

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Linda Bready: and

 

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Linda Bready: work. It sounds overwhelming, but it really isn't. It doesn't have to be done in any particular order. It doesn't have to be done in any particular timeline. The real key that I tell people is that you just have to start, you know. Pick the thing that you think is wrong in your firm. Say, you know, maybe it's you.

 

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Linda Bready: Maybe you've just started thinking about succession. And you're like, maybe I should sell.

 

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Linda Bready: Okay? Well, talk to yourself about that. Talk to people you trust about that. You know what are your personal and business goals for your firm and for a sale right? And and understand that, because if you don't understand that getting your firm ready and then getting through the trans, the type of transaction, right? Because it's the type of transaction that will be, really

 

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Linda Bready: dependent on your why

 

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Linda Bready: but getting through all of that without understanding yourself understanding your why, that gets harder and harder, and that leads to people being

 

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Linda Bready: bummed out after the it's a soft word. I never use soft words. They're upset that it didn't turn out the way they thought they wanted it to be right. I mean, thinking about the knowing your why, you've been a founder, and you like that. And all of these things, and you decide you're going to tuck in with a firm, and they're going to turn you into a W. 2, person and all of these

 

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Linda Bready: yet to ask all of the key questions. But about what does being W. 2 really mean?

 

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Linda Bready: 6 months after the merger.

 

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Linda Bready: The the sale is successful, it closes, it's awesome.

 

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Linda Bready: But you're unhappy.

 

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Linda Bready: Why? Well, you're unhappy because you don't have as big a voice as you think you should have, or that you want, or that you're comfortable with me.

 

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Linda Bready: If I don't have a voice I am a

 

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Linda Bready: I am. I can be a good W. 2 person as long as I have a strong enough voice to be heard, but in reality, where my happy place

 

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Linda Bready: is leading. So I'm not gonna be a tuck in, you know it is what it is

 

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Mark Wickersham: How do I maximize their technology for the acquisition? What should they be doing? The to get their tech stack ready

 

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Linda Bready: You really need to evaluate and align your text systems right? And I talk about this.

 

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Linda Bready: you don't know what you're aligning it with as far as a firm you're you're gonna sell to yet, because you don't know who you're selling to when you're the ideal time to do this preparation is before you've even started to talk to other firms.

 

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Linda Bready: But another thing I talk about in the book is that rarely happens. Most firms wait too long to start preparing, and somebody comes and says, Hey, George, I'd kind of like to buy your firm, and then they go. Oh, crap! Now, what do I do right?

 

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Linda Bready: Because they think Oh, well, it's the numbers. Let's do that, and it'll be awesome. And it's not so in reality. There's a lot they do. They need to go through operations and tech go hand in hand, right? You've got to evaluate your tech. You have to have a clear understanding of what your tech is. The number of advisors that I go into their office, and I help them do an evaluation of their tech infrastructure that they really don't know it or don't understand it.

 

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Linda Bready: That's the majority of advisors that. Yes, they have basic pieces of software Crm performance reporting billing

 

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Linda Bready: risk management if they do that like. you know, maybe one or 2 other things. Those are the big. Those are the big key pieces that they know, get used every day, or they think get used every day. They've forgotten all about these random subscriptions that they have for things. They've forgotten that they started a free trial for something that turned into. They're being charged something that they don't notice on the on the bills every month, and they find out that they have 2 or 3 pieces of software that do 2 or 3 of the same things

 

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Linda Bready: right? And so the 1st thing is to to do a complete and total tech audit.

 

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Linda Bready: And that doesn't mean just you sitting down and thinking about what tech I use. That means going to your team and say, What tech do you use? What websites do you do use? It also means going to your bank statement or your credit card statement. And where there are subscriptions. What is that right? And why am I paying for it? All of that goes into that process.

 

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Linda Bready: And then

 

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Linda Bready: I it's really hard for people to let go of tech. But I'm like, if you've got 2 or 3 things doing the same thing, pick one

 

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Linda Bready: heck, pick 2, and get rid of the 3rd and the 4th one. I don't care but but start making consolidation moves, because if your firm is not portable easily.

