Meet Patrick Johnson of WellthPartner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Johnson

Hi Patrick, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My decision to commit to wealth management began in my mid twenties with an awareness of how much delight in connecting with folks about the important stuff of life – and how the financial planning process creates such a powerful opportunity to go there quickly.

But I quickly realized the profession had not moved as much toward the heartcenteredness as I’d hoped. And my narrative at the time was that I wasn’t in the position as a rookie to say “I’m going to do it my way.” Perhaps I should have. But I didn’t and I was pulled into the current of the typical industry path – focusing more on why my firm and products were better than the next firm’s, and all that. There was certainly a personal dimension to the work, but it just felt more like a sales job. It was a technical sale because investment strategies can be incredibly complex, and I enjoy helping others understand complex paradigms – so that was fun – but it felt more transactional and less relational.
I felt something was missing and by my early thirties I’d had enough success and recognition that I felt I could start trying to move the profession a bit. I was incredibly naïve – but I was feeling something of a ‘try or die’ sentiment welling up inside me. In 2011ish, I was president of the Financial Planning Association of Colorado. And part of the President’s job is to make sure the annual symposium was well-attended because that’s where the budget was made or lost for the year. So, I figured that was my opportunity and with the support of some other well-respected and tenured thought leaders, I took the organization down the path of symposium topics such as behavioral finance, evolving the financial planning process to ask about the whole person, and things like that – what was then called ‘the softer side’ of financial planning.

Ha! I believe that even to this day, my year offered up the lowest attendance ever at a symposium! The profession was still more interested in the technical and tactical. And that’s super important; but it wasn’t where I wanted to go with my practice. And my attempts to steer things the way I wanted them to go within the industry was met by a resounding ‘meh’. And I just wasn’t in a place where I wanted to swim against the current that hard and try to create it all myself. So, as I saw it, the deeper and more meaningful aspects of financial well-being were being overlooked and that left me frustrated unfulfilled.

So, for a host of reasons, some of which were related to various dimensions of professional dissatisfaction, my wife and I made a life-altering decision to check out. It was around 2017, and we’d lived with our kids at 5th and Clayton in Cherry Creek and also down in Ken Caryl. We’d experienced both city and urban living and neither seemed to fit us. So, between not feeling at home in my professional life or in my circumstances, we decided to try out a whole different deal.

We bought raw land in North Georgia with intentions to start an organic farm, eager to embrace a new way of living despite having zero building or farming experience. But it’s an itch my wife and I wanted to scratch – the common dream of ‘the simple life’ with a cabin in the woods, a little garden, some chickens and a pond. Well, I didn’t know how to hang a faceplate on a light switch or if carrots grew out of the ground or off trees. But were fortunate that the financial planning checked out if I maintained a small practice, and circumstances lined up almost miraculously.
We were curious about a new way of living and our family was eager for the move which we called ‘the grand adventure’. It was a beautiful, humbling and transformative period on so many levels. Those first few years spending such rich time together as a family, clearing land, building structures with logs we milled on the property, planting crops, and building relationships with our community – all allowed us to really connect with what we believed truly mattered. We’d qualified our family values a year, or so, before the move to set something of a north star since we tended to vacillate weekly around such a big decision. Our values were love, family, community, and harmony. And those early years at the farm satisfied all those values deeply.

It was a profoundly beautiful season, until it wasn’t.

I won’t bore anyone with the details here. But it can suffice to say that we had a real beat-down season which began about our third year into the farm experience – so when I was in my early 40s: financial devastation, huge health challenges during which my whole family struggled – and was so bad for me that I was in and out of a bedridden state from Lyme disease. And we suffered mightily from emotional, relational and existential strains due to all sorts of challenging circumstances. Ultimately, around 2016, we had to leave everything and move back to the arid climate of Colorado when my son’s lungs began fibrosing (turning to cardboard) quickly due to mold exposure.

It was a trying time, but it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The challenges helped to trigger a personal awakening. I’ve written a novel about all this called One Conscious Breath. And that’s what it was – in a very real sense I ‘woke up’ when I breathed for the first time. My way of seeing things just suddenly flipped. It’s like God just swapped the lenses on me – from lenses of fear and anxiety to lenses of love and expansion. I wouldn’t have said I was a fearful or anxious person in all the years before – I had plenty of friends and my wife thought I was great. But when I woke up everything just sort of flipped for me and I realized I had been! All the success I’d had had been built while fearful of worst case scenarios and anxious they’d come to pass. I believe I actually created all those tough circumstances I went through.

