Jack Sharry: Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us for this week’s edition of WealthTech On Deck. Today we’re gonna be speaking with Lacy Garcia. Lacy is the founder and CEO of Willow. I met Lacy at the recent MMI annual conference, where I heard her speak on a very innovative financial technology and education platform she’s built.  She spent for her two-decade career at the intersection of financial services, women’s empowerment, education, and entrepreneurship. I. There’s so much attention being paid across the industry around generating organic growth. Her story really caught my attention and I wanted to share with you all. So, uh, Lacy’s Company, Willow is an advisor, education, marketing, and client matching platform, powering advisor and firm. Growth with women and next gen clients. Lacy, welcome to WealthTech on Deck. Great to have you on board.

Lacy Garcia: Jack, it’s lovely to be here. Thanks so much for having me.

Jack Sharry: Yeah, looking forward to sharing what you’re up to with our audience. It’s pretty cool. So let’s start with a little bit about your background.  I think that’s also part of your story at Willows. So, but maybe some background to get it started. I recall you sharing that at the, uh, MMI meeting. So, uh, how did things, not only how you got started, but how they evolved and then how you came up with the idea for Willow.

Lacy Garcia: Oh, definitely. I have a less traditional background than most people in my position or in financial services. I started my career as an educator and then a coach, actually a teacher in Harlem. Never expected if you talked to me 20, 25 years ago and said to me that I would’ve become a wealth. Manager and that I would be running a wealth tech company. I, I never would’ve believed you. I also started my adult kind of life really as the non-financial spouse. Fast forward I am was a divorced single mom, entrepreneur, financial advisor. So long story short is I’ve had some really great education and experience and has spent quite a bit of time actually in the industry as a marketer first, and then as an advisor prior to starting Willow. But a lot of my experience, which has been super helpful is being somebody who came into the industry, not belonging in the industry.

Jack Sharry: Right, yes.

Lacy Garcia: Being somebody who felt as though, I didn’t know. I didn’t have the answers. I was full of shame. I was full of embarrassment. I thought everything was Greek to me. It was all jargon to me. So you know, that’s been sort of what’s been kind of really helped. In the evolution of the creation of Willow.

Jack Sharry: Yeah. So let’s dig into the Willow story. I’m fascinated always with that, that sort of, uh, the source, how things got started. So that’s how it got started. But how do you turn that idea from an idea or a concept around? Frankly, what you experienced sounds like to me, and I think I’ve heard you share this before around shame or not knowing or all that feeling like an outsider. And I know you have a number of programs that really are designed to help advisors and firms understand their clients better. I think that’s seems to be at the heart of what you, what you do. Uh, you also have a couple programs I hope we’ll talk about called Willows Advisor for Women, and these are certificate programs and advisor for Next Gen. So fill in on how that idea turned into a business and then how you started to build out capabilities that work with a lot of leading firms where, where you work with a lot of leading firms, I should say.

Lacy Garcia: Well, it’s not an I story, it’s definitely a team story. For starters and how it became a business, I would say, you know, I had my individual experience and sort of firsthand felt t challenge that so many women and so many next gen clients, investors feel in terms of finding the right financial advisor and being able to get the information, the education, the confidence that they need to take control of their finances. I was fortunate to join forces with some male co-founders who were both had great experience, exceptionally talented, both in Jason Aronson, who’s a CFA charter holder who had started kind of set up quant, who’d set up and run an RIA and been on the, been in the position of being the back office and the junior advisor who’d been given all the . Women in the widows that nobody wanted. And he is like, wait. Oh, really interesting. He’s like, there’s something here. And the kids, he is like, nobody else wants to talk to these clients. But realized, saw that opportunity. And then Yvonne Vic, who I worked together with years ago at where. Com, which was acquired by PayPal. He was a chief technology officer.  He then read data science for PayPal, and Yvonne is obviously, the AI that’s in our platform is coming from his, his experience and his background. Uhhuh

Jack Sharry: Uhhuh.

