The People Behind the Ecosystem

Ray Croff is the founder of the Trusted Advisor Collaborative and CEO of NorthStar Value Group. He is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) and Certified Value Growth Advisor (CVGA) with over 15 years of experience working directly with business owners on value building, succession planning, and exit strategy.

Ray's perspective is shaped by something most advisors lack: he has been on the other side of the table. As a former business owner who ran a company with employees, equipment, and real estate, he understands the complexity, the emotional weight, and the financial stakes of transitioning a business — not just as a concept, but as a lived experience.

That firsthand knowledge led Ray to develop the Owner's Roundtable — a structured educational process for helping business owners understand and increase the value of their companies. From that foundation, he created the Growth and Exit Roundtable program, a 6-module roundtable series that has helped business owners across the country prepare for growth, transition, and exit.

In 2020, Ray was named one of the best CEPAs in the United States and served as Dallas Chapter President of the Exit Planning Institute. He previously built and led the Advisors Edge platform, which connected advisors with business owner clients through education-first roundtables. The Trusted Advisor Collaborative is the next evolution of that work — a fully modernized, team-based platform built under NorthStar Value Group.

Patrick K. Smith is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for NorthStar Value Group, the Trusted Advisor Collaborative, and the Business Owner Platform. As a Growth Architect and CTO, he brings over 40 years of real-world business scaling experience — from managing 100-door truck docks to building multi-state real estate firms averaging millions in annual sales.

Patrick's philosophy is simple: a business should serve its owner, not the other way around. He pioneered "Relationship Marketing" principles in the 1990s — principles that remain the foundation of how the NorthStar Value Group (NSVG) builds trust with business owners today. He combines those time-tested frameworks with the most advanced AI-powered growth tools available, helping advisors and business owners organize their models, automate the busy work, and build companies that run independently of their daily presence.

In 2013, a serious automobile accident forced Patrick to step back from his businesses. His recovery attorney recognized the power of the marketing and growth systems Patrick had built — and asked if he could replicate them for other clients. That moment became the spark for his current work: helping business owners build systems that scale without them, and creating assets valuable enough to sell.

At the NSVG, Patrick architects the marketing infrastructure that gives every platform a consistent, professional presence — from automated follow-up systems and content libraries to AI-powered outreach tools and the brand identity that positions the team as a trusted authority in their market.