 

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Linda Bready: if you are introducing more complexity into an integration process post post merger. It's a disaster. It takes longer. It makes people on your team lose credibility with the people on the new team. And that's

 

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Linda Bready: for cultural alignment of the firms. You have people who start getting left out of the loop, because, oh, they just it's too complicated to deal with their stuff. I'm just gonna do it the way I've always been doing it right. It's it's the same thing with operations, you know. Go through every single workflow you have and question all of it.

 

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Linda Bready: Why do you do it that way? Well, 5 years ago the custodian said, this was the process. Okay, is that still the process? Well, kind of. But we do this here and this there. Well, then, why isn't it documented?

 

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Linda Bready: What changes have been made in this account opening process. To use my example from earlier.

 

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Linda Bready: That means that if I change steps 3 and steps fives.

 

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Linda Bready: I now am faster and done sooner and less aggravation for both me and the client. Woohoo! Happy dance moment! Right?

 

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Linda Bready: I could go on and on. You just need to stop me when you want to. But, these are all things that you have to do.

 

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Linda Bready: One last thing I'm gonna say about it, though, before I forget is that a lot of advisors think, hey? You know. I would be really tech ready if my crm was better tech ready, I'd be really sale ready, you know, if my Crm was better, or

 

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Linda Bready: a new performance reporting software because that made my clients happier, or whatever.

 

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Linda Bready: If you're anticipating a sale, I don't want you to buy new tech tech. For that reason

 

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Linda Bready: I want you to evaluate your tech, Andy.

 

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Linda Bready: If you were not going to sell your firm.

 

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Linda Bready: If a new piece of tech makes you stronger, faster, better.

 

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Linda Bready: Okay, then let's discuss it. But there is 0 reason to bring in disruption to your staff and your clients, and as extra the extra cost that bringing in a new piece of software entails.

 

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Linda Bready: If in

 

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Linda Bready: less than a year you're gonna merge with another firm. And they're gonna move you to new software, anyway.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Do you see it on the other side, though, where they're kind of under investing in technology to kind of make the financials look better for the sale

 

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Linda Bready: No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm saying. Let's be very

 

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Mark Wickersham: Do you see the other side of that

 

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Linda Bready: Oh, I see what you're asking me.

 

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Linda Bready: Yes, because what I in the tech audit it's that you can't.

 

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Linda Bready: You can't get rid of tech that allows your business to run, because the 1st thing that buyers are gonna do when they come in and say.

 

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Linda Bready: How are you doing this, you're still doing it manually, so that you don't have a cost tech cost. Well, I'm sorry to tell you that that person, while your brother-in-law is very nice and awesome.

 

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Linda Bready: I can replace half of his job with technology

 

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Linda Bready: and make it faster and better for the end client and for my bottom line, and we can then make your brother-in-law client facing. So he brings in revenue instead of being a cost sink, and I use brother-in-law as an example, but it's a lot of rias grow their firms.

 

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Linda Bready: Family? Well, people they trust. First, st I think about when I built, be ready right. My 1st employee was my mom because she was really good with numbers. It was a great fit. She was very detail oriented which was awesome, so I was very careful to keep her focused in the area that she excelled in, and that made her happy.

 

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Linda Bready: But one big problem when you're

 

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Linda Bready: strengthening your leadership and your team. Stability is to look at your team. Are the people on your team, the right people in the right jobs, the number of advisors that I go in, and I talk to where they have the wrong people in the wrong jobs.

 

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Linda Bready: It's crazy. That's because they hired

 

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Linda Bready: a friend or a family member, or they made a hire before they really understood how hiring

 

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Linda Bready: the questions you need to ask. You just needed help. So you hired a pair of hands, which is great. I don't say that that's wrong.

 

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Linda Bready: but you have to keep evaluating that help right? I have gone into firms where they have a spectacularly detail oriented grinder of a personality who gets stuff done, you know. You put stuff on his desk, it would disappear. That's awesome. They have him in a client facing job

 

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Linda Bready: that's crazy. And I have somebody who's in a client facing Job, who is stressed out every day because it's uncomfortable for them. They want to

 

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Linda Bready: do the data. So why don't I switch my person? Whose personality that needs to be in front of the client and the one that's in front of the client back to what they do best. Everybody's happy. Everybody wins the client, the staff you and your bottom line

 

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Mark Wickersham: So let's let's talk during a during the acquisition process. Obviously, communications.