Lacy Garcia: And so in that sense of how to make something a business, right? I had the. Experience. I had the problem and I had the sort of the human touch kind of program, the certificate program, the solution.  But obviously it takes a lot more than just a great idea and kind of the heart and the passion to make a good idea turned into a real business. Right. So, yeah. Uh, to make it actually viable.

Jack Sharry: Well, it sounds like you have the, the components. You have someone that knows the business, has an RA background, and all that goes on with that. Yeah. Had the, uh, good fortune, I would argue, of working with widows and orphans, if you will. Yeah. And then you have a tech person you need that if you’re gonna have an AI powered. Platform. Wanna hear more about that a little bit. So you have those components, but what I’m hearing and, and maybe just we’ll start here, you brought the human element to this thing. Isn’t that kind of core to what your offer is? It’s not only the tech and not only the ability to empower organic growth, but there’s a human aspect to this that’s pretty important, isn’t it?

Lacy Garcia: Very much so. And because I think that we, anybody who’s paying attention to the data. Right into the trends around the Great Wealth transfer knew that what is happening today was coming, right? The sort of the leaders in organizations, but down at necessarily the advisor level. I think people were more reticent in kind of less embracing of this change that was happening. I had lived that change right by being first that underserved. Female client and also really being brought in to become an advisor because the women and the adult children, it was in the ultra-high net worth family office space, didn’t want to work with the other advisors at the firm. They wanted to work with me. Right? So I had. And I, and my kind of background, which was a non-traditional at first, I, I, you know, I was like, I don’t have, I mean I have an MBA and that, but I’m obviously trained how to be a financial planner and everything, but I’m like, I don’t have this investment background that you should have. Right. To be a financial advisor necessarily. But I definitely had the educational and the coaching background, and we call it the E three model, the empathy, the education, the empowerment piece of it, which uhhuh we’re seeing is really transforming. The majority of what most individual kinda retail investors are looking for, even ultra-high net worth investors are really looking for is this personalized relationship with an advisor who’s serving not only you know, who’s providing the right investment management, but or the team is, but is really acting as their trusted advisor as a coach, as a quarterback, as the person that they can turn to.

Jack Sharry: So talk a little bit more about that. And the three were empathy, empowerment, what was the other one?

Lacy Garcia: Yeah, we call it the empathy. Education and empowerment.

Jack Sharry: Gotcha, gotcha. And just my experience having been around a while is that often in our business, I just have my own, had an advisor, he changed firms. I, I took on the new person and that new person started our first conversations after just some small talk where we’re about the portfolios that were now under his management. And I’m like, I don’t care about that. That’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in my, what, my stage in life, where I’m not gonna be working forever and what does that look like, but I have a bo a list of things I’m interested in, but I buy models on purpose from name brand firms, so I don’t have to think about that and all I care about, as I indicated to ’em early on where cost, risk and tax. I just wanna make sure the risk is appropriate, the taxes are low and the costs are low. I was very upfront. I’m, I’m a kind of a smart rat that way, as I understand how this stuff really works. And every time he’s ever called me, which I actually stopped taking his calls, I’m about to make a move. Every time he called me, he, he’d talk about the portfolio and it’s like, didn’t hear me the first time. And I, I’m assuming the empathy has a whole lot to do with listening. Is that fair to say?

Lacy Garcia: A hundred percent. And what you just described. Is so commonplace, right? And it’s happening. We sort of traditionally are kind of hearing about it as a woman thing, and it’s not a woman thing, right? It’s about what majority of people care about, right? Yes.

Jack Sharry: Yes.

Lacy Garcia: And that’s part of our kind of coaching and training with advisors. Like, I meet with advisors and I’m like, tell me about yourself. Tell me about your business. How would you pretend I’m, you know, a potential client? And half the time they launch into their investment strategy, their portfolio, and I’m like, you just lost me. I’m not even paying attention. I’m doing like, I’m doing,

Jack Sharry: yes, yes. The

Lacy Garcia: to-do list, the checklist, but I’m like, you wanna engage me, ask me what is important to me, what my goals are, what I’m looking for, and then spend the rest of the time listening. And you are. Very likely to get my business.

