Helping RIAs Scale With Smart Workflow Automation With Jeffrey Rusin

Jeffrey Rusin is the Co‑founder and CMO of Advisor Tech Partners, where he specializes in helping financial advisors optimize their operations through CRM tools, email marketing, and social media strategies. He grew up in Massachusetts, attending Wilbraham & Monson Academy, and earned a business degree from Whittier College, where mentors like Dr. Gary Gold shaped his professional drive. Jeffrey’s early career included hands-on work with residents of retirement homes, which helped him develop empathy and a deep understanding of client relationships. A lifelong Nickelback and Boston Celtics fan, he balances his tech and marketing expertise with a love for hiking, weightlifting, and binge‑watching shows.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [2:17] Jeffrey Rusin discusses why he focuses exclusively on Redtail and Wealthbox CRMs

• [3:25] The critical role of CRM customizations like event types and contact sources

• [5:44] How to identify workflow breakdowns during team sessions

• [7:41] Automating the entire client onboarding process from scheduling to task assignment

• [10:46] Jeffery’s entry into advisor tech and his first exposure to Redtail

• [11:54] The origin story of Advisor Tech Partners

• [13:23] Staying focused on core tools while exploring new advisor tech platforms

• [15:27] Teaching clients how to understand and manage their automation systems

• [20:23] The future of CRM integrations and why more open APIs are essential
  

In this episode…

Many financial advisory firms struggle with inefficient workflows, disorganized CRMs, and a lack of accountability across teams. Without the right systems in place, tasks get missed, client experiences suffer, and firm growth stalls. How can firms transform their operations to streamline processes, improve data reporting, and enhance client engagement — all without overwhelming their teams?

Jeffrey Rusin, a CRM automation expert for advisory firms, shares how he helps streamline operations by customizing and automating workflows inside platforms like Redtail and Wealthbox. He emphasizes the importance of properly configuring foundational CRM elements, such as contact sources, event types, and user-defined fields, before layering in automation. Additionally, Jeffrey explains how workflows can be designed by observing team dynamics, identifying process bottlenecks, and automating task assignments based on meeting types. He also offers tips on using Zapier to automate common actions, such as drafting follow-up emails, and advocates for using the simplest tech stack possible to avoid unnecessary complexity.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Jeffrey Rusin, Co-founder of Advisor Tech Partners, about automation and workflow design for financial advisory firms. Jeffrey shares how to optimize CRMs to improve reporting and accountability. He also discusses the benefits of Zapier, tips for teaching clients automation, and his thoughts on the future of AI notetakers.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Quik!

• Richard Walker on LinkedIn

• Jeffrey Rusin on LinkedIn

• Advisor Tech Partners

• "[Perspective Series] Secrets to Retention and Revenue Boosting With Joseph Loria" on The Customer Wins

• "[AI Series] Revolutionizing Financial Meetings With AI With Parker Ence" on The Customer Wins

• "Redefining Client Discovery in Finance With Marla Sofer" on The Customer Wins

• Wealthbox

• Redtail Technology

• Zapier

Quotable Moments:

• "What we want to happen — the prospect schedules the meeting, and it automatically triggers everything in the CRM."

• "We really get to know our clients, so we get them to calm down a bit."

• "If I want it for myself, I'm going to have to go get it for myself."

• "We do the same thing as we do for advisors. We internally operate the same way."

• "They know their processes, but they don’t know what order they should be in."

  
  

Action Steps:

1. Standardize CRM customizations before automation: Consistent use of contact sources, event types, and tags ensures accurate reporting and effective automation.

2. Align workflows with team input: Gathering feedback from your team uncovers friction points and increases alignment with real-world processes.

3. Automate task assignments using meeting types: Assigning tasks based on meeting categories streamlines accountability and ensures follow-through on key client interactions.

4. Teach staff how automation works: When your team understands trigger-based logic, they become more self-sufficient and reduce reliance on tech support.

5. Focus on a lean tech stack: Using fewer, high-impact tools simplifies operations and minimizes the risk of overlap or system conflicts.

Sponsor for this episode...

