First Friday Feedback: December 2025

In December's episode of First Friday Feedback, Phil wraps up the year with a thoughtful, forward-looking take on what drives meaningful progress. He reflects on November’s focus, turning goals into action through intentional habits, humble leadership, and long-range vision, before spotlighting three powerful trends shaping 2026: clients craving truly holistic relationships, advisors succeeding through curiosity instead of lecturing, and emotional intelligence emerging as the real advantage in an AI-powered world. Phil ends with a reminder to nurture authentic connections, embrace gratitude, and step into the new year with clarity, purpose, and renewed momentum.

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Transcript

 Hi, I am Phil Buchanan with Cannon Financial Institute. We produce the podcast series Monday Morning Mojo, the Cannon Curve, and Cannon Connect. Each of these podcasts invites listeners to email or text their feedback, comments and questions. They are all answered right here on First Friday Feedback. If you're new to our podcast, go ahead and subscribe to all four and get engaged by sharing your perspective. Life is about the journey. so let's go for the ride.

Greetings Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with First Friday feedback for December, 2025. Wow. The year has come and is in the final days of its conclusion. What an interesting year 2025 has been. We are gonna recap a bit of our month of November and, uh, a little beyond as we conclude this great year of 2025.

This month we focused on turning goals into action, how we execute. In Mojo 723, we focused on small rituals. We talked a little bit about coffee. We talked a little bit about curated news. We talked about taking 15 minutes of every day. That's 1% of your day to focus on learning. Learning something new, learning the latest and greatest applications of technology.

Anything that can inspire your mind. And use these morning rituals to create daily momentums. In Mojo 722, we focused a bit on the fact that to execute effectively requires humility. We have to listen first. We have to guide through questions. We have to build trust before we demonstrate our expertise.

And of course, in November, our Cannon Curve guest of the month was Michael Wilson from First Citizens Bank. He reinforced the thinking that we need to keep our horizons at five and 10 years and not on quarterly sprints. So all of this begs the question, how do we execute on the goals we set? Well, again, we start with intentional habits.

We lead with humility and confidence, and we plan beyond the short term. Now, as we look ahead to 2026, we are seeing three clear trends emerging and taking whole. Number one, holistic experiences over transactions. Now, this is not a new trend, but it had been a niche trend. Uh, yet today we are seeing clients demanding integrated advice delivered through authentic relationships.

They aren't simply looking for transactions. And so what began as more of an advisory driven approach to give holistic experiences, we are now seeing a demand from the clients for that type of experience. So these authentic relationships are often revealed actually in informal settings like golf trips, hunting trips, not just board rooms.

A second theme that is emerging is discovery. Trumps dictation. The Best advisors guide through questions and deep listening, not lectures. And this is a challenge for many individuals who always have been omnipotent, the smartest person in the room, the person with the perspective and the insight, the ability to shift from that.

Technician to more of a clinician to help people think through the challenges and issues they face, and not to be told of the challenges and issues that they face is a shift for many. And then the third clear trend that we see emerging is human adaptil as the differentiator. We find ourselves in a tremendously AI-enabled world.

Emotional intelligence and genuine connection are the things that separate top performers from the rest. As I've said many times, technical knowledge, deep breadth of products and services, a tight investment and wealth management process. All of those things are table stakes, but what really separates in the mind's eye of the client.

Is the genuine connection and emotional intelligence demonstrated by their advisor. Of course, as we look ahead to 2026, the regulatory landscape is always seemingly in flux. In 2025, we got the one beautiful bill, which created significant tax and regulatory changes. Advisors obviously need to stay informed and bill proactive planning strategies now.

Uh, again, this goes back to your ability to take the complex, to take the technical and simplify that into conversational paths with clients. Then of course we've got the technology balance that we all, uh, have to have to focus on. Simplifying the tech stacks and integrating AI will enhance advisor efficiency.

But I still believe that the future of wealth management hinges on balancing automation with human connection. I first heard Judd Berkman, who was then CEO of investment. Talk about man and technology in combination being far superior to either of them alone, and I think that that is absolutely the case.

Technology does enhance the work, but it is the humility and the relationships of the advisors that are going to sustain it. So I suppose the real question for you now is what are you doing to build your daily habits? What are you doing to further create authentic relationships and how are you carrying out that long-term vision, while dealing with the challenges that come on a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis?

Now let's, let's think about some things as we go into 2026. Think about the real connections that you have with your best clients, and how did those real connections develop? It probably didn't happen in the office. It probably didn't happen in a boardroom. Think about the successes that you've had of building the best, closest, most trusting relationships with clients and seek to replicate the strategies used.

You know, it's absolutely amazing when I see advisors who rarely leave their office. They believe that their domain of of the office is the place that sets them apart, and it truly isn't. We connect, we build relationships with people when there is a level of comfort, when there is a level of ease. I think if you look back on most of the great relationships that you've ever built, it was a combination of conversations and locations that gave the opportunity for that.

I would remind some of you to go back and. Listened to Mojo7 22. Humble and Kind. Tim McGraw wrote a great country music song on that. Humble confidence, I believe is the-the key to success in our business. Kyle McDonald, who is a CEO of Origin Financial Group, first uttered those words some 15 years ago, and I remember thinking to myself, now that's different.

That's a different perspective. Mojo 723 was also a fun one, and that's where we talked about the daily rituals and we entitled that Attack the Day and I was giving props to Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart, who challenges both his players and fans alike to attack the day. And I believe if we are going to attack the day, we do it with purpose and we do it with meaning.

But I would be remiss if I didn't remind each of you of episode 725. It's entitled “I'm Thankful”, and I wanna tell each of you how thankful all of us at Cannon are for each of you, for being loyal listeners to First Friday feedback to the Cannon Curve, to Monday Morning Mojo to Cannon Connects. We appreciate your feedback.

We are thankful for your engagement, and I would just encourage each of you to take time this week and especially this month to show. Gratitude to show how grateful you are for all the blessings that we have in this life. We'll be talking about some ideas on Monday morning Mojo this month that you can do that.

Make a difference in your community, that make a difference in the lives of others, and create an energy and a passion in others to continue paying it forward. So be listening out for that. And so for now, this is Phil Buchanan, wishing you a very, very happy December. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah to each of you.

All the very best. First Friday feedback is a production of Cannon Financial Institute; executive producer of First Friday Feedback is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan thanking you for being part of the Cannon community.