John Clendening On Helping Scale Schwab Bank And Raising $225 Million To Build Earned Wealth, A Tech-Driven Financial Services Firm For Doctors

In a captivating conversation with John Clendening, we delve into his incredible journey from the beaches of Florida to leading multi-billion-dollar companies and venturing into the startup world.

John shares his unique perspectives on leadership, the art of bringing differentiation in segments, and his experiences in corporate giants and agile startups. He also talks about raising $200M for his startup from top-tier investors like Juxtapose, Hudson Structured Capital Management, Summit Partners, and Silversmith Capital.

In this episode, you will learn:

• John Clendening gained invaluable confidence and problem-solving skills through his diverse consulting experiences, enabling him to adapt to new business environments rapidly.
• His time at Pepsi and Coca-Cola taught him the power of deep consumer understanding and differentiation in competitive markets.
• Transitioning from large corporations to startups allowed John to embrace speed, innovation, and the importance of timely decision-making.
• Working alongside Chuck Schwab reinforced the importance of bold moves, positive culture, and visionary thinking in driving business success.
• His turnaround experiences highlighted the need for resilience, optimism, and a consumer-first approach to revive struggling businesses.
• His banking and financial services experiences inspired the vision for Earned Wealth, emphasizing a holistic, client-centric approach to wealth management.
• John’s career reflects a continuous journey of learning, adapting, and applying diverse experiences to create impactful business solutions.

 

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About John Clendening:

John Clendening is the founding CEO of Earned Wealth, the first comprehensive, tech-enabled financial services firm exclusively for healthcare professionals and medical practices.

John recently served as CEO of Blucora, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOR), a leading innovator in driving tax-smart outcomes for consumers, where he delivered double-digit annual growth in revenue, EBITDA, and EPS and drove a total Stock Return of 66%, placing BCOR in the top 3% of the Russell 2000.

Previously, John was a senior executive at Charles Schwab for over ten years. As EVP and Co-Head of Charles Schwab’s US and International retail division, John led a team of 5,600 to 71% profit growth over three years.

During his tenure at Schwab, John played a leading role in transforming the firm from a transactional, reactive-service model into the leading omnichannel wealth manager with modern digital experiences and an industry-leading suite of advisory services. John also served as CEO of Schwab Bank.

His career began with senior roles in large companies and start-ups, including eMac Digital, living.com, First Union Bank (now Wells Fargo), The Coca-Cola Company, and PepsiCo.

John currently serves on the Board of Feed The Children, a global NGO. His prior board service includes Charles Schwab Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Betterment Holdings, Inc., the largest independent Robo-advisor in the US.

John earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Northwestern University.

Connect with John Clendening:

• LinkedIn
• TheOrg
• Crunchbase
• RocketReach

Read the Full Transcription of the Interview:

Alejandro Cremades: All righty, hello everyone and welcome to the Deal Maker Show. So today we have a really incredible founder, you know a founder that he is right now riding a rocket ship. We’re gonna be talking about it in detail. you know There’s gonna be great stuff there we’re gonna be touching on ah during the show today. We’re gonna be talking about why he got himself perfectly situated to be able to ride this rocket ship, how he thinks about raising money. I mean, in their case, they’ve raised over 200 million So a really remarkable space, especially given the times that we are in. And they just say recently announced their last day raise, which was 200. And then also bringing a differentiation, you know, when it comes to a segment, you know, where there is like massive players that are already operating. And so again, super inspiring conversation. So brace yourself for it. And without further ado, let’s welcome our guest today, John Clendenin. Welcome to the show.

John Clendening: Great to be here, Alejandro, thank you.

Alejandro Cremades: So originally born in Alabama. So give us a walk through memory lane. How was life growing up?

John Clendening: Oh gosh, ah early days, Alabama, um and then after a year there, then Florida on the beach. I just remember being super hot, not wearing shoes very much, and weekends spent kind of roaming around what today is, Destin, in Florida. It was a nice place to start and great place to go on vacation after he moved after my dad moved the family up to Wisconsin.

Alejandro Cremades: So the whole thing about business, you know, I mean, obviously you went to Northwestern. You also did your MBA. I mean, did this is love for the business world. Where does that thing come from?