This is brought to you by Quik!

At Quik!, we provide forms automation and management solutions for companies seeking to maximize their potential productivity.

Using our FormXtract API, you can submit your completed forms and get clean, context-rich data that is 99.9% accurate.

Our vision is to become the leading forms automation company by making paperwork the easiest part of every transaction.

Meanwhile, our mission is to help the top firms in the financial industry raise their bottom line by streamlining the customer experience with automated, convenient solutions.

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Episode Transcript:

Intro: 00:02

Welcome to The Customer Wins podcast, where business leaders discuss their secrets and techniques for helping their customers succeed and, in turn, grow their business.

Richard Walker: 00:16

Hi, I'm Rich Walker, the host of The Customer Wins, where I talk to business leaders about how they help their customers win. How they're focused on customer experience leads to growth. Some of my past guests have included Joseph Loria of RetentionCX, Parker of Jump, and Marla Sofer of Knomee. Today, I'm speaking to Jeff Rusin, co-founder of Advisor Tech Partners. In today's episode is brought to you by Quik!, the leader in enterprise forms processing.

When your business relies upon processing forms, don't waste your team's valuable time manually reviewing the forms. Instead, get Quik! using our Form Xtract API. Simply submit your completed forms and get back clean, context-rich data that reduces manual reviews to only one out of a thousand submissions. Visit quickforms.com to get started. All right, I'm excited to introduce today's guest.

Jeff Rusin is a Zapier-certified expert who helps RIA’s and advisory firms streamline their operations with smart automations inside Wealthbox and Redtail CRMs. As the founder of Advisor Tech Partners, he specializes in transforming disorganized, overcomplicated workflows into efficient systems that connect seamlessly with the tools firms already use. His mission is simple: clean it up and level it up so firms can grow without dropping the ball. Jeff, welcome to The Customer Wins.

Jeffrey Rusin: 01:43

Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. And I really appreciate it. And I think you got that intro down pretty well. I heard it on other podcasts, and I like how smooth you are with it.

Richard Walker: 01:55

Oh thanks, man. Well, I'm excited to talk to you because we have similar backgrounds in a way. So for those who haven't heard this podcast before, I'd love to talk to business leaders about what they're doing to help their customers win, how they built and deliver a great customer experience, and the challenges to growing their own company. So, Jeff, let's understand your business a little bit better. How does your company help people?

Jeffrey Rusin: 02:17

So essentially, we only work with financial advisory firms that have Redtail or Wealthbox. And right now that's it. And so we see that their operations and automations are all over the place. Their team members are not held accountable. The owners always want reports.

The team members can't get those reports. And there's a lot of human error without the automations and workflows. So we help advisory firms to build workflows, processes, and automations. We help them win so that their client can win as well. Because at the end of the day, the end client is the most important.

They're the ones with the money in the market usually.

Richard Walker: 03:01

So yeah, the CRM is the hub, maybe the center of the universe, and a lot of advisory firms. And I know it's hard, and I was an advisor. So when you're thinking about how do I improve my business and you say, oh, I need a CRM to manage all this data, there's so much more. I mean, you're talking about doing so much more than just putting the data in, right?

Jeffrey Rusin: 03:25

It's so much more. So it all starts off. You have to have like every customization set up correctly, contact sources, event types, all these things that you can't even fathom, that people don't even think about. Right. And then no advisory firm has this set up correctly until they talk with us, and then we can understand their business.

But you need to get the base level. We have the base on our logo right here. The customizations are set up first. So like we're talking like I said, contact sources, event types, and tags, and special user-defined fields so you can ultimately run reports and have an accountable team. So that's the first step of it all.

The base level of the CRM is typically always thrown off a bit.

Richard Walker: 04:12

But why event types. What's an event type. What does that actually mean?

Jeffrey Rusin: 04:17

Yeah. So event types are like, think about prospecting meetings and client meetings. So for prospecting meetings that would be intro meetings, discovery meetings plan presentation implementation. Those are the meeting types. And when we get those into Wealthbox or Redtail we're able to run data on them automatically.

