The HEART of a LEADER | Emily Fletcher

Last year, Emily Fletcher and her partners took a leap of faith. In the hours that followed, 129 people chose to walk across the street and take the leap alongside them. Leadership is easy to talk about. It is much harder to build the kind of trust that makes people willing to step into something uncertain alongside you. That is one of the reasons we sat down with Emily Fletcher. Emily is the Co-Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of OpenArc Corporate Advisory, one of the most talked-about independent wealth management firms in the country. But her path to leadership wasn’t something she mapped out. Starting her career in a support role, stepping away to raise her children, and eventually returning as the person people called when something needed to be fixed. Over time, that willingness to show up, solve problems and take care of people helped shape Emily to one of the most respected leaders in wealth management. We discussed things like: •Why she believes leadership begins with simply showing up. •How motherhood fundamentally changed the way she leads people. •Why women deserve a seat at the table and need to stop apologizing for taking it. •Her own battle with cancer and the moment she found herself planning her funeral at 45 years old. •What happened when her 14-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor doctors initially believed was inoperable. •How those experiences strengthened her faith and her perspective on adversity. •The future of OpenArc. What stands out most about Emily’s approach to leadership is that it doesn’t seem to come from a leadership book. It comes from lived experience, her unwavering trust in God, and a deeply held belief that the best organizations are the result of everyone bringing their own unique gifts and talents to the table. From raising three children. From leaving a career and starting again. From cancer. From sitting beside her daughter through treatment. From building relationships with people she has now worked alongside for decades. And from learning that sometimes leadership isn’t having the perfect answer. It’s being the person others know will still be there when things get difficult. As it pertains to life's challenges, Emily has profound advice. “If you hold onto it, you’re wasting the opportunity of what that lesson is.” That idea seems to explain a lot about the way Emily leads. This conversation is about wealth management and the extraordinary growth of OpenArc. But much more than that, it’s about leadership, motherhood, faith, resilience, friendship and what happens when people believe in something enough to step into the unknown. If you lead people, aspire to lead people, or simply appreciate stories about people who have been tested by life and continued to show up, we think you’ll enjoy this conversation.