John Clendening: You know, i I was one of those people that thought to themselves in high school and and early college that I wanted a career in business before I even knew what it was. um My dad was a lawyer, went into social work. ah Mom stayed at home at that time, pretty common. ah But I was fascinated by brands. I was fascinated with the stock market, played a stock market game when I was in junior high school, now middle school, I guess. And I was just thinking, like, what an amazing world that must be to be a part of a big company that’s growing. and and then that so stock market element as well. ah When I was at Northwestern, which I chose on the basis of really wanting the underpinnings of a true classical education, I started to get the itch to like really jump into business in a serious way, led me to consulting after that. But at that time, right i I thought it was like super cool to be able to study the classics. I get in touch with language, took Spanish for a couple of years, really broadened my horizons from

John Clendening: my upbringing in ah in the in the South and then in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ah But the inspiration for business like took root when I was at north Northwestern. I was part of a small group called the College of Commerce and Industry where its speakers come in and talk about, what’s it like to lead? What’s it like to innovate when you’ve got the ability to influence lots and lots of people, not just consumers, but also people that are in the company? And that aspect of leadership really began to fascinate me.

Alejandro Cremades: So then, in your case, i mean you’ve um jumped quite a bit you know when it comes to ah companies and segments too. I guess you know you did quite a bit the um consulting, consumer, then banking. you know Obviously, you did it on large corporations, smaller smaller corporations. I guess the first thing is, during your time in consulting,

Alejandro Cremades: What do you think you got about problem solving? How do you think that has helped you into maybe thinking about big problems, breaking them down into small problems and tackling them? I mean, what kind of strategy did that experience give you into thinking about problem solving?

John Clendening: I think the the main thing it it gave me was an ability to go into any type of situation, different businesses, different projects and and that sort of thing, and have the confidence that you’ll be able to size it up. You’ll be able to jump in, ah put some deep thought into what will be necessary to get up the learning curve rapidly, i’ll learn about that new business really rapidly, but that confidence and the framework around that ah was really useful for me, and it’s that self-confidence element I want to emphasize until you’ve done it a couple of times. and I’ve been like not in an undergrad B school, and in consulting, as you know, right they just sort of jump drop you in and like, here’s your stuff to go do.

John Clendening: um but But developing the right toolkit to really size up a business deeply in terms of its people, in terms of its products set or services set, ah in terms of its economics. It’s sort of amazing as a side note how few people sometimes in a company don’t know how the company makes money, don’t know how the consumers regard the company, don’t know what is coming around the corner ah that might disrupt that company.

John Clendening: And consulting allowed me to, I think you’re right in calling it problem solving by the way, ah much more that than true like big picture strategy. um But it gave me the confidence that I could go into anything and ah put my mind to it in the right way, tap into the the people of the company in the right way and get up to speed quickly. And that also enabled me to feel okay changing companies in the early part of the career pretty rapidly as well that I could go in and make an impact relatively quickly.

Alejandro Cremades: I mean, then you went to the consumer side, you know and quite interesting that you decided to work for the two biggest players, biggest competitors that one can think of, whether it’s a Pepsi or Coca-Cola, but I guess the, um I mean, unbelievable, unbelievable. Now, I guess this experience too gave you the exposure to direct marketing. So how was that for you?

John Clendening: It is crucial for me to go into packaged goods and and as you mentioned, the two big competitors, Pepsi and and Coke. And I learned so much around the idea that you’ve got to spend a lot of your time, like a dominant part of your your time, thinking about the consumer and what do they regard as unmet needs.

John Clendening: and on top of that, like dig really, really deep for differentiation. Now, I’m in a business today where I think differentiation gaps are huge, but in packaged goods, right they’re pretty narrow. In reality, right what’s the difference between a Coke and a Pepsi? Well, if you’re a big fan, you may see some, but most don’t. and that The marketing teams or the brand teams or the CEO in companies like that are spending so much time for the the smallest of edges, but all grounded in the idea that if we know the consumer more deeply than the other other player, we can find a way to win. Also super sharp at segmentation, all of which these comments and concepts, by the way, I think are largely lost on financial services farms, um but really developed a sharp edge and an orientation

John Clendening: ah toward toward differentiation built on understanding unmet need across a segment of consumers as a way to get sort of deeper and deeper and closer and closer to what could be ah better for that ah that consumer. I also learned a lot about leadership, just worked for some awesome people there. And the way I got to to Coke, by the way, from Pepsi was I followed the one executive that Coca-Cola had ever, at that time, recruited ah from PepsiCo that businesses don’t like each other. The rivalry is massively ah strong, um but they had the insight at Coke to bring over this guy who I was working for at Frito-Lay, and I was the the one person he brought with him. So it was pretty cool to be able to see the differences between the two companies.

