David Steele is the Co‑founder and CEO of One Wealth Advisors, a San Francisco–based, fee‑only RIA managing over $1 billion in assets that helps clients simplify their financial lives through comprehensive planning. He brings nearly 30 years of experience in finance and entrepreneurship, having launched his career at JP Morgan before building One Wealth into a fiduciary‑driven firm focused on holistic client well‑being.

Beyond wealth management, David is the Co‑founder and Executive Chairman of Flour + Water Hospitality Group and Great Gold Hospitality, leading acclaimed restaurant brands committed to culinary excellence and sustainability. A passionate supporter of the arts and community initiatives, he serves on the boards of Playground and Zero Food Print, while also promoting cultural programs through ventures like Noise Pop Industries.

Many professionals struggle to find a balance between achieving financial success and living a peaceful, fulfilling life. In a world that often equates wealth accumulation with personal worth, how can individuals prioritize harmony without sacrificing ambition?

David Steele, a financial advisor and hospitality entrepreneur, shares how he helps clients align financial decisions with their core values. He emphasizes the importance of intentionally stepping back from relentless wealth-building in favor of a more balanced life. David also advises using money as a tool to reduce friction and enrich experiences, rather than as a measure of achievement. Drawing on his career, David explains how focusing on leadership, delegating responsibilities, and staying true to customer-centric principles can create businesses that are both successful and personally sustainable.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews David Steele, Co-founder and CEO of One Wealth Advisors, about creating harmony in wealth and life. David discusses why dying with less money can mean living more fully, how customer-first thinking shaped his restaurant ventures, and how AI enhances — not replaces — human service. He also touches on leadership lessons from his mother, the psychology of risk, and blending tech with touch in both finance and hospitality.

Vickie Lewin is the Chief Growth Officer at Amplify, a leading wealthtech platform designed to streamline operations for RIAs and enterprise firms. With over 30 years of experience in financial services, fintech, and asset management, she previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Success Officer at AssetMark, where she played a pivotal role in scaling the firm from a $1 billion TAMP to an industry leader managing over $100 billion in assets. At Amplify, Vickie leads sales and marketing efforts, driving strategic growth and aligning product development with market needs. She is also a passionate advocate for increasing the representation of women in the financial services industry and actively mentors the next generation of female leaders.

In a rapidly evolving financial technology ecosystem, RIAs are overwhelmed by the complexity of choosing the right tech stack to support their growth and streamline operations. With hundreds of tools on the market and many offering overlapping functionality, how can advisory firms confidently select solutions that deliver long-term value without creating more operational headaches?

Vickie Lewin, an expert in sales strategy and customer success, highlights two key inflection points that drive advisors to seek new platforms, namely breaking away to start independent firms and growing frustrated with outdated systems. She shares that the solution lies in offering flexible, all-in-one systems that integrate with existing tools while still delivering best-in-class capabilities for functions like trading and risk scoring. She emphasizes the importance of innovation, thoughtful customer experience, and a roadmap that prioritizes meaningful feedback over sheer volume. Vickie advises firms to innovate proactively, value service over product, and always stay close to client needs.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Vickie Lewin, Chief Growth Officer at Amplify, about how financial advisors can make smarter tech choices. Vickie discusses the challenges of technology overload, how to balance innovation with client service, and the future role of AI in the wealthtech industry. She also explores integration strategies, the power of user experience, and navigating a crowded advisor tech market.

Richard Walker is the CEO of Quik!, a provider of forms automation and management solutions for companies looking to maximize efficiency and productivity. He started Quik! in 2002 to help people spend less time on paperwork and more time on what they do best. Before Quik!, Richard was a business consultant with Arthur Andersen. He is also a published author of two books and a father of three boys.

Many businesses struggle with inefficient paperwork processes that waste time, frustrate customers, and introduce costly errors. Even as technology advances, companies often fail to streamline form handling, creating friction that can harm customer experiences and limit growth. How can businesses transform this outdated process into a seamless, value-driven customer interaction?

