Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Chris Smith Founder of PSBLTY

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

Chris’ story begins in Arizona, where his family was among the first to settle the wild and beautiful land. He grew up a cowboy, surrounded by storytellers, where he learned a fundamental truth: words create worlds.His journey to wealth management wasn’t planned. As a top-producing commercial real estate broker, Chris outperformed seasoned veterans not because he knew the most about properties, but because he understood people. When a friend insisted he’d excel in financial services, Chris initially resisted. But upon entering the industry, he immediately saw what others missed—advisors weren’t struggling because they lacked knowledge. They were struggling because they lacked leadership.This insight was personal. Having witnessed how wealth dissolves across generations, including in his own family—Chris recognized the devastating consequences beyond financial loss. The statistics are stark: 90% of generational wealth disappears by the third generation, leaving broken families in its wake. That’s why this isn’t just business for Chris—it’s legacy work. After transforming one wealth management firm’s approach from technical expertise to authentic leadership, the results were undeniable—in just two years, they were bringing in as many assets monthly as they had previously achieved annually. Chris recognized a profound opportunity: financial advisors, with their intimate connection to families and wealth, could create a generational impact far beyond investment returns.Learn more: https://www.psblty.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-chris-smith-founder-of-psblty

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us Chris Smith, who's the founder of possibility. Chris, welcome to the program. Thanks, Mike. Super honored and stoked to be here.

Yeah, I'm excited to talk with you because you are a force in the industry, financial services. That's the world that I live in as well. And I love, I love when I introduce someone and I go, oh, look at their company name or look at their website or look at their expert title. I love possibility because some words just resonate more than others like opportunity, possibility, things like that. So first, before we dive into what you do and why you do it, why did you pick the name possibility? is there any significance of leaving out the vows? Yeah, great question. So I, uh, I just, I can only do, you know, attribute it to God.

Like, I just started having these downloads where a possibility has a concept, as a truth, as a, as a possibility just started showing up everywhere in my life. And my wife and I were on a walk one night and I just shared with her. I said, you know, my, my mission in life is to speak as much possibility into as many human beings in one lifetime as I can. Wow. Because I've had people do that for me. Like, I've had people do that for me.

I've had people speak possibility to me, Mike, in a way that helped me see that there was more that it was possible than I could see. And maybe at a time, and I was really struggling. And I think literally every person is dying to have someone speak possibility into them and help them see a bigger vision of what's possible. And that's what's so fascinating about us as human beings is we can never actually see what's truly possible. We can only ever see what we think is possible. And so that idea of like, the reason we spell possibility, PSB-L-T-Y is because possibility, exist, but you have to have eyes to see it. It's not going to be spelled out. Yeah. So one of our core beliefs is possibility exists.

Limitation is created. Yeah. Wow. You know, that's, that's a huge, huge opening and intro. And I love that. And I love the, you know, scripture teaches the power of the tongue. Power for good and power for bad. And I know we could probably go on a tangent on all of the times in our life that someone has spoken. Yeah. Like you. said possibility and positivity, but what about the opposite? You know, we can be in a mood. We can be in the midst of the weeds and just snap at someone, and that can really set things off on a different tangent.

So I'm so excited that you kind of focus everything you do on that possibility. So let's go a little bit deeper on what you just said there. Limitation is creative possibility exists. Share a person of experience where you may be recognized maybe a self-imposed limitation and how you overcame that. Yeah, yeah, it's great. I love telling this. I'll share a story in particular.

So 15 years ago, my wife and I were separated. We had two beautiful little boys. And sadly, we were going through the process of divorce. Like, we were on that path. And through a last ditch effort by my wife, who is incredible, she talked to me into going to one last marriage counselor. And this guy, Gordon, he just showed up differently than every other marriage counselor we'd been to. And the only way I can describe it is he really showed up like a leader. And he spoke possibility

into me. He spoke possibility into our marriage into us. And it really did have us see something that we hadn't seen before. And all the other marriage counseling we had done, all the people that we talked to, no one really just sat down and just spoke possibility into us and told us the truth. And it helped us see something we couldn't see and didn't see. And like, and literally, Mike, that led to us fighting for our marriage, staying married. We went on to have three more children. We have five children and truly we have a remarkable beautiful marriage. We still have struggles like everyone, but like I can truly say like my wife's my hero and my best friend.

