Running an independent advisory firm requires wearing multiple hats, but trying to act as the "Chief Everything Officer" can severely limit your firm's growth and profitability.
In this episode of Action! Magazine, host Suleman Din sits down with Charesse Spiller, Founder of Level Best and Creator of FinOps Co-op® , to discuss how RIA leaders can optimize their business operations.
Charesse shares actionable insights on tracking individual capacity, structuring intentional Mondays, knowing when to outsource critical business functions and avoiding the hidden costs of bad hiring decisions.
Q: How should financial advisors evaluate their own daily capacity?
A: Advisors should use their calendar as a daily capacity dashboard. Reviewing personal and professional schedules before opening your inbox helps you control your time proactively rather than react to external demands.
Q: What is the benefit of taking a slower structured approach to Monday mornings?
A: Blocking out Monday mornings creates intentionality for the week. It gives firm leaders quiet time to review prospect calls, prepare presentations, set 1 to 3 core priorities, and plan personal commitments without inbox distractions.
Q: How do I know which operational tasks my RIA should outsource?
A: An RIA should outsource when there is a clear internal skill gap paired with recurring tasks. Functions like bookkeeping, marketing or compliance are ideal for outsourcing to specialized providers for a faster return on investment.
Q: What are the hidden costs of making a bad hire in an advisory firm?
A: Beyond visible P&L compensation, bad hires create silent costs. These include wasted management training time, operational disruption when the employee leaves and lost momentum from hiring for immediate relief instead of strategic alignment.
Q: What role should a firm owner play during major operational changes?
A: Firm owners must act as temporary change agents who lead strategy and vision during operational overhauls. Once new processes reach maintenance mode, delegate day-to-day management to an operations professional.
Suleman Din: Welcome back. This is Suleman Din. I am the AdvisorEngine intelligence lead here at AdvisorEngine, and I'm also the editor-in-chief of Action! Magazine. It's always my pleasure to talk to people in the industry who I think have really interesting ideas to share. We're doing this new format where we're coming to you live with these videos and bringing, I think, really expert opinions that will help you with your business. Today, I'm really lucky to have on today's show somebody who I consider one of these fresh voices when we talk about business ops, and that is Charesse Spiller, who is the founder of Level Best. Charesse, thank you so much for joining me today.
Charesse Spiller: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Din: You know, one of the things that Charesse has done really well with Level Best is created not only a very insightful practice that talks to people about their tech conundrums and their ops challenges, but you've really built a fascinating community with FinOps Co-Op. I've seen some of the testimonials there where people were kind of in the wild, if you will, [chuckles] when you think about technology and all the challenges that come with that and running a business and trying to keep on top of things. AI certainly has made it more complicated, but you've done a great job with that. I was reading you've helped over 100 firms, so that's amazing to see that kind of growth.
Spiller: Yeah, thank you so much.
Din: So, I wanted to just pick your brain a little bit on what we hopefully will be sort of a little lightning round of fun questions [chuckles] that you can draw from in your own practice here. Really, just to kick it off, so much of what we're talking about is performance, measuring, and getting that ops efficiency and excellence out of the tools that you're using. What's one metric that you yourself check the second you start your day?
Spiller: So, you're asking an operator this question—disclaimer! [laughs] before we dive into this. But I would say the first metric I'm checking is honestly my own capacity, because I believe if you can't lead yourself, you can't lead others. When I'm checking my capacity, I'm doing that through good old Google Calendars, right? As a business owner that has a family, I can't only think about business; I also have to think about my personal commitments and the tasks that need to happen, so that's what I'm doing every morning. To add, not only am I starting my day with that, I'm reserving that time to think about how I need to move forward in the day without looking at my inbox and worrying about everyone else's commitments and what they need from me that day.
Din: Is that time boxing? How do you formalize that?
Spiller: Again, as an operator: systems, right? So we have systems in our business; we need systems for our life. I time block certain days of the week for those reset days, for the follow-ups, and for the meetings, and then I just work the system that I created. I think every business owner, operator, and team member needs to have a calendar and treat it as their capacity dashboard.
Din: That is so interesting that you talk about something that is rooted in organization and technicality, but is really sort of a human thing. I don't think people really think about approaching efficiency from that perspective, so it's wonderful that you're bringing that unique insight to this conversation. What then is your sort of ultimate productivity hack when you are faced with a crazy Monday morning?
Spiller: Yes. So, I read an amazing book called "Sacred Pace," and that's what I think about when I think about my Monday, right? We don't need to jump in and go all in on Monday; we need to take a step back. So, I actually reserve the first 3 hours of my Monday morning to myself so everything starts intentional. Mondays are my reset day for the week. Again, as a business owner that has a life outside of business, I need to look at the full picture. If you have a busy workday, you need to make sure that you're dedicating time to prepare for the upcoming meetings that you're doing on Monday—looking at what prospect calls I have this week and what presentations I need to do—so I'm working on that on Monday. Throughout the week, I can focus on those meetings and get my follow-ups out. I'm also thinking about my personal commitments: meal planning, any appointments I need to have personally—all of that is built out on Monday. Then I can't forget the visionary work that I do, right? We all have these overarching goals for our business, but week-by-week, you get there, and I do that by setting my top priorities. I keep it small: one to three priorities that week so I can focus on those things throughout the week and be intentional when I'm making decisions on how I'm going to leverage my time.
