Financial Advisors have access to a variety of channels to find potential prospects. But with growing competition and limited time to focus on marketing, many Advisors are unsure which channels will deliver the best results for their business.
That’s why RFG Advisory created the Advisor Growth Study Club. It offers the Advisors who partner with RFG a regular opportunity to discuss their growth strategies, share insights about specific channels, and learn from their peers’ success. Each monthly session, hosted by Chief Behavioral Officer Brendan Frazier, features a different guest speaker exploring their most impactful growth channel.
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When most Advisors think about growth, the reflex is to go bigger: add more clients, expand the team, launch new initiatives. But what if the real path to sustainable, scalable growth isn’t just about doing more, but doing less, better?
That was the core focus of RFG’s recent Advisor Growth Study Group session featuring special guest Stephanie Bogan, business strategist, author, and Founder of Limitless Adviser Coaching. This month presented a compelling challenge to all growth-minded Advisors: Before you hire another employee or take on another project, take a hard look at how you’re using your time (and what’s quietly costing you scale).
Here’s the good news: Your capacity problem might just be an optimization opportunity in disguise.
5 Ways to Rethink Advisor Capacity and Optimize Your Business for Growth
1. Optimize before you add
One common trap Advisors can fall into is thinking they’ve “maxed out” their time and need to hire someone to grow. But more often than not, what’s actually happened is this: They’ve hit the limit of their current systems, not their potential—and that distinction matters.
Expanding before you’ve optimized your foundation can lead to higher costs, lower margins, and more complexity.
Optimization is different. It’s about being ruthless with your time, intentional with your client base, and clear on your highest-value activities. It’s also how you reclaim time to focus on the work you love and the work that grows your business.
Ask yourself: What percentage of your day is actually spent in your “zone of genius?” If it’s not at least half, you could potentially be scaling friction instead of freedom.
2. Calculate the cost of legacy clients
While some of your oldest client relationships may have been established over a long period of time, it’s important to regularly review and assess their impact on your business. As you and your clients grow, you may find that a few who were a perfect fit ten years ago may not necessarily align with the business you’re building today.
This isn’t about letting go of good relationships. It’s about recalibrating your business to reflect where you are now and where you want to go next. The point is to create space for both your clients’ best interests and your own opportunities.
If you find yourself in that situation, consider segmenting your client book by service level or potentially referring the client to another Advisor on your team who is better equipped to serve them.
3. Rethink your schedule
There’s no shortage of tools, technology, or team structures out there, but there is a limit on how many hours you have each day.
Every day you spend chasing down paperwork, answering routine questions, or fixing processes your team should own is a day you’re not building deeper relationships, meeting with prospects, or crafting strategy. In other words, you’re trading leverage for logistics.
High-performing Advisors don’t have more hours in a day than low-performers, but they often make better decisions about how to manage their time. They’ve invested in people, systems, and support that allow them to operate at a higher level.
4. Bring behavior into the equation
Here’s something that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet: behavior. And yet, it’s often the most valuable data point you have.
A comment from a quiet spouse during a client review. A hesitation when discussing legacy planning. A pattern of avoidance around risk decisions. These are not throwaway moments; they’re opportunities (if you’re paying attention).
Behavioral insights are a valuable tool in financial planning. And with the rise of AI and meeting analytics, we now have tools that can help Advisors track, understand, and apply these insights at scale. That could look like:
- Tracking emotional patterns across meetings using AI summaries
- Asking values-based questions early in the relationship (e.g., “What’s this money really for?”)
- Building “feelings into the fact set” by using both technical projections and emotional check-ins
Of course, it really starts with one question: Are you listening?
5. Trade complexity for clarity
Your business should be a reflection of your values, not your volume. If it’s starting to feel like the work you have to do is crowding out the work you want to do, it may be time to rethink what you’re building.
The most successful Advisors aren’t spinning more plates; they’re choosing the right ones. They’ve simplified their service models, streamlined their operations, and built in time for the work that deepens relationships, develops their teams, and grows their business strategically.
When you focus on your highest-value clients, delegate with confidence, and align your systems with your goals, complexity drops, and capacity rises.
RFG Advisory: Built for Advisors Who Want to Rethink What’s Possible
Growth isn’t just about metrics—it’s about having a clear vision of the business you want to lead and designing your systems and processes to support it.
Advisor Growth Study Club, our internal peer-to-peer mentorship community, exists to help Advisors do exactly that: connect with peers, share what’s working, and explore what’s possible. If you’re looking to rethink growth, simplify your model, or refocus your time, we’re here to help you build with purpose.
We partner with Advisors who are ready to:
- Reclaim time for what matters most: deepening client relationships and driving growth
- Leverage technology and support to streamline operations, not add complexity
- Build a business that enables strategic focus, fuels energy, and supports a lifestyle by design