In this inspiring episode, host Mary Bell Carlson welcomes Heather Fortner, CEO of SignatureFD and a featured speaker with Financial Behavior Keynotes Group. Heather Fortner shares the transformative journey of scaling her wealth management firm from $250 million to over $10 billion in assets—all while fiercely preserving the soul and integrity of the organization. You’ll get a front-row seat to Heather’s personal and professional evolution, with candid insights on leadership, courage, and authentic growth.

The conversation opens with Heather Fortner's surprising keynote debut at Schwab Impact, detailing how she learned to practice authenticity on stage and why being true to herself became the cornerstone of her career. She recalls the winding path that brought her to Signature FD, starting as an intern and eventually ascending to CEO, drawing on both her technical expertise and counseling background to bridge the science of finance and the art of people.

Together, Mary Bell Carlson and Heather Fortner explore the real meaning behind “growth without losing soul,” discussing the importance of self-awareness, relational intelligence, and vulnerability in business leadership. The episode features Heather’s raw account of becoming CEO during one of the most challenging periods of her life, along with reflections on fear, courage, and parenting while leading a thriving organization.

Five Key Takeaways:

1. Authenticity is Crucial—On Stage and Off:
2. When Heather Fortner began her public speaking journey, she quickly realized that being authentically herself matters far more than perfect delivery. After tough feedback at her keynote debut, she learned to lean into her true voice and values—an approach she now carries into both her leadership and her talks.
3. Growth Is Both Technical and Human:
4. Heather credits her success to a rare blend of technical financial knowledge and deep empathy developed through her counseling training. True financial leadership, she shares, requires mastering both the “science of finance” and the “art of people,” understanding that every business system is fueled by human relationships.
5. Self-Awareness Fuels Sustainable Success:
6. Scaling an organization without losing its soul demands that leaders—and all team members—cultivate self-awareness and hold firm to core values. Heather believes personal growth and organizational growth are inseparable; when leaders are introspective and grounded, the teams and culture thrive.
7. Courage Means Choosing Action in the Face of Fear:
8. From tackling her first keynote to accepting the CEO role during the uncertainty of the pandemic, Heather describes pivotal moments where she faced fear head-on and chose courage. Her story highlights that it’s not the absence of fear, but the choice to move forward regardless, that defines true growth.
9. Human Connection Outlasts Technology:
10. Despite rapid advances in AI and financial technology, Heather and Mary agree that the hardest—and most rewarding—aspect of financial work is building genuine human connections. Relational skills, empathy, and forgiveness require lifelong practice and are essential in fostering trust, resilience, and personal fulfillment.

Listen to this episode for an honest look at what it takes to scale smart, lead authentically, and nurture both business and personal growth. If you’re seeking a keynote speaker—or simply inspiration from one of the industry’s most genuine voices—discover more about Heather Fortner and the Financial Behavior Keynotes Group at financialbehaviorthoughtleaders.com.

Welcome to Financial Behavior Thought Leaders. I'm Mary, and this podcast takes you behind the scenes with top speakers in financial services. So whether you're a financial advisor booking a client event or an event planner looking for the perfect keynote, or a financial professional wanting to learn from an industry thought leader, you're in the right place. And today we're featuring Heather Fortner, CEO of Signature FD and one of Financial Behavior Keynotes Group's exclusive speakers. Heather has an incredible story of scaling her firm from 250 million to. To more than 9 billion in assets without losing the soul of the organization. We'll talk to her about the journey, get a preview of her keynote, and hear a story straight from her playbook on leading growth with integrity. Welcome.

Welcome, Heather.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

So, before we dive into your keynote, I want to start with your story. Where did you begin your speaking journey, and what inspired you to take your story to the stage?

I actually began my speaking journey in 2015, and my very first speaking engagement was in front of thousands of people. And I remember in that moment, I almost passed out. The stage was ginormous. And I thought as I was taking the stairs up that stage, what have I done? What have I gotten myself into? It was not something that was on my radar. Speaking was not something that I had intentionally set out to do, but I had built a career at a phenomenal firm and had some really key relationships. And. And so I got asked to do a keynote at Schwab Impact, and it was one of the first keynotes that actually featured someone from an advisory firm. And.