Din: You kind of flip the paradigm there. Most folks talk about trying to do their reset on a Friday when things are slowing down, but you're building it in right at the beginning of the week.
Spiller: Yeah, I mean, you can't give away your Monday before you plan the week, so that's how I look at it.
Din: [chuckles] Interesting. We've been talking about operations a little bit, and I should note that you founded your firm in Houston, Texas. I'm assuming you deal with folks who are not necessarily here, but around the country. When you think about operational tasks as you're talking to different advisory firms, what's one thing leaping out at you that you recommend to firms they should consider actively outsourcing?
Spiller: Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I think for outsourcing, hate to say it, but it depends, right? But the framework of outsourcing is filling a skill. So if you're an RIA owner and you're thinking about, "Hey, what should I outsource?", think about what the skill gap is within your company. It could be bookkeeping—that's a big one—compliance, or marketing is another big piece. So not only think about the skill gap, but think about the recurring tasks that require that skill. I think that's a good place to start when you think about outsourcing in your business.
Din: So it's almost like: where are the speed bumps in my day-to-day, and how do I just get over them faster? What can I do to get around them?
Spiller: Exactly. And think about your team, too. A lot of firms have multiple team members, and you're trying to get your team members to pick up a new skill that they're having trouble doing. Rather than overwhelming them with something new, a quick way to get ROI in your practice is just to outsource it to various businesses that have a tried-and-true process on how to deliver whatever that skill is that you're looking for in your practice.
Din: And you're sort of making that tradeoff between the cost to bring in that outsourced element versus the time that you save in processes, etc.
Spiller: Yeah, exactly, because you don't want to just focus on moving the work; you want to think about how it's going to impact your bottom line, too, by bringing this person or this business on.
Din: All right. Now, since we were talking about costs, you've worked with a number of firms. Obviously, we don't need to name names here, but what is among the most expensive mistakes that you've seen a practice make when it comes to ops and running the business?
Spiller: Yeah, I think the one that everyone's probably heard about is a bad hire. Hiring a bad hire impacts not only the compensation, right? It's very tangible; you can see that on your P&L when someone leaves and all the money that you spent and invested into that person. But also, you're not thinking about the silent cost of training them or the silent cost of, "Okay, they left. Now what?" Most business owners typically hire bad because they are trying to solve for immediate relief instead of thinking long term in their business. When someone leaves, it disrupts your business, whether you're planning to let them go or if they're leaving—it's really tough. So I think that's very tangible. That's the first thing I thought about with this question, but the second piece I want to throw in is just a lack of leadership in your company. I talk about the "chief everything officer." That's very expensive because you go on autopilot for years and decades. That's the biggest thing that I've seen within firms, and I think it ties into that bad hire as well.
Din: Yeah, I mean, what you're describing is almost human nature, right? You're multitasking, so your mind is naturally going to try to triage the work. If you're chief compliance officer and chief ops officer, you're going to think, "Okay, where do I need to direct my attention?" And that's how I guess things fall through the cracks.
Spiller: Exactly. Yes, and I think it's important for advisors to realize that, yes, you're a good practitioner, but you also have to put that owner hat on and make time for it in your business.
Din: Nice. Let's wrap this up then. We always like to try to—and this has been a great conversation, lots of helpful tips here, Charesse—what's one tip that you would have for anyone who's trying to improve their operations in a very global sense, but something that you feel is becoming more necessary, especially with all the announcements in AI that we're seeing in the market lately?
Spiller: Yeah, I think the biggest tip—and this is really for the business owners and the leaders in these companies—is to stay involved when change is happening in your firm. I like to call it a "change agent," and keep in mind that this should be a temporary season depending on the size of your firm. If you're improving operations, you need to step back in, get involved, and lead those changes. A lot of people think operations is more administrative, entry-level, or maybe mid-level, but it's really not because we are service-based businesses. When you think about operations, it impacts your clients, your technology, and the people in your firm. Just remember to stay involved temporarily. When you move out of that change and you are now in maintenance mode, then I recommend plugging in an operations professional to take over those day-to-day operations. Think of it as: you're the one leading the strategy and the vision, and then someone else can plug into that vision once all the dust settles. [laughs]
Din: Right, right. Okay, we are coming up to the end here, so I just wanted to remind everyone: if you are really interested in learning more about what Charesse does for firms, maybe independent RIAs like yourself, you can go to getlevelbest.com—that's getlevelbest.com. I highly suggest that you check it out if you feel that there might be some solutions for you that Charesse can work with you guys on. Thank you so much, Charesse, for your time here again with us. We love having you on Action! Magazine, and we hope to have you come again in the near future.
Spiller: Thank you.