Richard Walker, an entrepreneur and process efficiency expert, shares how focusing on form automation can significantly improve both internal operations and customer satisfaction. He emphasizes the importance of eliminating redundant data entry by standardizing form fields across documents, reducing errors, and minimizing rework. He suggests that embracing technology, particularly digital solutions and AI, can expedite transactions and enhance the overall experience. Richard also highlights the importance of resilience, leveraging enterprise partnerships, and continuously improving solutions to meet evolving customer needs.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Chad Franzen of Rise25 interviews Richard Walker, CEO of Quik!, about creating smoother customer experiences through form automation. Richard shares his entrepreneurial journey, the challenges of scaling a technology company, and the strategies that helped him persist. He also discusses building industry partnerships, launching his podcast, and the importance of embracing AI to stay competitive.

Tracy Lee is the Co-founder and CEO of This Dot Labs, a JavaScript consultancy that assists enterprises with digital transformation through staff augmentation and consulting services. She is recognized as a Google Developer Expert, Microsoft MVP, and GitHub Star and serves on the RxJS Core Team. Tracy is also a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, sharing her expertise in web development and open-source technologies. Her passion lies in building communities and fostering innovation within the tech industry.

Many organizations face challenges in effectively integrating external engineers into their teams, often fearing resistance, miscommunication, and disruption to internal culture. Moreover, teams can become stuck in inefficient practices and struggle to keep pace with rapidly evolving technologies, particularly in AI. How can companies embrace external expertise and emerging tools without jeopardizing their workflows or culture?

Tracy Lee, an expert in software engineering and team enablement, shares strategies for overcoming these challenges by focusing on education, collaboration, and proactive communication. She emphasizes the importance of embedding engineers who contribute technically and uplift and empower existing teams. She encourages leaders to push for clarity on business value before development begins and to leverage cutting-edge AI tools to speed up product prototyping. Tracy also highlights the critical need for engineers and teams to adopt AI tools quickly to avoid falling behind and suggests that leaders must foster a culture of continuous learning and higher-level strategic thinking.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Tracy Lee, CEO of This Dot Labs, about empowering engineering teams and embracing AI-driven efficiencies. Tracy discusses how embedding engineers enhances collaboration, the transformative impact of AI on software development, and how to cultivate forward-thinking team cultures. She also delves into product prototyping, overcoming resistance to team augmentation, and shifting employee mindsets to leverage time-saving technologies.

Parker Ence is the CEO and Co-founder of Jump AI, the leading Advisor AI meeting assistant for financial advisors, designed to cut meeting admin time by 90% while elevating client and advisor experience by putting meeting prep, note taking, meeting compliance, CRM updates, and meeting follow-ups on AI autopilot. He works daily with RIA and broker-dealer teams to implement award-winning, safe, and compliant AI built for advisors, customizable to the advisor’s style, and deeply integrated with the advisor tech stack. Parker is a 4x technology CEO with experience in fintech, data, AI, and briefly at Google Cloud AI. He received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor's in economics from the University of Utah.

Financial advisors often spend 20 to 60 minutes on administrative work for every client meeting, from prepping beforehand to updating CRMs and task lists afterward. This time-consuming cycle detracts from what matters, such as being fully present with clients and building strong relationships. But with today’s technology, is there a better way to manage client meetings without losing valuable time and insights?

An expert in AI automation and customer experience, Parker Ence shares how advisors can reclaim hours of their workweek by offloading prep, note-taking, and follow-up tasks to AI tools. He explains that leveraging meeting-specific AI enables advisors to actively listen without distraction while ensuring all key data is recorded and follow-ups are promptly assigned. Parker emphasizes the importance of transparency when introducing AI to clients and the benefits of structured collaboration across advisor teams to improve responsiveness and trust.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Parker Ence, CEO and Co-founder of Jump AI, about using AI to streamline the client meeting cycle in financial advising. Parker discusses time-saving automation, improving client engagement through active listening, and real-time team collaboration. He also explores data-driven insights, compliance considerations, and the future of agent-based workflows.

Joseph Loria is the Founder and CEO of RetentionCX, a company dedicated to helping businesses boost revenue retention through structured customer experience strategies. With over 20 years of senior leadership experience, he has led customer-facing teams across high-growth companies backed by venture capital, private equity, and bootstrapped models. Known for designing a proprietary framework that ensures customer value realization, Joseph has played a pivotal role in driving 10x exits and long-term client success. His background as a chemical engineer and project manager in the medical device industry brings a disciplined, results-driven approach to the world of SaaS and CX.