And I knew in that moment that if I said no, those types of opportunities don't come around again. And so I said yes. And then I promptly got off the phone and had a little bit of a panic attack of, what have I gotten myself into? Uh, but Schwab was so generous and gave me a wonderful PR script speech writer that actually worked with Bernie. She's still a dear friend of mine today, and she helped guide me on that process of how do you create a keynote? How do you think about what you want to say and what you want to convey to the audience and. And in what way, with what tone, and. And I think the. The biggest learning lesson that I had in all of that was that I. I actually had created a.

A. A. A speech that I wasn't quite sure in my gut would work. And when I got to. I forget where we were. I want to say we were in San Diego. Massive conference. You know, event massive Stage.

And. And I had to practice on stage in front of everybody with prompters. And I realized that I had created something that wasn't necessarily authentic to me, and that I was trying to be someone that just wasn't really me. And I got some pretty tough feedback in that moment that was like, yeah, this isn't going to cut it. And I went back to my room that night, and I remember I called my mom, and I was like, mom, I don't know what I've done. What am I going to do? How am I going to do this? And in that moment, my mom was like, you need to just be true to yourself. Like, just. Just be who you are, Heather.

Step into that fully. And when I centered myself into that, I was able to go back to the speechwriter, to the professionals, and say, hey, I think we need to change, you know, a couple of these things. And then the coaching that I got, the feedback was just phenomenal. And from there, I remember standing off to the side with Bernie, and, you know, I. I was literally about to pass out. I'm probably looked green at the moment. And I remember saying to him, you know, Bernie, you do this all the time. Like, do you get nervous still? And he looked at me and he said, hey, Heather, the day you don't get nervous is the day you shouldn't do this anymore.

And then he walked up on stage. It left me standing there by myself, and I was like, okay, well, I'm appropriately nervous, Bernie, here we go. And it was wonderful, and it was exhilarating, and it was. It felt authentic to me. It felt authentic to the things that I wanted to convey to the audience, the brand of who we were in the moment. And I think having literally spoken for the very first time to thousands of people, that to me was, oh, okay, well, anything else from here is, you, you know, is. Is small. We can do it, right? Like, if you could do this and survive it and you didn't trip up the stairs and you didn't pass out on stage, you didn't vomit on anybody, like, we are so good.

This is so going to be something that we do more of. And so I have literally just had the mindset of the way you get better, is you practice and you say, yes, and here we are.

I love that, Heather. You know, one or very much like you, you just jump off the high dive and you hope there's water.

But.

If not, we'll just clean ourselves up and we'll keep walking, right?

That's right.

I think the other thing that's going to be so important before we get to your keynote is I think people need to hear your story. So would you give us that window into how you got to signature FD and what that's meant? Because that all builds into the keynote.

Yeah. So I started in this industry as an intern, and I did not take, like, the direct route. I mean, I. It took me, you know, three colleges and six years to get my degree. And was. I. It just. This was not anything that I was planning on doing.

It was just the fastest way to get off my dad's payroll, which my dad was very clear that that needed to happen. And so I, you know, kind of fell into this space and just eventually realized one. I was really good at the technical.

It.

It. I enjoy the technical work, but. But I have a graduate degree in professional counseling, and I love the art of people. And so there is a very beautiful overlap between financial planning, wealth management, and the science of finance and the art of people. And being and having an expertise in both of those things, I think is what has allowed me opportunity to grow in this space, in my career. You know, I'm now the CEO. We just crossed $10 billion. And I.

I think about you. I. I mean, if you'd have told me that 25 years ago when I started in this industry, I would have laughed at you and been like, no, that is not even possible. And here we are today, and I'm. I'm just having the time of my life.

I love that. And I love that you bring in your full self. I love that your first story started with you being authentic, because that really is true to you. And I think that's what reverberates to people, not just on the stage, but in listening to you and hearing you, is they want Heather. You know, and the other part I love about the story is it's such an American dream story, right? You start literally as an intern, and you work your way up through all those areas. You call it technical. But there's also, like you said, that art. I think it's so beautifully stated that as you go through these different endeavors, you know it because you've done it.

You've seen it. That's how you lead a team. That's how you've grown. How has that experience really helped you facilitate in the CEO role that you're in today?