 

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Mark Wickersham: key communication with your staff communication with your clients, whatever.

 

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Mark Wickersham: What are some of the things that are really super important. That help kind of, you know. Ease that onboarding in that transition period

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, sure communication, M. And a communication is all about timing and trust right in the early stages.

 

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Linda Bready: Only the people who need to know should be involved.

 

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Linda Bready: Key leadership, compliance. Your banker, your lawyer. Right? You have to protect confidentiality to avoid unnecessary disruption.

 

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Linda Bready: Because when rumors start to fly, not only do client

 

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Linda Bready: staff get nervous, but clients start to get nervous, so you've got it. That circle of trust has got to be tight

 

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Linda Bready: and sacrosanct

 

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Linda Bready: as the deal progresses. You want to roll out a clear staged plan. Right? You want to inform key staff first, st

 

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Linda Bready: communicate with the broader team and clients once the deal is signed. But before the close

 

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Linda Bready: I I think you start with your I think it's important that you start with.

 

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Linda Bready: keep in including key clients in that mix, too. That's that's up to.

 

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Linda Bready: That's going to be different with every firm right? My my advice around this communication is

 

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Linda Bready: generalized. Right? You're going to want to make sure that you talk to the parties involved. You want to make sure that you talk to the legal and compliance people to make sure that there's that you're following all the things that you need to follow to communicate

 

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Linda Bready: at the right times.

 

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Linda Bready: But I have seen some firms reach out to their, you know, ultra high net worth clients that will

 

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Linda Bready: be upset for one reason or another. If they weren't in the know as soon as they could with a with an understanding that it's kept confidential.

 

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Linda Bready: I think it's incredibly important that you that the focus is clarity and stability. And what stays the same because

 

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Linda Bready: in any type of

 

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Linda Bready: merger or acquisition process, the 1st thing that your staff worries about is will I still have a job.

 

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Linda Bready: and the 1st thing your clients worry about is what's changing. And am I going to lose my advisor? And how is this going to disrupt my life.

 

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Linda Bready: So

 

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Linda Bready: it needs to be carefully packaged. I think you surround yourself with people who have done this before the communication process. There are people who there are consultants that can help them with that. But, you know, talk to your bankers, talk to your lawyers.

 

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Linda Bready: and and focus on the clarity and focus on the whys and make sure that you anticipate the questions that your staff and your clients are gonna have for you and have an answer, and and have an honest.

 

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Linda Bready: authentic answer. If you're selling and you're retired, you're going to step away.

 

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Linda Bready: You know your clients need to know that your the clients that you are still interacting with by the time you get to an M. And a process.

 

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Linda Bready: you as the founder or the senior advisor. You already should have been delegating your client base out, knowing that if you got hit by a bus you didn't retire. You got hit by a bus like the assistant in the other office. You need to have somebody who can come in and and assist and take care of things so that there's there's trust on both sides of that equation.

 

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Linda Bready: But if if you're gonna step completely away, if you're gonna be there

 

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Linda Bready: and then you're moving to Tahiti.

 

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Linda Bready: your clients, your high net worth clients, the important clients. They need to know that

 

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Linda Bready: because they need to have the option

 

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Linda Bready: to be able to decide what's best for them.

 

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Linda Bready: If that impacts them right, it's the same way as if you're always going to be there. Say you are.

 

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Linda Bready: You don't want to run a firm anymore. And you're going to be happy, just managing your relationships and your book of business, and you're going to tuck in as as A. W. 2 employee, which is a fantastic

 

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Linda Bready: solution if that works for you, and that's what you want. But you can then say to your clients, nothing's gonna change, except I don't have to buy the paper for the copier.

 

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Linda Bready: Right? I mean, that's

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah.

 

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Linda Bready: It's clarity, it's trust, it's stability

 

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Mark Wickersham: So let's talk. Post M. And A. You see

 

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Mark Wickersham: what are some of the best practices post merger, and then I think one of the things, too, is like how other firms kind of, especially in the tech side. You know, if you just keep everything the same, you're not necessarily gonna take advantage of some efficiency. So 1st off what's what's best practice post merger, and then let's talk about

 

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Linda Bready: Okay.

