First Friday Feedback: November 2025

In this month’s episode of First Friday Feedback, Phil welcomes Dr. Chris Nekvinda, Cannon Financial Institute’s Director of Global Learning, for a dynamic discussion on how advisors can stay sharp in a constantly changing industry. Rather than chasing quick fixes or relying solely on experience, Phil and Chris emphasize the importance of steady growth, intentional practice, and ongoing professional development. They draw connections between learning and fitness, both requiring discipline, time, and commitment, and explore how technology and collaboration are reshaping the way advisors refine their craft. Offering fresh perspective and actionable ideas, the episode encourages advisors to invest in their own evolution and embrace the continuous pursuit of mastery in the years ahead.

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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.

Phil Buchanan: Greetings, Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with First Friday feedback for November, 2025. You know, in the world of financial services, the one constant. Is change. There is always something that is evolving. There is always something that is shifting. Stock prices are up, stock prices are down. Uh, various trends and thought processes become more apparent, less apparent, uh, as we go through.

But what has to be the constant in this business other than change, and that is the quality of the advisor, the quality of the individual that's providing the guidance, the counsel to individuals and families about their life. Now when we think about the evolution of our business, it is important to recognize that competency within the advisory community also has to evolve.

Skills within that industry also have to evolve. And I can think of no greater guests to have on First Friday feedback than Dr. Chris Nekvinda, who is director of Global Learning for Cannon Financial Institute, and a specialist in helping the advisory community continue its continuum of growth in ways of both knowledge and skills that provide the ability to be of counsel to families.

Dr. Nekvinda, welcome to First Friday Feedback.

Chris Nekvinda: Thank you very much. I am delighted when, uh, when you had mentioned that we were gonna talk about learning, uh, boy did my, uh, ears pick, uh, and perk up. So I am delighted to be here.

Phil Buchanan: Well, you know, uh, you and I are both, uh, kind of geeky and kind of nerdy about, uh, about learning and professional development, and I think that that makes for, uh, actually a very engaged conversation.

Um. Set, uh, set a foundation for us, Chris. Uh, we've, we've worked together for a long time. We, we knew each other, uh, as, as professional friends, uh, prior, but, uh, give our listeners a little background on who you are.

Chris Nekvinda: I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Uh, we did first meet, I think maybe it was 17 or 18 years ago or something like that.

Uh, when, uh, the financial institution that I was working at and I was running learning and development for, for. Wealth management, asset management, uh, private banking, uh, the hub and spoke traditional model that everyone thinks is unique but isn't. Uh, you know, I was, uh, I was running training for an organization like that, a bank that is no longer with us.

Uh. And, uh, one of our, one of my first responsibilities was to, uh, work with us as we onboarded this firm called Canon Financial Institute, which was there and engaged to help our, all of our wealth management professionals and trust professionals. You know, be able to, to learn a little bit more in areas, expand out to their professional development, uh, how to do things better, how to have better conversations.

All of these, uh, you know, all of those aspects, uh, and how do they run their practice. So it was really, you know, how to, how to do things better, how to, how. What to do with our knowledge that we have and how to have better conversations. So it has been a really fabulous journey. And then, uh, joined, uh, uh, the advisory group for the certified Wealth Strategist as our relationship, uh, grew together.

And then remember you invited me down for a conversation in Athens, Georgia, and I don't think I ever left there until, uh, the early, uh, early 20 2020s. That, that, so I've looking after change management and, uh, change management, professional development, organizational development tasks, both for Canon and our clients, uh, ever since.

Phil Buchanan: I gotcha. I gotcha. Well, uh, it has, uh, it has been a great, uh, great journey to date and we've got, uh, a lot of miles to ride together, uh, going forward. Let me ask you this, Chris, um, as, as we get into this, this. Whole process of, of advisor development. Um, mm-hmm. I am, I am constantly, um, intrigued, uh, by those that try to make, um.

Learning simple. They are looking for the shortcuts. They are looking for the hacks, uh, that can, you know, give me information, give me what to say when I'm in front of a client. Uh, but I, you know, I think back on some of the, some of the titans of, of the financial services industry, uh, J Diamond, the, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase mm-hmm.

