51. Showing Up as Yourself: Why Authenticity Is a Business Strategy for Advisors with Justin Castelli Artwork

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Planning & Beyond® - Where financial planning meets human understanding

51. Showing Up as Yourself: Why Authenticity Is a Business Strategy for Advisors with Justin Castelli

June 04, 2026 • Ashley Quamme

0:00 | 1:01:47

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You change clothes before a client meeting and feel like you are putting on a costume. Someone asks what you do at a conference and you lead with your title and your AUM, never the parts of your life that matter most. And underneath the professionalism, there is a quiet exhaustion you cannot quite name.

In this episode, Ashley talks with Justin Castelli, a financial advisor of more than 20 years and the founder of RLS Wealth, now doing business as Santiago. Justin has built a reputation for showing up as unmistakably himself, and he argues that authenticity is not a personality perk. It is a business strategy and a buffer against burnout.

Justin starts where most advisors do not. He introduces himself as a father and a husband first, advisor second. From there, he and Ashley get into what authenticity actually means, and why it does not require blowing up your life or your firm. You can be true to yourself inside real constraints, including a dress code or a compliance department.

One insight worth sitting with: performing a version of yourself you are not is expensive. As Justin puts it, it takes energy to be someone who is not true to you, and over time that becomes the straw that breaks the camel's back. When advisors stop performing, they enjoy the work more, and clients feel that shift too.

Ashley and Justin also explore authenticity as a series of low-risk experiments rather than one permanent decision, the difference between leading with your heart and overriding it with your head, and the story behind the Santiago rebrand and Justin's move toward life planning.

You will walk away with:

A reframe that treats authenticity as something you practice within constraints, not an all-or-nothing leap
Why surface-level performing drives advisor burnout, and what changes when it stops
Places to experiment: how you dress, who you serve, how you serve, your fees, and your brand
A gentler way to think about niche, starting with the clients who energize you
Language for the moment a client faces a values-versus-logic decision

Justin also names something many advisors quietly feel. Sometimes the honest question is not how do I serve clients better, but how did I get here. This is a conversation for any advisor who has wondered whether the practice they built still fits the person they have become.

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About the Guest

Justin Castelli is a financial advisor with more than 20 years in the profession and the founder of RLS Wealth, which he has run since 2015 and recently rebranded as Santiago. A prolific creator, Justin writes a daily note and a blog, hosts a podcast, and produces video, all built around what he calls "the business of the authentic life." Through Santiago he is moving toward life planning and a more collaborative, coaching-informed way of working with clients.

Connect with Justin: