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Crown Conversations

Crown Conversations

Written by: Sean Foote & Stephen Welch
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Two partners telling the truth about money, and bringing real people in to do the same.


We're Sean Foote and Stephen Welch. We met in the same training program in 2008 and have been partners ever since. What we built together became Crownmark, Legacy Suite, and Plan Participant.


Not a webinar. Not a pitch. Not another boring finance podcast.


It's for the person who feels behind. The one who thinks building real wealth is for other people with a head start they never got. We made this for you specifically, because we were you.


You don't need permission. You don't need a seat someone saved for you. You can build your own table.

© 2026 Crown Conversations Economics Personal Finance
Episodes
  • Wealth Advisors: The Day 1,000 Of 2,000 Trainees Were Cut | Sean Foote & Stephen M. Welch

    Wealth Advisors: The Day 1,000 Of 2,000 Trainees Were Cut | Sean Foote & Stephen M. Welch
    Oct 22 2026
    Stephen M. Welch never got a callback from a voicemail, so he never left one. Sean Foote left them anyway, and the callbacks kept landing on Stephen's desk. Sean Foote and Stephen M. Welch run Crownmark Wealth Advisors, the firm they built after nearly two decades as partners at Wall Street firms.Sean is Managing Partner at Crownmark and co-founder of Legacy Suite. Before finance he was a music producer, then a financial analyst.Stephen started in telecom as a telemarketer and ended up running the team, which is how he became the one teaching Sean to cold call.They met as trainees at the same firm and finished at number one and number two in their market. Eleven years at the next firm came after that, then Crownmark. In this episode they explain:Why passing the licensing exam still left them at the bottom of the mountainWhat kept them on the right side of a cut that took half the trainee classHow two trainees with no network built a client base on cold calls everyone said were deadWhy moving to another firm in this business feels like a declaration of warWhich two services their old firms kept them from offering, and why that pushed them to build their own 00:00:00 Cold Open00:01:11 The Person Next To You Won't Be There In Three Years00:02:15 Pass The Exam Or Lose The Job00:03:45 No Playbook, Just A Weeding Out Process00:06:43 Starting Out In The Middle Of The Financial Crisis00:07:31 Finding Out On 60 Minutes That The Firm Was Acquired00:08:31 Half The Trainees Cut In One Afternoon00:11:16 Building A Business With No Network00:13:32 Teaching Sean To Cold Call00:15:40 The Voicemail Story00:17:29 Everyone Said Cold Calling Was Dead00:18:25 Number One And Number Two Out Of 15000:20:56 Investing In Themselves00:24:31 How Do You Eat The Elephant00:27:17 One Out Of Every Hundred00:29:41 Why They Really Left The First Firm00:34:04 When A Bank Bought The Firm00:36:51 Leaving Feels Like A Declaration Of War00:40:37 The Idea That Got Shut Down After A Year00:44:10 What Working From Home Revealed00:48:25 The Two Services Clients Were Missing00:52:46 Deciding To Build Their Own00:54:02 Launching Crownmark Wealth Advisors00:58:58 Building It For Their Families01:00:42 Where Crownmark Goes From Here Watch the full episode: https://youtube.com/@crownconvopodSubscribe to Crown Conversations: https://youtube.com/@crownconvopod Follow Sean Foote:Website: https://www.iamseanfoote.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/iamseanfooteTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@iamseanfooteX: https://x.com/iamSeanFooteYouTube: https://youtube.com/@iamseanfooteFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Iamseanfoote/61591498817176/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-foote-crpc%C2%AE-qpfc%C2%AE-4a597218/ Follow Stephen Welch:Website: https://www.iamstephenwelch.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/iamstephenwelchTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@iamstephenwelchX: https://x.com/iamStephenWelchYouTube: https://youtube.com/@iamstephenwelchFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Iamstephenwelch/61593464999209/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwelch7/ Crownmark Wealth Advisors:Website: https://www.crownmarkwealth.comInstagram: https://instagram.com/crownmark_wealthTikTok: https://tiktok.com/@crownmarkwealthYouTube: https://youtube.com/@crownmarkwealthLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crownmark-wealth/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Crownmark-Wealth/61591595892361/ Where to go next:Plan Participant: Sean and Stephen built their first clients through workplace retirement plans. If most of your savings sits in one you set up years ago, start here. https://joinplanparticipant.comLegacy Suite: estate planning was one of the two things their old firms kept them from helping clients with. Legacy Suite is where you put that plan in writing.Crownmark Wealth Advisors: the firm they built so tax strategy and estate planning sit next to the investments. https://www.crownmarkwealth.com
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Building The Crown: The Untold Origin

    Building The Crown: The Untold Origin
    Sep 1 2026

    A $270,000 retirement account went to zero overnight, and a two minute interview in a lobby ended with a stranger in an elevator handing over a phone number: Sean Foote and Stephen Welch on the years nobody sees.