Yeah, there is a beauty about going before because, you know, the feelings you see the struggles, you know, the hurt or the excitement or the desire or the passion or whatever it may be like you, you can see it in people because you've been there and you've lived it. I always tell people, you know, one of my, if I had to say, a superpower, right? Like I was a superhero and I had a superpower. It's, it's the ability to see and I can't unsee because I've lived it. And so the ability to see people, to understand at, at a level of, I may not have lived through the exact same circumstance you are living through. And, and by no means, you know, should you ever minimize anything anybody's living through and their perspective and their emotion. But to truly be able to empathize with them, you know, that's where you can draw on your own experiences and say, I haven't lived through that, but man, I know that feeling. And in that moment, here's what would have served me well and I wish I would have had. And how can I help you? How can I support you, how can I see your strengths and potentially be for you something that I didn't have someone to be that for me only because, you know, I've gone before.

And so I think about that, I think about that a lot with my kids of like, how can I be a rock for you in those moments when you don't know if you can do it and you're not sure and you just need somebody to either speak some life over you or to speak some truth over you, or to help you, or to support you, or just listen to you. And I think all of those things from, from my training to my passion for people to understanding, I, I grew into this role. I wasn't born a CEO. I, I got here through a lot of hard work, a lot of wonderful people pouring into me and a lot of failure. And so understanding that and holding space for that as a very, very self aware person simply allows spaces for other people to do the same. Now, not everybody steps into that same space and responds similarly or wants the same things, but as a leader, your job is to be able to create that space, that psychologically safe space where the motivated people, the people who do want to be successful, have the clarity and the resources and the support to be what they want to be.

Well, and you've just hit the nail on the head of why, if you're doing financial planning right, and I don't love using right and wrong, but I'm going to use that in this context because if you're doing it right, it's not about AI, it's not about the technology, it's not about the computers. I think so many people are so worried their jobs are going to be taken away and they're not going to have a tomorrow and all the rest. But Heather, everything you've talked about is that human to human connection, which.

Can we be honest that the human to human connection is actually harder than any technology will ever be because it requires two people with two very different experiences, two very different perspectives, and two very different skill sets to come together in some sort of relationship that is fluid and ever changing and it has external pressures and it has external things that you can't control. Like, I think about this with my husband all the time. Any type of relationship that you're in. Right. People carry different levels of skill around all things related to relationships. And so I think part of the reason people are scared and, and I don't mean just people on our industry, but people in the world are scared is that we have not been diligent nor intentional about filling people's toolboxes with relational skills. And, and if anything, we have done less of that specifically since the pandemic, which I do believe is one of the reasons we have such high issues of anxiety. And with.

With kids who, you know, struggled through that period, like the ability to do life in relationship with others. We are wired for that, naturally. But it requires ongoing skill learning, experimentation. Like you have to practice these skills and you are going to get it very wrong a lot of the time. Yes, that's why that's scary. Absolutely.

And it's two things. It's just what you said about the stage. It's practice. It's practice, practice, practice, and it's forgiveness. Right. Forgiving and being gentle with each other and assuming we're coming from the best place, because that's humanity.

You're. All of that is a choice. All of that is a choice. And the thing that I love about the title of this keynote, you know, the Growth Without Losing Soul, I think, I think it's as much about not losing our own souls as it is about not losing the soul of the business.

Yes, yes. And let's jump into that because I think we've set that solid foundation to where people are knowing now who Heather is and where you're coming from. So the exact title is scaling smart from 250 million to over 9 billion growth without losing Soul. And help us understand who is this message for and what is the core takeaway out of that.

I believe this message is for every individual, regardless of where they work, who they are, how they are And I think it's because of the principles underneath. My belief specifically as a trained professional counselor, is that the self awareness of soul, of who you are and what skill sets you bring to the table and what you will compromise and what you will not compromise at your basic core humanity level. I think those components are literally the pillars of all personal growth. They are the pillars of your soul. And so whether you're leading an organization, whether you're part of an organization, whether you are working by yourself, whatever it might be, growth requires that those pillars to evolve into change. And, and there's going to be external forces and, and the world is going to come at you in a way that you either decide to happen to it or it's going to happen to you. And if you decide to happen to your life and happen to the world, that means that you're going to have to evolve because the world is constantly evolving and people around you are constantly evolving and organizations are evolving and growing. And so that self awareness I believe is the core and then the decision to modify what needs to be modified.

