The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast

About The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast

Dive into the world of financial planning with "The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast," where hosts Mike Zarrelli, CFP®, EA and Alison Miller, CFP® navigate you through the lives of the next generation of financial planners. Join us as we uncover the personal journeys, triumphs, and challenges of emerging professionals in the industry. Whether you're just starting out, a career changer, or a seasoned planner, find inspiration and valuable insights in this podcast. Executive Producer Jadah Riley.

Publisher

FPA NexGen®

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Aug 2024

Latest episode

2 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 48 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   2 Oct 2026

   FPA Gather: The Conversations That Change Careers

   What helps a financial planning career move forward when confidence is still catching up? In this conference edition of The Blueprint | FPA NexGen® Podcast, Mike Zarrelli, CFP®, EA and Alison Miller, CFP® bring listeners into conversations at FPA Gather in Dallas about finding mentors, building relationships, and taking the next career step. Guests include senior financial planner and tax practice manager Blake Pinion CFP®, EA , firm partner C.J. Miller CFP®, RMA®, CPWA®, and students, career changers, and practicing advisors. Their experiences offer early-career financial planners a candid look at overcoming self-doubt, advocating for advancement, and understanding the personal stories behind a commitment to serving clients. Executive Producer: @Jadah Riley “The best advice I've ever received is to advocate for yourself.” — Haley Ellis, CFP®, CPFA® What You’ll Learn Approach financial planning conferences with a clear intention and a follow-through plan. Build confidence through repetition, questions, and relationships with peers. Recognize how personal experiences shape an advisor’s purpose. Understand why partnership and succession require deliberate talent development. Explore how career changers and graduates find their footing. Strengthen client relationships through empathy and attentive listening. Key Takeaways Choose one achievable conference goal, such as finding a mentor. Protect time for focused work as responsibilities grow. Discuss career ambitions with leadership before expecting a defined path. Build connections early; opportunities can travel through word of mouth. Meet clients at an emotional level before guiding them toward logic. Begin implementing useful ideas before conference momentum fades. Episode Timestamps 00:00:00 – Opening story: the personal impact of financial planning 00:00:35 – Conference preparation, networking, and mentorship 00:07:42 – Advisor stories: confidence, purpose, and self-advocacy 00:23:13 – Firm partnership and succession planning 00:25:16 – Career growth, finding purpose, and changing careers 00:37:10 – Client trust, empathy, and finding your footing 00:46:06 – Gather reflections and putting lessons into practice

2. 

   16 Sept 2026

   Season 5 Kickoff: First Jobs, AI, and the Reps That Grow Financial Planning Careers

   The Blueprint | FPA NexGen® Podcast opens season five with a candid career conversation featuring Mike Zarrelli, CFP®, EA, Alison Miller, CFP®, and Executive Producer Jadah Riley. Rather than a traditional guest interview, the team reflects on lessons from season four and shares what they are learning as their own careers continue to evolve. For early-career advisors focused on financial planning career growth, this episode gets practical about landing a first financial planning job, building a professional network, translating past experience into relevant skills, using AI more intentionally, and finding the right environment for continued development. The team also discusses career transitions, promotions, volunteering, mentorship, and why getting meaningful “reps” can compound over time. “You need some reps because it’s all about the story that you can tell.” What You’ll Learn Build a stronger network by getting involved with professional organizations and creating relationships before job opportunities appear. Translate experience from another career, college job, or service role into skills that financial planning firms can recognize and value. Strengthen your candidacy through education, industry involvement, informational interviews, and proactive professional development. Use AI to practice communication, learn new technology, organize information, create training resources, and prepare for client conversations. Evaluate whether your current role provides the environment, challenge, and client exposure needed for continued career growth. Develop confidence by deliberately seeking repetitions in client meetings, interviews, presentations, leadership, and volunteer work. Key Takeaways Do not rely exclusively on applications; relationships can put you closer to the people making hiring decisions. Frame previous experience around the value it can create for clients, teams, and financial planning firms. Career growth often happens below the surface before the results become visible. AI is most useful when it strengthens human communication and frees time for higher-value work. The right professional environment becomes increasingly important once you have developed foundational advisor skills. Peers, mentors, volunteering, and professional communities can provide perspective during major career decisions. Episode Timestamps 00:00:00 – Building your network to break into financial planning 00:00:55 – Season five kickoff and introductions 00:01:35 – Favorite lessons from season four 00:08:30 – How to land your first financial planning job 00:12:05 – Career changers, networking, and interview preparation 00:17:15 – How financial advisors are using AI 00:24:20 – Promotions, career transitions, and professional growth 00:30:15 – Why reps and discomfort drive career development 00:34:25 – Season five preview and Mike’s final season Executive Producer: @Jadah Riley

