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: Welcome financial advisors and to everyone else if you're happening to stumble by and listen to the episode. This is Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, I'm your host James Pollard, I've got Jonathan here, the mighty producer Jonathan, and I figured I would do something a little different to start off the show. I want to try some jokes.
Jonathan: What? Oh boy.
James: I googled jokes about the stock market and I found this article that a bunch of jokes from different celebrities and late night host and people like that, and these are jokes that were made during the 2008 financial crisis. You remember the crisis, Jonathan? [0:01:13.7]
Jonathan: I've got a big piece of my butt bitten on that one.
James: Did it impact you that much?
Jonathan: Yeah, my whole real estate business failed and I had to rebuild.
James: Wow. Now you got me a little nervous because as soon as we get done recording this broadcast I'm going to go to a mortgage place and we're going to shop around for a property.
Jonathan: You're buying a place? You know, we're getting sidetracked because I ended up sitting out this whole cycle because of that.
James: Yeah, I have been waiting and interest rates are the lowest since they've been since September 2017, so I'm going to pull the trigger now. I've just been sitting on the sidelines, and some people say that's good, some people say that's bad, they're like, "You should always just invest, invest, invest." but hey, we all make mistakes. If this is a mistake I'll know and I'll learn from it, but I don't think it will be. [0:02:01.7 ]
That's what I'll do. If you have a solid business as a financial advisor, the crises like that, they shouldn't impact you that much, and I'm not going to lie and say that you'll be completely immune because you're not, but it shouldn't hurt you as much as other people, your competition. So it's a blessing in disguise in the sense that you can continue to operate at a higher level than your competition and the gap between how you're operating and how they're operating is only going to be amplified during recession or a problem or a crisis that you have. I don't want to damper things down because we're going into the jokes.
Jonathan: Let's get them jokes, please.
James: Jokes coming at you. So this is from Conan O'Brien and he said, now remember this is from 2008 so we're going to date ourselves a little bit, or he dates himself with a joke. He said, "Today the stock market plunged 600 points and One Direction announced they're breaking up. Yes, both of these things happened. It was good timing for me because when people asked why I was sobbing uncontrollably I was able to blame it on the stock market." One Direction. Man, "You don't know you're beautiful." [0:03:10.1]
Jonathan: Man, do it up.
James: Karaoke for the next episode. The next joke comes from Jimmy Kimmel. He said, "Bill Gates alone lost 3.2 billion in the stock market today. To put that in perspective, that's like a regular person losing a dollar in the vending machine." I'm sure Bill is not missing that. By the way, if you've got some free time go over to YouTube and look up Bill Gates Warren Buffett Dairy Queen. I don't know if you've seen this Jonathan, it was very recent, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett took a day to work at the Dairy Queen, and it is some funny stuff. Warren Buffett owns Dairy Queen, it was funny because at one point Bill Gates was like, there's this is teenager who works there and Bill Gates was like, "Let him handle the high tech stuff." [0:04:00.9]
I'm like, "You founded Microsoft, man. He can handle the high tech stuff? What are you talking about?" You know that kid's going to go home be like, "Mom, guess who passed over the cash register to me today. Bill Gates." Like, "Yeah, okay,you can stop telling stories." "No, really." Thank goodness they got that on film because nobody'd believe that kid. Alright. One more joke, one more joke. This is from Jay Leno. He said, "The stock market crashed this week, but market analysts are not calling it a crash, they're calling it a correction. Oh shut up. A correction? You never hear that at NASCAR. 'Oh we had a fiery correction on turn three, four men are dead.'" Alright, now we got our laughs out of the way in the cheesiest way possible, we can talk about today's more serious topic, which is a few things I wish all new financial advisors know. I'm inspired to do this podcast episode because I have a product that's literally called Your First Year as a Financial Advisor, so you can tell I'm not very creative with these titles. [0:05:06.1]
Your First Year as a Financial Advisor is a 124 minute mp3 audio download, which you could download and listen to it right away, like within five minutes. At the time of this recording it's only $20. Now that could change.
Jonathan: What?