Customer retention is critical to business growth, yet many companies struggle to demonstrate value to their clients post-sale. Often, organizations assume customer success will follow once a product is implemented — overlooking the clients' complex, layered needs. How can businesses ensure that their solutions get adopted and lead to long-term customer loyalty and measurable business impact?

Seasoned customer experience strategist Joseph Loria shares a proven framework for ensuring customer value attainment. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the multi-dimensional environment in which customers operate, including each organization's varying goals and roles. Outlining nine essential factors contributing to successful customer relationships, he offers actionable tactics, such as using Likert scale assessments for proactive health scoring and mapping strategic relationships with stakeholders. Joseph argues that businesses can build trust, predict risk, and organically grow customer accounts over time by focusing on measurable outcomes and not overselling early on.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Rich Walker interviews Joseph Loria, Founder and CEO of RetentionCX, about building value-driven customer relationships. Joseph explains how to prevent churn by mapping stakeholder goals, the significance of a post-sale strategy, and the importance of aligning pricing with perceived value. He also discusses measuring subjective client outcomes, managing growth beyond early adopters, and selling through customer experience rather than pressure.

Cameron Howe is the Co-founder and CEO of Investipal, a Toronto-based fintech platform designed to empower individual investors and financial advisors through AI-driven portfolio management and onboarding tools. Under his leadership, Investipal remains a bootstrapped company focused on financial literacy and democratizing access to professional-grade investment tools. With a quantitative and ETF research analyst background at a global investment bank, Cameron recognized the need for more personalized and accessible investment solutions. This insight led to the creation of Investipal, which began as a DIY investing tool and has since evolved into a comprehensive platform serving advisors and investors.

Financial advisors are currently facing the challenge of providing deeply personalized investment strategies while managing a large volume of manual tasks that can be time-consuming. As client expectations for customization increase, the complexity of portfolio construction and compliance processes also rises. How can financial advisors balance personalized service with scalable, efficient operations?

Cameron Howe, a quantitative research analyst turned fintech leader, shares insights into transforming the advisor-client relationship through AI and automation. He emphasizes why shifting from one-size-fits-all investment models to more tailored solutions based on individual client values and risk profiles is necessary. Outlining how AI tools can automate tasks like account statement analysis and portfolio optimization, Cameron demonstrates how it frees time for advisors to focus on relationship-building. He also highlights the importance of explainable AI to ensure compliance and build trust, suggesting deep learning as a powerful tool for managing complexity in modern portfolios.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Cameron Howe, Co-founder and CEO of Investipal, about using AI to modernize financial advising. Cameron discusses advisor inefficiencies, how automation enhances client onboarding, and the evolving advisor tech stack. He also delves into data extraction from investment documents, managing AI model complexity, and how deep learning improves portfolio design.

Mark Gilbert is the Co-founder and CEO of Zocks, an AI-powered platform helping financial advisors streamline workflows by automating tasks like meeting notes, CRM updates, and client communications. Under his leadership, Zocks has raised over $19 million in funding and is recognized as a leader in WealthTech innovation. Before launching Zocks, Mark held senior product leadership roles at Twilio, Hearsay Systems, and Microsoft. He earned a bachelor's degree in applied science in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Financial advisors are overwhelmed with administrative tasks that distract them from client engagement and strategic planning. From manual data entry to prepping and debriefing after meetings, these time-consuming workflows reduce their ability to scale personalized service. With AI advancing rapidly, how can advisors reclaim their time while ensuring accuracy and compliance?

Mark Gilbert, an expert in product development and artificial intelligence, shares how financial professionals can leverage AI to automate unstructured client interactions — like emails and phone calls — into structured, actionable data. He explains how his team uses multiple large language models in parallel to ensure accurate output and eliminate hallucinations. This approach, he notes, is most effective when guided by real advisor pain points rather than by chasing the latest AI trends. Mark also offers practical strategies for increasing internal trust and adoption of AI through transparency, audit logs, and a user-friendly interface.

In this episode of The Customer Wins, Richard Walker interviews Mark Gilbert, CEO of Zocks, about how AI is transforming the advisor-client relationship. Mark discusses building trust in AI systems, adapting to fast-changing models, and the differences between bootstrapping and venture-backed growth. He also shares thoughts on leading AI adoption, product design priorities, and his approach to building a scalable, secure solution.