    Sean Foote and Stephen Welch are the managing partners of Crownmark Wealth Advisors in Atlanta, and they have built together for close to twenty years.

    Stephen started as a telemarketer at MCI at twenty-three. He picked his 401k contribution rate by looking at the paper of the man sitting next to him, put all of it into company stock for the twenty percent discount, and watched the balance go to zero when WorldCom filed the largest bankruptcy in US history. Sean produced music for Jennifer Lopez and Mary J. Blige before walking away from an industry he could not sleep in, then spent months trying to get a wealth management firm to return a phone call. They met in the same training program in 2008 and have been partners since.

    They explain:

    What actually happens to a 401k when the company behind the stock files for bankruptcy

    How Stephen chose his contribution rate and his investments on his first day, and what that decision cost him years later

    Why Sean turned down his first job offer out of college and what he did instead

    What happened in the two minutes that were supposed to be an interview, and who was waiting in the elevator afterward

    Why the two of them partnered as rookies after being told that is not how the business works

    Timestamps:

    00:00:00 Two Hundred Seventy Thousand Dollars, Gone Overnight
    00:00:40 Welcome To Crown Conversations
    00:02:23 Telemarketer At MCI, Twenty-Three Years Old
    00:05:03 Picking A 401k Rate By Copying The Guy Next To Him
    00:06:50 Everything Into Company Stock
    00:08:11 Borrowing From The 401k For A First Home
    00:08:43 WorldCom Files The Largest Bankruptcy In US History
    00:09:34 The Day The Balance Went To Zero
    00:10:16 The Advisor Laughed
    00:11:25 Investing For Dummies, Cover To Cover
    00:13:01 The Call That Made Him An Advisor
    00:15:36 Seventeen Thousand Dollars A Year
    00:17:39 Producing For Jennifer Lopez And Mary J. Blige
    00:19:20 Atlanta, And A Job That Cost Him Sleep
    00:21:44 Everything Is Sales
    00:22:50 Best Suit, Day Off, Two Minutes In The Lobby
    00:24:15 The Stranger In The Elevator
    00:25:36 Sitting In The Car, Holding The Wheel
    00:26:17 An Hour On The Phone With A Stranger
    00:30:18 One Shot At The Series Seven
    00:39:10 The Second Person He Called
    00:41:20 The Coach Who Told Them To Do It
    00:43:12 Two Decades As Equal Partners

    Follow Sean Foote:
    Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamseanfoote
    TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@iamseanfoote
    X: https://x.com/iamSeanFoote
    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@iamseanfoote
    Facebook: https://facebook.com/Iamseanfoote
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-foote-crpc%C2%AE-qpfc%C2%AE-4a597218/

    Follow Stephen Welch:
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwelch7/
    Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamstephenwelch
    TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@iamstephenwelch
    X: https://x.com/iamStephenWelch
    YouTube: https://youtube.com/@iamstephenwelch

    Where to go next:

    Stephen's 401k story is the reason Plan Participant exists. If you have a workplace plan and have never opened the portal, start here: https://planparticipant.com

    In the opening minute they both land on the same word, legacy, and they mean the version that outlives the account balance. If there are people who depend on you: https://legacysuite.com

    If you are past the point where a portal answers your questions, Crownmark takes applications: https://www.crownmarkwealth.com
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Crown Conversations (Trailer)

    Crown Conversations (Trailer)
    Sep 1 2026

    Two partners telling the truth about money, and bringing real people in to do the same.

    Sean Foote and Stephen Welch met in the same training program in 2008 and have been partners ever since. This is the conversation they wish someone had let them listen in on twenty years ago.

    Not a webinar. Not a pitch. Not another boring finance podcast.

    It's for the person who feels behind. Episode one is out now.
    Show More Show Less
    1 min
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