And I truly believe we would have gotten divorce, broken apart our family, and who knows what paths that would have sent us down. But a guy was committed and showed up like a leader and spoke to us in a different way and helped us see what was actually possible. You know, it reminds me of two things. A, congratulations and thank you for that story. because marriage is so important, family is so important. But it reminded me of Tony Robbins teaching.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear and constant never-ending improvement. That's what you are exhibiting there. But also Ed Milet, the power of one more. You know, you went to one more counseling, one more thing and one more, you know, attempt to improve or perfect. So let's talk a little bit about some of that possibility thinking that you work in your company, possibility. Tell us about the career you have built and the service that you have put together for financial advisors to help them differentiate themselves in the crowd. Yeah, so I was a financial advisor a little over 10 years ago. I was the head of business development for a small, you know, fee-based financial planning firm.

We had our own RIA. And I was new to the industry. And so I just, I think naivity served me. And my ignorance really worked for me. And I just saw maybe some possibilities that other people in the industry who had been in their long time hadn't seen. And I saw the possibility that we could really differentiate ourselves and stand out and not look and sound like every other advisor because that's one of the biggest challenges in this industry is being commoditized. And so I just thought maybe saw it differently. We thought differently.

And we got really clear on who we were, who we served, what made us unique. And we got way more bold and authentic in how we communicated. And within two years, we were bringing in as many assets center management in a month as we'd ever done in the history of the firm in a year. and that helped me see a bigger vision of what was possible for this industry. And so a little over 10 years ago, I decided that I was going to stop being an advisor and start helping other advisors and firms. And that's what we've been doing for the last 10 years is, you know, we've coached hundreds, if not thousands of advisors and firms at this point.

And really helping them see what could actually be possible versus what they believe is possible because there's so many great advisors, Mike, who really are incredible and they're different. And they really show up like leaders, the challenges, they don't necessarily. know how to tell people that. Yeah. So unfortunately, they kind of become this commoditized best kept secret. And it's so frustrating for them because they're like, man, I know how much I have to offer. I just don't know how to like position that. Say it. I don't know how to say it. And so like one of things we say is we love teaching advisors how to talk about what they do in a way that's as powerful

as what they actually do. Yeah. Because if you were to plop that advisor in front of a client, a husband and a wife that walked into their office and said, we are ready, just guide us Obi-Wan Kenobi. What should we do? That advisor is going to shine. But getting those people to that point, that's the whole problem because it is that sea of sameness out there. And there are all kinds of commodity.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say the same thing. And oh, the other guy down the road says this. And their website says that. So when you went through that process and now when you've perfected it to find that clarity, you said you got bold. It made me think, did you kind of put a line in the sand and kind of create some polarization and said, we no longer will work with people such as, and not that you're being discriminatory, but it's like we're not going to work with self-employed business owners because we feel we want to work with, you know, physicians. So did you find like a segment or a niche that you wanted to really work with and really dove in deep there?

Yeah, totally. So when I say bold, it's like this idea of being bold and your authentic identity and who you actually are and creating a. identity that's bigger than the industry. Yeah. Which that's its own topic that we could talk about for hours. And then it's being bold in who you serve, but it's also being just as bold in who you don't, who you don't serve. And that's challenging.

A lot of advisors, you know, they want to serve everyone, partly from a place of care and they care about people, but also like scarcity and they're afraid that if they don't serve everyone, they won't be successful. But and then it's like, it's also like this idea of just being bold in your message. Like, and that's what's so ironic about boldness. A lot of advisors shy away from being bold because they're like, Well, Chris, I don't want to be bold and make it about me. And I go, well, the second you decide to not be bold, who did you just make it about?

Yeah, because who should it be about? Yeah, it's about the client. But it's like the Donald Miller, you know, his, the book, you know, building a story brand. You know, we're not the hero. It's not like, come look at me. I'm the greatest advisor ever. You're the guide. And so if you can make that, you don't need to say those words.

But if you can make that feeling, that empathy, that, hey, look, Ben, they're done that. Let me just tell you something. My parents were taken for a ride. And that's what I dedicated my life to. And so let me just explain some options. I'm just going to help you understand some things. I'm going to teach and educate and guide you through some of these and leave it up to you, let you know. People get that feeling.

