Listen to this week's episode

Episode 135

On this week’s episode of Next Mile, I sit down with Jessica Perez, VP of Growth at Milemarker. Jessica brings a boots-on-the-ground perspective to the wealth management technology space, working directly with advisory firms to help them unlock the full potential of their data. 

We recap key lessons from the Orion Ascent conference, where the central theme was “Relentless”—a mindset focused on continuous improvement across technology, client experience, and firm operations. We also discuss how advisors can avoid the overwhelm that often follows large industry events and instead identify one or two meaningful priorities to pursue. Jessica shares her perspective on evaluating technology partners, embracing innovation like AI without chasing every trend, and focusing on the changes that truly move an advisory firm forward.

Key Takeaways

• Be ruthless about technology partners that don’t truly help your business. If a platform doesn’t share data well, integrate with your ecosystem, or actively help improve your client experience, it’s worth reevaluating that relationship—even if switching tools feels painful. Technology vendors should function as partners in growth, not just software providers. 

• Don’t chase every new idea after a conference—pick a few and pursue them relentlessly. Industry events flood advisors with dozens of new tools and ideas, but trying to implement everything leads to distraction. Instead, identify one to three ideas that meaningfully improve your firm and focus on executing those relentlessly throughout the year. 

• “Relentless” improvement is more about mindset than technology. The real takeaway from Orion Ascent wasn’t just AI or new fintech announcements—it was the mindset of continuous improvement. Firms that consistently ask how they can serve clients better, improve workflows, and elevate their teams are the ones that ultimately win. 

Quotes

“Relentless means find a theme, find a thing that matters that you can relentlessly pursue.” ~ Jessica Perez

“If you are not actively in play right now, thinking about how your firm can handle AI to serve your clients, you're gonna have a lot of problems.” ~ Jessica Perez

Links

• Jessica on LinkedIn

• Orion Ascent

• Jordan Hutchison

• Chip Kispert

• Future Proof

• T3

• The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon

• The Activator Advantage by Matthew Dixon

Connect with our hosts

• Milemarker.co

• Kyle on LinkedIn

• Jud on LinkedIn

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• 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