Ep 457: Making Financial Planning Less Scary For New Clients By Focusing First On What Brings Them Joy with Larry Sprung
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2025
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
While many financial advisors begin with dollars and data, today's guest believes the path to long-term client relationships starts with one powerful question: What brings you joy? By focusing on leading with purpose and values, he has grown a $200M firm and attracted clients who align with his philosophy.
Larry Sprung is the founder of Mitlin Financial, an advisory firm based in Hauppauge, New York, and affiliated with Carson Group, that serves 200 client households. In this episode, he shares how he begins prospect meetings with open-ended “joy” questions to set a nonjudgmental tone and show prospects that his firm is focused on their well-being, not just their finances. Listen in to learn how Larry has built trust before prospects ever book a call, how his values-first mindset has led to a loyal client base, and how he’s now intentionally scaling after years of running a lifestyle practice.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/457
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.1 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.4 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.4 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:22.2 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.9 | Welcome to the 457th episode of the Financial Advisor's Success podcast. My guest on today's |
| 0:34.6 | podcast is Larry Sprung. Larry is the founder of Midland Financial, an advisory firm affiliated with Carson Group, |
| 0:40.5 | and based in Hop Hogg, New York, that oversees approximately $200 million in assets under management for 200 client households. |
| 0:48.2 | What's unique about Larry, though, is how he has grown his business in part by helping prospective clients focus on what brings them joy |
| 0:54.3 | rather than on financial details that they might be more nervous to discuss. In this episode, |
| 0:59.2 | we talk in depth about how Larry starts his prospect fit meetings with open-ended questions, |
| 1:03.8 | including asking prospects what their ideal life filled with joy would look like to find out |
| 1:08.0 | what's really important to them, How Larry has found that this approach |
| 1:11.1 | can take the edge off when many clients come into the process worried about whether they'll be |
| 1:15.1 | judged for their previous financial decisions and how Larry's focus on leading with joy |
| 1:19.3 | questions shows prospects that his firm cares about their overall well-being and not just the |
| 1:23.8 | dollars and sense of their financial life, increasing trust in the likelihood that they will choose to become a client. We also talk about how sharing more business-related and |
| 1:32.3 | personal content on social media helped Larry drive greater engagement with prospects and clients, |
| 1:37.2 | convincing many they'd want to become clients even before meeting with him personally, |
| 1:40.8 | how Larry's openness about his values, including prioritizing his family by purposefully |
| 1:45.3 | keeping his practice small for many years, helped him gain and retain clients who share those |
| 1:49.8 | values, and how Larry decided to transition from a lifestyle practice to a business enterprise |
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