 

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Mark Wickersham: The the text.

 

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Linda Bready: Terrible.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Impact

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, so that's book 2. By the way, just that's what I'm thinking in my

 

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Mark Wickersham: Trying to get the sequel

 

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Linda Bready: About that. But for me, post merger, the best firms

 

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Linda Bready: plan their integration early, and it's a plan. It's not a oh, we close. We we signed, we close today's Monday. We should look at the Crm

 

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Linda Bready: right? That's that's not what it is.

 

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Linda Bready: The best firms plan integration early, and they use it with a plan. They plan around tech, they plan around workflow, and they plan around roles right? Because when you're say you have a merger of equals. And you have 2 leadership teams coming over. Have you already ironed out? Who's gonna run the firm

 

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Linda Bready: and what everybody else's job is leadership, instability and arguments. Post merger post close that creates a disruption in the office, in in the merged firm that nobody wants. People pick sides. It gets ugly. Other things don't happen, so that all of those things for the leadership roles that should be ironed out

 

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Linda Bready: once you're inked.

 

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Linda Bready: Well, think about what you want before it gets synced, but once it's inked and before it closes that is your job as leaderships of the firm, as leadership of the firms.

 

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Linda Bready: Figure that out. Don't bring your emotional baggage about how the sale is progressing, or anything like that.

 

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Linda Bready: past the close. You just can't

 

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Linda Bready: that I realized that wasn't talking about technology. But that's key

 

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Mark Wickersham: No, I mean, that's key right? If

 

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Linda Bready: If that's not solved, then the team

 

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Mark Wickersham: Isn't really gonna matter

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, the teams don't have direction for the tech and the workflows and the underlying roles right of the 2 operation teams. How do they get merged, and how do they flow into each other? How does somebody who was running all of everything over here

 

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Linda Bready: move and work side by side by the person who was over here managing everything right. How do you define that now? Some of this will happen by attrition? You will find staff members who don't want to move on to the combined firm.

 

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Linda Bready: And that's okay, you know. As if you need an extra pair of hands, you might be able to hire a pair of hands that's less expensive, or that is slightly redirected so that it's a more valuable addition to the combined firm. And that's awesome that ends up being. Excuse me, one of the

 

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Linda Bready: good things that happen to the bottom line, because you do gain some synergies and some cost efficiencies by having people deciding to self opt out.

 

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Linda Bready: You don't have to fire anybody. And if you've got 2 people in the same role, you want to say these people are both valuable. How can I find them both a role? But it's not the same role. So all of that is important

 

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Linda Bready: also should be being worked on in the 90 days.

 

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Linda Bready: The tech.

 

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Linda Bready: If the tech pieces are the same integrations. Really easy, right? Everybody throws up their hands. It's a hallelujah moment. Both firms are on at a part. Whoophoo! Let's have put us together, and we're not gonna worry about

 

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Linda Bready: awesome right? But if one firm's on

 

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Linda Bready: Portfolio center and the other ones on Black Diamond. You have to figure out which is going to be the surviving piece of software. And why? Because you're going to have to be able to explain to the clients how their visuals are going to change. You're also then going to have to convert one database to the other.

 

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Linda Bready: and make sure you have a plan around that around, spending the time to verify that the converted data is, in fact, being represented accurately in the new data. New database.

 

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Linda Bready: All of that needs a an integrated plan. And it's not just portfolio reporting it's the same for the Crm, it's the same for the billing soft. It's every piece of software that you have. And if you both have the same subscriptions to, you know, Joe Schmo's

 

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Linda Bready: risk management software, whatever you gain efficiencies because you can get rid of one and just fix the other one and a lot of times for firms when they go to a slightly larger subscription than they had before. It ends up being cheaper across the firm.

 

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Linda Bready: Unless you're Bloomberg, in which case

 

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Mark Wickersham: Have some scale or whatever. Yeah.