Because it's one thing to know yourself and to be very self aware and to understand your soul, it's a whole other thing to know that there are things that you need to do to be a better human and to not make those choices. And so I think you, you have to start there because the reality, and this is more systems based theory, the reality is that systems are just made up of people. And so you've got the system of any organization, the seats in the organization, the roles in the organization, what does this organization do, how do they provide a service or a product to the world. But then people actually have to sit in those seats and in those roles. And so there's this like two layered dynamic to if we were all robots, you could build a system and it would function perfectly. But it never does because we're not perfect. And we bring all of our baggage and we bring all of our stuff and then that stuff, you know, bumps up against everybody else's stuff because they're bringing all of that stuff into the system as well. And so I just believe that understanding having that framework of core values of this is who we are, this is who we are together, this is who I am individually, this is how those things interplay together.

And this is how we as a integrated system actually handle when the world bumps up against us or we bump up against each other or we're going to market and it's not working or whatever it might be. And so Ensuring. I don't believe that it's actually possible to keep the soul of an organization intact if you are not focused on keeping the soul of the people in the system healthy as well.

It's all about the people, isn't it?

It is. We keep trying to not make it about the people, and we keep coming back to the fact that it's all about the people. And we keep trying not to make it about the people because people are hard and people are fragile and people need us. And sometimes as leaders, it's exhausting and we haven't figured out how to take care of ourselves well. And the organization will continue. It will just keep taking as much as you give. And so I really do believe, right, there should be some sort of class. And I think.

I think the world's trying to get there where it's like, no leaders. Here's how you take care of yourself.

Yeah.

Hey, moms, here's how you take care of yourself. Hey, dads, here's how you take care of yourself. Hey, kids. Like, the world is trying to figure that out because it is coming at us. The world, the technology, the. The social media, the. The requirements. It's all coming at us faster than we can manage.

And so I do think that having that grounding of, nope. These are the things that matter. And all of this other stuff is noise. That is how you scale. It is how you grow with intention. It is how you grow wisely and efficiently and effectively. But you have to make hard choices in order to do that.

So this is where I want to ask you. Every good keynote has a great story. I want to hear what is the story that really resonates with your audience in this one?

I think one of the stories first, I think stories. I'm. I'm a very transparent person and I love stories because it's partly how I learn myself. But I also tell people all the time, like, I have to be transparent and real because I am too old to remember if I tell a lie. So I just have to tell the truth no matter what I do, because I couldn't remember if I made it up anyway, so I might as well just tell the truth. So I think about all of the stories that have led to me sitting in this seat. And there are some that are funny, and there are some that are, you know, intense, and there are some that are not funny at all. Like, they are just not funny at all.

And one of the stories that I think about a lot and I tell a lot, but I think it resonates with people because of the truth and the rawness behind it is the moment and the conversation with the board of directors when they were trying to choose the next CEO of the organization. And so, you know, I became, I had been at the organization 17, 18 years at that point. I was the COO. I had come up through the organization and it wasn't necessarily a shoo in, you know, that I was gonna be the CEO. And there were a lot of really hard conversations going on in the organization. And I remember the moment when I was on a board call. It's 2020, it's the middle of COVID right? And so it's all virtual. Everything's virtual.

I'm shoved up in a room in my house and I've got a four year old with respiratory pulmonary issues at them, right? So the whole world's just literally crashing and burning and the board is having a conversation about who the next CEO is going to be. And I'm in the room virtually like I'm in this conversation and they're talking about me as I'm in the room, because they have to, because I'm a board member, right? And I sit on the board and this conversation's going on. And I remember having this, this thought in my head of, how are you going to respond in this moment? How, how are you going to show up in this moment? Because the conversation, I'd never been a CEO before. They could have gone out to market, they could have done a CEO search. They could have, they could have chosen some, somebody else in the room. They could have chosen another founder of the organization. Like, they could have made several different decisions. And yet the conversation is, do we, do we pick her? Do we give her this role and do we think she can do it? And I remember in that moment thinking, well, I don't know if I can do it.

I mean, I've never been a CEO before. I mean, I think I can, but maybe I can't. And like, what's going to be required of me? And, and it's the middle of COVID And, you know, and I'm, I'm having these like, conversations in my head as I'm listening to this dialogue happen around me. And I just remember in that moment thinking, you got to go all in. And the reality, Heather, is that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks because they don't know either. You have to make the choice. The choice is yours. You either take the risk and do the absolute best that you can and don't look back, you could fail, you could fail miserably or just like with my very first keynote offer.