But when that person comes in with commission breath, you know, air quotes, now all of a sudden it's like, I've got to sell this thing to this person. And it just changes the dynamic. Yeah. And we, you know, we ask this funny story. You know, I do quite a bit of speaking in the industry virtually and in person and I usually share this. I just say, hey, who, how many of you would love to have open heart surgery by a humble heart surgeon? Yeah. And everyone kind of laughs. And I go, okay, so heart surgeon number one comes in and goes, hey, Mike, I know this is a really big deal. I just want to let you know, I'm pretty good at what I do. No one's died yet. I graduated about

bottom third of my class. Um, my team's okay. Let's give it a go. You'd probably, Yeah. Where's the button? Like, how do I push a button to get out of here? Yeah. And then let's say, yeah, let's say heart surgeon number two comes in and goes, hey, Mike, I just want to let you know, man.

I know this is a really big deal and humbly speaking. Man, I'm one of the best in the world at what I do. My team is the best in the world at what they do. We have done this hundreds of times. We, you have nothing to worry about. You're in the best hands and the best care possible. We're going to have you come out of this better than you came into this, man. We've got you.

And it's a funny. Guess what? Those same words could be spoken from a, haughty, cocky, prideful mindset and come off differently. So it's not just the actual words. It's the heartfelt empathy where it's coming from. But yet you need to realize you need to own your greatness, but from a humble attitude.

So there is that dichotomy, right? 100%. And so when we pose that analogy, it's really funny because advisors are like, oh, of course I would want heart surgeon number two operating. And then I say, but which one are you most comfortable being? see yeah most of us are most comfortable being heart surgeon number one but what we would want to show up for us is heart surgeon number two and so one of the things i tell advise all time just be the committed authentic humble bold leader that you would want someone to be for you yeah and and so here's another aspect too that i would wonder um maybe the the training wheels to to get to that uh that second you know uh you know persona is to have someone else to have those words in that feeling of that vibe said about you. So where I'm going with that is you need to create that brand, that personal brand, that authority, that that expertise that really leads the way before you even walk in the door.

And whatever that might look at, look like. But from the advisor's perspective, maybe even it's the administrative assistant that's setting up the appointment for the clients to go, oh, hey, you're meeting with Chris and, you know, just to let you know. He just is and you're going to really enjoy talking with him because he and let me just send a little bit of his his bio and his portfolio you know some of the ways that he's really made an impact in the industry you're really going to love work with him and that way maybe that pre-framed that meeting so that chris the advisor walks in and you don't need to say all that much but now they they view a little bit differently and i will submit to you and i want your opinion on this question when you start seeing that kind of thing

happening for you and to you and about you yourself you start reselling yourself on yourself and walk in with a little bit higher confidence. So that over and over reinforces it to you so that it becomes natural. Yeah, 100%. You know, and this is a huge missed opportunity in the industry is a lot of advisors don't give people the opportunity to have an experience of them before they meet with them. And so it's like to your expertise and your genius and what you do, it's like letting people have an experience of you before they meet with you.

And then what we talk about is we talk about the, we have a framework and a training we call tag. it's an acronym for talk about the good. And we literally go in and teach teams and train teams on how to talk about each other in a really powerful way and how to create people very, very powerfully. Because like I can either be a team member of yours, Mike, and say, oh, hey, you're going to meet with Mike. He's been in the industry a real long time.

He's great at what he does. Or I could say, hey, can I just tell you a little about Mike Saunders? He is one of the best in the world at authority marketing. He's been a strategist in an expert in this industry for over 20 years. like I've never seen anyone more committed, more passionate and better at helping advisors really positioned themselves to stand out. And you're going to absolutely love meeting with him. Like, I've just created two completely different versions of Mike Saunders. One, one is like, okay, whatever. The other one is like, dang, I'm actually excited to meet this guy. And

