The Human Multiplier at BTG with Rory Henry

Recorded live at Bridging the Gap 2025 in Denver, Terrell Turner sits down with wealth advisor and speaker Rory Henry on Episode 268 of The Unique CPA to talk about what he calls “return on relationship.” “ROR” is the idea that when you genuinely invest in understanding the people you serve, the ROI takes care of itself. Rory makes a compelling case that the real work of financial professionals isn’t in the numbers at all, but in the questions: What are your best hopes? What does your ideal life actually look like? Drawing on behavioral finance and values-based planning, he argues that money is rarely the point, but rather, meaning and wellbeing are. The conversation also takes in the energy of BTG 2025 itself, the growing wave of new talent in the profession, and why Rory is convinced that in-person connection remains one of the most underrated growth strategies available to any practice.

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Welcome back to another episode of The Unique CPA Podcast. We are live at Bridging the Gap 2025, and I am sitting down talking with my good friend Rory. How are you doing, man? Welcome to the show.

Terrell, thank you so much for having me on. I am honored to be here and it’s been a great conference so far. I’m excited to chat it up.

Absolutely, and I will say thanks to Randy and team for this awesome setup, because I will say I need to step my game up.

Right, same? I mean, this is next level. This is like Barstool Sports or Call Me Daddy. Like this is a next-level setup here.

It is! I mean, the team has done a great job. And I think that it goes into like the conference this year. Like you’ve been to the conference before, like we’ve been to the conference in Chicago. First time in Denver, Colorado. What’s your first impression so far?

Well, I stepped off the plane, Terrell, and I got altitude sickness. I was literally woozy. I’ve been woozy for the last couple days. But no, it’s been fantastic. Everybody, it’s electric here. The expo floor is amazing. The food’s been great. And then just the energy, like the people here, the speakers, it’s been phenomenal. If you’re looking to come next year, sign up now… is the time to sign up, because spots filled up already, right? So yeah, I’m looking forward to a number of great talks here, speaking as well. It’s been a great experience so far.

You know, I don’t know if it’s just me, but maybe it’s just like I’ve been in a bubble, but I feel like I’ve seen a lot of new faces this year. Have you noticed the same thing?

Yeah. There’s like new talents, like a new crop of talent that’s come up. And I’ve seen new faces, new practitioners here. So it’s good. I think we need new blood, new energy, right? With new ideas for the profession. So yes, it’s definitely been, we got some of the old guards here that we all know, but I think we got some new speakers that I’m looking forward to hearing and seeing what they have to say.

Bringing up the topic of speaking: you’re going to be speaking this year, so give us a little bit of an insight, like can we get a sneak peek into the conversation you’re going to be having?

So it’s not going to be just me. I got two other great panelists with me, Dominic Piscopo from Big Four Transparency and Ashley Carroll. And we’re talking about return on relationships. I trademarked the term “AdvisROR”. And the “ROR” isn’t short for Rory. The "ROR" is not extra for Rory, it’s for “return on relationship.” And because I think if we focus on the relationship, the ROI will take care of itself. So it’s cultivating wonderful client relationships, cultivating great relationships at the workplace, and if you do that and you care about people, you ask them about their life outside of the financial statements or outside of the work that they do, that has a compounding effect. And so we’re going to talk about the human multiplier, which is revenue, retention and recruitment. And if you focus on those relationships, you can drive growth, both business growth and growth in your personal life.

Nice. You know, I love that because, as an accountant myself, we’re so deep into the numbers. So I’m curious, as you’ve kind of had this conversation with other people before, do you find that accountants tend to struggle to step out of the numbers and into the relationships?

Yes, I have seen it. But there’s growth when you go beyond the numbers. I think you do it and people are naturally human. And I think when we see the person in that Zoom call or across a desk from us as a human, and not necessarily a number, a financial statement or a tax return or investment portfolio, we can then find out what their hopes, dreams, goals, and aspirations are, you know? And for the business owner clients out there, do they want an IPO or do they want a nice lifestyle business that gives more freedom with their family and friends? So I’m a big believer in asking great questions.

We, historically, in the professions I’ve long argued that we have an expertise approach or a need to show our expertise because we got an education, and we have our credentials, and we want to share our knowledge with the folks out there. But I think when we become curious and ask people about their lives, that’s where the real magic happens. Like, if your best hopes are realized, Terrell, you know, and your ideal life, like, what would that ideal life look like for you? Where would you be? Who would you be with? What would you be doing and how would you feel? Like, and that’s just a human question. It’s like we’re around a campfire talking, and if we can understand like what Terrell’s dreams are, then we can help navigate and pull the levers and help them get there and meet those goals.

You know, I think that’s a really good point because I found that in doing marketing, even within my own firm, the more we made our marketing more human, the more success that we had. Because when people could look at what we were doing and say, “Hey, I can see myself in the story that they’re telling,” it let me know, like, hey, we were on the right track. So I guess for yourself, like in your business with, you know, wealth management, how often do you get the chance to really just sit back and get to know people outside of, “Hey, the wealth management advice, like, I just want to know you, so we put you on the right path?”

