The Values Volumes: Learn Big

Welcome back to The Values Volumes, our ongoing look at the six core values that shape how we serve our Clients and one another. Our earlier installments shared the story behind The BIGs and explored Client Big, Be Big, and Give Big.

This installment brings us to Learn Big, one of the most inherent of all our values. Learn Big is grounded in a belief that boundless potential exists in every one of us, and that learning is one of the ways we can realize that potential. Our team reads widely, asks questions freely, and actively seeks out new ideas, because learning makes us more thoughtful, more curious, more interesting company across the table, and better equipped to serve you The YeskeBuie Way^®.

Let’s open the books on where Learn Big began.

To Learn Big is to be curious and teachable. Our team brings deep expertise and advanced education to every conversation, and we pair that knowledge with a simple understanding: there is always more to learn. Expertise, for us, is not a finish line. It is the foundation we keep building on, for ourselves and for you.

Learn Big has its own vocabulary around our offices. Team members talk about approaching each conversation with a beginner’s mind, setting aside what they think they know so they can hear what is actually being said. New team members are encouraged to be sponges, soaking up as much as they can from Clients, colleagues, and the profession. And team members at every level of experience share a quiet conviction that (despite our best efforts) we’ll never be able to know it all, so we constantly pursue more. Tax law changes, research evolves, and every Client brings a life we have never seen before. Each one has something new to teach us.

That philosophy shapes how we invest in learning, too. Many firms set a fixed learning budget for each team member, and once it is spent, the next opportunity waits until the budget is reset. YeskeBuie does not set a fixed dollar figure on learning, because we believe learning fuels potential, and potential should not run out partway through the year. Some of the most valuable lessons come not from a conference session, but from a hallway conversation with another financial planner, or from a dinner table where someone asks a question we had not thought to ask. We want our team in those rooms.

Learn Big in Practice

Learn Big is more than a philosophy at YeskeBuie. It shows up on our calendars, along our career paths, and in the way we work together, all in service of our Clients.

We learn together. Throughout the year, our team gathers for YeBu U, an extended meeting where everyone reads the same book or article in advance and comes ready to discuss what they took from it. Our annual retreats begin in a similar way, with shared reading like The Checklist Manifesto and Think Again setting the stage for the work ahead. Even our mistakes become lessons. Team members post their shortfalls, along with their wins, in our internal Nexus so that everyone can learn from them and no misstep is repeated, consistently elevating The YeskeBuie Way^®. Witnessing both moments of growth and different facets of success allow us to appreciate and celebrate each other and ourselves going above and beyond.

We learn from our profession. Our team shows up, often and enthusiastically, wherever financial planners gather to sharpen their thinking. That includes FPA NorCal, Far West Roundup, Summit, Shift, Gather, Schwab IMPACT, Schwab Solutions, the Kitces Marketing and Values Summits, and the monthly FPA chapter meetings in Northern Virginia and San Francisco. Between conferences, we take part in study groups with peers across the country, comparing notes on best practices and working through shared challenges together.

We learn as we grow. Our career ladder asks every financial planner on the path to Senior Financial Planner to complete a graduate degree, and YeskeBuie provides financial support to help them get there. The firm supports our financial planners in earning the CFP^® designation and our support team in earning the Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional™ designation with study time, encouragement, and resources along the way. When someone needs to deepen their knowledge in a specific area, we invest in that, too. Lauren Mireles, for example, took accounting courses to prepare to take over the firm’s books from Elissa.

Learning also flows in more than one direction. Our bootcamp onboarding program gives new team members a structured foundation, and it gives seasoned team members the chance to lead, mentor, and grow in ways they may never have before.

We learn by sharing. Our team loves to share what we learn. Every article in TheLiveBigWay^® Digest, our bi-weekly newsletter shared with more than 1,200 contacts, is researched and written in-house by our own team. Our team members are also sought out by publications for their insights, invited to speak on industry panels, and asked to serve on professional boards. Our Founding Partners authored seminal articles for the Journal of Financial Planning that are still taught in financial planning programs today, and Yusuf has contributed to the Journal and to CFP Board’s resources for the next generation of financial planners. Each of these opportunities deepens our own understanding. Writing an article or preparing for an interview or panel asks us to research thoroughly, test our thinking, and explain ideas clearly, and the questions that come back from readers, audiences, and fellow professionals often teach us as much as we share.

Where Learning Leads: Back to You

Every book discussed, every session attended, and every exam passed comes back to the same place: YOU. When tax law shifts, a new planning strategy emerges, or fresh research challenges an old assumption, our team is already learning about it.

Learn Big also shapes how we listen. A beginner’s mind means we walk into each meeting curious about what has changed in your life, rather than assuming we already know. Your story is one of our greatest teachers, and it is the reason our learning matters at all.

We’d love for you to Learn Big right alongside us. If something has sparked your curiosity, whether it is a headline, a planning question, or an idea you have been turning over, bring it to your financial planning team. Some of our best learning begins with your questions.

If you’re interested in reading more from this series:

• The Values Behind Your Experience
• The Values Volumes: Client Big
• The Values Volumes: Be Big
• The Values Volumes: Give Big
• More installments coming in the months ahead!