Mike Garrison

PA Stop Competing for Deals Already Won

Stop Competing for Deals Already Won

Small firm can’t win that war, but it can do something a giant can’t: arrive already trusted, through a warm introduction

PA AI Agents Are Becoming Your Prospect’s New Gatekeeper

AI Agents Are Becoming Your Prospect’s New Gatekeeper

Here is what I want you to think about: referrals and personal branding were never two different things.

PA Successful Owners Don’t Exit From Something—They Exit To Something

Successful Owners Don’t Exit From Something—They Exit To Something

The Discipline Behind the Firm You Would Actually Build Today

PA Client Acquisition Is Your Business—Everything Else Is Just Branding

Client Acquisition Is Your Business—Everything Else Is Just Branding

Before you open another tab, scroll another feed, or rewrite another bio answer this question: who actually owns your business?

PA Why Most Advisors Pick the Wrong Clients

Why Most Advisors Pick the Wrong Clients

PA Trying Harder Is Costing You Referrals

Trying Harder Is Costing You Referrals

That sounds counterintuitive. We’ve been told our whole careers that effort is the answer. When it comes to referrals, the opposite is often true.

PA Scaling Beyond Yourself Without Losing Presence

Scaling Beyond Yourself Without Losing Presence

Why the most successful advisors I know are often the least free. And what the Kitces data is quietly telling us about how to fix it.

PA The Sale Is Over Before It Starts: Why Prospects Pick You in Advance

The Sale Is Over Before It Starts: Why Prospects Pick You in Advance

The question isn’t how do I sell better? It’s how do I get on the list before there even is a list?

PA Why Your LinkedIn Connections Might Not Be Yours—and What To Do About It

Why Your LinkedIn Connections Might Not Be Yours—and What To Do About It

This week, Richard van der Blom dropped a newsletter that basically confirmed everything I’ve been saying.

PA Referrals Aren’t Dead. But Most People Are Doing Them Completely Wrong.

Referrals Aren’t Dead. But Most People Are Doing Them Completely Wrong.

Doing business by referral, business by relationship, can compete with and in many ways exceed the return on investment from any other form of marketing.

PA CEPA Designation Isn’t Hard. Implementing It Inside an Advisory Firm Is

CEPA Designation Isn’t Hard. Implementing It Inside an Advisory Firm Is

Heart of exit planning is one of its greatest strengths and one of the most underestimated implementation challenges successful financial advisors face.

PA Social Media Is Not a Growth Strategy for Serious Advisors

Social Media Is Not a Growth Strategy for Serious Advisors

Let me say this clearly. If you are an elite professional serving high stakes clients, social media is not a growth requirement. It is a tool.

PA Referral Compounding Starts With One Discipline Most Professionals Avoid

Referral Compounding Starts With One Discipline Most Professionals Avoid

Leveraging the Clients Who Already Believe in You

PA AI Isn’t Killing Advisory Fees—Weak Value Is

AI Isn’t Killing Advisory Fees—Weak Value Is

This is not an attack on advisors. This is an attack on a dominant and largely unexamined business model.

PA Never Let Someone Else Drive Your Referral Without Telling You

Never Let Someone Else Drive Your Referral Without Telling You

You hand the keys to someone you trust. A safe driver. Someone you’d let borrow your car again. That’s where this gets dangerous.

PA Are You Running an Advisory Practice — or an Accidental Sales Organization?

Are You Running an Advisory Practice — or an Accidental Sales Organization?

Let me start with a question that makes a lot of advisors uncomfortable, usually because they already know the answer. Are you a sales organization?

PA Why Most Referrals Fail: The Secret To Predictable Growth in Professional Services

Why Most Referrals Fail: The Secret To Predictable Growth in Professional Services

Referral clients convert faster, stay longer, generate more lifetime value, and are generally easier to work with.

PA How To Turn Credentials and Experience Into a Profitable Practice

How To Turn Credentials and Experience Into a Profitable Practice

What happens after you decide what you want to do? You’ve got credentials. You’ve got experience. You know the work you want to be doing.

PA You Can’t Systemize Trust—and That’s the Real Growth Constraint

You Can’t Systemize Trust—and That’s the Real Growth Constraint

Because once you see the role mismatch, you also see what can’t be fixed with more tools, more automation, or better delegation.

