What does it actually take to get your financial advisory business or fintech company featured in the media? According to Allie Zendrian — founder of AtoZ Communications and a former financial reporter at Forbes, Institutional Investor, and TheStreet — it comes down to one question most people never think to ask.

In this episode, recorded live at the Nitrogen Fearless Investing Summit in Denver, Colorado, Mike sits down with one of the most connected pros in the wealth management and fintech ecosystem. Allie brings a rare dual perspective: she spent years on the other side of the pitch email deciding what was worth covering, and now she helps advisors and fintech companies get their stories told.

Here's what you'll take away from this conversation:

• Why AI-generated press releases are quietly killing your credibility — and what reporters actually think the moment they land in their inbox.
• The single most important question to ask before you pitch any story, any reporter, or any media outlet. Hint: it has nothing to do with your product features or your latest announcement.
• Why advisors doing their own PR is "penny wise and pound foolish" — and what a more realistic, cost-effective approach actually looks like.
• How Allie built one of the most connected networks in the wealth management and fintech space in under two years, starting from her days at Forbes where she famously broke the ice with Steve Forbes himself by just treating him like a human being.
• The difference between a story that moves the needle and noise that nobody notices — and how to coach your clients to understand that difference.

Allie also opens up about building AtoZ Communications as a single mom, why she's choosing to grow deliberately rather than fast, and what she wants her kids to understand about the relationship between money, time, and work that matters to you.

Chapters:

00:00 — Cold Open: Why AI-Generated PR Is Killing Your Credibility

00:51 — Intro & Welcome

02:13 — From the Forbes Newsroom to the "Dark Side" of PR

05:31 — How Allie Built Her Network So Quickly

07:57 — What Advisors & Fintech Companies Get Wrong About Communications

11:23 — The One Question That Makes Something Newsworthy

17:03 — What's Next for AtoZ Communications

21:41 — Building a Business as a Single Mom — and the Lessons It's Teaching Her Kids

26:41 — How to Connect with Allie & Where to Find Her Work

27:47 — Mike's Closing Thoughts

Between 40 and 55% of millionaires in the United States are business owners. That's one of the biggest opportunities in wealth management right now... and most advisors are barely scratching the surface of it.

In this episode, recorded live and in person at the Fearless Investing Summit in Denver, Colorado, Mike Langford sat down with Cal Parker, Managing Director at BizEquity, to talk about why now is the perfect time for financial advisors to level up their game when it comes to serving business owner clients.

Cal drops some genuinely eye-opening stats and insights — including the fact that 60% of business owners have never even discussed their exit plans with their spouse. If you're not having the business valuation conversation with your clients, someone else eventually will.

What we cover in this episode:

• Why advisors struggle to advise business owner clients beyond investment strategies — and what to do about it
• How a single free business valuation can land a multi-million dollar client relationship
• The new Exit Valuation Module from BizEquity and how it helps advisors have more proactive, forward-looking planning conversations
• What "exit readiness" really means — and why it's about so much more than the numbers
• The first-ever Private Company Valuation Index — launched in partnership with the American City Business Journals — and how advisors can use it for smarter prospecting
• Cal's crystal ball take on where business owner planning is headed over the next 2–5 years

If you work with business owners — or you want to — this episode is for you. Connect with Cal on LinkedIn and learn more about what BizEquity is building at bizequity.com.

Chapters:

00:00 Teaser — Why advisors can't afford to ignore this conversation

01:19 Intro

02:42 Welcome & meeting in person at the Fearless Investing Summit

04:50 BizEquity's rebrand and what's new

06:45 Cal's new role leading BizEquity

07:40 The massive business owner opportunity advisors are missing

10:45 The Great Wealth Transfer — why the timing is now

12:05 The stat that should stop every advisor in their tracks

14:00 The risk of leaving this conversation on the table

17:00 The Exit Valuation Module — planning beyond today's number

18:45 What is exit readiness and why does it matter?

21:00 The Private Company Valuation Index explained

23:45 Using the index as a prospecting tool

26:00 Crystal ball — where is business owner planning headed?

27:45 The most surprisingly valuable businesses Cal has seen

30:00 Wrap up

What if the most powerful thing you could hand a client after a meeting isn't a detailed report... but something their spouse could actually understand?

Alison Susko, VP of Community at Asset-Map, joins Mike Langford at the Fearless Investing Summit in Denver for a conversation about why simplicity might be the most underrated competitive advantage in financial planning today.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why the reports most advisors hand clients actually require the advisor to be in the room to make sense of them — and why that's a problem
• How the "non-CFO spouse" is reshaping how advisors think about client communication
• Why Asset-Map's new eMoney integration became their fastest-growing integration of all time
• How JUMP AI can automatically build an Asset-Map report from a recorded client meeting in real time
• The shift from deep complexity to relationship-first simplicity that Alison sees coming across the entire industry
• Why multi-generational planning is no longer optional — and how Relationship Maps are helping advisors keep track of blended families, gray divorces, and three-generation households
• The real reason clients leave advisors (hint: it has nothing to do with returns)

Alison brings nearly 20 years of industry experience — including nearly a decade at eMoney Advisor — to a refreshingly honest conversation about what clients actually want from their financial advisors and the technology that serves them.

Chapters:

0:00 - The moment clients finally understand their finances

1:02 - Intro

2:05 - Welcome to Denver: Recording live at the Fearless Investing Summit

3:20 - What does a VP of Community actually do?

5:30 - Why clients don't need a 75-page report

8:00 - The non-CFO spouse problem

10:30 - When your client shouldn't need you to explain the report

12:00 - Asset-Map's eMoney integration

13:30 - The JUMP AI integration: Building an Asset-Map from a recorded meeting

15:00 - The sleep-at-night factor

17:00 - The end of walled gardens: Open architecture in wealth tech

18:30 - The future of visual financial planning

20:30 - Multi-generational planning and Relationship Maps

23:30 - Gray divorce and the complexity of modern family finances

26:10 - Outro