Growth Isn’t Optional: How RIA Founders Can Build Firms That Fuel Freedom

Hue Partners is proud to share the Spring M&A Confidential article authored by Stephanie Bogan, Founder of Limitless Advisor Coaching. 

In today’s advisory landscape, growth isn’t just about getting bigger — it’s about building a firm that fuels the freedom, fulfillment, and impact you envisioned when you first started.

According to McKinsey’s State of the Financial Advisor Industry report, firms that achieve consistent, above-average growth aren’t simply generating more revenue — they’re creating greater enterprise value, opening doors to new opportunities, and giving founders the ability to design businesses and lives they love. In a world of rising client expectations and accelerating competition, standing still isn’t standing safe — it’s falling behind.

As I work with advisory firm founders and industry leaders, I consistently see the same pattern: talented advisors doing great work, yet feeling increasingly stuck trying to scale practices designed for a different era. Having coached and consulted hundreds of firms, I can tell you: success leaves clues — and so does stagnation.

If you’re serious about building a firm — and a life — that truly sets you free, it takes more than wanting it. It requires changing how you lead, think, and act.

Here are three insights that can unlock the next level of growth and freedom for you and your firm:

Change Fuels Growth

One of the greatest hurdles founders face is their own success. What got you here won't get you there.

Research from Bain & Company highlights that firms prioritizing adaptability are 2.4x more likely to outperform their peers in revenue and profitability. Yet most advisory firms unintentionally operate on legacy assumptions — systems, structures, and leadership models built for yesterday’s realities.

Take a client I worked with, the CEO of a $15 billion firm. Growth had stalled, and tension among the partners was quietly draining momentum. Initially, he hesitated to address it — afraid that confronting the issues would break the firm instead of build it. But leadership demands courage. Together, we tackled the dynamics head-on, empowered the leadership team, and rebuilt a culture of accountability and ownership. The result? Clearer leadership, stronger performance, and accelerated growth.

Growth requires you to outgrow your comfort zone.

Action Step: Conduct a Leadership Audit. Assess your leadership dynamics. Where are you avoiding hard conversations? Where does resistance to change show up? Solicit honest feedback and align your leadership practices with the future you're building — not the past you're protecting.

Mindset Is the Multiplier

Business isn’t just a strategy game — it’s a behavior game. Your mindset determines whether your strategies ever see the light of day.

Research from McKinsey’s Leadership at Scale study found that leadership mindsets and behaviors account for up to 70% of business performance variance. Harvard Business Review echoes the same: leaders shape culture, culture shapes behavior, and behavior shapes results.

Most advisors know what they need to do to grow — build a better referral system, sharpen their value proposition, invest in better marketing — but many hesitate, stuck by fear, doubt, or complacency.

The firms that grow the fastest aren’t led by the smartest advisors — they’re led by those willing to get uncomfortable, stay curious, and invest in their own evolution.

Action Step: Invest in Your Leadership Development. Coaching, advisory groups, leadership intensives — these aren’t luxuries, they’re leverage. Growth-oriented leaders invest in themselves first, knowing it multiplies every other investment they make.

Clarity Compounds Freedom

If you don't have a clear strategy, you’re not leading — you’re reacting.

A study by PwC found that firms with clear strategic priorities are 4x more likely to outperform their industry peers. Clarity about vision, goals, and execution isn’t just helpful — it’s a critical accelerant to sustainable growth and personal freedom.

Every founder I know who is scaling successfully has one thing in common: ruthless clarity. They know who they serve, how they deliver value, where they’re going, and how they’ll get there. And they revisit that roadmap religiously.

One client set a goal to increase referrals by 15% in 12 months. They didn’t just talk about it — they mapped it, built systems, trained their team, tracked the data, and celebrated the wins. They didn’t just hit the goal; they blew past it, driving significant new revenue and reigniting the firm’s momentum.

Clarity creates momentum. Momentum creates results. Results create freedom.

Action Step: Establish Annual Growth Goals. Define measurable, strategic goals — and treat them like a business plan, not a wish list. Review them quarterly. Adjust. Celebrate progress. Make the future something you create, not something you chase.

The Confidence Crisis

One of the silent killers of growth is what I call “the Case of the Smalls.”

When leaders shrink their goals, hesitate to act, or defer decisions out of fear or fatigue, they unconsciously lower the bar — not just for themselves, but for everyone around them.

Gallup’s research shows that firms with confident, well-aligned leadership are 23% more profitable and 18% more productive than those without. Confidence isn’t bravado — it’s conviction, clarity, and the courage to keep moving forward, even when the path isn’t perfect.

The solution isn’t trying harder. It’s leading smarter — and more consciously.

The Path to Growth — and Freedom

Scaling an advisory firm — and the life that comes with it — is hard work. But it’s the best work you’ll ever do.

Growth comes when you:

• Embrace change instead of resist it.
• Upgrade your mindset instead of settle for your habits.
• Get crystal clear on where you’re going — and commit to the roadmap.

As I often tell my clients: When the vision is clear, the decisions get easy.

Growth isn’t linear. It’s messy. It’s challenging. It demands more of you than you think you have. But it’s also the path to the freedom, fulfillment, and impact you dreamed about when you first built this business.

Your next level is already waiting for you — you just have to lead yourself there.

No limits.