Next Mile

Episode 169: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Brendan Frazier, creator of The Ultimate Meeting Series and host of The Human Side of Money. Brendan began his career consulting with advisors on retirement income before building an advisory business and focusing his work on behavioral finance, psychology, and communication. He created The Human Side of Money to translate those ideas into practical tools for advisors. Kyle and Brendan explore why annual review meetings often become routine maint

Episode 168: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Matt Celenza, Managing Director and Partner at Americana Partners. Matt began his career at Morgan Stanley before joining Smith Barney, where he spent more than a decade with the Citi Family Office. He later led Boulevard, the firm he sold to Americana Partners in 2025. Matt shares why adding services in-house doesn’t make a firm a family office, and why the real work is coordinating each family’s needs in the order that matters to them. He outli

Episode 167: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Marcos Segrera, Principal, Wealth Manager, and Director of Growth & Development at Evensky & Katz/Foldes Wealth Management. Marcos began his career in insurance before moving into the RIA channel, where his work now spans client advice, advisor development, growth strategy, and the firm’s next generation of leadership. Kyle and Marcos explore why sales is really a transfer of confidence, and why RIAs need to invest more intentionally in developin

Episode 166: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Dessy Prasad, COO at Northwest Asset Management and RIA Innovations. Dessy began her career at Northwestern Mutual in Seattle as a financial representative on the insurance side, working alongside investment advisors and their teams. She joined Northwest Asset Management 11 years ago and helped support its growing advisor platform and operational infrastructure. Kyle and Dessy explore how advisory firms can give advisors flexibility without allow

Episode 165: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Grace Balestrieri, Senior Director of Client Experience Operations at Brighton Jones. Grace began her career in software, where her work spanned implementation, customer experience, and operations. She now brings that playbook to wealth management, building the systems, processes, and technology that let advisors focus on clients. Kyle and Grace discuss what "scaling with soul" means in practice and why growth can't come from simply adding people

Episode 164: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Kristina Baron, Co-Managing Partner and Managing Director at Oxford Financial Group. Kristina started in the industry as a high school intern in a financial advisor's office and later worked at Goldman Sachs before joining Oxford. Today she helps lead a team that serves roughly 700 families across the country. Kyle and Kristina explore what it takes to coordinate advice for families whose needs span investments, estate planning, taxes, trusts, ou