Says there are no. Shortcuts, uh, to becoming elite, uh, in the financial services business. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm reminded, uh, interestingly enough of, uh, the, the health industry, uh, the fitness industry. Years ago, there were all of these things, you know, eight minute abs, uh, get, uh, you know, uh, get ripped in, in 60 seconds at a time, you know, those types of deals.

Mm-hmm. And those things never worked. You know, I, I guess they sold a lot of, a lot of videos. And then there was, uh, there was P 90 x, which. Flipped all of this on, its on, its on its side because it said, we're not gonna get you in shape in, in eight minutes. It's gonna be 90 minutes. And it is going to be incredibly difficult.

It's be incredibly challenging and, uh, brutal. Brutal. Uh. Yet they were incredibly successful. So in the, in the world of, in the world of learning, I see it a little bit like the world of, uh, of, of physical fitness. Everybody wants to be in shape, but nobody wants to work out except for those individuals that really love the grind and they tend to be the elite.

How, how do you see that from, from your academic perspective? You got a PhD in this stuff. Talk to us about, about what's going on there.

Chris Nekvinda: I appreciate that and, uh, boy, I wish I had a better answer than trying to, to sound something like I'm gonna thread the needle down the middle, but it, there is an area for both in this, in this place.

And the difference is technology and technology has. Changed things, you know, in, in learning and development. Uh, uh, my specific discipline, the, uh, the behaviorist and theists have been going at it for a hundred plus years. Right? You know, is it, is it how you behave? No, it's not how you behave. It's how you know things and it's what you know and how you talk about things.

And, and it's been going back and forth, uh, for years. And then people are like, no, it's how you make of it. And they called that constructivism. But then. The internet happened and it literally put all of the world's information in everyone's pocket. Now you're able to not just read about something, but you can watch something in a video.

You could listen to a podcast like we're recording right now. You can listen to it in short snippets. You can watch a long form. You wanna read the full book. You wanna get somebody to summarize it. Do you wanna run it through an LLM right now, A large language model, and have just a two minute summary come back for you.

Tools have changed it. To go back to your, uh, to your fitness, uh, example that you used a few seconds ago. Uh, the, the work is still perhaps the same, but now there are new tools to be able to measure it, right? You used to have to, to do whatever reps you were doing and then people were putting their fingers to their, their throat or on their pulse.

Now you've got smart watches that are gonna measure your blood oxygen level and that are going to be able to report back to a database, and it's gonna be able to tell you that people with your ethnicity and body type and body mass and health conditions do all of these things. It's because. All of that information is now being aggregated out to be able to try to come back and deliver you some sort of wisdom about what you should be doing and how you can tweak it and how you can, how you can just make small moves.

And I think the, the work sometimes is. For us is creating time to be able to practice, to be able to spend time, to carve out time, to work on ourselves as professional, develop in, in professional development. That might be 30 minutes a day. It doesn't have to be four hours. It doesn't have to be the 90 minute grind.

There are so much, uh. Content for us to be able to consume, or new methods for us to be able to practice, which we can come back to in a few minutes. That is where the, the time commitment. But there is no shortcut to what Diamond is saying. You can't just not practice the, the greatest shooting. You know, if you, if you like sports metaphors.

Steph Curry, the greatest basketball shooter ever, uh, has a shooting coach. So, you know, you, you, there's always going to be somebody who's going to be providing some insight and who you know, who's gonna be able to, to help you along, but you have to put the time in. You have to still be willing, whether that's 10 minutes a day, whether that's 20 minutes a day, there's no short cutting that.

But there are new tools to be able to help accelerate, uh, the, the learning and the skills and the development.

Phil Buchanan: It reminds me of a, uh, of a great book. I think it was, uh, the 5:00 AM Club, uh, if I remember right. And what that encouraged people to do is get up an hour earlier than maybe they normally would.

And, uh, use, use 20 minutes of that time for, um. Uh, personal reflection. Uh, you know, perhaps it's, uh, meditation, perhaps it's, uh, in, in spiritual, uh, spiritual reflection. Uh, use 20 minutes of that time for exercise and use 20 minutes of that time for learning. And if you would dedicate that, you know, every day of the week.