Or you say no and the chance doesn't come back around. Yeah, which one are you gonna do? What do you do? And I remember thinking in that moment, like there are just those defining moments of growth, specifically where you as a leader, where you as an organization, you have to make a choice, you have to make that big bet because that's where the big payoff comes. That's where the big growth comes. And I'm going to tell you what, making that decision in that moment. This has been the hardest five years of my life.

Wow.

It will. Oh, October 12th. It's October 7th. October 12th will be my five year anniversary in the seat of CEO. And it's been the first, hardest five years of my life because everything that I had known and learned before, it was not the skin that was going to take me forward. And so I had to take all that off and lay it down and say, I'm not a COO anymore, I'm a CEO. And what do I have to do differently and how do I pivot? And what does what, who am I as a CEO? Right. Who is my soul and what needs to change and what doesn't? And that is just the conversation that we continually have as leaders, specifically when we're talking about growth.

What needs to change, what doesn't? What are the big bets and the biggest risks that you are willing to take to get the big payoff and the big growth? And what will you compromise and not compromise in order to get results?

Wow. You know, every time we talk, I just walk away going, I feel better about. I mean, like, honestly, it's an introvert, almost like a mirror back inside myself. And I think that's what I'm really hearing from this keynote and is it's not how Heather really became a cool fly on the wall. I mean, who wouldn't love to like have that interesting perspective, right. That very few ever get in their life. But really it's, where do I see myself? Where do I see my business? How am I stepping up? How am I not afraid of failure? You know, I think if you like that story and you resonated with you, you've got to download Heather's speaker sheet of financial behavior. Thought, thought leaders.

Last question. Heather, let's go behind the scenes. And I know you're very authentic, so I'm very excited for this question. What is something that people would be surprised to learn about you?

So I think a lot of people know, but but I'll be 50 on November 4th. And I have an 8 year old and a 3 year old at home. So I have my first daughter at 41, I have my second daughter at 46. And I had literally had a baby. I was named CEO October 12th of 2020, and I had a baby 12, 31, 21. So not only, not only did I not know if I could do the job, but then I got pregnant and had another baby in the process. All of that. To say one thing you just said, I've been afraid a lot.

I don't know that it's not about being afraid. I actually think it's more about what's driving the fear and me being able to quickly get to the core, understanding myself well enough to get to the core to say I'm choosing the this over fear.

Beautiful.

Because that's to me the definition, definition of courage. And there are some things that I am so afraid of that they can paralyze me. The health of my daughters. Right. And my kids. Something happening to my children. Some, like there are some things that if I let them, they will keep me from being and doing the things that I need to do. I need to let my kids fail more.

I need to, you know, let them go out and experience the world because I'd rather them experience it with me around than with me not. There's a lot of fear in that. And I think about that from the business perspective of, you know, as a CEO, as a leader, sometimes the fear of failure, sometimes the fear of, I gotta make this really hard decision. I, I don't know what the unintended consequences of this decision are, but I have to take the risk or you don't and you play it safe and potentially you don't end up where you want to be. And so I think, I think just I'm afraid a lot. And I've have found that being transparent about that opens the door to more people being able to say, yeah, me too, I've been afraid too. But hey, Heather, I believe in you and I support you and I'm here to help however I can. And we've been better because of that.

It's so much about growth. Like I'm hearing this resonation of growth, and I don't just mean dollar growth, I mean personal growth. And I think that's the authentic story you're here to share is the growth. Sure. On the balance sheet looks beautiful. Right on the net worth statement, whatever it is. That's, that's the sexy part of it. That's right.

But at the end of the day, it's, it's here. It's the growth within, whether it's you as the CEO, whether it's you as the Internet, whether it's you willing to take the next step towards whatever that future door is going to. Heather, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for your time today.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Well, if you're looking to book a speaker who can offer both a holistic approach to business growth and someone who blends the practical side of skilling with deeply human side of leadership, you can learn more from Heather Forner at financial behavior thought leaders.com thanks for joining us. We'll be back soon with more conversations, bringing you to the leading voices in financial services.