Ed Poach, CFP®, APMA
Private Wealth Advisor
CEO, Fortify Private Wealth Management
Congratulations to Ed Poach for winning the 2020 D2 Advisor of the Year Award! D2 talked to Ed about what made him successful, and his plans for the future.
Congrats on winning Advisor of the Year! What made you successful last year?
I’d like to thank my awesome team around me for recognizing me, as well as Travis and D2. They’ve been super helpful in my growth personally and professionally, as has my team. 2020 was a crazy year, but I stayed focused on all my clients as well as my team. We made sure we stayed together as a team, stayed focused and on point, and made it about the clients.
How did you stay in touch with everyone?
We were all learning together, and all had to figure it out together. My team was all super supportive of things I was asking of them. We tried some things that didn’t work and then tried other things.
We reached out through some of the more tumultuous, volatile times and let clients know about our weekly phone or video updates. When everyone was quarantined and scared, not just about markets, but about their life, we also reached out for non-business reasons to every single one of our clients just to check in and see if they needed anything. We got unbelievable feedback on that.
As a team, we did daily check-ins, and we had to be creative to keep everyone engaged. We had different people lead the team meetings, and we played virtual games together.
What are you most proud of from 2020?
I’m most proud of the fact that not only did we grow, but we learned. We learned about each other, and we grew as individuals and as a company, which helped us stay focused going into 2021. We learned what worked and didn’t work, and how to be even better.
What’s next? What are your plans for the future?
Has anyone ever repeated as advisor of the year? That could be my new goal.
One of the things we were able to do last year is build out our infrastructure and processes and systems, knowing that in the future we will need a lot of advisors to service the clients we have and grow the way we want to grow. We want to be able to team up with individuals and let them grow, recruit advisors, and do acquisitions.
We have some ambitious college students keeping in touch with us, and we’re figuring out how we can bring them into the industry with internships and shadowing programs. We’re talking with and working with a whole lot of people – professionals and prospective employees.
How did D2 help you with this process?
D2 has helped me in a couple of different ways. First, with accountability – in working with Travis, he challenges me, but he also keeps me accountable to accomplish the things I want to accomplish and do what I say I’m going to do.
D2 also helps me learn to be uncomfortable. For example, leadership is not easy to learn on your own, but when you have the guidance of someone like Travis who has done it and does it every day, it’s beneficial to be able to tap into that wisdom.