I'm saying things that you don't have to say about yourself, most likely you'd feel uncomfortable saying about yourself. And the more you hear me say that out loud, or see it in an email or like so when when teams start tagging each other one they're edifying and elevating each other but also it's it's contributing to people already being ready to somewhat move forward because they've been created so powerfully and like yeah like that's a whole thing like this industry you know when when an advisor refers someone to a CPA or a state attorney vice versa like the introductions are oftentimes just atrocious and like we're not setting people up on like a launching pad if you will to like really take off with momentum with that

relationship just by the nature of the introductions and how we talk about each. And that introduction needs to be properly crafted so that you know how to say it. You know, your elevator pitch, air quotes. But then I love that team, that team tag, talk about the good because when someone else says it about you, it carries a little bit more weight. And then like you said, when you hear that over and over, it kind of gets ingrained in you. It kind of creates that little mental trough so that you can pop, pop, pop, pop, and say it. You know, I saw a, a, a, a, uh, so many times that people feel like, yeah, but they get that imposter syndrome, right?

So it's like, no matter how many years you've got in the industry, like, oh, I've been 20 years in the financial services industry. I know I'm great. I've got some good results from clients, but. So what do you do to help the, the client get over that imposter syndrome and create that confidence so that the messaging really lands well? Yeah. Well, it's so funny because the biggest reminder is like, it's not about you. So anytime I have an advisor who comes to us, we have this often, like a lot of what we do is around mindset and confidence and boldness because a lot of advisors, they want to shrink in the name of like, well, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to be too bold. I don't want to be too arrogant. I don't want to. And I'm like, what's so fascinating, Mike, is when you're experiencing imposter syndrome, it's actually really selfish. And that's hard for people here. Because who's the only person you're obsessed with and wrapped up in when you're an imposter syndrome? Well, typically yourself.

You. And people can't see that. People can't see that like in the name of like, well, I don't want to be bold because I don't want to make it about me. It's like, well, you just made it about you by not being. That's the irony of it. You just said I twice. Yeah. It's like, what if it's not about you?

What if it's like, hey, I'm willing to be bold. I'm willing to be authentic. I'm willing to be a leader. I'm willing to be whatever I have to be to serve other people. It's not about me. And that's like imposter syndrome, guilt, shame. it's incredibly like selfish and self-serving because it just has you wrapped up in you. And I've experienced it.

But if I can remind myself, gosh, man, this isn't about me. This is about the people I can serve. It's about the people I can make a difference for it. And who's going to make a bigger difference for more people? Someone who's constantly like I, I, I, or someone who's like, you know what? I'm committed to serving people. And if that requires me to be bold, I'll be bold. If that requires me to be a leader, I'll be a leader.

If that requires me to be uncomfortable, I'll be uncomfortable. But I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it to be in service of the people who can make a difference for. So if I could just be really direct, Mike, a lot of times I'll even tell like, like, look, get over yourself. Yeah. That's all imposter syndrome is. It's like you're just wrapped up in you.

And I know what it's like because I've been there before. I'm so consumed with me. But if I can get outside of that and remember like, no, I'm committed to making a difference for people. Yeah, when you can get past that initial veil and care confidently, you know, it, It's got to have that empathy, not the wilty, you know, wet blanket confident or caring. It needs to be confidently caring. People can tell that.

You know, it's like the old speaker trip, you know, what's everyone's favorite radio station, WIIFM? Well, everyone does listen to WIIFM. What's in it for me? So your clients, your prospects are listening to that. So whatever you're saying, what's in it for them is, oh, man, you need to realize that and you need to teach and educate. I think that's huge. And you know, you often tell advisors about making the choice. What choice are you encouraging them to make?

Yeah, like, the choice we're encouraging them to make is to be a bold, authentic leader. To be free, to be their authentic selves and not have to fit in this box of like, well, I have to be this way because of this industry or have to like, I think people are dying to be led. And one of the things we often say is advisors give advice and advice in forums, but leaders provide leadership and leadership transforms. And it's like, which one do you think your clients are looking for? Do you think your prospective clients are looking for just some good advice or do you think they're looking for leadership? And so the choice we're inviting them to make is like, be a leader. Choose to see yourself as a leader and create a culture of leadership in your organization

where everyone can start to see themselves as a leader regardless of their role or title. 100%. Hey, so let's talk a little bit about the vision for the future. What do you see in the future for possibility? And what are some of the non-secret plans that you've got in mind to expand your impact to help us serve more advisors? Yeah, you know, it's interesting, you know, Mike, like any business, we're constantly tempted to like probably try to serve too many different types of people and too many different niches and too many different verticals because we really could. Like everything we teach is very applicable to any service-based business. So one of the things I see for the future is us continuing to put all of our efforts.

