By Alec Rich
Perhaps more than most in the RIA industry, John Davis knows all too well that the devil is in the details.
Davis, a senior investment research analyst at RIA aggregator Dynamic Advisor Solutions, took a winding road to get where he is today, notably spending almost a decade in the mixed martial arts (MMA) circuit. A self-described ‘technical competitor,’ Davis, 43, said his hyper-focus on the little things continues to play a significant role in his professional life, albeit in a very different context from the world of combat sports he once knew.
‘Everything I did was drilled over and over again until I knew exactly what I was doing in every situation, Davis said. ‘Those are the kinds of things that have really lent themselves well to what I do now. Being able to test things thoroughly, being okay with watching something break in practice so that it doesn’t break when it’s time to put it in front of a client.’
In many ways, to understand Davis’ mentality and path to wealth management is to understand his enduring relationship with his father.
Davis’ father, a college wrestler and coach at the University of Florida-turned-financial advisor, started a kids wrestling club in Gainesville when Davis was in third grade. One of three children, Davis said he and his younger brother began wrestling from that point on, with their father as a coach.
‘I didn’t have a chance,’ Davis said jokingly. ‘I was going to be a wrestler.’
And wrestle he did, all the way through his teenage years and eventually at the Division I college level at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he became a three-time Southern conference champion and went undefeated in conference play.
There, Davis struck up a friendship with the school’s athletic trainer, a part-time MMA fighter. The two began exchanging techniques and training together. Once Davis graduated, the trainer asked him if he was interesting in entering the MMA world more formally, an offer Davis couldn’t resist.
‘It’s an itch that only doing stuff like that scratches, and I guess I just wasn’t ready to be done competing at the end of college,’ Davis said. ‘Being competitive, it’s a switch, it’s not a dial. You’re either on or you’re off, and I wasn’t ready to flip the switch off yet, so I kept going.’
Davis spent the next roughly nine years competing across various MMA leagues, using his wrestling background to fight to an 11-0 record as an amateur and 2-0 as a professional. His father was in his corner for two of those fights.
Davis said his years in the cage not only taught him a great deal about himself, but also instilled in him the various ‘intangibles’ he’d continue to carry throughout his life.
‘Things that always come back are work ethic, perseverance, outlasting the other guy, being able to be coached,’ Davis said. ‘That’s a big deal in any career path, you have to be able to take criticism constructively and be productive with it, and not take it so personally. That’s something you learn through lots and lots of ups and downs in a hyper-competitive environment.’
When his MMA career did eventually draw to a close, Davis found himself at a bit of a career impasse. He spent the following few years teaching and coaching wrestling at various high schools in Chattanooga and back home in Gainesville.
While he enjoyed the mentorship aspect of those gigs, Davis said he often found himself without anything to do during summer breaks. That led to a true full circle moment when Davis began working at his father’s firm, Falcon Financial Management, during those months off from teaching.
After quickly taking an interest in the wealth space, Davis began working full-time on the brokerage side of the house, doing commission work at Falcon in 2015. When his father retired, he sold Falcon to Florida-based RIA CollaborativeWEALTH. Davis continued working there, learning the ins and outs of model construction and growing fonder of assisting advisors with his technical expertise.
‘I found that I liked doing analytics more than actually talking to clients, looking under the hood,’ Davis said. ‘So I gravitated more towards a level of being the advisor’s advisor.’
Davis went on to manage a portfolio of roughly $250m before eventually joining Dynamic in 2022 as an associate portfolio trader.
Davis described his approach to the wealth management world as a kind of all-consuming passion that has become a ‘lifestyle,’ much like his days in MMA. He added that his desire to win continues to define his mindset, although these days he applies it to due diligence and research so advisors feel confident interfacing with clients.
‘I couldn’t have seen this coming, but making sure that the things I’ve picked up along the way, I maintain those things and find ways to leverage those experiences and expertise in what I do going forward has always played a big part in continued success,’ Davis said. ‘I’d like to think that I try to bring that along in everything I do, and infect the people around me with it as well.’
‘There’s no end point to getting better, right?’ Davis added. ‘You just keep getting better.’