Tom Kosnik has spent more than three decades coaching staffing-industry executives, and in 1995 he founded the Presidents' RoundTable, a peer-to-peer leadership forum that brings C-suite executives together to solve their toughest business problems.

In this conversation with Chris Everett, Tom tells the story of two $100 million staffing companies led by two very different CFOs — and what happened to each of them two years later.

He and Chris dig into why long-term business success can quietly become its own obstacle, what Tom looks for first when a company's culture is breaking down, why "revenue solves all ills" is a dangerous myth, and the most common financial planning mistake he sees as staffing firms scale past their bookkeeper's capabilities.

Connect with Tom and Visus Group at visusgroup.com.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

Drew Roberts has spent 15 years studying something most business owners feel but rarely name: the frustrating gap between knowing what you want and actually getting there.

He calls it "the time in between," and it's the foundation of DB Impact, the consulting practice he built to help business owners fix the operational chaos that keeps them stuck.

In this conversation with Chris Everett, Drew talks about the moment his father's decade running a restaurant shaped his sense of purpose, what a fractional COO actually does day to day, and why the same psychology that keeps businesses stuck — fear of the unknown — shows up in personal financial planning too.

They also get into Drew's approach to CRM and automation: do the process manually first, then automate what makes sense, and keep a human in the loop wherever the business is relationship-driven.

Connect with Drew and DB Impact at dbimpact.com.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

Bill Walsh spent three decades inside the nonprofit technology sector — including senior leadership roles at Blackbaud through the company's growth from a $10 million business to a billion-dollar market cap — before founding IBW Solutions, a vendor-neutral consulting practice for nonprofit leaders and the vendors that serve them.

In this conversation with Chris Everett, Bill explains why organizations that invest heavily in new platforms so often see the same disappointing results: the real gap usually isn't the software, it's adoption, operational discipline, and data clarity. They talk through what a genuine technology assessment looks like, how nonprofits should think about "responsible AI" without losing the human element donors trust, and what Bill learned about his own financial architecture after leaving a stable corporate career to build an independent practice.

Connect with Bill and IBW Solutions at ibwsolutions.com.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

Patrick Smith has spent 15 years building C2 Creative Studio, a Chicago branding and design agency built on a simple idea: get creatives working directly with clients, without layers of account managers in between.

In this conversation, Patrick shares the financial lessons of growing a creative business from two people to a working studio — including the missed invoice that pushed him to invest in real systems — and walks through how C2 helps brands discover their authentic positioning instead of chasing trends.

He and Chris talk through why branding ROI looks different from a pay-per-click campaign, how brand equity becomes real financial value (using Starbucks and Red Bull as examples), and what it means to measure success by legacy rather than just revenue.

Connect with Patrick and C2 Creative Studio at c2creativestudio.com.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

If you're planning to claim Social Security the moment you're eligible just to "get your money back," fiduciary financial planner Chris Everett wants you to slow down and run the real numbers first. Claiming at 62 instead of waiting until 70 can mean a 76% difference in your monthly benefit — and for a couple, the lifetime income gap can exceed $200,000. In this episode, Chris walks through a real married-couple scenario showing how spousal and survivor benefit rules change the optimal strategy, and why "wait as long as possible" isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. If you're within five years of claiming, this is the conversation to have before you decide anything.

Grab the free Pre-Retiree resource here: everettwealthsolutions.com/knowledge-vault/

Book a Pre-Discover Session (30 min, no cost): https://calendly.com/ews407/30min?bac...

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

Most people think they're ready to retire once they've hit a savings number — but readiness isn't about how much you've saved, it's about whether that money can generate income that outlasts you.

In this episode, fiduciary financial planner Chris Everett breaks down why retirement plans fail: underestimated healthcare costs (often exceeding $300,000 for a couple), ignored inflation, and longevity risk that turns "the number" into mile 20 of a 26-mile race, not the finish line.

Chris walks through three questions that reveal whether you have an actual income strategy or just a savings balance.

Grab the free Pre-Retiree resource here: everettwealthsolutions.com/knowledge-vault/

Book a Pre-Discover Session (30 min, no cost): https://calendly.com/ews407/30min?bac...

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

Susanna Mlot is an experienced business transformation executive, an aspiring author, and a longtime client of host Chris Everett's fiduciary practice.

In this episode of Beyond the Numbers, she joins Chris for an unusually candid conversation about navigating a meaningful relationship later in life — including a partner whose adult children are still struggling to accept it — while building a financial plan that supports the life she actually wants to live.

Susanna's story weaves together a decades-long scarcity mindset she's still working to release, a creative renaissance through writing, and the deeply personal, often unromantic conversations that come with blending two lives — homes, inheritance, and what happens when one partner passes first.

What You'll Learn:

• Why scarcity mindset doesn't disappear with wealth — and how Susanna is working through hers
• The unexpected challenge of later-in-life relationships: adult children who can't accept a parent's new partner
• Why a stepchild's grief often runs far deeper than it appears — and isn't really about the new partner at all
• How couples counseling, prayer, and persistence carried Susanna and her partner through their hardest season
• The practical financial conversations every blended-family couple needs to have, long before the romance fades into the background
• Why Susanna let go of a beloved lake house that no longer served her, even though it was a sound investment
• Susanna's biggest takeaway: you have to ask for what you need — nobody in your life is a mind reader

Resources:
Everett Wealth Solutions: https://everettwealthsolutions.com/

Free resource + Pre-Discover Session (30 min, no cost): https://calendly.com/ews407/30min?back=1&month=2026-06

Subscribe to Beyond the Numbers for conversations where money meets meaning and purpose.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.

The Long-Term Care Decision Most People in Their 50s & 60s Are Ignoring

Most people in their fifties and sixties know long-term care exists. They just don't plan for it — because thinking about it is uncomfortable. So they put it off. And putting it off is itself a decision. Just not the one they'd make if they were thinking clearly.

In this solo episode of Beyond the Numbers, fiduciary financial planner Chris Everett breaks down why long-term care is the financial risk with the highest probability of wiping out everything a couple spent 30 years building — and what a real strategy to protect against it actually looks like.

What You'll Learn:

• Why long-term care is the most avoided and most consequential financial decision most pre-retirees never make
• The reframe that changes everything: this isn't planning for sickness — it's protecting the retirement you built
• Why the average private nursing facility costs over $90,000 a year — and why Medicare won't save you
• How one long-term care event can erase 30 years of savings with no bad investment decisions involved
• Why waiting doesn't give you more time — it gives you fewer options at a higher cost
• The unique risk business owners face when this is missing from their plan
• Where to start building a real strategy before the window closes

Resources:
Everett Wealth Solutions: https://chris-everett.knowledgevaultpress.com/long-term-care

Free resource + Pre-Discover Session (30 min, no cost): https://calendly.com/ews407/30min?back=1&month=2026-06

Subscribe to Beyond the Numbers for conversations where money meets meaning and purpose.

Everett Wealth Solutions is a Registered Investment Adviser in the State of Illinois providing fiduciary financial planning and asset management across the nation.