But we want those. We need to build them out first inside of the CRM before we can automate those appointments. Going into the CRM and therefore running the data on it automatically.

Richard Walker: 04:48

So the theorems don't come with that preloaded.

Jeffrey Rusin: 04:51

They don't have the exact terminology that the firm uses preloaded. So everyone calls it something different. And then the automations, let's say, let's say someone's using Calendly or G reminders for their scheduling. You know, when they're scheduling clients, they need to make sure that they're getting the right link so that the automation can push everything into the CRM, categorizing it correctly with whatever terminology they use for an intro meeting. Some people go straight to discovery, and then automatically, the reports can be run.

Richard Walker: 05:26

Okay, so I don't imagine this is just about reports. Help me understand what are all the things are that you can do with automation. Or maybe another way to look at it is what would be the ideal user experience for an advisory firm that has the automations all built?

Jeffrey Rusin: 05:44

I'll just go through the whole thing. So it starts off with the customizations and learning everything about their firm, and then putting that into the base level of their CRM, getting the customizations in. Then we build workflows. We get down on the ground with the whole entire team. We love it when we get on to Matthew and me.

Matthew's the co-founder. We love when we get on to these Zooms, and then we end up on a TV in a conference room, because then we can get everybody pointing fingers at each other and kind of, you know, getting a little bit pissed off about how things are running. And then everything works itself out as we take our notes on our end about how the workflow should be. So let's say we're talking about, okay.

Richard Walker: 06:26

You don't really want people pissed off, but you're identifying friction, right? You're you're surfacing where the challenges are and where things aren't working. Right. By doing that.

Jeffrey Rusin: 06:36

Yeah. What we do is we have the whole team on there. It's going to have we're going to have the owner. We can have CSAs' associate advisors. And then they're like, no, the ADV should be sent here.

And like a bunch of different, a bunch of different outcomes can happen depending on how the firm runs, you know. So they know their processes, but they don't know what order they should be in. And so one person thinks one thing, one person thinks another. And then we're kind of there as mediators when we're building the workflows. And then we build the workflows.

So that's the second step after the customization. So it's customize, then build workflows. Because each workflow step, you can add a category to for more tracking. And then the automations are leveled on top of it.

Richard Walker: 07:24

So okay.

Jeffrey Rusin: 07:25

Yeah.

Richard Walker: 07:27

So so like is it are you eliminating human effort from onboarding a client into the CRM all the way through all the meetings, or what are all the types of experiences then that occur from this?

Jeffrey Rusin: 07:41

Yeah. So the best example I can give is when an introductory meeting is scheduled in our ideal dream outcome for all of our clients and everyone that works with us, what we want to happen. So the prospect schedules the introductory meeting, then automatically that event goes into the CRM. It creates them as a contact, adds them as a prospect, puts them into the opportunity funnel and launches the introductory meeting workflow and then assigns everybody depending on their role, the tasks. So, who will do what by when to make this introductory meeting successful?

Richard Walker: 08:17

And so all those steps are fully automated. The system is taken over. And then people are saying, Oh, I have a to-do list now and they just work on it.

Jeffrey Rusin: 08:24

Fully automated. Yes.

Richard Walker: 08:26

Oh that's awesome. You know, I introduced you as a certified Zapier expert or something like that. How much does Zapier play a role in these automations?

Jeffrey Rusin: 08:37

Zapier plays a massive role depending on the firm that we work with, so there's G reminders as a scheduling tool that has direct integrations with Redtail and Wealthbox. So with G reminders, there's no Zapier stuff that we need to do. But, you know, in Zapier, what we can do is attach zaps or automations to workflow steps. And I'll give you an example. So after an intro call, let's say they're an associate advisor who needs to send out an email.

What we can do is once that step is complete, we can put it into the draft of the draft section of their outlook. So then they have a templated version of what the email that needs to go out. And then they can use their AI notetaker stuff to kind of customize it. So all day, while having intro calls and those steps are being completed, their drafts box of their Outlook is being stacked up so they can just block themselves for the hour at the end of the day and pop them all out.

