You're listening to “Financial Advisor Marketing”—the best show on the planet for financial advisors who want to get more clients, without all the stress. You're about to get the real scoop on everything from lead generation to closing the deal.
James is the founder of TheAdvisorCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisors grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard.
James: I came across this completely unscientific, albeit interesting poll online the other day. It was about personality types, and since I talk about personality all the time on the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, I figured I'd share it with you. It asked, “Which personality type is the most difficult to manipulate, deceive and socially engineer?” Ooh, that's a juicy question. [00:54.4]
The question was asked in a Myers–Briggs subreddit, so I think it's safe to say that these respondents know at least a little bit about personality types. The most common response was the INTJ personality type, which so happens to be my personality, woot woot. Next was the ENTJ. After that was the ENTP, and then the INFJ.
If you haven't taken the Myers–Briggs personality test, I highly recommend that you do it now. Just get it over with. Go to Google, if you still use Google as a search engine, and type in Myers–Briggs personality test. Take it online, online, free, whatever, and figure out what your personality type is.
But let's go through that again. INTJ, ENTJ, ENTP, and INFJ. I thought that was very interesting, so I went to ChatGPT and I asked the same question. ChatGPT said, the hardest personality types to fool were the INTJ, again. Wow, very cool for me. That was the number one answer. Then the INTP. Then the ENTJ, and finally, the INFJ. [02:09.6]
So, pretty much the same exact answers as the poll, except ChatGPT said INTP instead of ENTP, but I don't think that matters too much, because it's simply introversion versus extroversion. That's what the “I” is and that's what the “E” is.
Now, I have a question for you. Did you notice anything interesting about these personality types? Let's see how much attention you paid here. Maybe they all have something in common. Huh, I'll tell you, every single one had the N-personality preference. You have INTJ, ENTJ, ENTP, and INFJ, all N. In the Myers–Briggs, you are either an N or an S. N stands for intuitive and S stands for sensing. [02:57.2]
Here are some of the differences, because I don't expect you to know all of this stuff. N people focus on patterns, connections and overarching concepts. They're interested in what could be rather than what is. They like to think about the long term implications of their decisions.
S people focus more on specific, tangible ideas and facts and they want to live in the moment. They prefer to rely on what their senses tell them. That's why it's sensing. They want to look at what they can see and touch and hear. They're more interested in, I guess, practicality is a good word, just like immediate usefulness instead of long-term possibilities. They want stuff now they rely on immediate gratification, so they’re using their senses. They're very sensuous, I guess, and I was going to say sensual, but I guess that depends on . . . . Maybe they are sensual, I don't know. So, the S type or sensing, those people are easier to fool and deceive. [03:55.0]
Here's a dark psychological truth you won't hear anywhere else. So-called marketing gurus love to prey on S types because S types are easily manipulated. How do they do it? I'll tell you. For starters, S-type personalities tend to prioritize, like I told you, the immediate, tangible, short-term results over everything else. This means they're vulnerable to falling for quick fixes, short-term hacks and bright shiny objects. When I talk about bright shiny object chasers, I'm almost certainly talking about S types, because they are the types that just do that.
To illustrate, people with the S in their personality, they love, they love, love, love step-by-step tactics. When gurus present cookie-cutter funnels and one-size-fits-all marketing plans, the S advisors scramble to get them. They love just like “Do this thing and you'll get a bajillion dollars in the next 30 seconds.” That is what they love. S types love that. Never mind that the gurus’ materials don't consider the advisors’ unique goals or their niche markets. [05:02.8]
The only thing the S people want is quick and easy. They want it now. They want money to rain down from this guy. They prefer focusing on what they can do, which is tactical, rather than stepping back and thinking about why they're doing those things, which is strategy. This makes them vulnerable, because gurus sell tactical tools while avoiding the hard conversations about long-term positioning, building systems and building trust. Tactics are just noise without strategies.
This is sad to me because S advisors struggle to see the long game. They struggle to think in the long term, and the gurus know it. The gurus promise quick wins without addressing the importance of things like consistency, patience and adaptability, all of the things that you need in order to build a business. But forget about all those things. You don't need that. You just need this thing that you can do in 30 seconds and get a bajillion dollars. [05:55.6]
The results that people get from following these manipulative gurus are superficial at best and unsustainable at worst, and this cycle keeps repeating because S-personality types rarely stop to ask the bigger questions, because it's not in their nature. You wouldn't expect a dog to meow or a cat to bark. You wouldn't expect an S to ask bigger questions. It is not a bad thing. It doesn't make them bad people. It is just not in their nature.
