Listen to this week’s episode

Episode 138

On this week’s episode of Next Mile, I sit down with Michael Vedders, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Enterprise Resources at NorthRock Partners. With more than a decade of experience in marketing and leading complex organizational projects, Michael has helped build teams, launch major branding initiatives, produce compelling creative, develop multi-channel planning, and use insights to inform strategy.

We discuss how wealth management firms can build deep client relationships at scale. Michael discusses the importance of storytelling in creating a strong brand narrative, how NorthRock's personal office business model works, and why the future belongs to firms that use data and automation to serve more people and build deeper human connections.

Key Takeaways

• If you want deeper client relationships, create space for them. You can't force meaningful connections, but you can design for them. Offload technical tasks to specialists so advisors can focus on what matters most.

• Use technology to create time, not just efficiency. AI and automation aren't the end goal. The real opportunity is what you do with the time they create. The best firms will reinvest that time into deeper relationships and better service.

• The future belongs to firms that balance tech and humanity. Efficiency through data and automation is table stakes. The real edge comes from using that efficiency to deepen human connection, not replace it.

Quotes

"Marketing is the privilege of telling the story, the story of your firm and what differentiates you. You can spend a lot of money and generate a lot of activity without results if you don't provide a clear story for people first." ~ Michael Vedders

"Deep relationships lead to better advice." ~ Michael Vedders

"The future of our industry belongs to those who can create efficiencies and space through data and automation, and then use that space to serve people more effectively and deepen relationships." ~ Michael Vedders

Links

• Michael Vedders on LinkedIn

• NorthRock Partners

• Think Again

• Switch

• Unreasonable Hospitality

• Love Does

• The Ideal Team Player

Connect with our hosts

• Milemarker.co

• Kyle on LinkedIn

• Jud on LinkedIn

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Apple Podcasts

• Spotify

• YouTube

While there, please don’t forget to Download, Like, and Subscribe.

If you’d like to schedule a time to talk with me about anything we cover on our podcast or Milemarker, click here for 15 minutes.

Kyle Van Pelt