Jack Sharry: So talk a little bit about Lacy, if you will. So you, you had this observation, you were, had the experience of having been an advisor. You sort of saw what worked and what didn’t work. You had. But by the way, both as a client and as an advisor, I. You came up with this idea, Willow, and you have some programs. So talk about how that you clearly got together with people that knew stuff you didn’t know. Teamwork that is pulling that off. How did that turn into what it is and what did it turn into and others, how did you translate that into the business? You now have,

Lacy Garcia: it has been a journey, right? It has been an iterative process, right. Right, right. So we started the company. Really in incorporated at the end of 2019 and launched in mid 2020 in the height of Covid. right. So it’s a both a good and a, a challenging time to start. Sure, sure. A company in the wealth management space. Yep. And we had, from day one, our focus was around solving the problem, the fact that women, and also this understanding was women and, and it was also. kind of next gen, but initially, really, women investors just couldn’t find the right advisors. That was a problem. They couldn’t, they weren’t happy. They needed to find the right people. So how do you solve that?

Jack Sharry: Yep.

Lacy Garcia: And instead of solving the problems straight on by like becoming sort of a lead gen provider, that was not. What we thought was the right way to go about solving that problem. What we instead believed was first that we really needed to establish credibility and trust with women investors, with next gen investors, that we were there for them as an educator, as a coach, that we had their best interests. At heart. Mm-hmm. and we also really believe, and, and this is something I know you and I are very aligned on, and how the best way to grow your business is to like start by getting better, right? Look internally and up level your own skillset, right? And in the organic growth focus, so coaching advisors and working with advisors to help them to better understand kind of what their why was, what their value proposition to better understand their clients. Right. So we started really and focused on that piece of it and more, and you talk about marketing, but, but not just like, Hey, here’s a flashy flyer and it’s pink. Like, you know, but actually what’s the, there, there, like, what’s gonna make that client feel, heard, understood, empowered. Right. So that’s where we really started. And in the first few years of our, our business was focused on that because people weren’t paying attention to that, but it was so, so needed.

Jack Sharry: Yep.

Lacy Garcia: And so we were, we leaned in there. We were fortunate to get some really great clients. I will say the people who took my calls the quickest and talked to me were some of the greatest, the leaders in the space. Right. Who very much wanted got this, saw this, knew the challenge and the opportunity. So we worked with a lot of significant enterprises pretty early on. BlackRock. Mm-hmm. Who? We have a, a partnership with and is also our lead kind of external investor in the company.

Jack Sharry: That’s a pretty, I don’t wanna pass over that one. That’s significant, right?

Lacy Garcia: Yes. We’ve been…

Jack Sharry: …the last I checked BlackRock’s the largest asset manager in the world. Yeah.

Lacy Garcia: Yeah.

Jack Sharry: So it’s pretty significant that they made this a priority. But go ahead. I just didn’t want ’em. Let that work just fly by.

Lacy Garcia: No, and it Well, and that’s exactly what I’m saying is that I think some of the people who, who know this industry the best and really their pulse is on the future were, we were fortunate. They saw the value in what we were doing and we were able to establish relationships, start working with them, and then Yep. To drive data points for them. Right.

Jack Sharry: Yep. So talk a little bit about, so you got going, you had an idea. It sounds like a good one. You had a good team. You got some early supporters, big name supporters, always important to, to do that, having lived through a lot of what you’re describing. I understand all that. And then I know you have some certificate programs, so how did that translate into. Action into educational material that sounds like it stands on its own.