They are so focused on immediate execution that they overlook whether the tactics they're buying into align with their broader goals or even if they make sense in the first place. They want action steps, not vision, and that is where the gurus swoop in. They act like they're saving the day because they have this little foolproof solution packaged up that works for anyone and has a 100% money-back guarantee, and just all of these things that S types will buy into. [06:51.2]
Don't get me wrong. I don't want you to get this message twisted. Tactics are useful. There's no denying that. Tactics are awesome sometimes. They're the actionable steps that allow you to execute on a plan and get measurable results. Tactics are necessary, but they're not sufficient, because the problem isn't with tactics themselves. It's with relying solely on tactics without a solid strategy to guide them.
Here's the distinction. Tactics are the tools in your toolbox. These are the things like email scripts and social media ads or client-outreach templates, all things that I love, things that I've given financial advisors, both for free and I've sold these things, and I've given them to my Inner Circle members. I have been involved with tactics for forever. I've been helping financial advisors for a decade now. Of course, I am deep into tactics. But strategy, on the other hand, is the blueprint and you need that, too. It is the bigger picture, and the strategy answers questions like, “Who is my ideal client? What am I trying to achieve? What's my unique value proposition? And how do all of the tactics that I have or that I can acquire work together to build a cohesive marketing system?” [08:01.4]
S types struggle because they miss the strategy part. They get so hung up in the tactics that they can be manipulated by anyone who offers them tactics. When you start with a strategy, however, tactics simply become tools to execute your vision rather than ends in themselves. N types, the intuitive personality types, they start with the strategy and then move on to tactics, and that is how it should be done.
For example, a financial advisor with no strategy might buy into a webinar marketing system or whatever it could be, anything, because it promises quick appointments, but without understanding how that thing, in this case, webinars, I guess, fits into his business itself, he doesn't understand why it's there. He might burn through leads. He might burn through money. He might throw good money after bad. It's just not a good situation, because his actual business might not even be set up to profit from webinars. [08:56.6]
What's even crazier is that sometimes these tactics are good fits for financial advisors, which means the gurus do have a few success stories. It's kind of like a broken clock being right twice a day, and when that happens, these gurus get even more credibility because they say, “Hey, look, it worked for this guy, this one situation over here with these special circumstances. It worked. Therefore I'm going to use that testimonial and that case study as fuel for my garbage dumpster fire,” and it is not a good look.
On the other hand, let's say you have a financial advisor with a strategy, and that financial advisor might decide, My goal is to position myself as a trusted expert for pre retirees. I will use webinars, I guess, and targeted email campaigns and direct mail and social media, which are the tactics, to build relationships with my audience over time. In that case, every tactic down to the webinars and the emails and everything else, those things serve that larger purpose. They serve the purpose of building relationships with pre-retirees over time. The tactics don't exist in a vacuum. [10:09.6]
Also, S types can be overly trusting of what looks credible to them. This means they're more likely to be duped by polished presentations and slick webinars. Basically, they're more likely to trust something simply because it looks good. This overreliance on appearances makes them prime targets for gurus and for marketers who know how to package their offerings in ways that look professional and trustworthy, even if the substance behind that packaging is lacking.
For example, a flashy webinar with impressive graphics, a smooth-talking presenter and a few cherry-picked testimonials can easily convince an S type to buy into a system that doesn't actually address that person's unique needs. Instead of digging deeper to ask, “Does this align with my goals or my audience, or my long-term strategy?” they may assume, “This looks good. This looks professional, so it must work.” [11:10.3]
I know that sounds kind of silly if you're an N type like me, if you're an INTJ or an ENTJ or ENTP or whatever, but that is how S types think. Again, it does not make them bad people. It is not a bad thing. It is not a good thing. Obviously, there is benefit in having these traits, because otherwise they wouldn't exist. I mean, people have evolved and grown, and it takes all different types of people to make the world go round. We need S's in our world. It’s not good, it's not bad. But this superficial trust is basically looking at a marketing package or presentation or webinar or website or LinkedIn profile and saying, “Oh, this looks good,” and just going with that that leads to wasted time, wasted money, wasted energy, all of these things, chasing solutions that don't deliver meaningful results. [11:58.5]
Listen up, financial advisors. This is something special I'm doing exclusively for people who listen to this podcast. If you subscribe to the Inner Circle Newsletter over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, I will send you a collection of seven copyright-free emails, personally written by me, that you can use right away to begin getting more clients.
I call these my “objection-busting” emails, because they are designed to overcome the biggest objections financial advisors face. All you have to do is send me an email letting me know you’ve subscribed and I will reply with a link where you can download them for free.
I originally offered these in the May 2024 Inner Circle Newsletter issue, and it was one of the most popular bonuses I've ever given away. Today, these seven objection-busting, copyright-free emails are only available to listeners of this podcast, because I'm not mentioning them anywhere else. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to subscribe today. Now, back to the show.