Yeah, and those are relationships that take time to develop. And it’s just like the clients you have a deep understanding of. We sit in privileged positions, Terrell. People share intimate knowledge about their business, their personal finances. They might not be able to share this with their employees or team members or their partners out there, but we sit in this position where we get to hear all their issues, right? What their business issues are, what their personal issues are, and so we can be that sounding board and help them make the correct decisions or make an optimal decision to improve not just their business or their personal finance, ’cause many times it can improve their wellbeing. I’m big on helping folks really uncover what matters most to them. So I use exercises like the best hopes question. So if your best hopes are realized, what would that life look like? We also do values-based planning, stuff that organizations do, you can do on the personal side as well. And say, our values shape our goals, shape our behaviors, and in turn our behaviors reflect our values. So if we could be crystal clear on our values, our business decisions, our personal decisions, and in essence, our life decisions can emanate from those values.

Nice. I love it. So, I mean, with such a phenomenal topic, and you’ve attended so many different conferences, do you find that this conference tends to lend itself to being able to have those type of conversations?

Yeah. I mean, Bridging the Gap, right? Randy was on stage talking about the importance of mental health. And I think we as practitioners, many times are helping people optimize their mental health. You know, the American Psychological Association has done surveys for the last 18 years, since 2007, and the number one stressor every single year is money. And so if we can help people around their relationship to money, help them improve their business, have them have more money, we can improve the mental health of our clients. And so I’m a big believer in really focusing on someone’s ability to have a better relationship with money, but more importantly, meaning. So the work we do in behavioral finance, it’s not about money, it’s about meaning. It’s not about wealth, it’s about wellbeing. So if we can do more of the qualitative measurements right along the KPIs, people need that hard data, right? But if we can get to understand who Terrell is, right, and what he wants out of life, we can help map out a plan of action to get there.

I love it. I love it. You know, I’m a big fan of people getting the plan that gets them to their destination. Because I often run into so many people who are just giving out generic advice. And it’s just like, well, this advice is going to get you somewhere. I don’t know if you’re going to like where you go.

Right? Yeah.

So I want to ask you about, you know, with this conference you’ve been to a couple of the Bridging the Gaps. So, you know, have you seen the conference evolve or, like, what would you describe as, like, “Hey, this is the tone of this conference”?

Yeah, I mean there are other conferences out there. I won’t name them, there are larger conferences, but this one has a family feel. You know, it’s a community type feel. Like you get to know and talk to people and have sit-down conversations and talk about life and talk about business, and at those other conferences you might not have those experiences. But this one just feels like a community, it feels like a family. And people are so nice and welcoming, and people are innovative. They’ve got great ideas. They’re doing innovative stuff, whether it comes to AI or their practice model. So it’s just a wonderful way to get to meet people. In this age of AI and technology and Zoom, I believe in-person conferences and in-person meetings is a superpower. You can 10x your business at these types of conferences because you can learn something new and then you can form those relationships. The relationships and new ideas can catapult you to the next level potentially.

I totally agree. I mean, I’ve been a benefactor of that, of just the relationships that I’ve met with people. I mean, whether it’s led to new introductions, whether it’s led to new ideas or whether it’s led to new opportunities. I mean, I think it is absolutely true. And it’s also pretty cool to see, like when you have attendees here, people are bringing their spouses. I’ve seen some people bring their kids. Scotty Scarano has his kid here. So I’m like, it’s super cool that the environment has been developed in a way that people are like, “Hey, I don’t just come here just to get my CPE, check the box and go home.” It’s like, “I actually want to be a part of what’s going on.”

Yeah. And when you have a fearless leader like Randy, and he’s such a great guy, that really trickles down to the speakers, to the attendees, to the folks working the conference. You know, it’s a reflection of who Randy is because he has such great relationships, and you can see it throughout the conference.

If we were sitting down and let’s say there’s a third person sitting here, and they’re like, “Hey, you know what? I’ve never been to a Bridging the Gap before,” and we were trying to tell them, like, what reason would you give that they should go to Bridging the Gap 2026?

Well, I mean, you could learn a lot and you grow your business, but we also have fun. We have Enchantment Forest, a party tomorrow night. I actually just got off of Amazon. My costume will be arriving tomorrow between 7 and 11 AM, and it’s like a hobbit costume, so I’ll be in full attire. I actually got a wig for my bald head, so I’ll have like a blonde flowing hobbit costume wig. So you’re going to have a great time and you’re going to learn something. You’ll probably, hopefully you’ll grow your business and you’ll form relationships, and hopefully that’s worth the price of admission.

Awesome. I love it. I totally agree. So I just want to say, Rory, thank you so much for sitting down, having a conversation on this really cool set that both of us know we need to upgrade ourselves. Hey, thanks for coming and hanging out.

Thank you for having me on, buddy.

Important Links

Bridging the Gap

Rory Henry on LinkedIn

About the Guest

Rory Henry serves as Director at Arrowroot Family Office. He has over 15 years of experience working in both the tax and financial advisory professions, and has built AFO | Wealth Management Forward to work with accounting firms to implement Holistic Wealth Management Services. A technology enthusiast at heart, Rory is adept at finding ways to improve the client experience using technology to streamline tax, accounting, and wealth management services. He is the co-host of a leading accounting & finance podcast called AFO Wealth Management Forward. Rory’s interviews include the WSJ, Forbes, Fortune Magazine, Accounting Today, Vanguard, as well as venture-backed fintech companies and nationally recognized thought leaders.

Rory has launched the Arrowroot Family Office & Goalsetter Financial Literacy Initiative to help 1 million kids gain a pathway to financial freedom. The program is enlisting Fortune 1000 companies, athletes, entertainers, and financial thought leaders to bring resources and awareness in the fight to help kids in underserved communities.