 

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Linda Bready: So it's advantages, advantages of scales. And

 

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Linda Bready: then you also have to do the same thing with work workflows. Now, the one thing that I talk about with post merger is, this doesn't happen in a vacuum, and if you have the staff you can identify. Joe is in charge of this integration. Jane is in charge of this one. David's gonna do these workflows. And

 

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Linda Bready: Alfred is going to do those, and you can take advantage of experts in the industry to help you do this right. If

 

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Linda Bready: you know you use 2 different crms, and nobody knows anything. Well, the surviving Crm should help you convert the data, but it might be worthwhile to go hire, and somebody who does those sort of integrations as a quarterback or a master, as a as a master at those functions, or those workflows, or those pieces of technology

 

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Linda Bready: to help guide you through that process, and to be able to say, Hey, red flag coming up for this.

 

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Linda Bready: So

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, I think it's a good point, right? They don't do this every day. They're obviously taking care of clients and

 

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Mark Wickersham: providing wealth management services. And then you have this kind of really complicated tech integration, you know, which system should survive. Should even neither system survive. And should we get a modern.

 

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Mark Wickersham: you know platform that supports both firms. Do you have any sense like what a like, what what they should focus on first, st is it? Do you do the Crm. Do you do? Front of the house back of the house? What's the

 

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Mark Wickersham: any anything on sequencing

 

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Linda Bready: So that's a really good question. And I'm a big believer, that. And if you, if you can do things at the same time and not lose your mind.

 

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Linda Bready: You should right? I mean, just because you're working on a Crm integration over here doesn't mean that this side of the firm can't be working on the reporting

 

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Linda Bready: integration.

 

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Linda Bready: If you have to choose a specific order.

 

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Linda Bready: I think it's incredibly important to figure out in the combined firm in the merged firm.

 

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Linda Bready: How are you running?

 

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Linda Bready: Where do you live? Where do your where does your staff live to serve your clients best? If

 

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Linda Bready: if you live in your Crm.

 

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Linda Bready: Then Crm is 1st with notifications, the clients that we're undergoing a Crm. Integration. Things might be a little funky, and let us know if you see anything weird happen? We'd love your assistance as we work through this integration right? If you live in. I don't know your reporting software just to pick another one. If that's where you live, if that's what you open first.st And when you're on the phone with your clients, you're looking at the reporting software

 

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Linda Bready: do that first.st

 

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Linda Bready: But understand, each of these things has a time, has its own timeline

 

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Linda Bready: performance, reporting integrations when they go really, really well, can be done in 8 weeks.

 

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Linda Bready: That doesn't happen very often, you know. The integration might be done in 8 weeks, but then you still have to validate all your numbers and all of these other things I did once see an integration that went so smoothly.

 

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Linda Bready: have no idea how it happened, but went so smoothly. They had all of the data into the surviving piece of software in 6 weeks.

 

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Linda Bready: and they then next spent the next month validating everything and running 2 sided copies and everything. So I was like, Wow, 10 weeks in and out that was.

 

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Linda Bready: And I think it was actually because they were both very small firms right and so, but in all honesty I tell people to plan for 8 to 12 weeks and sorry my light went off in my phone booth, so it just got

 

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Mark Wickersham: All right.

 

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Linda Bready: Wave an arm here to try and get the lights back. Come on, there we go.

 

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Mark Wickersham: You know, they have some historical data. That's rubbish, right? That you know one side of the house does that they're and they're, you know that tendency to want to convert it all, and I gotta keep. I got to have full transaction history from

 

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Mark Wickersham: so time Moses walked on the earth, you know.

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, we we discuss all of that. In reality, you don't need your transactional history back to 1999. You just don't right?

 

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Linda Bready: Okay, to put in place a performance value conversion.

 

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Linda Bready: Start it back, you know. If if could. If transactions are

 

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Linda Bready: the word, you know, like stone tablets for you pick a point in time, you know. Go back

 

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Linda Bready: 5 years.

 

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Linda Bready: go back any further than that. That's a little further than I would go back. But you know, whatever. But you're

 

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Mark Wickersham: Hey? That's that's a long time, Linda.

 

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Linda Bready: It's it's a long time I wouldn't do it. I've seen advisors do it

 

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Mark Wickersham: Cost involved, and I'm not just saying the financial cost

 

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Linda Bready: No, it's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. The difference in numbers, I mean, think about it.