Lacy Garcia: Yeah, so we offer an advisor for women and an advisor for next gen certificate program, and that actually was a culmination of the coaching that we were doing, the education and the coaching that we were doing for financial advisors, which really was informed by the team who put this together, and I’ve been obviously intricately involved in all of it, but you know, an average of 20, 30 years of experience. Advisors, coaches, C-F-A-C-F-P-C, DFAS lawyers, like everybody who’s sort of involved has really contributed to make this a really, I’d say, best in class kind of program that we know really works. Mm-hmm. And what we found in the early days, we were doing coaching, right? We were doing coaching and this was all part of the coaching, but it didn’t have a, as clear a value proposition necessarily for, for some of the advisors. Because we all know advisors are super busy, right? They are super busy. They’re inundated with designations, with CE credits, with client demands, right? And there was an aha moment and about two, two and a half years ago for me, where I realized all of a sudden, because we work in partnership and I have the utmost respect for the CFP designation, the CDFA designation. Sure. Which are really great. Obviously really exceptional training programs, important information. But I had this aha moment where I realized that it most certainly coming from the perspective of a woman, like most investors don’t actually know what A CFP or A-C-D-F-A is, right. They just don’t, I mean, we do in the industry, but outside of the industry. People don’t know. I mean, I’ve been in the industry for a couple years before somebody’s like, you should get your CDFA. And I was like, what is that? And didn’t even know it, but I know what an advisor for women means, or at least I think I know. So there was a little bit of this. I say sometimes it’s kind of matic, but I’d say all the time, you know, it might seem like common sense, but it’s not common practice. Mm-hmm. And quite frankly, our program is really aimed at like, do you have the knowledge, the tools, the skillset, and the passion to really be uniquely qualified to serve women?

Jack Sharry: Yep. Yep. Investors

Lacy Garcia: Or next gen investors. And how do we, you know, we built a program that says it’s a certificate program. It’s a legal certificate program. It’s not a designation, so it, it is not the same intensity or time commitment and URNC credits towards these other designations. As part of it. We are a CE provider for CFP, for these other designations, but we, at the end of the day, it is how do we make sure that you are equipped right and that we’ve, that we vetted and confirmed that you really are from mm-hmm. A potential investor perspective. And I like so many things when it came together. I was like, why isn’t somebody already doing this? And literally the first 10, 20 people I talked to, their response was, well somebody’s gotta be doing that. I mean, somebody’s doing that, right? Like, and I’m like, I know. Wouldn’t you think ?

Jack Sharry: Yeah.

Lacy Garcia: But nobody was doing it.

Jack Sharry: Not surprising, but also interesting. And what have been the results? What do, what do you hear? What do you hear from the advisors? What do you hear from, uh, consumers? What do you hear?

Lacy Garcia: So we are hearing from advisors that nine out of 10 advisors are, would recommend the program and are seeing as going through the certificate program, which is really aimed at, we mentioned it’s a financial education, marketing support aimed at not only equipping them. First with how to integrate coaching best practices. That’s the first step. How do you bring in the best practices from the kinder, the grow model, the ICF model, these things that most advisors were not trained on, right? Mm-hmm. To be able to identify potential roadblocks.  Establish trust. Really demonstrate that active listening, build that credibility, build that trust, like get out what the client really needs from you or that prospect really needs from you. And then really making sure that you have the information that you need on what their life event or their transition and how to ask and get the rest of the information is really unique to them.  Hyper-personalized to them and that, you know, we’re here we are. It’s, it’s a digital age, right? Even if mm-hmm. You are getting, you are meeting with the child of a client or the best friend, I mean, 90. 8% of the time they’ve looked you up online, right? Mm-hmm. The first time they’re meeting you is through your Sure.  Sure. Your LinkedIn profile, your website, you know, whatever it is that you’re out there on social media. That’s how they’re meeting you. You think they’re meeting you in person in your office for the first time? Nope. . So how are you showing up online? Yep. You know, demonstrating really what your why is in a way that’s genuine and authentic to you, but then it’s also going to show your value to these clients.

Jack Sharry: Yep. It’s so interesting. I anytime I’m about to engage with anyone on anything, I thought everybody does this. Yeah, I think they mostly do that. The first thing I do is I look ’em up online often if I happen to be talking to ’em on the phone, however that might have transpired. I’m looking ’em up while I’m talking to ’em. Find out who I’m talking to. ’cause I wanna see how they present themselves.

Lacy Garcia: Right. I wanna understand who’s a hundred percent.