Alejandro Cremades: So then you went into startups. you know That’s sayingin quite an interesting segue. know You go from like massive companies to startups. So how did you enter the startup world?

John Clendening: Well, i’d I had actually been in a bank for a little while, ah and it was ah one of my worst decisions I’ve ever made, not having done my diligence on what the culture would be like there, but it was ah an opportunity to you know do some data-driven marketing versus mass. at like like ah Package Goods Company, long story short, a group of us decided we’d start our own business and spend some time on the weekends. This is like 1998, by the way, so e-commerce is beginning to explode. It’s looking like if you don’t jump into the new economy, you’re going to be a dinosaur.

John Clendening: And you know, I was 35 or 36 or whatever at the time and I was really feeling that way that I needed to find a way into the new economy. And so I had some great concepts. I ended up bounces off an individual who I had worked for at Frito-Lay and he had just become CEO of this really, really cool company doing great things.

John Clendening: ah In that era and brought me into his company with with the team I’ve been working with so in my mind What a great shortcut into a neat business that that was already a couple rounds in to capital raise or I’m like I don’t know like version 9 of the website is all about the website back then of course and and sort of jumped into that. I had some great backers in Benchmark Capital, Austin Ventures, and I got in because I felt like I wanted to be part of that group because things are quite quite unknown. like How are you going to win an e-commerce? There’s no playbook for it. like Package goods, there’s a playbook. Take the playbook, learn how to deploy it.

John Clendening: There wasn’t anything built yet at that time. It was a bit of a Wild, Wild West feeling, but a like ah ah ah total shortfall in conviction on what are the things you need to do to truly win and build a sustainably ah profitable business, not known, not yet built out. and so The single biggest motivation I had was that. um The second would have been to keep the career moving, keep vibrant by jumping into what looks to be the next ah wave. And that certainly was my experience, that both of those were true, that there’s an opportunity to sort out how to compete as an e-commerce business. And on top of that, sort of like boost myself into a level of understanding I couldn’t have gotten at some big traditional company. I had to go to a startup to get there.

Alejandro Cremades: So then in in this case, i mean you ended up in after doing you know the startup life, you ended up going back at corporate. i mean it’s That’s interesting because typically once you experience startups, it’s tough to get you know back to corporate. So what triggered that?

John Clendening: So I think you’re right, by the way. It’s it’s it’s tough to leave. And it’s it’s been a lot of years since I was able to get back at it, about 15 years. And what I loved about startups, because I think it’s salient to this, is I love the speed. I love the concept of um time-box decision-making versus letting things like trundle on forever, which is common in Big Co.

John Clendening: I really enjoyed leading high-energy, like massively committed people um to a person at these startups, massively committed. It’s a lot easier to lead in that environment right other than a place where maybe you got like half the people are engaged, other half are not.

John Clendening: At the same time, I had done two startups. ah One was Living dot.com and in Austin, couldn’t raise capital, not a penny, after setting records for fundraising previous to that as the dot-com bust took root. Second one was a bit of a bunt single, the venture firm did okay, the rest was not so much. And so I wanted to get back to a bigger platform and re-establish my career.

John Clendening: But I was also motivated um by applying what I had learned in those four or five years in startups and seeing if I could bring that into a bigger platform. And that platform was Charles Schwab in 2004. But I was excited about um taking that application into what was then a turnaround situation at Schwab. They also had not yet recovered from the dot com bus where trading velocity just collapsed and had no shown no signs of of ah improving. I’d done a couple of turnarounds.

John Clendening: And ah crucial to this was some learning at the at the first startup in particular, and strong conviction that the winning client experience model is not an either-or, it’s not either electronic or a human-led. It’s gonna be, what’s like what’s the best way of mixing those together? We had done some experimentation at the startup in that vein as we struggled to grow volume, sales volume and client volume. And I felt like Schwab would be an awesome place ah to apply some of those techniques in a firm that had already, right, they had then sort of perfected online transacting. ah They had not perfected much more than that. I mean, great company, great brand, right, the brand, I’d say the brand in financial services, but there’s a lot to go fix there. But that was the reason. I felt like i could I could apply some things, bigger platform in a turnaround situation. It was also a nice chance to get to San Francisco. It had already been on my wife and I mind to to see somehow get to the Bay Area and

John Clendening: That’s where they were headquartered at that time. So jumped into it, a chance to turn around a business. And lo and behold, Chuck Schwab comes back in six months. It was an amazing ah you know set of circumstances that brought him back to the company. And what good fortune for me to be around so a true business icon, an amazing leader ah in that space, a true innovator.