Uh, then over the course of a year, uh, your elevated capabilities in all three areas that, uh, that they highlight, uh, would be enhanced. And, and that gets back to a little bit of what we're talking about, the sticking to itness. Um, that's, that, that, that's really only an hour a day. That's, that's 20 minutes, uh, you know, of, uh, of education.

But if you did that, uh, you know. Every day. Uh, well, that's a couple hours a week. Uh, that's a, you know, uh, a hundred plus hours a year that you have, uh, uh, you've, you've dedicated to, uh, to some educational endeavors. And, uh, candidly for, for, you know, most adults, uh, they probably aren't spending, uh, a hundred hours a year on education.

Right.

Chris Nekvinda: I would. Oh, absolutely. I, I would agree. And you and I have probably said this line, uh, uh, you know, a hundred times, if we, if we've said it once or twice, and probably more than that, that that financial services professionals, advisors need to carve out dedicated time to work on their business, not just in their business and so many times.

What do we think that means, or how is that? Often interpreted, oh, I have to spend more time prospecting, or I better spend more time in my CRM cleaning up, uh, uh, old files that I've got, or adding in those hobbies that I never knew what to do with, with a client, that I gathered something, something, something rather than al than also thinking, what if I spent some of that time on my own professional development, whether that's with a peer, whether that's in a formal class or in an informal class with a, a group of colleagues.

Practicing something. How might these questions sound? How might, how might this sound? If I was trying to explain a con, a, a, a difficult concept and I was going to use, uh, a story to be able to do this. How does this sound, you know, and, and dedicating some time practicing and working on the business that way, but I don't think people spend.

That kind of time. We're too big, we're too task oriented. And the, the, the takeaway for what you just said right there is making the time. It's, it's committing to it, it's, it's setting an alarm. It's, it's creating a routine for yourself to be able to say, I'm spending 20 minutes a day doing this. I'm spending 30 minutes, I'm spending 10 minutes, start with five.

If anything, our attention spans have gotten so much shorter. That, uh, you know, a big trend in our industry is micro learning. Yeah. And just doing things in, in short bursts. If you can do this for five minutes a day, if you can do this for 10 minutes, watch this quick video. We've, you know, we, we've tailored some of our offerings to be able to do that, to try to fit that need, because people don't need sometimes all of the information, but they might be going into a meeting where they need to.

Contrast a charitable lead trust versus a charitable remainder trust. And then tell a very quick story about, or a a, an anecdote or an analogy about how those things are different or about how, uh, another client had used one over the other and they might need to practice that. And so, you know, how would I do that?

How would I create my story? And then how would I practice delivering that? They might need advice on that. They might need time to practice it, but it's carving out time to do it.

Phil Buchanan: So there are two things on that I wanna unpack with you, Chris. Um, one is, you, you, you've, you've referenced practice, or how would that sound?

You, you've referenced that a couple times. I wanna unpack that. And then, uh, the second part is, uh, the, the ongoing requirement of, of professional development and, uh, and, and upskilling your, uh, your game. So let, let's unpack this first piece. Mm-hmm. Um. I recently, uh, on, uh, I think it was, uh, mojo, uh, that I did Monday Morning Mojo, uh, talked about this, this issue.

I'm going back, looking at the notes. It was, it was Mojo seven 19. Um. I, I, I really talked about this issue, that competency gets you into the game, all right? You have to have the competency, uh, to, to match up appropriately to the challenges and issues that your client, that you've built a business, who that client is, what their, their complex needs are.

Uh, competency gets you in the game, but. The, the real skill for advisors, right, isn't just knowing the answers or the questions, but it's the conversations that you have, the way that you engage, the way that you advise, the way that you counsel. Uh, that's where a lead advisors separate themselves. I, I, I tell people all the time.

You can take two advisors and have an equal level of competency, but that individual that's a better conversationalist is gonna win the day every time simply because they know how to engage another human in conversation. Um, again, from an academic standpoint, you've looked at this issue. You've, you've trained on it, you've spoken to it.

Talk to us about your, your worldview on that.

Chris Nekvinda: I, I absolutely agree. I think the reason that it is more important now is because the tools that our, um, clients have or, or the advisor's clients have, are empowered. They can be walking into a meeting going, oh, he wanted to talk about. Uh, uh, life Insurance Trust or something like that.