Jack Sharry: Who’s on the other side. Right.

Lacy Garcia: I say that to people. I mean, I send, I typically will send a meeting request immediately, right? A LinkedIn, sorry, request. But sometimes if I haven’t done it before jumping on a call, then I’m doing it during the call and I’m like, Hey, I just sent you a LinkedIn request,

Jack Sharry: Sure, yeah, totally. It’s just, uh, seems so obvious, but it’s, uh, so let’s talk a little bit about that. So here you are, you’ve, you’ve found this important niche in terms of how to talk to people. Shocking that it would be called a niche, but, and you’re focused on, frankly, the underserved in terms of next gen and, uh, women investors or potential investors.

Jack Sharry: Where do you see this going? How is it going? Where do you see it going? In other words, where are you in the evolution of what you’re, you’ve built and intend to build? Where do you see things headed?

Lacy Garcia: And Jack and I realize, I, I sort of went circular on your last question, but I think the evolution really is a, we wanna make sure that every advisor.  We’re not the platform for every advisor for starters. Like, because not every advisor wants to work with these clients, right? Sure. Not every advisor.

Jack Sharry: Yep.

Lacy Garcia: Is open and receptive. And I think that those advisors will probably be retiring soon, or you know, but we know that the client. The data tells us and the, the client advisor model is changing, right? It’s shifting. It’s demographic and wealth transfer shifts are ushering in this new era, right? Where it’s about, yeah, it’s equal parts investment, Human understanding. Yeah. Like, right. It’s about really this is here to stay.  Yep. Right. So I think that we are here, you know, we are a mission-driven company. Um, and a lot of why I think BlackRock is really attracted to what we are doing is because of their, they really wanna help advisors to future-proof their business. Right. To be able to, to be equipped. To succeed, not just today, but in the future and that this is the future.  Right. So making sure, so our program is designed, our certificate programs are designed really for any financial professional, you know, and even not just advisors, but client service or other folks can really benefit from the training. Very, very much so. On the other side, we offer, we really trust willow.com. We are a free concierge matching service for any individual or family who comes to us, right? And goes through our survey, and then we may have them meet with a member of our team who’s a matching specialist. And we wanna make sure, because our, our belief is that really everybody deserves. You know, and particularly obviously focused on around women and next gen because they’ve been so underserved. I mean, there’s such a big opportunity with them, but making sure that they really understand like. What is it that they need from a finding the right financial professional? We are purposely not providing any financial advice. You know, I’m not licensed anymore. I mean, we are here as, as the, the educator, the coach, the connector, but really helping them to be able to identify like what type of person, what type of support do they need, and then get them connected to a true fiduciary. Who is uniquely qualified, who is integrating coaching, who does care about them, who is like really committed to making sure that they are served with empathy, that they are getting the education that they need really to be empowered. So that’s our goal is, you know, obviously for anybody who needs it, I wanna make sure that they are connected ’cause we are really lucky the advisors that we are working with are exceptional. And you know, they are all genders, all ages. Obviously I have to have some experience and credentials prior to coming to us, but at the same time, you know, we’re working with a diverse group of, you know, we’re really focused on the kinda mass affluent and high lower kind of high net worth audience. So we need a diverse group of advisors because we have a diverse group of clients who are coming to us. But I will say that the ones who are earn their certificate and qualify for our client matching program, I stand behind them and I’m ex I’m thrilled to be working with them and I’m delighted to be helping them to grow their business and trust their relationships.

Jack Sharry: Well, we’re gonna wind up here in a minute. I’m gonna ask you for some key takeaways. Yeah. But before we do, I, I need to share a story that, uh, as we’re having this conversation, I recall a good friend of mine, an advisor, and lived in Buffalo, New York, told me this story. He. Early on figured out that if you cater to women, your business will grow. And a lot of it just happened because he’s sort of built that way, if you will. In other words, he, he really does care about people. He really wants to understand their issues and all that. That’s sort of how he does his business. Yeah. And he had a situation where he had been recommended by others, and it was, uh, someone who was a CEO of a business in the Buffalo area at the time. And, uh, his wife and the two of them were shopping for an advisor. As stated, and they had been, they had gone to see many advisors and ultimately they chose him. This friend of mine, and the story behind it was the CEO had terminal cancer. They were shopping for someone to take care of his wife financially since that was not her experience and she wasn’t comfortable.