Richard Walker: 09:38

Wow, that is awesome. I'm going to reveal something. Jeff. Technically, my company started in 1999. I talk about it starting in 2002 when we launched Quick but Actually Efficient Technology Inc. My actual company name started in 99 when I joined my mom and her consulting business, and our first job is very similar to what you're talking about.

We wanted to help make people more efficient with the tools they already had. Now, back then, we didn't have Zapier, didn't have Calendly. You know, it was Microsoft Office tools, but we were building automations with programming like Excel and Access databases, etc., and we had a bunch of financial planning clients, which is how I first saw the forms problem, frankly. But when I tried to address it as a consultant, it didn't work. The solution was too cumbersome.

It was only when I became an advisor that I could address it from a totally different perspective. So I want to ask you a hard question. What is your background that gives you this perspective on financial advisors? How do you know so much about this world?

Jeffrey Rusin: 10:46

Okay, so right after college, I needed a job, and I studied finance in college, for whatever that's worth. And so I was like, I studied finance, let me work for a financial advisor's office. Right? I had no clue what Red tail was. And then I learned what Redtail was.

And then I learned everything else, this advisor tech stuff. And then I started researching like, crazy advisor tech stuff all over, just trying to learn everything I could. And at that first job, the boss was very adamant about getting things automated as well. So I got to learn automations. But then eight months after, I decided to hold, call and consult and it worked.

So I just kept learning and following people on LinkedIn and going to all of these advisor tech platforms' Tutorial videos. Yeah.

Richard Walker: 11:46

So you taught yourself, you focused, you asked customers if you could help them and you just kept building and building.

Jeffrey Rusin: 11:54

Yes. And then I started doing contracted work for advisors all over America. So think about Advisor Tech Partners 1.0. And then I met Matthew at a firm where we were both mutually working at. He was there as a W2, I was 1099 and he left, and then I left shortly after.

And then after I would say a month or two, I hit him up. I said, hey, are you going to get a job or what's, what's up? And I guess the stars just aligned and him and I have been doing this together. And Advisor Tech Partners 2.0 is here. So that's awesome.

That's how that. Yeah.

Richard Walker: 12:38

No, that's really great. A lot of advisors need help. I don't know if there is enough consulting people out there to help them do what they need to do. And man, at one point we talked about being kind of a fractional CTO or CIO for firms because they lack that internal capability. And I think of it just practically that the advisor didn't sign up for tech.

They signed up to be an advisor. They signed up to be a financial expert and also part psychologist. But they didn't sign up for tech. And we are swimming in tech right now. How are you keeping up?

I love that you said you're focused on Redtail and Wealthbox, but come on, there's so many other things out there. How are you keeping up with tech yourself?

Jeffrey Rusin: 13:23

There's there is so much out there, but I think keeping the niche kind of narrow, but still having not having horse blinders on, like we're looking for other pieces of tech. So right now it's yes, it's redtail, it's Wealthbox, it's Jira, it's Zapier. And we find that that can. Do most damage 99% of the damage. Right?

Or Pareto's principle. 20% of your actions cause 80% of your results. So 20% of your tech stack causes 80% of your results. So we really focus on that. And yeah.

Richard Walker: 14:02

You know, there are other automation tools that compete with Zapier. One of the oldest ones is if this then that IFT or TI or something like that, but newer ones like Make.com or N810, and I'm sorry, I'm geeking out a little bit because I love tech. Do you look at any of those other tools, and do you see advantages or disadvantages with them?

Jeffrey Rusin: 14:23

You know, so we have a very. One of our strengths is teaching clients how to do what we do. And so what we like to do is record loom videos and show them what to do when something breaks. We have looked into make. And what was the other one that you said in 810?

Oh, in an in. Yeah. I've heard about that through a proxy. I've never been on it. But we have a make an account.

It's just with Zapier it's more of triggers. Whereas in making it's, it's more of polling. And so we like the trigger aspect of Zapier where when something happens in the CRM, then we can do something else in another software.