What's more, I know I'm going on and on and on about S types, but it's simply because I want to truly help you. I want to expose this crazy nonsense going on in the financial advisor marketing industry, where these people are just manipulating the heck out of S type because they can, and they get away with it most of the time. I just want to do a service this week and tell you what's going on. [13:19.3]
S types, they often place a lot of emphasis, a lot of emphasis on doing things, quote-unquote, “the right way.” They will spend a lot of time and money looking for how to market in the marketing world the right way. But when it comes to marketing, there is no right way. Some ways are better than others. Sure, I talk about cutting your lawn with scissors versus cutting your lawn with the riding mower. Yeah, some ways are better than others, but it all comes back to that overarching strategy that S types struggle with.
They think that looking for, again, quote-unquote, “the right way” to do something will reduce their risk. They think that if they find someone who has done something or has this system that's already prepackaged and they are promising results or whatever, that that reduces risk, but the truth is it actually skyrockets their risk because it keeps them from thinking critically about whether a method is truly right for their business. That is super risky. [14:17.8]
If a tactic has worked for someone else, they're more likely to believe it will work for them without ever asking if their circumstances or their goals are the same, and my friend, that's one of the riskiest things you can do. The goal isn't to dismiss tactics entirely. It's to help S types shift their mindset, even if they can do it just a little bit, from “Does this tactic work?” to “Does this tactic work for me right now within my strategy?” That's the difference between staying stuck in a cycle of short-term wins and building something sustainable and meaningful over the long term. [14:54.0]
To help you tell if you're likely being manipulated, here are a few things that you want to watch out for. You want to watch out for an excessive focus on quick wins, like get 20 clients in two weeks or get 60 appointments in three days, or anything crazy like that. Yes, quick wins exist. Yes, it's possible to get a quick win in marketing, I help financial advisors get quick wins all the time, but that excessive focus where that's all they have, be very careful.
Another thing to look out for is one-size-fits-all solutions, and to be a hundred percent candid with you, some marketing strategies can be one-size-fits-all, but tactics cannot. Being a good communicator, for example, that's an example of a strategy that tends to be one-size-fits-all. Almost all financial advisors can benefit from the strategy of being a good communicator. List building is another one. Almost all financial advisors can benefit from the strategy of list building, but the tactics used to communicate, the tactics used to build the list, that's where things get a little more nuanced. [15:56.1]
Another thing to look out for is a reliance on emotional pitches that lack substance. If someone is just beating you over the head with emotion, yes, emotion is cool. Yes, emotion is fun in marketing. But, again, it's like an overreliance and they're leaning too much into this. They're going too hard with the emotional side.
Another thing is no long-term perspective. That's a telltale sign. If it's all the next three weeks or three days or 30 minutes, just that short-term focus. That is a huge red flag.
Another one that I didn't fully appreciate until I started getting deeper in the financial advisor marketing world, because I used to be involved in marketing for a long time before I started helping financial advisors and I come from the world of marketing and copywriting, but when I started helping financial advisors and really got deep into that world, I started to realize that an overreliance on guarantees is a big red flag.
Now, as a marketer, I love guarantees. I've studied copywriting for forever, like Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton, and Eugene Schwartz. These are all people that copywriters and marketers know, and they love guarantees, because guarantees increase conversions. I recognize that. I recognize that guarantees can get more sales. [17:07.8]
If I'm offering you a pair of shoes that I say, “It will reduce fatigue from standing on your feet all day,” then I will increase the odds of selling those shoes, if I tell you, “If they don't work, you can just bring them back and I'll give you your money back. These shoes are 100% money-back guaranteed. If the shoes don't work, I will refund every single penny.” That increases conversions. That will sell more shoes.
Guarantees themselves are not bad. I used to offer guarantees. I still have guarantees on a few of my products. But the problem is, when people lean way, way too hard on those guarantees, that is a red flag. That's one reason why my Inner Circle doesn't even have a money-back guarantee. It never has and it likely never will, because I don't want to get close to attracting the sorts of people who are swayed by guarantees. I don't want those people as my clients. If someone is going to teeter-totter and finally fall down because of a guarantee or get off the fence because of a guarantee, I don't want that person. [18:05.8]
Plus, I don't want to be lumped in the same category as the manipulators who lean extremely hard into the guarantees because they have no actual substance. Again, guarantees aren't necessarily bad. A lot of these red flags can be used sparingly and it's okay to see them every so often. However, leaning too much into a guarantee is bad. Leaning too much into the emotional side is bad. Leaning too much into the quick-wins stuff is bad, because it is usually a crutch for masking a lack of substance. There's nothing there. There's no actual stuff that can help you over the long term.
Why am I sharing all of this information with you in this week's episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast? Two reasons.
