The Exit Planning Summit welcomed 500 exit planning advisors, business owners, and professionals, to Scottsdale, Arizona last week. During the three-day conference, attendees engaged with thought leaders, learned from experts in leadership, marketing, and exit planning, and left energized to implement 90-day action plans in their business.
Scott Snider opened the Summit with a message to all advisors, “My goal and promise to you is to lead this organization and keep CEPAs on top. So when owners think, ‘I want to build significance and not just success,’ they think of CEPAs.”
The 2022 Exit Planning Summit would not have been the successful event it was without the support of over 30 amazing industry partners. These included our Title Partner, UBS Financial Services, Welcome Social Partner, REAG, and Charity Giveback Partners Strazzeri Mancini, LLP and The Founders Group. Our partner exhibit hall was filled all three days of the Summit for attendees to connect with referral partners, develop new business relationships, and discover new systems to implement in their practices.
The Summit kicked off with ten Learning Labs from trusted Exit Planning Institute partners. Our attendees learned how to add value by building a collaborative team of experts. A new addition to the Summit this year, these Learning Labs were a widely popular session.
Keynote Speaker, Gino Wickman, the Founder of EOS Worldwide, led a lively session informing owners and business advisors on how to live their optimal life. He shared, “I believe you deserve it. I believe you owe it to yourself and the people in your life to live your optimal life. You are the leaders and you must be the example.” All Summit attendees scored various aspects of their lives to determine where they currently are in their lives.
Kiley Peters, Owner and Founder of RAYNE IX, led an engaging discussion about differentiating your brand from the competition by ensuring you are acting as your truest self. She shared, “When you start with the business and not the owner, you miss the most important part of the equation. Market the company you want to be, not the one you are. Because if you keep marketing the company you are, you will never be the one you want.”
Dr. Fred Johnson, Founder of InitiativeOne, educated the attendees on the importance of leadership and how it impacts successful businesses. He shared how to improve your teams by eliminating the barriers to communication between all levels of employees. He stated, “World-class teams separate themselves by two things: how they deal with issues and how they make decisions.”
Sean Hutchinson, of RFN Global, led a collaborative workshop on next-level discovery. For exit planning advisors to get the most insight into their business owner clients, they must ask engaging questions in the discovery phase. He shared, “There is a place for structure, but if we over structure a conversation, we might tell the owner’s story instead of allowing them to tell us.”
We hosted four expert panel sessions that provided our attendees with an expert viewpoint on exit planning from an owner, financial advisor, value advisor, and collaborative team perspective. James Jack, Executive Director and Head of the Business Owners Segment at UBS, led the Business Owner’s Panel to share how an owner can have the most impactful exit. He was joined by Shawn Bernhard, and the authors of Exit Right, Mark Achler and Mert Hilmi Iseri.
Exit planning advisors are typically broken down into two groups. The first group is financial advisors that educate and influence business owners with their exit planning training and knowledge. The second group is value advisors that manage and execute the process and provide consultative work to business owners. We segmented the Summit attendees into Financial Advisors and Value Advisors to hear from two expert panels on how to manage the Value Acceleration Methodology, what tools and resources to use, and how to incorporate the methodology into their practice successfully.
The exit planning team contains a Financial Advisor, Value Advisor, CPA, Attorney, Family Business Advisor, Risk Advisor, and more. During our Collaborative Case Study session and corresponding panel discussion, Summit attendees worked through an exit planning case study for a family business. Chris Snider led the panel comprised of Shanda McFadden, Sean Hutchinson, Rich Gunn, Kyle Danner, Sam Messina, and Jacqueline Kaltz-Coulombe.
We had nine phenomenal nominees for our Excellence in Exit Planning Awards. These consisted of the Member of the Year, Thought Leader of the Year, and Peter Christman Exit Planner of the Year. Join us in congratulating our winners, Shina Culberson, Julie Keyes, and Justin Goodbread!
Chris Snider shared, “Our nominees are role models for us all. They show us what success looks like in the CEPA community. These advisors show us how to effectively use the CEPA. They are leaders because they not only show us, but get us to believe in a worthy cause.”
We closed the Exit Planning Summit with six influential speakers during our highly rated Power Sessions. The six speakers shared exit planning lessons in the Summit theme of EPI or Experience, People, and Innovation.
Scott Snider opened the Power Sessions to discuss the importance of finding your personal purpose. Linda Ruffenach discussed how to build your confidence and create interesting ways to engage your clients. Joe Slatter led a powerful session on the importance of next level listening. Luci Gabel’s Power Session discussed the importance of healthy eating habits that can make a leader more effective in their business. Ali Nasser shared a powerful message about the pressure owners face to both grow and exit their businesses. Mike McGrann discussed the impact a family can have on the value and success of a business.
These inspiring and innovative speakers provided our Exit Planning Summit attendees with a unique approach to bring to their next client meetings, business engagements, and exit planning process. Stay tuned as we release each speaker’s full Power Session in the next few months.
We were thrilled to finally come together as an exit planning community for the first time in over two years. We hosted three evening socials on the beautiful Sonoran Terrace during the Exit Planning Summit. Our Welcome Social, in partnership with REAG, provided attendees the chance to meet each other on Sunday evening.
On Monday evening, we held our Charity Giveback Social which raised over $50,000 for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation. If you would like to donate to this incredible Foundation, you can make your secure donation through this link.
On Tuesday Night we closed another successful Exit Planning Summit with our Summit Afterparty. Thank you to all of our Summit Partners for helping make this year our biggest Summit yet.
How would you all feel about heading back to Scottsdale, Arizona next year for the 2023 Exit Planning Summit? Reserve your spot today!
Request more information about our 2023 Exit Planning Summit Partnership Packages by contacting Jesse Hudson at jhudson@earncepa.com