James: Only $20, Jonathan. I know that you're probably shocked as to why I priced it so low, and I don't want you to be ashamed of me Jonathan, so I'm going to explain why.
Jonathan: Okay.
James: Okay. First, it's because it's...
Jonathan: I'll fire you.
James: One of my ideas I have floating around in my head is to take this product and add a few bonuses to it and then charge a $100 for it. I want to see how well this does as a standalone product before I do that, and it's going to... I'm just being transparent. It's going to take me a while to get the data in and really make a solid decision, so if you're listening to this in like 2020 or 2021 or a year from now, I probably made that change by now, but if you're listening to this on the day it came out, it's probably still going to be $20. [0:06:03.7]
Second, the second reason is because new financial advisors are the ones who complain the most about how they can't afford what I offer. Well $20 is low enough that anyone can afford it, and if you're a new financial advisor and you're not willing to invest $20 in yourself, well I don't want to be harsh, but maybe you should look for a new career. Sorry.
Jonathan: Barista.
James: Yeah, barista. Go down to the Starbucks. That does sound crude to some people, but I don't know another way to put it. Do you, Jonathan? Like $20?
Jonathan: I thought you were being gentle. That's very, very kind and generous.
James: Very kind and very generous. I mean here I am, and if you've listened to, what is this, 26 episodes, I mean if you've listened to 26 episodes and you've never bought anything, I mean just $20, I mean just take the $20 and invest in yourself, it's a 124 minute mp3. Let's get into it. [0:07:01.0]
The thing I want to talk about first is that being a financial advisor, it's not for everyone. So if you're looking for an easy career where you can coast, you can do the bare minimum, this is not for you because being a financial advisor involves a lot of work and it's heavily weighted towards the beginning of your career. As a new financial advisor, get ready to bust your hump. When I say weighted towards the beginning of your career, I mean that in the first year or two or three you have to do a lot of marketing, you have to get your systems together, you have to build your marketing collateral which I talked about previous episodes, you have to do a lot of work, and that doesn't mean that you should coast later in your career, but in all honesty, like you could technically take it a lot easier because you've done a lot of the hard work and you've created the systems and you've got your foundation in place that will continue to work for you whether you continue to bring the heat or not. In my experience, one of the biggest reasons for the high turnover rate in a financial advisory field is because entry level financial advisors don't expect to do much prospecting marketing, and it is just a mindset thing. [0:08:13.5]
I mean not really a mindset thing, it's just like it's what they believe or what they've been told about the industry or the perception that they have. They think they'll be reading financial papers all day long.
Jonathan: Oh dear.
James: It's not true. The money's in the marketing. So if you're new or you maybe you're thinking about coming into the industry, just you've heard it from me, you're going to be marketing and you're going to be prospecting. I mean you're building a business, that's what it is. Like yes, you have a skill, and yes you have the service that you can offer, and yes you're helping people improve their lives, but you've got to get them in the door first. This is just the whole deal. You want to get people in front of you, and you have to, or otherwise you don't have a business, you know have much of a career, people aren't seeing you. [0:08:56.8]
Hey financial advisors, are you ready to take your business to the next level and get more clients with less stress? I invite you to join the James Pollard Inner Circle of Paper and Ink Newsletter that gets delivered directly to your door every month. When you join now you'll also get a 90-minute instant download called, "Five Keys to Success for Financial Advisors", a $97 value for absolutely free. All you have to do is head over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/newsletter and join today.
