The 2025 Growth-Drive Summit in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina runs from Monday October 6 at 1:00 pm to Wednesday October 8 at 12:00. Early registration savings open.
Theme: you'll learn immediately useful techniques for Building a Profitable Advisory Business
Day 1 Theme: Client Acquisition & Discovering Strategic Intent: T’ing up for success by getting the right clients, charging what you’re worth, and doing discovery right
Day 2 Theme: Strategic Capacity Drives Growth & Value: Expanding your reach and relevance, plus referrals, collaboration and becoming indispensable
Day 3 Theme: The Future of Business Advisory: What will it mean to be an advisor next year, in 5 years, and more - considering Ai, new business models and the impact of PE, how will we continue to win?
Are you asking yourself “What will I learn?” Here’s how the Summit will roll.
Since lots of folks come in over the weekend and the Summit starts at 1:00, on Monday morning you can participate in a pre-summit workshop. During this bonus session you’ll learn how to turbo-charge client acquisition and real-world techniques for charging what you’re truly worth. Think “How you’ll get more & better clients who are paying what you deserve.” Two tracks, both delivering big.
The Summit has a through-line: “Strategic Capacity is your Secret Power”. You will learn about using Strategic Capacity for driving growing profits and value, delivering client wealth, and building a thriving advisory business.
Check this out: the entire Summit is designed with this professionally diverse community in mind to ensure that you will gain knowledge and skills that you can apply with clients immediately as a business advisor, personal advisor, exit planner, M&A advisor or finance pro.
The Details:
Pre-Summit (Morning - Optional): -Two powerful tracks focused on:
Official Start Monday @ 1:00 PM
You will quickly engage in expanding your network and, building on the morning’s bonus ‘client acquisition’ workshops, you'll learn why discovering client intent is the key to winning and delivering successful engagements. This gets intense, and we’ll finish the day learning from a CEO who has multiple successful exits and an encore career as a growth and exit advisor.
Evening: Having fun and building your network. Enjoy Charleston’s incredible food scene by signing up to join a group of your colleagues for one of the many 6-8 person dinner reservations we’ve made around town. Folks LOVE this spontaneous experience, back by popular demand.
Tuesday is big. Breakfast is a full hour: plenty of time to meet, rekindle, and check in with your Summit sponsors.
Morning:
Afternoon:
Evening:
Tuesday’s experience builds on the most highly-rated segments from 2024. In the morning and again in the afternoon you’ll hear from a panel of experts, then participate in an open mic discussion, and break into workshops digging deep into your chosen topic.
Morning: Expert panel discusses “Strategic Capacity as a Proven Paradigm for Value Creation.” We’ll break into smaller groups and workshop either “How do we make Strategic Capacity Relevant To Client Intent?” or “Delivering Intent: Successful Collaboration Across Advisory Roles”. Note: After every workshop we’ll regroup in plenary and discuss key learnings so you won’t miss a thing.
Afternoon: Expert panel discusses “Expanding Your Reach and Relevance: Becoming Indispensable." You’ll then choose your workshop: “Use Cases for CLARITY Data” aka analysis of strategic capacity, or “Models for Delivering Client Wins” aka delivering successful outcomes.
Tuesday evening we will gather to celebrate with cocktails and dinner at the beautiful Charleston Aquarium - home of the deepest aquarium tank in North America. Our keynote speaker is Fletcher Brown, CEO of the Business Enterprise Institute. Fletcher’s thought leadership includes exit planning, plan execution, and personal planning, he has much to share.
Wednesday you’ll build on these two days and discuss the future: Making this Summit actionable.
Wednesday jumps out of the gate with gathering for breakfast - at this point we’re a deeply bonded group, psyched for the home stretch.
Would you like to hear from the Future of the Business Advisor Profession Committee? Of course you do. Whether you are a profit & value growth practitioner or interested COI, this conversation is vital to shaping our collective futures. It’s a kick in the pants that Growth-Drive is inspiring this conversation, and it’s much bigger than one company or community. This is profound: Where will Strategic Capacity and delivering client intent take us? How might Ai impact our roles? How will we define our promise to the market -and how might this promise evolve? How can a common vision empower building profitable advisory businesses today? The panel will share, and you’ll have the mic to share your thoughts.
