Three Problems That Are Actually One Problem

Have you ever properly fixed a problem in your business, put the time in, changed the system, rewrote the process only to find yourself having the exact same conversation 12 months later? That's the loop. And in this episode, Danni Le Grande is joined by two people who each see a completely different version of it: Selin Ertac, Director and Principal Consultant at Tangelo Advice Consulting, and Nicole Smith, Founder and CEO of Socialisd.

Selin's lens is process, compliance and governance and her diagnosis is blunt: most firms throw solutions at problems they never actually identified. Nicole's lens is marketing and positioning, where the fix that never holds is usually a new website or a logo refresh when the real issue is clarity. And Danni brings the technology and AI view, along with four years of Finura's Tech Health Check benchmarking data that makes for uncomfortable listening.

The numbers tell the story. 73% of firms have designed workflows, but only 54% actually automate them. Advice production remains the lowest-scoring area at 30%, flat for four years. And despite every AI tool under the sun, SOA production time has gone up  from 11.3 hours in 2023 to 14.2 hours today. As Selin puts it, "we've just sped up a really crappy process."Along the way: why back and middle office teams end up as the scapegoat, the missing KPIs in a modern advice business, founders accidentally becoming full-time tech developers, knowing your hourly rate and when to hand off, the advice firms still without a "book a call" button, and why people cry in discovery sessions.

They finish with a rapid-fire round on the most expensive thing firms keep re-buying, the phrases that tell you a fix won't stick, and one thing you could do this quarter that would actually hold.

In this episode:

Symptom versus root cause and the "five whys" that get you there

Why documented processes end up sitting unused in SharePoint

The missing KPIs and accountability in modern advice businesses

Founders becoming the gatekeeper of the tech they built

The clarity problem hiding behind most marketing "fixes"

Four years of Tech Health Check data on where firms are really stuck

Rapid fire: checklists, "I don't have time," and shiny new toys