The Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors

What It Really Takes to Become a Multi-Million-Dollar Producer: Author and Coach Dave Mullen’s Powerful and Proven Strategies

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May 15, 2025

Join Dave Mullen, a seasoned financial advisor coach and author of three bestselling books, as he shares transformative strategies for achieving multi-million-dollar success. He discusses his journey from Merrill Lynch to founding Altius Learning, emphasizing tailored training programs and the importance of empathy in client relationships. Dave dives into building effective advisory teams, adapting to industry changes, and the paths available for financial advisors, whether in employment or independence, with insights on maintaining trust and utilizing technology for growth.

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ADVICE

Effective New Advisor Training

Hire advisors with the right characteristics before training them.
Prepare new advisors extensively through niche targeting, marketing plans, role plays, and weekly coaching.

ADVICE

Train Emerging Advisors Properly

Focus training on emerging advisors who have clients but haven't reached $1 million production yet.
Avoid relying solely on senior advisors to mentor juniors, as old prospecting methods are outdated.

INSIGHT

Traits of Top Advisors

Top advisors are confident they can positively impact clients' lives and are never satisfied.
They focus on the right activities, delegate well, show empathy, and exhibit resilience.

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With Dave Mullen – Founding Partner and Principal, Altius Learning

Overview

In an episode that serves as a free coaching session on the key techniques that the most successful advisors use to build and grow their practices, Dave shares proven strategies honed from his tenure at Merrill, his three bestselling books, and his advisor coaching practice.

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NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation.

About this episode…

So many of us wonder, “What does it REALLY take to get from here to there?”

This is one of those episodes that unpacks that query for advisors who are striving to elevate their production levels.

Whether you have your sights set on reaching a million in revenue or aiming to double or triple your current production, the guest on this episode offers tried-and-true best practices to help you get there.

Dave Mullen wrote three bestselling books based on the industry-leading methodologies he employed as a Managing Director at Merrill, where he hired, trained, and managed over 500 advisors during his tenure at the firm.

After retiring from Merrill in 2007, Dave launched the coaching and training firm LearnTactic, now known as Altius Learning to help advisors at all levels up their games.

So if you’re a fan of The Million Dollar Financial Services Practice, The Million Dollar Advisor, or The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor Team, this will serve as a mini-masterclass with Dave himself.

In this informative episode with Mindy Diamond, Dave shares powerful and proven strategies from his experience at Merrill and from his current coaching practice—and answers some of the top questions advisors have asked me about growth, including:

The “secret sauce” that drove his success at Merrill—and how firms and advisors can integrate similar techniques for themselves or their team.
Observations of top performers—and what they do differently from their peers.
The value of training—and why it’s just as important to focus on the “emerging advisors” as it is on new recruits.
Setting goals—and how the most successful advisors adapt their practices to changing environments.
The low-hanging fruit that many advisors ignore—and how to take advantage of the opportunities before them.

Dave is a treasure trove of information, offering anecdotes from his experiences both at Merrill and from his own practice. It’s an episode that serves as a free coaching session with value for every advisor.

Want to learn more about where, why, and how advisors like you are moving? Click to contact us or call 908-879-1002.

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Dave Mullen
Founding Partner and Principal

Dave retired as a managing director at Merrill Lynch in 2007, where he personally hired, trained and managed over 500 financial advisors over 27 years. He has worked with hundreds of individual million-dollar and multimillion-dollar advisors, including many of the industry’s top advisors. At Merrill Lynch his responsibilities included:

Financial Advisor
Complex Manager
Producing Manager
National Sales Manager
Sales Manager
Managing Director

During his management career, Dave was recognized numerous times for being one of Merrill Lynch’s top national managers. While at Merrill Lynch his advisor training programs had a consistent success rate significantly higher than the industry average.

Dave founded LearnTactix, now called Altius Learning, in 2007 with the objective of creating training and coaching programs that would be career-changing experiences for participating advisors and managers. He is the author of three bestselling books: The Million Dollar Financial Services Practice (one of On Wall Street magazine’s top picks and a Top Five choice by AdvisorOne); and The Million Dollar Advisor—Powerful Lessons and Proven Strategies from Top Producers (one of On Wall Street magazine’s top picks) and his new book The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor Team. He has been featured in Investment News and Smart Money magazines.

Dave holds a BA and MBA from the University of Georgia, and has attended the Executive Leadership Program at The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. Dave is an avid mountain bike rider and skier. He and his wife Cynthia have 4 children and reside in Denver CO.