Richard Walker: 15:09

You know, I have to also admit, I think Zapier is ten times easier to understand and learn, and start using than make. I don't know if you've seen that or not and have that experience, but since you're teaching your clients how to fish for themselves at some level, maybe Zapier is an easier solution for them too.

Jeffrey Rusin: 15:27

Yeah, it definitely is. But Zapier is still complex in many ways for a new user, right? And yeah, I just think it's important for them to understand at least like the graph of what happens and why it happens and where it happens. So that's that's ultimately the education we want them to understand. When they press this button, this thing will happen, you know.

Richard Walker: 15:53

Yeah.

Jeffrey Rusin: 15:54

Yeah.

Richard Walker: 15:55

You know, you're working with G reminders, and I've had Arnold Shoe on my show. I've also had Jump and Xbox and Cognos, and all these different tool sets that are doing similar things for automation and AI notetaking. And to me, they're they're taking off like so many companies want these products because of how well it helps the advisor. Are you seeing demand to now work with all those companies to.

Jeffrey Rusin: 16:18

You know, we get a lot of questions about the AI stuff and we see it similar, even though I was just a kid at the time as the.com bubble, you know, like a lot of AI stuff coming out. I know G Reminders has there I jump there's Xbox, but there's one that we're really looking forward to, which is shout out John Roark, the co-founder or founder of Wealthbox, and it's his note taker. It's a Wealthbox is Notetaker. We we find that the disconnection between the note taker and the CRM sometimes causes some issues. And the more direct we're just so excited for that note taker.

We're telling people like they're asking which one should we use? We're like, hold off, hold off to our wealthbox to our Wealthbox user clients. We're like, chill for about another month and a half or something like that, and we'll see what Wealthbox can do. I think it's going to be very special because it's a direct integration with the CRM. So.

Richard Walker: 17:17

You know, that's a really good thing to think about because ChatGPT keeps coming out with features that put people out of business in a way. Right? Apple has been doing that for years, like putting apps out of business with features they come up with. So it makes me wonder, Will Wealthbox succeed? Need and, you know, essentially retaining that market share away from companies like Xbox and etc.. Or will they only be good enough, like because, I mean, you have to imagine Xbox and jump, etc. they're focused all their efforts going into this and Wealthbox has a lot to do.

Jeffrey Rusin: 17:52

Yeah, I mean, that's an economic law. That's a specialization leads to a better outcome in most cases, right? So what I'm hoping for is that Wealthbox has a dedicated team for this specific endeavor and can compete in a way where they can compete and do better.

Richard Walker: 18:11

Well, I think they'll have advantage, technically speaking, because they'll have that integration pre-built. I mean, all internal. They don't have to necessarily. They can call systems and services that only they know about. That's part of the advantage of building it yourself.

How I asked this question on a previous episode with somebody else, because when you look at the map of tech, It's overwhelming. Right?

Jeffrey Rusin: 18:37

You have to zoom in to see anything. Yeah.

Richard Walker: 18:40

Yeah. And I'm wondering, like, when you talk to all these advisors, they are also swimming in it. And I get it. We've talked many times in this show already that you're focused, and I love that. But I'm sure you still have to be swimming through this and trying to figure out what's right and what works and doesn't work.

Jeffrey Rusin: 18:57

We absolutely do. So like we know about different platforms. Orion. Right. Capital E money, FP Alpha because we're learning about all of these different platforms through the firm's processes.

So let's say we're working on a tax planning meeting workflow. Well then we're going to have to by proxy learn a bit about FP Alpha and Holistiplan and whichever one they use. So we typically like the the newer ones that have the more rounded corner look and more modern. But if the firms using Orion, let's say we still have to do something inside of their workflow to make sure that the CSA or Associate advisor goes to the right place in Orion to generate, let's say, a quarterly report for a client. Right.

So we need to be in there and understand that SOP.

Richard Walker: 19:50

Yeah. All right. So here's kind of a hard question. A lot of people start to think that AI is going to replace their jobs or, you know, put companies and businesses out of work, etc.. Personally, I don't see you ever running out of work to do, because the integration level that you're working at is not being approached by all the AIS or all the toolsets.