I'm gonna look that up on, uh, whatever AI tool that we happen to use GR or chat GT five or CLO or whatever they're, whatever anybody. We're not endorsing one over another here, but whatever tool somebody is, uh, is using. So now they've got a baseline information. In our industry, we used to be the gatekeepers of information, right?

Whether that was a long time ago, people coming to us for individual stock prices or, and then moving forward into like, well, how do those things compare? Now it's about, well, what does that mean to my family? Or what does that mean over time? I can look up what the information is, and so. Uh, you know, when I'm, when I'm working with advisors, I'll sometimes, you know, ask, show of hands, how many of you have a unique investment product that nobody else has across the street, you know, or that nobody, you know, a different loan product that nobody, no, you don't.

It's how you're gonna be able to differentiate that, how you're gonna be able to deliver what we'll call practical wisdom, you know, in a way that is not just. Um, not just information and that requires practice. It's not, we can all look up what a specific type of a solution is or a, a, a legal type of a trust to compare and contrast, but how I can, and look at my client and the family that we're sitting across from maybe understand how they communicate, how they prefer to communicate.

Uh. And then being able to shape a very brief story and communicate that to, to help them make a better decision is where the practice has to come in. And I would challenge, I would challenge advisors that they can today really work on demonstrating their competence, not by the information that they share, but by the questions that they ask.

Because if you walk away from a conversation going, boy, she really asked great questions. She has done this. She must have done this before. You know, you don't ask these type of questions if you don't have experience with other business owners and asking about their cash flow or the way that they product the, they, they manage through the business cycle or the cash flow cycle.

She's done this before. She's helped other business owners transition and deal with the state equalization. So I think the questions that somebody asks

Phil Buchanan: you, you, you're, you're, you're so into it. Um, I, I recall a, uh, a study that, uh, Wharton did. You know, 15, 15 plus years ago, uh, that demonstrated in the, in the financial services industry that, uh, the, the credibility that you established as an advisor and the trust that a client placed in you, uh, was.

Far greater influenced by the questions that you ask, rather than the recitation of your credentials and experience and, you know, the value ladder, whatever the, the, the, the talk that, uh, we're all taught to do, to, to explain, you know, why we're so unique and gifted. Um, so it, it, you're, you're right, it is on the questions, which, uh, leads me into, into the second part that I wanted to unpack with you.

Um. And I mentioned this on a, on a Mojo podcast recently, and I'm not concerned that the person that, uh, I had this conversation with is, uh, uh, is, is, is, is gonna be offended by, by me bringing this up. But, uh, I was talking to, uh, a senior leader in an organization. I was talking to 'em about professional development.

And, uh, this leader said, oh, well, you know, all of our, all of our professionals have, have 20 plus years experience in the business. And so, you know, we, we, uh, you know, we don't, we don't, uh, actively, uh, do ongoing professional development. And I said, so. So, because if I'm hearing you right, because these individuals have been around for 20 plus years, they know everything that they need to know, and they are as skilled as they're ever going to be at addressing the complex issues of wealthy individuals and families.

And I, well, I'm very, very confident in that. I said, let's go through what, what these folks have, have, have dealt with in the last 20 years. In the last 20 years, these advisors have moved from a flip phone and a pager. To an iPhone that's with 'em twenty four seven. They have given up taxi service and they've gone to Uber.

They no longer go to the break room and find the little card to pick up the phone and order lunch and go pick it up. They have Uber Eats, deliver it to the office. I was like, so many things have changed about the experiences people have in life, and that's happened to families as well. And so it's not that we are great at investment management.

It's not that we're great at trust. It's not that we're great at philanthropy. It's being able to to to break down through engaged conversations through the questions that we ask. What really are the key drivers in the family dynamic? That, that families are struggling with and wrestling, I can pretty much guarantee you it's not the investment policy they've got for their capital markets portfolio.

I don't think that's the major challenge, but I can tell you every one of 'em has a challenge. And the ability, the advisor to have that level of conversation is what's critical. And, uh, that, that opened up a, a, a, a much broader dialogue. So. Kind of, kind of break down. I mean, give me, give me feedback, you know, am I thinking about this thing in the wrong way or

Chris Nekvinda: No, I think you're thinking about it.