3. 

   7 Aug 2026

   RIA Succession Planning: How NextGen Advisors Can Earn the Opportunity

   In this episode of The Blueprint | FPA NexGen® Podcast, hosts Mike Zarrelli, CFP®, EA and Alison Miller, CFP® sit down with Andrew Mirolli, CEPA® Co-Founder and Head of Client Services at buyAUM.com, to explore one of the financial planning profession’s biggest opportunities: RIA succession planning. Andrew explains how early-career financial planners can position themselves to become trusted successors, build more valuable advisory practices, and earn the confidence of senior advisors. The conversation covers the importance of earning the CFP® certification, developing recurring revenue, delivering exceptional client service, and proving that you are prepared to protect relationships built over decades. “Don’t wait for things to be handed to you. Take the stairs.” What You’ll Learn How young financial advisors can identify succession opportunities in their local markets Why earning the CFP® certification can strengthen your position as a potential successor How to prove that you are ready to inherit important client relationships Why recurring fee-based revenue can increase the long-term value of an advisory practice How financial planning, client service, and trust contribute to stronger client retention The practical differences between internal and external RIA succession plans Key Takeaways A succession opportunity must be earned through consistent performance—not assumed from a promise Senior advisors want successors who will protect their clients and preserve their legacy Bringing in new clients and building professional relationships demonstrates readiness for leadership Recurring advisory and planning revenue generally creates a more durable business than transactional revenue Exceptional service helps build the client loyalty buyers value during a transition The best succession structure depends on the goals of the owner, successor, team, and clients Episode Timestamps 00:00:00 – Introduction and Andrew Mirolli’s path to buyAUM 00:04:40 – The RIA succession opportunity for NextGen advisors 00:09:20 – “Take the stairs” and prove you can lead client relationships 00:13:15 – Building a financial planning practice with long-term value 00:18:30 – Niches, trust, financial planning, and client retention 00:22:55 – What retiring advisors want in a successor 00:27:05 – Internal versus external succession plans 00:32:02 – Why financial planning is a career worth building Executive Producer: @Jadah Riley

Inside a recent episode

Career Pivot Playbook: Breaking Into Financial Planning from Any Industry

Published 29 Apr 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] It's just the incentives are different. So if you're selling products, you're likely earning commission and those are the incentives of how you get paid, right? The other end of the spectrum is, so that's fee -based, right? The confusing term fee -based. One of the opposite of fee -based is fee -only. fee -only just means you get paid to give financial advice, you don't sell any products. So the incentives are different. I would say not like one is better than the other necessarily. If you're looking for a fee -only position or getting as far as you can on the CEP track is very beneficial because I look at the jobs that are out there to help other career changers, right? […]

Who has been a guest on The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dominic Monk
• Landon Warmund
• Colin Day
• Paul Gaudio

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

15

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Shows with a similar audience

• 

  Kitces and Carl - Real Talk for Real Financial Advisors

• 

  New Planner Podcast

• 

  Allworth Financial‘s Money Matters

• 

  The Long View

• 

  BIF Bites

• 

  Your Money Guide on the Side

Questions about The Blueprint: An FPA NexGen® Podcast