Alejandro Cremades: What do you think made him such an incredible leader? you know I mean, having the opportunity to to work you know alongside someone of that caliber, you know I’m sure that that shaped you quite a bit.

John Clendening: Hugely, I’d say a couple things about Chuck um first is he he um He believes in moving boldly, like doing a few things, big things, in very bold fashion. It’s what started the company, right? Deregulation hits commission pricing. Everybody raises their prices. he’s and um that’s That’s Wall Street, right? You deregulate the price. People take it up. Chuck goes way down and applies just the right amount of insight to help people trade. So he’s carried that philosophy with him over time.

John Clendening: And I think that I’ve linked that then to work that that that firm has has done the last 10, 15 years, which i part I was part of in the early days, ah moving the company into a new version, transforming. Like, what’s the new big idea? Well, the big idea ah needed to be, we’re going to become an advisory firm ah that taps into our lower cost structure, our multi-channel model, those sorts of things. But big picture one is is moving boldly ah where other firms don’t seem to be prepared to go. Second thing I’d say around Chuck that’s made him an awesome leader is, man, that that individual knows the power of a positive culture in driving business outcomes. ah it’s you know Chuck’s all about culture. There there are people at that firm

John Clendening: that will never forget having met him and how they and how how Chuck instructed them on putting that client at the center. So for that company and for Chuck, let’s keep it to Chuck, the idea of being consumer centric is not on a piece of paper or a placard or whatever. It’s how he’s how he’s convinced himself, rightfully so, that if you really can do that and the culture is all around that, you can go through anything. You can go through like the hell that was the early 2000s.

John Clendening: and You can go through a change process. It’s a really big change process where people’s roles are being upended because you’ve kept that ah that client, ah that customer at the center. and There’s a third thing about Chuck I’d say that makes him an amazing leader is his is raw business insight. ah There were many times where I had to go back to my office after Chuck would sort of imprompt impromptu call me in and I could really think hard about what do I think Chuck was saying there? Because he’s he was like four or five steps ahead and it it it was it was worth my time to really think about it, go back and talk it through. so that’ sort of He’s not a linear thinker, right? This is a discontinuous individual that like looks like way ahead. ah He predicted zero trading um prices like way before Robin had went there as an example.

John Clendening: And perhaps that company began in staging for that long before they ultimately got there. But that sense of vision combined with culture and the the confidence of moving boldly, I think those are those are all amazing and remarkable traits of Chuck. And I’d be lucky if I could emulate some of those to some degree, and I’d try to.

Alejandro Cremades: So in this case, you obviously learn a lot about operations, about management, leadership, and also turning things around. And in fact, you know, that’s a kind of like what ended up being your next chapter with a blue Cora when you got recruited, you know, to, to do such things. And, and, and funny enough, this was the most immediate, kind of like segue, you know, for, for you getting going with earned wealth. So, so turning things around, that doesn’t sound very, very easy, is it?

John Clendening: It’s not. it It does require all the tools in the toolkit. ah It also requires right right some discernment around, is the situation fixable? what’ like Why is this this is this like a fatally flawed business? Or is it some things that we get some degrees of freedom to to fix it? I think the main thing I’ve learned in those turnaround situations is um you know a couple of things. One is the power of resilience and being able to work through difficulty when things seem like they’re getting darker they tend to get a bit darker before the business ah is performing again it’s really serving well. ah Here in the last three and a half years on given you the fundraising environment and just how hard it is so to start funding from zero. And the the second thing is i think orienting the team around optimism the idea that we can find a way to win.

John Clendening: It may have been tough, it may be tough right now, but ah let’s think about what that destination is, what what is it going to feel like when we get there. And let’s work together on a path to get there. And and keeping ah you know keeping that optimistic element, not to say you’re like misleading yourself or others, you have to be objective. But ah having ah an optimistic edge is necessary in those environments also has served me well, as noted in in this sort of situation. But I’ve done those, and there’s a framework for it. I would like go right back to the consumer and sort of refiguring out what’s important to the consumer.