 

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Linda Bready: 2 pieces of software side by side, one, both using different performance calculations that are absolutely value, valuable and valid. And they're correct. But one starts from the calculate one starts the calculation from the day close, and one starts from the day open. You are going to have different numbers.

 

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Linda Bready: so I prefer going back to the start of a year, like, for example, if we were merging right now, I would say, I want a performance report. I want a performance conversion up into 1231,

 

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Linda Bready: 24,

 

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Linda Bready: and then I would take all my transactions year to day. Right? That's the smart way to do it. But those are all conversations that you have to have

 

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Linda Bready: also. I mean, it's especially I mean, think about it especially important. If you report your numbers. You know

 

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Linda Bready: the old Gipps compliant Amer. Compliant right? All of. If you report your numbers.

 

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Linda Bready: you can't have big swings in history. Once you convert that data, it's got to be locked and loaded. So if you if you do that you don't have a choice. You're gonna do a performance conversion. It just is.

 

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Linda Bready: I mean, I worked with a firm once that

 

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Linda Bready: decided they merged, and they kept. They kept saying, Oh, we don't have time to do the integration. So they kept both sets of everything, and they said, Well.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Probably see a lot of that right where they just keep on running

 

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Linda Bready: Yeah, they they kept re-running. But

 

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Linda Bready: just for now it was just, for now you can't air quotes right? 6 months later, though nobody knew which system was the Bible. Nobody knew where anything was the client updates, some of them were being missed. Billing was a mess, and one team actually sent out a set of performance reports with the wrong brand

 

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Linda Bready: because it came out of the wrong

 

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Linda Bready: software before it got the merged thing. So the moral is, pick your systems early. Communicate clearly, and don't let integration drift.

 

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Linda Bready: Take care that bullet early, right, and

 

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Linda Bready: bite the bullet early. It's it's ugly, and it's hard. But you can. You can hire somebody to help you. You don't have to do it.

 

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Mark Wickersham: I think that's a great point. Get help, I think, is important, too.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Without naming names. You got a good M. And a horror story for me.

 

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Linda Bready: That one was actually one is literally. I walked in, and there

 

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Linda Bready: they hadn't billed correctly in 3 months it from that where they ran side by side, saying, they're just going to do it just for now. When I came in 6 months later, it took us another 8 months to unwind.

 

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Linda Bready: So they were a full 14 months past the close

 

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Linda Bready: before we had a consolidated system

 

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Linda Bready: that I mean because we had some people who just stopped using the Crm. And started keeping it in their out, the notes in their outlook and on paper, and it having 2 crms such a disaster! But it it was. It was horrible. The clients were confused. They had 3 staff members quit in frustration

 

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Linda Bready: and then trying to hire people and get everything back to where it should be was harder than it needed to be.

 

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Mark Wickersham: I I think that's a good point. I I see that in general, obviously the the talent, acquisition, retention is a huge problem in the industry, and some of that is attributed to technology, right, especially with the

 

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Linda Bready: Course.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Younger generation workforce. They don't want to do it. They don't want to pound into excel or or have to do a lot of manual processes. If you're having to run 2 systems and both are outdated. Firms get people get frustrated that they don't have their best version of themselves because they're doing low value work right

 

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Linda Bready: Well, that's exactly right. Your your team needs to think that what they do is valuable, and that they are valuable because they are without them. You can't function

 

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Mark Wickersham: So, Linda, I like to wrap up these things with, on a personal note. 3 questions that have nothing to do with M. And a

 

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Linda Bready: Love it

 

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Mark Wickersham: Let's obviously had a chance to to live in Europe for a while. I love Europe. I I think Europe's great. I think Italy in particular is

 

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Mark Wickersham: the best of Europe, and I love Europe. So what's your favorite thing about living in Europe?

 

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Linda Bready: I was car free. Well, actually, I love everything about Europe.

 

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Linda Bready: Well, bangers and mash does not thrill me. But now what I really loved was how free I was now granted. I was consulting so I could pick and choose when I walked, and who I worked with. So it was a little different than having a daily grind job.

