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Spencer Rose, an advisor with Christensen Group Financial in Minneapolis, has learned the power of AI tools—for organizing his thoughts and for his clients. In a recent conversation with Horsesmouth Editor-in-Chief Sean Bailey and Executive Coach Chris Holman, Spencer described how by experimenting with AI technologies, then applying them strategically, he has transformed how he communicates complex financial concepts and is building a marketing framework that aligns with his personal voice.
Quick Overview
Guest: Spencer Rose
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Years in business: 10+
Firm: Christiensen Group Financial
What’s working now: Using artificial intelligence to organize complex financial concepts and build marketing systems that reflect his authentic voice.
First steps with AI
Like many advisors, Spencer first encountered ChatGPT in late 2022 when it burst onto the scene. While he initially viewed it as a novelty, something to play with rather than a serious business tool, he recognized its potential impact on the financial industry.
Spencer: “I played around with it. I thought it was kind of a cute, fun way to take written content and make it sound like Scooby-Doo or something, but outside of that I was like, this is going to impact us in a lot of ways. We probably don’t know.”
After about a year of watching from the sidelines, Spencer decided to approach AI more intentionally. What began as casual experimentation evolved into strategic implementation as he identified a key challenge in his practice—articulating complex financial concepts to clients who don’t spend their days thinking about investment strategies or retirement planning.
Finding the right applications
Spencer’s initial focus was on transforming his 401(k) education content. With 15 years of experience in participant education, he was looking for ways to break down 45-minute sessions into more digestible pieces.
Spencer: “I have a lot of ideas and a lot of ideas that rattle around in my head that make sense to me, but I was finding it difficult to really come up with a concise way of articulating my views and organizing them and structuring them in a way that made sense for people that weren’t living in this all day.”
This challenge led Spencer to experiment with AI as a tool for organizing his thoughts. He wanted to use technology not to replace his thinking but to enhance how he communicated.
Spencer: “What I really wanted to get intentional with using this is a way to throw my thoughts down in an unorganized but relatively comprehensive way and leverage what I thought was the strength of AI at the time, which is how do I take a bunch of seemingly disparate information and pull it together and organize it in a way that would make sense to an average person.”
The early experiments had friction points. Spencer found himself repeatedly explaining context in new chat sessions, making the process cumbersome. A breakthrough came when custom GPTs were introduced, allowing him to store instructions and documents without starting from zero each time.
Another significant discovery was the power of voice activation.
Spencer: “One of the points of friction that comes in is when you’re hammering this out on a keyboard and typing, typing, typing, typing, it gets really fatiguing.”
Speaking naturally to the AI allowed his thoughts to flow more freely without the mechanical barrier of typing.
Through trial and error, Spencer developed a key insight: Specificity yields better results.
Spencer: “The key theme that I would have, I’d encourage people to take away from it is the narrower use case you can try to give it the better results I think you’re generally going to get. So, trying to train it and be pretty specialized into a specific area that is of interest to you is a helpful thing.”
Building an AI ecosystem
As Spencer became more comfortable with AI tools, he began developing a cohesive ecosystem tailored to his wealth management practice. His participation in AI Marketing for Advisors program provided structure for his efforts.
The Christensen Group Financial context is unique—an independent RIA subsidiary of a larger insurance agency with 250 employees. Spencer is the only advisor focused on wealth management and financial planning, with the initiative having started in mid-2022.
Spencer: “When I have a fresh set of eyes that doesn’t have all the same biases and background, I’m only looking through my worldview when I take something that’s external and separate, it picks up on little nuances that I don’t. And I think that’s a really valuable thing.”
One of his most innovative applications was creating a custom GPT business coach.
Spencer: “I literally have one of these custom GPTs that is my CG financial business coach.”
This virtual coach helps keep him accountable and provides objective feedback on his projects.
Spencer: “Sometimes it’s like it will come out and be like, ‘Yeah, you’re probably taking this a bit too far. It is too complex, it’s too cumbersome. You need to strip this back and streamline it just to get it out there.’”
Spencer’s greatest challenge isn’t technological but psychological—balancing perfectionism with execution.
Spencer: “You start tweaking and iterating and having the tools read through the document, what suggestions would you make? How can you improve the weaknesses? And you end up in this never-ending cycle of refining, refining, refining, and you never actually get to launch in it. So, it’s better to have something that’s 70% of the way there that you actually use than 100% of the way there that never gets done.”
This perspective has become central to his approach, pushing him toward implementation rather than endless refinement.
The path forward
The progress Spencer has made in using AI to organize his thoughts and develop marketing content has been significant, but he’s careful about its limitations.
Spencer: “I probably wouldn’t use it to create recommendations or advice, I definitely wouldn’t do that. But just about anything else in terms of working through thought structure, explaining things, research, depending on the tool, it is pretty remarkable how fast everything is progressing.”
What began as experimentation with 401(k) education materials has evolved into a comprehensive marketing framework. Spencer is now developing templated systems that others can customize with their communication style, value proposition, and messaging pillars.
The employee-owned structure of his firm creates a natural incentive to develop systems that benefit everyone. “We have 250 employee owners that are rowing the boat in the same direction. So, if I can come up with something here that really works and we can apply that to the business more broadly, that’ll benefit everybody else, but it’s also going to benefit me long-term too,” he explains.
Spencer is struck by how rapidly AI capabilities are advancing.
Spencer: “It’s shocking how fast it’s advancing. I mean, to your point, you look back at where these tools were in October and you’re like, the world has changed a lot in the AI space in the last five months. It’s really, really remarkable how fast these tools are changing.”
This rapid evolution reinforces his belief that now is the time for advisors to engage with these technologies rather than waiting for further advancements.
4 practical steps for advisors
For advisors looking to implement a similar transformation, Spencer’s experience suggests these four key steps:
Start with small, specific applications rather than trying to revamp your entire practice at once. Spencer began with a narrow focus on organizing his thoughts and refining 401(k) education materials before expanding to broader marketing initiatives.
Embrace voice activation to overcome the friction of typing and allow for more natural thought flow. This approach helps capture ideas more efficiently and makes interaction with AI tools less cumbersome.
Create custom AI tools with specific instructions that align with your business needs. As Spencer discovered, the more specialized your use case, the better the results.
Don’t wait for perfection. The 70% solution that gets implemented is more valuable than the perfect solution that never launches.
Most importantly, start now. Spencer emphasizes that the technology is evolving rapidly, and waiting only increases the learning curve.
Spencer: “This technology is not going anywhere. If you wait another six months, it’s just six more months that you have to catch up. And it’s OK to start small. Get in there. Explore the tools a little bit.”
Looking ahead
Spencer’s journey with AI in financial advising is still evolving. What began as curiosity about a new technology has transformed into a structured approach to thought organization and marketing that reflects his authentic voice.
The most significant advantage has been AI’s ability to help bridge the gap between how professionals think about financial concepts and how clients understand them. By using AI to organize and clarify his communication, Spencer has found a way to make complex financial information more accessible without sacrificing depth or personalization.
As he continues to refine his systems, Spencer plans to eventually share them with colleagues across the Christensen Group Financial, creating value for the entire employee-owned firm.
In a few months, Spencer expects to have his marketing framework fully implemented and tested, with measurable results to share. The Horsesmouth team plans to check back with him in June to learn about his progress and the impact of his AI initiative.
For now, Spencer remains pragmatic and enthusiastic about the potential of these tools when used thoughtfully.
Spencer: “For me, this is at such an early stage....I need a little bit of time to take this theory that I have that this can really work and see if it works.”