Don't Do That

On this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Sean O’Toole, founder of 1776ing and CEO of 1776 Wealth, for a conversation about private markets, AI, and why action beats wishful thinking. Sean went to college on an ROTC scholarship and earned a degree in civil engineering. Four years with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg changed his path. He wanted freedom to build his own way, so he turned down engineering offers and started as a rookie broker at Merrill Lynch. His first yea...

On this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Anita Knotts, founder and CEO of the Lotus Women's Institute, for conversation about women in wealth management, agency at work, and the real cost of waiting. Anita coaches women at pivotal points in their careers, from client service professionals weighing an advisor role to advisors who hit a wall five years in. Her curriculum comes from her own experience as a woman in the industry, giving the women she coaches a safe space to...

On this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with David Coyle, head of growth at Aqua, for a conversation built on decades of shared history in fintech and financial services. David walks through a career that started with a boiler room stock brokerage job in the late 1980s and moved through Merrill Lynch, a marketing firm he co-founded, a Middle East expansion for a fintech startup, and five years at Interactive Data. He grew AdvisorEngine from five people in a shared office to...

In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Mary Ellen Harden, a relationship marketing expert and greeting card advocate at Hallmark Business Connections, to discuss why personal gestures still matter in an increasingly digital world. Mary Ellen has spent nearly 20 years helping businesses use greeting cards to strengthen customer relationships, with much of her work focused on financial advisors and financial services organizations. She explains why a card feels more sig...

In this episode of Don’t Do That, Kelly Waltrich sits down with Cary Carbonaro, CFP®, Managing Advisor and Women and Wealth Ambassador at Ashton Thomas Private Wealth, for a candid conversation about making wealth management work better for women. Cary’s commitment to women began long before her career in financial services, from founding a sorority at SUNY Cortland to becoming the person female clients sought out during her early banking career. She opens up about her difficult divorce, her ...