I mean, if redtail could have all those event types, they would, right? So what do you see as the future in the kind of work you're doing and the need for services like you provide?

Jeffrey Rusin: 20:23

I think for the near future, it's going to be pretty similar to right now. I think as AI gets enhanced, that There's going to be more aspects of the workflows that can actually be automated. Like let's say right now, there's no good connection between like an advisor tech, CRM, and like Orion, to the point where you click something in a workflow and it perfectly happens. There's always it's never perfect. And so I think the future of it is just going to be more AI and more automation inside of the CRM that can do stuff in other places that can push information to other places like Orion and Schwab.

They just need to be more open because they're very they want they're very how do I put this compliance oriented?

Richard Walker: 21:15

Sure. Yeah. They need tight control over how things flow. But but ultimately that means we're waiting on refinement. We're waiting for these companies to build those APIs, offer that kind of input capabilities, that integration opportunities, etc..

Right.

Jeffrey Rusin: 21:29

Yeah, that's for sure. We've talked with Schwab, you know, and they'll do API stuff. But for big, big firms that have like an a big operations team that are trying to accomplish a mission, but they don't have like a Zapier connection or a make connection yet, right? So maybe one day, hopefully. I think I think that's a direction.

Richard Walker: 21:52

Here's the funny question in my mind, because, you know, the whole idea that you work on other people's businesses, but maybe not on your own because you're so busy working on other people's businesses, how automated are you guys internally?

Jeffrey Rusin: 22:04

We do everything the same exact how we do for our clients. So if you schedule, we use G reminders, and if you schedule on G reminders, then a workflow is going to automatically launch in our wealthbox. And we're going to follow the exact processes. So we have time to work on the business, because everything that's in the business is set up. And shout out to Matthew because he he's like the workflow master.

We do the same thing as we do for advisors. We internally operate the same way, except we're not managing money.

Richard Walker: 22:34

Yeah. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear it.

Jeffrey Rusin: 22:37

Yeah.

Richard Walker: 22:38

Man, it's such a hard thing to keep up with. I mean, in my company, we're constantly saying, can we automate this? Can we add, you know, streamlined value to it? We're finally automating an invoicing process that we've had. That's a highly custom invoice process for forms billing that's finally getting streamlined after all these years.

It's just hard to keep up with it all.

Jeffrey Rusin: 23:01

And how often are you? Are you looking to automate things? I mean, your service has been around for such a long time, how often do you find yourself making improvements to it? Is it all the time? Is it a constant improvement?

Richard Walker: 23:13

Man, our backlog is so long we'll never finish it. Okay. I mean, there's so many things to do. And, you know, part of our challenge, being 23 years old is we have certain things that are old, their legacy, and they need to be upgraded. We have technical debt that we have to overcome and that's infrastructure.

That's software design, that's services that we have. It's it's products and solutions that we're still relying upon. And as we grow and we serve more products or more people or more types of of of challenges, it just complicates things. So yeah, I'd say it's nonstop. And in fact, one of the things I look at is if you want to stay in business for a long time, you have to keep evolving.

So that means you make a constant investment in yourself to do that.

Jeffrey Rusin: 23:59

Yeah, I totally agree. And I was just thinking the backlog is so long. That's probably a good sign, right? That's not that's not a bad thing. Right.

Richard Walker: 24:11

It's not a bad thing. And really I would say there's probably three categories in there. There's legacy tech that needs to be upgraded because, hey, servers change. You know, operating systems change. Those things have to happen.

There's improvements that you're going to make to your product, your infrastructure, etc. and then there's innovation itself. And so those three kinds of things filter into that backlog. And you have to prioritize where you're going to spend your time this month or this week or this year. And the hardest thing for me, and I wonder if you feel this way too, Jeff, the hardest thing for me is that customers ask for so many different things, and they all sound like great ideas. So which ones do you do?

Because you can't do them all.

Jeffrey Rusin: 24:55

I think advisors, especially the owners, have the biggest shiny object syndrome ever, right? And so they need an integrator to stop them and say, no, you don't even have this basic thing set up yet. Like they'll listen to podcasts, right. And then they'll go into their office and tell their team they need to start doing something new immediately. And the team's like, what what what?