John Clendening: And taking the philosophy, which I learned it freely actually, which was sort of align the business model to the consumer and leave it to you. I mean, make sure it’s your accountability to make it profitable. But if you don’t start with a consumer, you’re screwed. If you try to like work your way into something that can work OK, but it’s awesome economics for you, that’s not going to be a real business. though That won’t last long. um But it’s going back to basics, typically, in the turnaround situations.

Alejandro Cremades: So then at what point does the idea of earned wealth come knocking to you?

John Clendening: You know, it it actually, I think the like the route around earned wealth, a truly differentiated approach to to building in and protecting wealth, in our case for doctors, it goes right back to that that experience I briefly mentioned at a bank. So I’m at a big bat bank and I had done poor diligence. I’m wondering why am I here? I’m a cultural misfit, obviously. And I think they say the same thing about me, right? They didn’t like me either.

John Clendening: ah but You’re realizing, oh my gosh, for the bank, a consumer is a set of digits in a flat file that’s associated with their profitability today. There’s no sense of what’s the right thing to be done with a client. How do we help the client out? What’s the value added we’re uniquely providing? There’s no sense of segmentation. Really, it’s like the bank seemed to exist for the benefit of the bank versus the other way around.

John Clendening: And when I combine that with um some of the other experiences right at at Schwab, great investment company, ah you know but pretty limited and investment in a bank.

John Clendening: um not able to take into account taxes when advising. It’s an interesting thought where you’re advising someone on maximizing their wealth, but you say, well, I’m not going to pay attention to your tax drag that I’m causing for you. It’s like, wow, um just this idea that a fragmented approach as good as a company could be, but a fragmented approach ah wouldn’t lead itself to the best results. And today that’s how consumers really live, right? They have an investment advisor, they get a tax person, they’ve got this or that.

John Clendening: And so I learned that at Schwab that you needed to combine things to be more successful. And and um then at Blue Quora, we’ve been experimenting with, can you um build technology, turns out you can, ah that can empower a channel of CPAs, but can you build the right software to capture tax alpha or tax advantage across the entire life of a consumer in ways that, you know, Robo had done it, but inside one account.

John Clendening: And so you know we made a lot of progress there. We could generate massive value for our consumers. All that’s to say, Alejandro, is that I sort of ladder up all those experiences together. And what we’re doing has a link to all those sort of career stops. we’re the you know we We will be the sort of defining segment-driven financial services firm. so As I mentioned, right we’re focused on on doctors. The reason for that is that their needs are unique. They’re a real segment. We can build bespoke products and services because

John Clendening: Doctors have a unique career trajectory that impacts every aspect of their financial life. We do everything for the doctor. um Whatever it takes to improve that financial situation, we’re not there yet. I’m not going to oversell you. But our vision is to be able to ah work holistically with that physician, solving for every single need in their practice life, in their individual life. And then lastly, ah we’re building and leveraging deep technology to essentially automate um broad advice giving so that we’re optimizing across these interconnected decisions of

John Clendening: um investing but doing it in a tax-smart way or getting the right insurance that links to the assets that you’ve got, that understands where your career is going critically, ah advising on um how do yeah how do you optimize the sale of your practice? A lot of physicians and dentists are doing that. They have no idea what their practice is worth. And once they do make that big change, they really struggle with re recalibrating their entire financial life after that. So one segment, do everything, really crush it for them.

John Clendening: do everything and leverage tech to make it reliable, predictable, and scalable.

Alejandro Cremades: So in this case, how are you guys making money? you know For the people that are listening to get it, how do you how do you guys make money here?

John Clendening: So our revenue model is essentially a percentage of assets model for personal wealth management, not dissimilar at all to a large registered investment advisor. The difference is ah we do everything ah for that client. So we’re going to do taxes for the client. We’re going to do insurance optimization for the client.

John Clendening: on our roadmap is to do trust and estate planning, triggering when the wills need to get redone and that sort of thing. ah We optimized today for the balance sheet, like what should be your loan profile versus opportunities to invest, that sort of thing. So it’ the difference is sort of that same basic fee, but we do a ton more.

John Clendening: Then on the practice side, we do taxes and financial statement preparation. We do ah retirement planning all around distressing the doctorate in that situation, optimizing their financial life as relates to their practice. Key thing here is right we’re all about, can we increase the cash flow of that practice so that they can have more to invest in the markets or or in alternative investments, let’s say, ah so that over time they can double, triple,

John Clendening: maybe even more, they’re not worth that retirement.