Jack Sharry: Yeah. And the observation that was made, I, I know we’ve come a long way, but I’m gonna guess we got a lot more, a lot longer to go is, uh, the CEO said, well, let me tell you why we chose you. ’cause when you spoke to us, you spoke to my wife. Like she was there, everyone spoke to me. They knew I was the CEO or that I would be the financial person. You spoke to both of us and you paid special attention to my wife and that’s why we’re doing business with you. And he happens to know a lot of the other stuff. He knows how to run portfolios, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And was sort of a, a mar. He later went on, you love this. He later went on, he had a, a women’s advisory council. Quarterly, he would go out to lunch with them. Yep. To ask him how to run his business better. Smart man. It’s so smart. And then they would bring, can I bring my friend?

Lacy Garcia: A hundred percent. He grew his business, I’m sure tremendously.

Jack Sharry: He grew his business exponentially just by catering to women who were not taken care of. Yep. Sal, you, I’m sure you see variations on this, uh, in, in your day to day.

Lacy Garcia: Yeah, no, definitely. Day to day. And you know, we know that, that even McKinsey’s data is like backing that up, but it’s women, you know, women wanna be advisor dependent and they are loyal. Yeah. Right. And if you care about them and you do a good job, then they’re gonna tell their friends, their family, and they’re gonna recommend you.

Jack Sharry: And for our audience, as sick of hearing me talk about it, really what we’re bot. Lacy and I are talking about is listening, is just connecting and understanding their issues and paying attention, and then serving them accordingly. So that all said, but Lacy, our time grows short. So, uh, any key takeaways you wanna leave with our audience as we look to say farewell for now?

Lacy Garcia: I think, you know, you just summed it up so beautifully, Jack. Really, it’s a, this is a people business, right? It’s figuring out as an advisor, figure out really why you’re doing what you’re doing, why you care, who you wanna work with. Then it’ll become so easy to actually connect with those people and to better serve them, and then honestly, grow your business and also grow your quality of life.

Jack Sharry: Right. Totally. Totally. We’re singing from the same hymnal.

Lacy Garcia: Yeah.

Jack Sharry: Yeah, a hundred percent. So Lacy, this has been great. Really enjoyed our conversation as we do with all of our podcasts. One last question. What do you do outside of work that you are excited or passionate about that people might find interesting or surprising?

Lacy Garcia: So my greatest passion at life is my now 11-year-old son. And you know, one of the things we really have in common is that I, I was an athlete. I still wanna be athlete. So I think the thing that these days. That typically I, I’ve been dealing with some surgery on my foot and an old injury that I’m getting fixed, so we’d be skiing together this winter, but, but that’s not happening at the moment, sadly for me, even though he’s, he’s a ski racer. But I will say I’m really excited ’cause I just gave him the news that he’s a big soccer player and a big soccer fan, football fan, and I’m gonna be taking him. . To see his favorite team Arsenal play. So this is our, this is what we’re gonna spend the next couple months really looking forward to. It’s a big, exciting trip, and I’m learning, like drinking from the fire hose and trying to make sure that I know the names of all these players.

Jack Sharry: Right? Good for you. Good for you. That’s the best way to do it. That should be fun.

Lacy Garcia: Yeah.

Jack Sharry: So, uh, Lacy, this has been great. Enjoyed our conversation, uh, for our audience, if you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please rate, review, subscribe, and share what we’re doing here at WealthTech on Deck. We’re available wherever you get your podcasts.

Jack Sharry: Just also check us out at our dedicated website, wealthtechondeck.com. All of our episodes are there, along with blogs and curated content from many folks around the industry. Lacy, again, thanks so much. Really enjoyed it.