Reason number one is because I want to warn you if you're an S-type financial advisor. I want to give you the playbook on what to look for if you're approached by an unscrupulous marketing coach, consultant, guru or lead-gen agency. [19:02.0]
Reason number two is because I think I’ve finally cracked the code on why so many of my Inner Circle members are N types. I've noticed this for years, because I would ask them, “Hey, which personality type?” It came up when I had podcast episodes about personalities. Then Inner Circle members would email me and say, “Oh, you inspired me to take this personality test. Here's my personality type,” and I just started noticing a pattern. I have a ton of N types in my Inner Circle.
You see, N financial advisors aren't like those who fall for goofy promises and big claims. They crave depth. They crave strategy. They crave—there's that magic word again—“substance.” They want to understand the why behind what works, not just the how. They're willing to put in the effort to master the strategies that lead them to long-term sustainable success. Rather than chasing after the next shiny object, they're interested in having something work for the next three years, five years, 10 years, instead of just the next three weeks or three days. [20:01.8]
I really thought a lot about this. I have mapped this out. I've written this down so I don't forget it. Here are the reasons why I think N types thrive in my Inner Circle. First, they focus on strategies, not tactics. We've talked about this a lot in this podcast episode. N advisors naturally focus on the overarching strategy. They understand that the road to success isn't about using a single email template or following a trendy tactic. It's about building a system that works over time.
N financial advisors naturally gravitate toward concepts and frameworks and principles. Those are the things that allow them to connect the dots between their efforts, what they're doing, and their tactics, and their outcomes over the long term. Instead of obsessing over which tactic to use today, they want to understand how everything fits together in a big picture, a grand scheme of their business, and this aligns perfectly with the in-depth strategy-focused approach I provide in the Inner Circle. [21:01.6]
Next, N financial advisors value connections. They value patterns. They can see the connections among the concepts I teach and apply them to their entire businesses. This is especially true for financial advisors at companies like Edward Jones, Ameriprise, Raymond James, and so on. Even though they have stricter compliance departments, they still thrive because they absorb my marketing philosophy, not just the tactics.
If I talk about a certain philosophy that I use in email marketing, they don't come back to me and say, “Oh, James, boo hoo. I can't use that specific tactic in that exact way.” They say, “James, thank you so much for sharing your philosophy on how to do X, Y and Z in email marketing. I'm actually going to use the strategy behind that tactic and I'm going to apply it where I can. I'm going to apply it to my phone calls or my in-person presentations or my seminars, or when I'm meeting people in my community. I'm going to apply the strategy. I'm going to apply the philosophy.” That is a classic, classic N-type move. [22:01.3]
Finally, N-type financial advisors are long term thinkers. This is arguably the most important piece, especially because my Inner Circle is a long-term commitment. N types understand that building a strong, sustainable business takes time. It takes effort. If you don't get that, then you're probably not going to be a good fit. It takes time.
Instead of looking for quick wins, they're focused on planting seeds, because those seeds will grow into a thriving business over years. That is a long-term perspective, and it's a huge advantage in the financial advice world where trust and relationships take time to build. So, if you really struggle with planting the seeds in your marketing, you're probably going to struggle to plant the seeds in your referral marketing and your networking, and the client relationships that you have. Being a long-term thinker helps you focus on mastery, not gimmicks.
N types aren't interested in the cookie cutter stuff. They're not interested in surface-level advice. Sure, they might take it. They're not going to turn it down. They're just going to examine it thoughtfully and see if it applies to their specific situation. They want to deeply understand the psychology and the strategies, and the systems that create lasting success. [23:12.5]
That's why I say, unapologetically, if you are an S advisor who only cares about immediate results, then my Inner Circle probably is not for you, and that's okay. That's okay. It takes all kinds. But if you're an N-type financial advisor, you will love it. I guess I should say, you'll probably love the content I share each month, because I don't know you. I don't know your specific situation. I'm sure there are exceptions, but generally speaking, N types and I go together like peanut butter and jelly.
Actually, I'll just keep it a hundred percent real with you. If you are someone who has been thinking about becoming an Inner Circle member, then I want you to do this. I want you to take the Myers–Briggs personality test, and if you are an S type, it's probably not a good fit for you. But if you're an N-personality type person—it’s actually called a preference, but I keep saying type—if you're the N-personality preference, then the Inner Circle is probably a good fit for you. It is a very good sign. [24:10.3]
I'm not going to try to sell you if you're genuinely not a good fit. I'm not going to sit here and B.S. you and act like it's for everyone, because it's absolutely not. I want you to try it. I want you to see what you get on the Myers–Briggs personality test, then and only then, come back to me. You can go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching once you're done with your personality test.
In any case, I hope this episode helps someone, because I'm sick and I'm tired of seeing all the manipulation out there in the marketing world. There are so many so-called coaches, consultants, gurus, experts and lead-gen agencies who are doing nothing but trying to make a fast buck from the S-type financial advisors, and they should be ashamed of themselves. I hope this episode helps some people wake up to what is going on out there, and I will catch you next week. [24:54.0]
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