and energy into serving the wealth management financial advisor industry better instead of trying to serve more industries, if that makes sense. So it's like doing the very thing that we're teaching advisors to do, which is to be all-in, committed, focused, being an inch-d inch-deep or inch wide to mile deep instead of an inch deep and a mile wide. And one of the things that we've realized for advisors is, you know, we help them create this, you know, really authentic, impactful story and message. but then for the longest time, we struggled knowing who to send them to, like, bring that to life in their marketing branding design.

And so we've started our own in-house marketing branding design agency so that we can now not only help build the brand, but we can now partner with them to bring it to life. I see us also, you know, leaning more and more into AI. Like, we've adopted AI in our company and we're committed to continuing to utilize it, but we're also committed to helping advisors, like lead them into that and embrace it and not be afraid of it. because, you know, sadly, a lot of times the financial advisor wealth management industry is 10 to 20 years behind on most things like that. And I just, yeah. And we're committed to being advocates for the industry. Like I think there's so many things that are against advisors, fee compression, technology, like all these. And, and it's almost like that the deck is stacked against advisors. We want to stack the deck in their favor. And really, we want to be the leaders for advisors that they are for

their clients. We want to be in their corner, committed to their growth, the same way that they're in the corner of the families they serve and committed to them. I love it. You know, we could go off on another tangent, like you said a few minutes ago, like, oh, we could spend four hours on this, but implementation is so key. You can't just know all the stuff and have the blueprint. You got to put it into action. So for you guys to be coming alongside helping to polish and clarify and then go, all right, stage two, let's get it into action. Here we go. We're going to do it. We're going to do it with you for you. Don't worry. We've got the heavy lifting. That's so powerful because it's like the old saying, knowledge is power. No, it's not. Knowledge is potential power. You got to put it into action.

Yeah, one of my favorite sayings, and I can't remember when or why I said this for the very first time, but the difference between inspiration and transformation is implementation. Ooh, that's nice. Like, inspiration has a shelf life. It really does. Like, like, unimplemented inspiration will go bad. It will expire. So like you can go to momentarily. Sometimes. Yeah. You can go to a mastermind, a conference, getting a coaching program, whatever it is, and receive huge doses of inspiration and clarity.

And that's amazing. And if you don't implement it, it will never lead to the transformation. And it doesn't mean it was bad. And so, you know, one of the things that's interesting is the very thing that makes advisors, in my opinion, so valuable to their clients, Mike, is they don't just build that initial plan and create this initial clarity, they then see it through and stick with that client, hopefully, oftentimes for life. But advisors struggle to do the very thing for themselves that they do that brings so much value

to their clients, which is, you know, it's kind of hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle or it's hard to see them out on top of it. So again, when I say we want to be for advisors, what they are there for their clients, we want to help create that initial clarity and a really clear growth plan. but then we want to like lock arms with them and see it through no differently than what they do with their clients. And to a certain degree, we can't force them to implement. But we get as close as we can to forcing them to implement and win with this so that they

can get a measurable ROI so that they can move up market, serve more clients, work with more COIs, like grow their brand, close more sales, whatever it is. But it's like, look. And that's why a lot of the advisors end up working with us for, you know, three, four, five years, it's because like we, we share that commitment to being for them, what they are for their clients, which is we can't just build all of this and inspire you and help you see what's possible. We also have to like see it through, help you win. Love it. Love it, love it. Well, Chris, thank you so much for coming on. If there's an advisor that's ready to look a little closer at what

their possibility may be and get some clarity and implement some of these things, what's the best way they can reach out and connect with you guys. Yeah, you can go to our website, PSBLTY.com. I would love to connect with you on LinkedIn. You know, Christopher Carter Smith. My name's a little bit tough to find on LinkedIn with Chris Smith. But if you search Christopher Carter Smith, you can find me there. And then, yeah, we'd love to connect with you. Perfect.

Well, we'll make sure we've got that link in the show notes as well. So thanks again for coming on. It's been a true pleasure chatting with you. Thanks for having me, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www. influential entrepreneursradio.com.