PA You Don’t Have a Growth Problem. You Have a Role Problem.

You Don’t Have a Growth Problem. You Have a Role Problem.

You Don’t Have a Growth Problem. You Have a Role Problem. For years, professional services firm owners have been told the same thing

PA Social Media Was Meant To Be Human—so Why Does It Feel So Fake?

Social Media Was Meant To Be Human—so Why Does It Feel So Fake?

Here is the paradox. Social media can be powerful, but most people are using it in a way that actively destroys trust.

PA Buyers Decide Before They Call You: How Elite Firms Win in the New B2B Reality

Buyers Decide Before They Call You: How Elite Firms Win in the New B2B Reality

The winners will be those who don’t wait to be discovered but engineer their presence into buyers’ decisions early.

PA The One Hire That Unlocks Your Next 10 Ideal Clients—and Gives You Your Life Back

The One Hire That Unlocks Your Next 10 Ideal Clients—and Gives You Your Life Back

For many of you, that number is two hundred fifty thousand or five hundred thousand, or much more.

PA The Referral Revolution: How Leaders Win With Ideal-Client Growth

The Referral Revolution: How Leaders Win With Ideal-Client Growth

Right back at the beginning, only at a different level and with a deeper understanding of what ideal client acquisition does to leaders and their firms.

PA AI Owns Information Now—Here’s How Advisors Stay the Only Answer That Matters

AI Owns Information Now—Here’s How Advisors Stay the Only Answer That Matters

This shift will keep accelerating as AI becomes the primary way people look for information and make decisions.

PA AI Will Change Everything—Except How You Win Clients

AI Will Change Everything—Except How You Win Clients

So the more useful question becomes: what never changes? What always works, no matter the technology, is human connection.

PA How To Stand Out in the AI Era: Be More Human, Not More Automated

How To Stand Out in the AI Era: Be More Human, Not More Automated

It’s no longer a novelty, and as the ‘noise’ increases, what’s left, what’s truly rare, is you.

PA Why Your Ideal Client Defines Your Future Value—Not Your Marketing Plan

Why Your Ideal Client Defines Your Future Value—Not Your Marketing Plan

The premise is simple: when the stakes are highest, you want to hand the keys to someone you trust, someone who truly fits.

PA Think Like a Specialist: The Proven Path To High-Value, High-Fit Clients

Think Like a Specialist: The Proven Path To High-Value, High-Fit Clients

The more successful your firm becomes, the more dangerous nonideal clients can be, especially when they have cost you time and money to acquire.

PA CPR for Your Pipeline: How I’m Rebuilding After Dropping the Ball

CPR for Your Pipeline: How I’m Rebuilding After Dropping the Ball

Hold a spot, waiting on someone else’s decision, I’m not just being patient I’m pausing my growth. That’s a dangerous place to live

PA You’re Now Selling to Two Customers—One of Them Is AI

You’re Now Selling to Two Customers—One of Them Is AI

Before you tune out thinking this is another AI is taking over post, stay with me. This one’s for people who actually sell ideas, advice, and trust.

PA Why Referrals Are the Only Way To Win in an AI-Driven Sales World

Why Referrals Are the Only Way To Win in an AI-Driven Sales World

The only proven way to meet ideal clients before they start their buying journey is through referrals powered by collaboration with other professionals.

PA The Power of Hitting Singles: How Consistent Small Wins Create Big Opportunities

The Power of Hitting Singles: How Consistent Small Wins Create Big Opportunities

They do it because you consistently prove you’re a safe driver through small, repeatable actions over time.

PA Referrals Still Win—but Only if AI Knows Who You Are

Referrals Still Win—but Only if AI Knows Who You Are

Here’s the short answer: referrals are still the fastest, most trusted way to land the right clients. Owned media is how you accelerate them.

PA AI Is Undefeated—but So Are Referrals: How To Stay Chosen in a Machine-Driven World

AI Is Undefeated—but So Are Referrals: How To Stay Chosen in a Machine-Driven World

So, where’s the good news? It’s in the same place it’s always been: relationships and referrals.

PA Evangelist Referrals: How To Win—and Keep—the 1% Who Drive Real Growth

Evangelist Referrals: How To Win—and Keep—the 1% Who Drive Real Growth

You lend someone your car, you aren’t just giving them transportation; you’re putting your reputation on the line. Referrals work the same way.