The, I think you're thinking about it the right way, and I think, uh, the word that I'm going to use is only going to be more important as, as our, as the years go on. And that word is collaboration. I think years ago when I was, you know, a a, a young man, 175 years ago, and I was just learning about, uh, stocks and bonds and all those sorts of things and, and watching the McNeil laer hour on PBS with my dad, and he would point out and we were looking for the letters, a TT, you know, because that was really important at the time, and that's how I was learning information.

That was great. And then he would pick up, uh, you know, the phone and, and. Call somebody that apparently you just, you know, would listen to when they called or whatever. So we had to listen to his, his advisor, and it was always one way, what should I do? Or that, you know, something, you know, there was a, this was the story about that particular security, or that particular bond, or that that's what it is.

It was one way, for the most part. My dad could have a couple of questions, but that's how the industry was. That was how real estate was. You wanna learn something, you have to pick up the phone and call somebody else. Now people can do it by themselves. The differentiator. What we're seeing is more collaboration.

We see it, uh, and the internet has brought us that with social media. Now everybody collaborates, everybody's opinion matters more, or at least they want it to. It's, you know, but everybody is collaborating more. So what do we see and what has FinTech done with financial planning? It used to be, well, here's what our planner does, and they gave us this 100 page, uh, output.

And this is, I guess, what our, our plan is. But now look what FinTech has done and there's. Money Guide Pro and it's got the play zone and people are able to collaborate. And here's our vault and I'll do this, and you have this homework and here's our own site and we're gonna be able to chat back and forth.

And this is a secure area where we're gonna be able to communicate. And what do you think about this? And here's what, so there's a very collaborative environment that technology has created, and guess what that means? Younger generations, both advisors but, but younger clients, the rising millennial generations who are, you know, middle age right now, the, uh, gen Z and the Alphas that are coming behind it are all learning in these collaborative environments.

It's no longer unique or different to have, you know, Hey, go. Comment on some students' assignment when you're, you know, 18 years old or 17 years old, and people are, are doing that. And so now these tools are much more friendly, but the expectation younger, uh, younger rising professionals, uh, want collaboration.

They want those things and it's more than information that they can look up themselves. They want that wisdom and so. Advisors who work on the collaboration, work on those communication skills, work on the, the ways to collaborate through communication. The ways that they tell stories are going to be able to have better relationships with the rising generation to be able to do that.

And that requires a. Practice. We see that in sports, we see that in music. I'm a musician, you know, that, you know, there, there is, there is no way that you can just pick something up and just go play it. For the most part, you know, most of us aren't. Mozart requires dedicated time and focus to be able to practice on that.

Uh, and then getting feedback from somebody else too, whether that's a peer, whether that's asking even your clients, how did that sound? Or what could I do? You know what might made it a little better after that? Uh. Asking for, you know, feedback in an, in an environment also helps people, you know, you know better than I do.

People love to ask for advice or, or, or be asked for advice. Uh, so I, I think this idea of collaboration, practicing that, practicing those questions is, is in the ways that you can collaborate. And then continuing to see where that trend is going, uh, is, is, you know, is, is where I see that, that trend coming to, to answer that question.

Phil Buchanan: Well, you've got great insight, uh, not just on the industry, but on what it takes to develop that, that skill, that ability, that knowledge, uh, to be a, a comprehensive wealth advisor, and you do that exceptionally well. Uh, you're, you're one of the best coaches that we've got, um, uh, in the industry. Not just at Canon.

Uh, your, your attention to detail and, and helping people to, to marry that knowledge, that wisdom and that skill together is, uh, it, it is elite and it is very much appreciated, not just by, uh, your colleagues at Cannon, but, uh, but the industry overall. Dr. Christie, thank Amanda. Thank you for being part of First Friday feedback.

Chris Nekvinda: Thank you very much, Phil. Uh, absolutely. Uh, appreciate that opportunity. And my, my final thought is again, practice seek feedback, work on collaboration and also. It's not a bad idea to get a coach, so

Phil Buchanan: I love it. Very good. Dr. Chris Nekvinda, Cannon Financial Institute.

First Friday Feedback is the production of Cannon Financial Institute; executive producer of First Friday Feedback is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next month, I'm Phil Buchanan. Wish you all the best. Bye-bye for now.