 

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Linda Bready: but I wouldn't have minded that either, but I got a chance to see places that I hadn't seen before, and I do a lot of traveling in Europe, and I lived in places that were beautiful. But being Carlos was actually huge for me.

 

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Linda Bready: and it was very freeing to know that I could pop onto the tube or take the water taxi, or, you know, in Malta, you know it was all good. I was in the Uk a lot. I did not. My son was in school at Northumbria, which was up in Newcastle upon Tyne. It's about 3 and a half hours north of London. I spent all my time down

 

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Linda Bready: and down in Kent, which was very nice, very rural.

 

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Linda Bready: I love the Netherlands. I was a foreign exchange student there when I was much younger, and so I loved going back, and I was there for a little while. Portugal is great. I love Lisbon. There's great energy there, and for people. I was down in the algarve in the winter.

 

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Linda Bready: Beautiful sunsets and beaches, and it was so quiet because where I was, because it was a golf resort I don't golf. I ended up there by accident. That was the other thing is, I ended up everywhere by accident, but it was just beautiful and quiet. I love Spain, especially Seville, Seville's beautiful. I was in Malta for 6 weeks.

 

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Linda Bready: And that was great, but it was too long. I like Malta, but for me Malta is a vacation. Stop, not a stay! Stop!

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah.

 

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Linda Bready: And but yeah, I do it again. I I want to go back. I was in Italy, but only for a couple of days, because this was all during Covid. Right?

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah.

 

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Linda Bready: I was dealing not only with visas but the Covid restrictions. Next, I want to go spend time in Ireland, and I want to go back to Italy for and spend time in Italy, because I

 

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Mark Wickersham: At least

 

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Linda Bready: I love it.

 

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Mark Wickersham: A chance to work in in London.

 

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Mark Wickersham: I was over there for for 5 months. I absolutely loved it loved the people I love, the sense of humor, the English sense of humor. I think it's fantastic

 

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Linda Bready: Yes.

 

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Mark Wickersham: It. That sarcastic like it just speaks to me. I do, miss, and you see it throughout Europe. Just getting a cup of coffee with some some cream in it. I it just like, for whatever reason, like half and half hasn't been invented over there yet. Can get, you know, a little old, or try to get a Dunkin donuts. Iced coffee. Good luck with that. But the the ability to travel.

 

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Mark Wickersham: I mean from London, the ability to just jump on the, on the, on the train and go wherever was, was fantastic. I really really loved it.

 

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Linda Bready: I think I think the easiest thing was that I was already a tea drinker. I don't. This may horrify people, but I don't drink coffee

 

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Linda Bready: but so I could always get a good cup of tea everywhere

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, no, yeah.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Except Italy.

 

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Mark Wickersham: For every country in Europe.

 

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Linda Bready: Favorite country in Europe, Italy.

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, yeah.

 

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Linda Bready: I mean the Uk is a close is is a high, you know, minuscule. Second, because London is one. London is my favorite city in the world.

 

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Linda Bready: It's

 

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Mark Wickersham: There you go!

 

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Linda Bready: Comfortable. There I've been. I've been there so much

 

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Mark Wickersham: Where in London did you live?

 

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Linda Bready: I I lived in different places. I was down in Box Hall for a while, but my favorite place. I was 3 and a half months in Center City, London, right? I was literally a 6 min walk from Westminster Bridge. I was a 10 min walk from Waterloo Station. I had North Lambeth, which is a little station nobody knows about. I was in Lambeth. Was literally a half a block away, so

 

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Linda Bready: it act. It was wonderful.

 

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Linda Bready: There we go! That's making me waste. Sign me up. I'm I'm ready to go

 

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Mark Wickersham: Yeah, I well, if you go to Italy, 1 1 place I would recommend is Capri. Capri is like the Nantucket of of Italy. It's not quite the Amalfi coast. It looks looks over at the Amalfi coast right off Napoli. But I mean Rome. It's all good over there, Florence.

 

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Linda Bready: I have not been to Capri. That's on the list

 

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Mark Wickersham: It's fantastic. Capri's my happy place. Anyways, this has been great, Linda. I really appreciate the time. This has been fantastic, and I appreciate you sharing your insights

 

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Linda Bready: Absolutely. Thank you.

 

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