The best Summits invest time in confirming participant learnings, distilling best practices, and gathering topics for future work. Pulling our three days together you’ll be ‘in the studio’ for a Live Coffee Klatsch. This facilitated discussion is open to everyone in the room: everyone has the opportunity to share, and based on which everyone will get a Summit report.
The Summit wraps up by discussing what we’ve learned, what needs more work, and solidifying next steps for our community.
Exciting, right? Do you agree that this is unique, powerful and insanely valuable for building a profitable advisory business? From client acquisition through discovery, planning, execution, and leaning into the future… You’ll learn, share, create and cement relationships, having a ton of fun in the process. Will we be seeing you in Charleston?
Early Registration Savings of $500 ends soon.
Theme: Building a Profitable Advisory Business
📍 Charleston, South Carolina | 🗓 October 6–8, 2025
Bonus "Pre-Show" Sessions - 8:30–11:30 AM – Confident Client Acquisition
→ Proven strategies for filling your pipeline, pricing and positioning with confidence, and closing high-value engagements.
→ Two tracks:
11:30 AM–1:00 PM – Networking Break & Sponsor Tables
→ Connect with peers and partners in a casual setting
1:00–2:00 PM – Summit Kickoff: Welcome & Framing the Journey
→ Overview, WIIFM round robin, and strategic community introductions
→ Focus: How Strategic Intent and Strategic Capacity fuel client success
2:00–2:30 PM – Intentional Networking
→ Peer-pairing to promote collaboration and accountability
2:30–3:30 PM – Plenary Exercise: Confirming Intent
→ Explore how various advisor types contribute to client wins
3:30–3:40 PM – Break
3:40–4:25 PM – Debrief & Action Points
→ Key takeaways and post-Summit commitments
4:25–4:55 PM – CEO Interview
→ Former CEO shares insights from successful exits and advisory careers
4:55–5:10 PM – Daily Wrap-Up
6:30–9:30 PM – Curated Group Dinners Around Charleston
→ Small-group reservations at top local restaurants
7:30–8:30 AM – Breakfast & Sponsor Tables
8:30–9:00 AM – Welcome & Agenda Overview
9:00–10:00 AM – Panel: Strategic Capacity as a Paradigm for Growth
→ Explore the proven role of strategic capacity in driving value
10:00–11:30 AM – Concurrent Workshops (Choose One)
11:30 AM–12:00 PM – In-Room Debriefs
12:00–1:00 PM – Lunch: Mix-Up Tables & Sponsor Networking
1:00–2:00 PM – Panel: Expanding Your Reach & Relevance
→ Becoming indispensable in a competitive market
2:00–3:30 PM – Concurrent Workshops (Choose One)
3:30–4:15 PM – Plenary Review: Workshop Learnings
4:15–4:30 PM – Daily Wrap-Up
6:30–9:30 PM – Celebration Dinner at Charleston Aquarium
🎤 Keynote: Fletcher Brown, CEO, Business Enterprise Institute
7:30–8:30 AM – Breakfast & Sponsor Tables
8:30–8:45 AM – Day 3 Kickoff: Journey So Far & Today’s Focus
8:45–9:15 AM – Panel: The Future of the Advisory Profession
→ Exploring AI, defining the Business Advisor Promise, shaping our collective future
9:15–10:30 AM – Live Coffee Klatsch: Open-Mic Summit Learnings
→ Q&A and idea-sharing for future initiatives
10:30–11:00 AM – Interview: PE Perspective on Strategic Capacity
→ Tentative: Private Equity Partner shares insights on advisor value in M&A
11:00–12:00 PM – Final Session: Stronger Together
→ Reflections, action plans, and Growth-Drive community engagement
12:00 PM – Summit Concludes
This Summit is not just about learning—it’s about building a profitable advisory business by delivering client wins, mastering collaboration, and leveraging the power of strategic capacity. From acquisition through execution and into the future, you’ll leave with real tools, a stronger network, and a clearer path forward.
Still have questions? We'd be happy to help, book some time together here.