But after my ‘breath’, there was an absolute peace that it was ‘all good’ no matter the circumstances – and that’s saying something because the awakening happened in the midst of the worst of the circumstances. And that peace has not left me since. And even more fun, to extend the lenses metaphor, these new glasses allow me to see a lot of things differently – people, in particular. I saw and see so clearly that everyone has a bright light to shine that is their most authentic expression of self. And my life has been spent ever since helping lift burdens and provide resources so people can see themselves as I see them to be and can expand and thrive into that vision.
I love my profession, and I suddenly saw my opportunity to serve clients differently as well. Before the farm experiment, I’d allow myself to be frustrated with my career and think, “Why be a change agent… I should just shift careers”. But it was suddenly clear to me that posture was rooted in fear of failure and lack of faith. The new lenses allowed me to say, “Why not try?”. That’s one small example of how everything was just framed differently for me after my experience. And it’s a good example because it was that “Why not try?” that has led to all the success I and my team are enjoying now.
I’d developed a profound conviction that wealth is vibrant rainbow, and that money is one of the colors. I we have been hard at work helping folks relate to their wealth differently – as well-being, as ‘wellth’. Using research and science from The National Wellness Institute and American Psychological Association, we have qualified the seven dimensions of well-being which we lean into with clients, and you can see those colors swirling together in our branding. And we have the great fortune to partner with clients as they embrace a more holistic understanding of their wealth and we walk with them on that beautiful journey.

We start by clearing obstacles and lifting burdens within the financial dimension of well-being since that is our primary area of tactical expertise. We start there then lean into the other dimensions of well-being, as clients are inclined. We don’t headlock them into taking us up on the health and wellness client benefits. But our health and wellness client benefits are legit and are robust – and those who do take us up on the offerings are experiencing wellth on a whole new level. That has been profoundly satisfying. Effectively, I’ve created what I was too afraid to dream about before moving to the farm.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been anything but smooth, as I spoke to a bit earlier. Financial devastation, chronic illness, and nearly losing my son, the challenges of providing for my family, and the near fracture of very close relationships were among the most difficult challenges I faced.

And those were challenging by anyone’s definition – but I realized it was far more about how I related to the circumstances than the circumstances themselves. Before my personal awakening, I approached these obstacles with fear and anxiety, which only magnified their impact. After my awakening, I shifted to viewing life through a lens of love, expansion, and trust. And that shift has made all the difference. It’s not like all the challenges suddenly evaporated – and I continue to have the same challenges that anyone with family work and social responsibilities has. But it’s how I relate to them now that makes all the difference.

I learned that the journey isn’t about avoiding obstacles but about how we relate to them. Challenges are tough and can be awful – but they also built resilience and clarity. This shift in perspective has smoothed the path—not by removing obstacles, but by transforming how I navigate them.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about WellthPartner?
WellthPartner is a strategic partner of of SRS Capital, a division of Arax Investment Partners, a $20 billion consortium. We specialize in combining traditional wealth management with health and wellness offerings to provide clients with a truly holistic experience.

WellthPartner is committed to partnering with clients as they integrate a broader sense of well-being into tactical financial planning. We recognize that financial stress is one of the leading burdens people face, and addressing that stressor head on outside of any iteration of a sales paradigm opens the door to greater peace and fulfillment. Our trademarked process, the WellthMap, explores all dimensions of well-being to create strategies that support our clients’ aspirations.

Unlike other firms that may stop at surface-level planning, we go deeper. We offer resources like community-based lifestyle medicine programs, functional medicine, robust education, life and spiritual coaching, discounts on supplements, etc. Our mission is to help clients achieve a balanced life where wealth is understood as well-being – as ‘wellth’. The results speak for themselves: our clients report not only financial security but also a greater sense of peace and purpose.

Ultimately, we view ourselves as partners in our clients’ journeys toward living their fullest lives. This philosophy has fueled our success and continues to inspire everything we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wellthpartner.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-johnson-9927a2349/