What's in store for you:

1. Photo From My Life
2. Financial Thought: VDB Wealth Update
3. Life Thought: Lentil Update
4. Good Sh*t: The Advice You Need

Photo From My Life:

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Working Together

As I build my boutique wealth management firm, I'm looking to partner with the right people and families. If you've ever wondered whether it might be a fit, or you just want a second opinion on your current setup, feel free to reach out. Always happy to talk.

Just reply to this email.

Financial Thought:

VDB Wealth Update: I haven’t shared a VDB Wealth update in a while, mostly because I’ve been busy in the weeds building it.

Here's the good news. I continue to be incredibly excited about what I’m doing. I genuinely enjoy the day-to-day work of serving clients, thinking through complex financial decisions, and helping families build lives that align with what they actually want. Building the firm has been energizing in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve built something from scratch before.

What I’m most excited about so far is the client base.

It’s still small, but I couldn’t ask for better people to work with. Every family has been thoughtful, kind, and aligned with the holistic approach we’re taking. I'm focused on building deep, long-term relationships with a limited number of families.

That’s also what makes growth feel simultaneously exciting and overwhelming.

When I launched, I thought it would probably take me 2-3 years to “fill the roster” of ~30-40 families. Now that I better understand the pace of trust-building and relationship development, I think the reality is probably more like 3-5 years.

Oddly enough, I’m becoming less focused on my AUM and more focused on the number of families we serve. That’s the true limiting factor in this business. There are only so many relationships you can deeply maintain while still showing up with energy, thoughtfulness, and care.

It's not all sunshines and roses. I've eaten a lot of humble pie too. What’s been most humbling is how lost I still feel when it comes to growth and marketing.

Ten months in, I probably feel more uncertain than when I started. I’m experimenting with everything. Writing, videos, advertising, direct mail, networking, and a million other random ideas. And, I’m fairly confident I’ll look back in a few years and realize 99% of it was a complete waste of time, energy, and money.

But honestly, that’s the curse of being an entrepreneur. I’m learning. I’m testing. I’m building. And while I don’t always know the right answer, I’ve realized I’m fundamentally not very good at sitting on my hands and waiting for life to happen. Everyone seems to tell me I should just rely on referrals, but I can't do that.

One thing I’ve started to think about is the team side of the business. Right now, I haven’t hired anyone. That’s intentional.

I want to get deep into all of the admin work, onboarding processes, operational workflows, and technical tasks before bringing someone onto the team. I think there’s value in understanding every part of the machine before delegating it away. Not to mention, I still have the time.

Eventually, I’ll likely hire someone who knows my software and custodial stack better than I do. That person will almost certainly be more experienced operationally than me in many areas. But I don’t need that yet.

The bigger question (which I thankfully don’t need to answer for a long time) is what happens once I actually reach that 30-40 family limit.

Do I bring on another like-minded advisor and slowly build something larger? Or do I simply say, “we’re full,” and protect the model exactly as it is?

I genuinely don’t know. But that feels like a future problem, and I’ve realized life gets a lot easier when you stop trying to solve problems five years before they actually exist.

As always, thanks for following along and reading these updates. Building something solo can feel isolating at times, so writing these reflections has become a form of therapy for me. It forces me to think about where I am, what I’m learning, and where I still need to go.

Life Thought:

Lentil Update: I typically get ~5 thoughtful replies to each newsletter. Which honestly, is more than enough. The fact anyone takes time out of their day to respond to my ramblings about business, life, or parenting still surprises me.

But last week, I wrote about lentils.

For whatever reason, that email generated 15-20 responses. People had strong opinions. Recipes. Stories. Debates about soaking methods. One person even wrote me a borderline manifesto about fiber intake.

These responses reminded me that people are craving human connection, even in business.

Not brands. Not polished corporate content. Not perfectly optimized “thought leadership.” Just boring people like me.

I think one of the reasons this newsletter has resonated with some people over the years is because it’s not purely about business or finance. It’s also about my actual life. I'm raising two kids. I occasionally feel burnt out. I've moved across the country. I'm working to get barreled before I'm 50. I obsess over golf despite being terrible at it. And apparently, lentils.

I still occasionally worry that I overshare. Every time I write something more personal, part of me thinks, “No one cares about this.” But almost every time I hit send on something honest or vulnerable, that’s when I get the most responses.

I’m starting to think that transparency acts like a filter. When you open up and write honestly, you naturally attract the right people into your life. Some of my closest internet friendships started because someone responded to a random newsletter or tweet where I was probably oversharing.

Good Sh*t:

The Advice You Need: Over the last year, I’ve realized there are only a few pieces of advice that actually matter. Most of it is just different packaging around the same concepts.

I ended up writing these three lines down for myself and I look at them often:

1. Be honest and transparent
2. Focus on what you want
3. Operate with no fear

They feel overly simplistic, but I’m convinced they apply to almost every meaningful situation in life.

Most people know what they actually want deep down. The hard part is being honest enough to admit it to yourself and brave enough to pursue it without worrying what everyone else thinks.

I still fail at all three constantly, which is probably why I need the reminder written down in the first place. But whenever I feel stuck, overwhelmed, or uncertain, I come back to these three ideas and things usually get clearer.

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