Alejandro Cremades: so then So then you guys have also raised quite a bit of money. you know I know that the last day around was announced very recently you know at a time where it’s not as easy to raise money, but you guys made it seem easy with the amount that you raise. So how much capital have you guys raised to date and what has been the emotions there of going from one cycle to the next?

John Clendening: Yeah, yeah, so um total we’ve raised about $220, $225 million. dollars ah We were back at the seed stage um by by a design studio juxtapose, A round led by Hudson Structured by a year and a half ago. And then Summit and Silversmith growth equity firms um have been our you know decided to back us in that $200 million dollars raise that we completed about two months ago.

John Clendening: I mean, experience, you know, it’s it’s a lot harder than I expected going in, honestly. I started the company in a different world. It’s hard to know when you’re in a bit of a bubble. We were in a bubble. Shame on me. I’ve been in a bubble at living.com too in 1998, 1999. But the experience that overall has been been really positive and and in some ways affirming of what it feels like to work with awesome investors, whether it’s juxtaposed and Hudson structured, like in those ah those quarters where it was still unclear our path to but getting

John Clendening: big enough, growing fast enough, like super supportive during that timeframe. And then fast forward to to this situation. it’s been ah It’s been a handful of quarters that we’ve been working with initially Summit, now Silversmith, ah prior to getting the round closed. We took our time on our end ah to make sure that ah the firms we were considering working with ticked all of our boxes.

John Clendening: And we wanted to be, despite the environment, we didn’t want to lower our bar. We wanted to work only with awesome investors like our first few. And on top of that, they’re scrutiny on us. I think fair enough was pretty deep too. And so that’s why it took some time ah to get there. but ah In our situation, we pivoted from venture-backed, having gotten to the Series A, into a ah pretty good size growth equity round on the strength of the unique approach that we are taking. right It goes back to differentiation, and we’ve talked about that a lot here, but Summit and Silversmith readily saw that we’re really different than other other opportunities that are in the marketplace today.

John Clendening: ah certainly around financial services and FinTech companies, because of that verticalized approach. And in addition, they have to be healthcare care investors, both ah both ah Darren and and Jeff, who we work with in those firms most closely. And so they really understood the thesis. They understood very deeply from the many hundreds and hundreds of doctors that they know and work with.

John Clendening: ah that they they need better than what they’re getting from financial services firms. So my experience centers on an idea that we took time to build trust in one another. ah We certainly wanted to dig as deep on them as they ah dug into us, but that alignment around vision, mission, like our unique purpose in the world, like why why would the world be worse off if we’re not there? ah they They totally got that. And we ended up you know some time ago with a handshake agreement that if you guys over at Earn, Do,

John Clendening: X, Y, and Z, then we over here at Summit and Silversmith are gonna come through with the right investment, and that’s what happened.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s incredible. And i mean it’s it’s it’s also interesting how you end up raising such a big of an amount on the second race, especially during the times that we’re that we’re in. no i mean How were you guys able to arrive to that number? And and and how were you able to like make that happen? Because i mean right now, the market is is is not as favorable.

John Clendening: Yeah, it’s clearly a tough market. We worked hand in glove. The teams there, ah my teams, we worked hand in glove to build out the thesis on an acquisition driven strategy go forward ah that would accelerate our vision to be fully comprehensive, have the capital to build up the tech and those sorts of things, extend our reach into many, many thousands of additional doctors. But working hand in glove with that team enabled us to get to know each other really well.

John Clendening: But it also made it um a natural conclusion that this opportunity is big enough ah that we need to put in a substantial amount of capital to make that vision a reality. um And so I think those those two work together, right? So their conviction level as high as ours, if they were on the on the podcast here, I think they’d say, well, this this has been our thesis too. We just didn’t meet a company that could sort of activate it for us. um But it comes down to how much capital do you need to be able to go and and build an awesome business with that strategy?

John Clendening: ah Fortunately, these are like we we we have deep-pocketed um investors. They can go far higher if the situation warrants it. But we all agreed that this is the amount of capital that we needed to um make the run that we’re going to make over the next couple of years to get there.

Alejandro Cremades: So then, obviously, when investors say putting money, they believe really on a vision, right? on on and And that’s not just the investors, also you know the team, and you know customers, and and you name it.

Alejandro Cremades: So I guess when it comes to the vision, imagine you were to go to sleep tonight.