And so like, yeah, I yeah, the shiny object syndrome in this industry is real. It's we experience it a lot, and I think through our process and really getting to know our clients, right. And so we get them to calm down a bit and show them slow down. Let's build from the base here. Keep building on top of it.

So we're not building on top of a swamp. We're building on top of solid concrete. And yeah, then we can focus on those shiny objects.

Richard Walker: 25:53

You know, I would say half the time that we're trying to figure out solutions with a customer. The customer has told us what they want the solution to be, but they haven't told us what the problem is they're trying to solve. And when you understand the problem, there's so many different solutions you can consider. And sometimes you don't even need a new solution. You already have it.

You just need to turn on a feature or configure it. Right?

Jeffrey Rusin: 26:14

Yes. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I feel the same way as you. Exactly.

Richard Walker: 26:18

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure because Wealthbox and Redtail can do so many things you add in your capabilities with workflows and automations. They just didn't know how to configure it that way. And there's your value. That's what that's what you guys are doing.

Jeffrey Rusin: 26:30

Yeah, I would say we've had a couple of calls since the beginning of 2025 where people hop on a couple intro calls and be like, I need, I need things automated. And then like, we have no, we have no clue of where to go. Like, like they hop on the call and then they expect us to maybe, like, tell them what to automate without them telling us about their problems and their business. So we need to know those problems before we know, like where we should be automating, you know what I mean?

Richard Walker: 27:00

Yeah. For sure. So, Jeff, I have to wrap this up. But before we get to my last question, what is the best way for people to find and connect with you?

Jeffrey Rusin: 27:08

So the best way to connect with us is on our website. You can go to our website, advisortechpartners.com. We have orange buttons that say Get Started, and you can schedule an intro meeting with us. You can also go to our YouTube channel, which is youtube.com. Where we post a lot of Wealthbox and Redtail tutorial videos.

Or you can just email our team email, which is hello. And that's team@advisortechpartners.com. We don't do the air around here.

Richard Walker: 27:40

Yeah, right. That makes sense. I love that you have a YouTube channel and you're educating the world alongside what you're doing. That is awesome. Thank you.

Here's my last question. Who has had the biggest impact on your leadership style and how you approach your role today?

Jeffrey Rusin: 27:56

100% my mom, because. You know, I heard David Goggins say this. So I don't want to be cliche at all, but he was never picking me up. Like making me figure it out. Which has led to many great things for me, I believe.

And so I think the lack of coddling or helping out, making me by my own first car, making me work when I was 15 years old just instilled something in me where I know, like if I want it for myself, I'm going to have to go get it for myself. So my mom. So shout out to my mom. Her name is Melissa and she'll definitely be watching this.

Richard Walker: 28:45

Oh that is awesome man.

Richard Walker: 28:46

That is awesome. Yeah I so appreciate that I have kids now. And I'm always asking, how can I make sure they grow up to be self-sufficient, to be problem solvers and look at you? I mean, you are a major problem solver with your entire business, so congrats man, that is awesome.

Jeffrey Rusin: 29:01

Appreciate it. And I think it's really cool how you started a business with your mom. Like that's maybe one day in the future I can start a business with my mom. That would be pretty cool.

Richard Walker: 29:13

It helped that my mom and I were both doing consulting, and, you know, we were both in this world of working with financial advisors, so we had this common ground to work with. We're also best friends, so that helped too. All right, I got to wrap it up. So I want to give a big thank you to Jeff Rusin, co-founder of Advisor Tech Partners, for being on my episode of The Customer Wins. Go check out Jeff's website at advisortechpartners.com.

And don't forget to check out where we make processing forms easier. I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'll click the like button, share this with someone and subscribe to our channel for future episodes of The Customer Wins. Jeff, thanks so much for joining me today.

Jeffrey Rusin: 29:53

Thank you. Had a lot of fun and I appreciate the podcast appearance invitation.

Outro: 30:00

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