We had gotten very good at being Wealthies finalists. It something we thought about while we carefully folded our fancy dresses into a suitcase to head to the Wealthies … again. It’s quite a trip from Seattle to New York, but this annual award had become a true journey.
In 2021, Idea Decanter earned its first finalist spot. Then came 2022. Then 2024. In 2025, we doubled down with two finalist entries.
Five finalist spots. Five really good reasons to get dressed up, head to New York and hope this was the year we would finally bring home the hardware. And that’s exactly what we did in 2026!
Idea Decanter won its first Wealth Management Industry Award for the Real #Finfluencer Educational Video Series, an initiative built to help financial advisors become more visible, more confident and more strategic about using video to grow their businesses.
And while we are absolutely going to enjoy saying the words Wealthies Winner, the story behind this award is bigger than one night in New York.
It is really a story about what happens when you keep building.
Five finalist spots tell a story
Our first Wealthies finalist recognition came in 2021 for Idea Kit, the remote video production service we developed to solve a very real problem for financial advisors.
Before Idea Kit, much of our work happened the traditional way. We showed up with an experienced crew and a lot of expensive equipment. But even before 2020 happened, we knew we needed to figure out how to deliver the same level of strategy, coaching and professional production without being in the same room as the advisor. Launching Idea Kit remote video in 2019 made video accessible to advisors through the pandemic. With Idea Kit, they weren’t alone.
Idea Kit combined scripting, strategy, a shipped gear kit, remote directing, teleprompter support and professional editing into a virtual production process. It worked. Idea Kit revenue grew 1,599% from 2019 to 2020, while advisors using the service were also reporting new clients and millions of dollars in new assets tied to their videos.
That first finalist spot told us something important: removing the barriers to video could have a real impact.
In 2022, the finalist recognition was for a completely different kind of project.
Working with advisor Traci Richmond of The Meakem Group and Kalli Collective (now Savvy Advisor Marketing), we helped create a campaign about retirement depression, a subject that was rarely being discussed by financial advisors at the time. The campaign generated 978,800 impressions, more than 50,000 views and an 11% click-through rate to the website.
Those were terrific marketing numbers.
But the number we cared about most was three.
Three clients called Traci after seeing the campaign because the videos made them recognize concerns about retirement depression in their own lives.
That finalist experience reinforced another lesson that still guides our work today: the best content does more than rack up views. It starts conversations.
By 2024, we were applying video to another industry challenge. Working with the Financial Planning Association, we helped develop Membership Magnet, a repeatable video program designed to help FPA chapters recruit and retain members.
The pilot gave chapter leaders scripts, video coaching, a remote studio with a teleprompter, professional editing and guidance for deploying their finished videos through email. One pilot chapter reported a 50% open rate and a 20% increase in member renewals after incorporating video into its membership outreach.
It was a different project, but had the same underlying idea. Make video easier to create. Give people something worth saying. Then help them put that content to work.
In 2025, the ideas got bigger
By 2025, Idea Decanter landed two Wealthies finalist spots.
One was for FinKit, our short-form vertical video service designed to help financial advisors create a large volume of polished, compliance-friendly content without turning video production into a second job. The goal was to make it possible for advisors to create 52 videos with just a few hours of recording each quarter. Early results showed FinKit videos generating substantially more views and engagement than traditional longer-form content.
The other finalist was something newer: The Real #Finfluencers.
The idea started with a question.
There are plenty of people on social media calling themselves financial influencers. But what about the actual financial professionals who are using content to educate, build trust and grow successful businesses?
We wanted to find them.
The Real #Finfluencers interview series began spotlighting advisors and other financial professionals who were finding smart, creative ways to use video and social media. Instead of focusing on follower counts or viral tricks, the conversations focused on what was actually working: how these professionals chose topics, connected with audiences, built authority and translated visibility into business growth.
And advisors responded.
So we kept building.
The winning idea wasn’t really one idea anymore
By the time we submitted the Real #Finfluencer initiative for the 2026 Wealthies, it had evolved far beyond the original interview series.
It had become a connected educational platform for advisors.
The Real #Finfluencer community now includes hundreds of educational videos, interviews, podcast episodes, webinars and a book, all created around the same goal: helping financial advisors market more effectively, communicate with more confidence and build stronger businesses through video.
We didn’t keep submitting the same idea until somebody finally gave us a trophy.
We kept improving the idea.
We listened to what advisors were asking. We paid attention to the content they watched and shared. We found people who were getting results and asked them how they were doing it. Then we turned those lessons into more content advisors could actually use.
The numbers started adding up.
The Real #Finfluencer Community video series generated 1.4 million impressions, 366,834 video views, more than 4,100 hours of watch time and 2,400+ subscribers.
And the content that performed best told us something else.
Advisors weren’t looking for vague encouragement to “do more video.” They wanted practical help.
Some of the strongest-performing pieces included 10 LinkedIn Tips for Financial Advisors, Why Your LinkedIn Videos Flop and How to Fix Them, Stop Chasing the Algorithm. Do This Instead! and the story of a “frugal” financial firm that used video to double prospect inquiries.
That is exactly what we wanted the Real #Finfluencer community to become: a place where advisors could see what is working, learn from one another and walk away with something they could try themselves.
Twelve years of believing education builds connection
For Idea Decanter Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Sharon Gottula, the award also connects back to something we believed when we started the company in 2014.
“From the beginning, we built this company believing content marketing and education were how we could make connections and show our value,” Sharon said. “So this win is incredibly meaningful. I’m proud of the business we’ve built, but I’m especially proud that we’ve helped so many advisors get comfortable with video and create content they’re excited to share. Because if you don’t like your content, you’re not going to share it.”
That last point may sound simple, but it is at the heart of almost everything we do.
Video marketing does not work because someone tells you that you are supposed to be on camera.
It works when you have something useful to say, you feel good about how you are saying it, and you are excited enough about the finished product to actually put it in front of people.
For Co-founder and CEO Laura Garfield, the Real #Finfluencers has also become a way to shine a light on something she sees all the time in this industry.
“There are financial advisors doing extraordinary things with content, but the rest of the industry doesn’t always know their stories,” Laura said. “The idea behind Real #Finfluencers was to find the advisors who were actually making video work, ask them how they were doing it and give other advisors the opportunity to learn from them. Winning the award is exciting. But watching advisors take those ideas, adapt them and put them to work in their own businesses is the real payoff.”
What five finalist spots taught us
Looking back at the projects that brought us to this point, the subject matter changed dramatically. Remote production. Retirement depression. Membership retention. Short-form video. Advisor education.
But a few principles kept showing up.
Solve a real problem. Great marketing starts with something the audience actually needs, not with a format you want to produce.
Create something worth sharing. The technology matters. Production quality matters. But neither matters as much as helping someone say something useful, interesting or meaningful.
Measure more than views. Sometimes success is 978,800 impressions. Sometimes it is a 20% increase in renewals. Sometimes it is new clients or new assets. And sometimes the most important KPI is three people picking up the phone because your content made them feel understood.
Those lessons have shaped Idea Decanter as much as any award has.
And this time, we got the hardware
The 2026 Wealth Management Industry Awards attracted a record 1,392 nominations from 315 companies. Winners were selected based on factors including usefulness, innovation, scope and impact.
So yes, after five previous finalist spots, this win feels pretty good.
Before the awards, we joked in our hype video that 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025 weren’t years.
They were reps.
Turns out all those reps were doing something.
They were pushing us to keep experimenting, keep measuring, keep improving and keep looking for better ways to help financial advisors communicate.
This year, we finally got the hardware.
And yes, we’re going to enjoy it.