John Clendening: Yeah.

Alejandro Cremades: And you wake up in a world here where the vision for earned wealth is fully realized, John. What does that world look like?

John Clendening: Awesome. I love ah love that. i I think about that all the time, honestly. And it takes me back to May of 21, thinking about this the same very topic. Here’s what it looks like, right? So what it looks like at like point one is doctors ah feel far more confident that it made sense to become a doctor.

John Clendening: And if if ah you’re you’re young and considering the profession, you say to yourself, you know what, because of what earned can do for me. Literally what earned can do for me, I feel like I can become a doctor and that’s gonna be a good decision for me. When today a lot of folks are regretting it, the financial stress, the financial strain is too great. You have so many people that get through med school and opt out of actually getting into clinical care. So they worry about having 350K and dead and that sort of thing. So at the highest level, the profession is considered an awesome profession once more and the best and the brightest are back going into

John Clendening: a career as a doctor. Underneath that, ah what’s happening to our clients what’s happening to our clients is they’re feeling like their financial lives are in awesome shape. They feel the peace of mind that goes with that.

John Clendening: They’ve got independence ah that also goes with having made the right choices with us at their side. And so they’re achieving two, three times what they otherwise would have achieved in terms of net worth. But again, critically, there they’re feeling like their wealth is is higher, but their well-being is higher too. They’ve got peace of mind about where they are and their financial lives, which ah can be transformative in how someone thinks about their career.

John Clendening: So alongside you know clients and and their outcomes, which is most important, I think in that vision when I wake up, it’s also going to be things like ah the very ah most capable, highly committed people around anything to do with finance want to come to earn. ah They see that because of the unique things that we do for clients, we’re the number one choice. We’re the people we’re the place that people want to work um because of the the purpose and what we’re achieving for our clients.

John Clendening: And from a brand point of view, ah that vision would include being considered the only place that a doctor would go around their personal life, their family’s financial life, around the practice, the only place they’d ever consider going or need to go around anything to do with with their financial life. Those would be the main elements, I’d say for me, on achieving a vision.

Alejandro Cremades: So we’re talking here about, the a obviously, the future. But I want to talk about the past with a lens for reflection. So let’s say I was to put you into a time machine. And let’s say I bring you back in time. you know let’s say Let’s say maybe the yeah the late 80s. And when you were completing your MBA you know at Harvard, and you had some friends that were going to start their own companies and stuff like that. and Let’s say you had the opportunity of going back in time there, and let’s say you know you had the opportunity to give your younger self one piece of advice as you would embark in your professional career and in your journey. you know and That advice would be, one, before you were to get started, maybe with launching a company down the line. What would that be and why, given what you know now?

John Clendening: awesome. I think for me that one piece of advice would be to check in like all the time around am I loving what I’m doing and am I highly like respectful and motivated by the purpose of this place and my colleagues and you know what we’re doing together for clients. ah So I found myself in situations, early career Alejandro, where I was sort of solving for, well, I want to learn a lot. That’s admirable.

John Clendening: I want to get up, you know, quickly learn like analytics and whatever it might be all admirable, but I traded off at some points. mean I mean, am I truly deeply passionate about this? And am I loving you know enough of everything around it for this to be highly motivating for me?

John Clendening: And I call it out because having gone through a few turnarounds, having made a mistake or two in job choice, I can go right back to the root that the reason I i made that mistake was I wasn’t paying attention to those factors. And, you know, I learned later too that if, if those things are in place, man, I can do my best work. I’m going to show up better for my teams, my colleagues, I’ll show up better for clients. I have a lot more fun doing it. I’ll be better at home.

John Clendening: if that’s true, too. um But ah you know early in the career, I wasn’t as focused on those elements. I was focused on other things, and I would definitely change that. i’m not There’s a few things that would have done differently as a consequence. That’s absolutely true.

Alejandro Cremades: So, John, for the people that are listening, I would love to reach out and say, Hi, what is the best way for them to do so?

John Clendening: The best way is probably just to drop me a note, you know either LinkedIn. You can find me there, obviously, or John at EarnedWealth dot.com. Happy to chat with anybody.

Alejandro Cremades: That’s right. That’s right. Well, amazing, John. Really appreciate the time here. Thank you so much for being on The Deal Maker Show today. It has been an honor to have you with us.

John Clendening: It’s been my pleasure, Alejandro, thank you.

*****

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