James: Make sure you know that. Being a financial advisor isn't for everyone, and there's no shame in trying it out, and I mean really trying it, like working, don't just go halfway this thing, make sure you go all in, but if you find out that it's really not for you, that's okay. There's no shame in that. Number two. Don't let your inexperience bother you. We did a whole podcast episode on this about why your experience doesn't matter or why you certifications don't matter as much as you think they do. [0:10:00.6]
You can go back and listen to that, and do these things help, sure, but I know a lot of new financial advisors who are making more money and they're making more of an impact than advisors who have been in the business 20 years. Simply because they are putting proven systems and proven techniques to work, and that's what it is. In one of my favorite books, there's a book called The Millionaire Fast Lane, and in that book they tell a story of two Egyptians and they, I can't remember all the details, it's been years since I've read it, but essentially the Pharaoh ordered these two guys to build pyramids. The first guy went to work right away and he would get the blocks and he would set them up and he would build his foundation and put the box there, but then he realized that he had to make a pyramid, he had to put a second layer and then a third layer and then a fourth layer, so he went and hired a personal trainer to help him work out and get buff and get stronger and he did the second layer. [0:11:01.2]
Then he worked out, worked out, worked out, then did the third layer, and eventually he couldn't do it anymore because he would have to drag these cinder blocks all the way up the pyramid, and there was really no way for him to do it. While the whole time that the first guy was working out and getting stronger, the second guy was building a machine to build the pyramid. The first guy would have his foundation, down and the second guy would have nothing because he'd be working on the machine. There would be no pyramid in sight, nobody could see the pyramid because it wasn't built. Well the first guy eventually gave up because he just couldn't get any stronger, he couldn't finish the pyramid, and the second guy finally completed his machine and he just built his pyramid like it was nothing because he had spent his time in the beginning building the machine. That's it, that's like the message I want to give to you. Is people may look at you and be like, "Where's your pyramid? Like you haven't even started, you haven't even put the blocks down yet. You haven't even made your second layer." He said, "Well, I'm making the machine, and eventually the machine is going to work for me, it's going to be able to pick these blocks up, it's going to build the pyramid so I don't have to break my back to do it." [0:12:09.7]
This is what you want to do. I kind of got off topic a little bit with that, but it is a great message. Speaking of the book Millionaire Fast Lane, I was reading another book called Outsiders by William Thorndyke, and it's a book where he profiled some of the best CEO's of all time, and these are CEO's that most people never heard of. They don't seek the limelight, they don't want publicity, they're focused on results for the company and for their shareholders, and they've found in almost every single case, I mean almost every single one, the best CEO's had no experience in the industry where they became successful. Did you catch that, Jonathan?
Jonathan: Take that. Yeah.
James: No experience. The best CEO's ever, the ones that have, they've made millions and millions and millions for the shareholders and they created tremendous value, and these people that have built empires. [0:13:05.6 ]
The best ones had no experience in the industry where they became successful. Whenever a financial advisor wants to get on his high horse and he's like, "I have tons of experience. I need to get clients. I don't know why this isn't working because I've had 10 years and I don't know what I'm doing, but I have all these certifications I have alphabet soup after my name, but yet I don't have enough money to invest in your products or services." I want you to think about this. Again, I know I'm repeating myself, this is important. The best CEO's had no experience, none. So experience is not your meal ticket, prospecting and marketing is. Building your skills, that's your meal ticket. Number three. I want you to be very careful about picking a mentor, and if you're new or you're thinking about joining the industry, or even if you are experienced and you're looking for someone to help you, this is good information. Right there on the sales page for Your First Year as a Financial Advisor product I have a bullet points which says this, it says, "Why seeking out a mentor is one of the worst things a new financial advisor can do." And Jonathan, I've gotten several emails from people asking me about that one. [0:14:21.7]
Jonathan: I bet.
James: It drives people crazy because they think if you're a new financial advisor you're supposed to look for a mentor, and in some cases, very, very rarely though, getting a mentor is a good thing, but when I'm speaking to a broad audience I need to give advice that is best for most people, and that advice is to be extremely careful about picking a mentor. In one of Dan Kennedy's books, I can't remember which one it is, he talks about how grizzled veterans, that's the term that he used, I remember that term but I don't remember the book, he talked about how they can contaminate new employees. It's because these experienced people, they're not fully aware of their own counterproductive habits, and they resent new people who might make them look lazy or ineffective. [0:15:12.4]
He actually mentioned the study where this company hired three new salespeople and they put them in the same office as the grizzled veterans. So three new sales people, they mixed them in with the experienced ones, and they found that in less than two weeks the old veterans ruined, completely ruined the new sales people. So the new ones had a bunch of success at the beginning, they were doing well, they started off with a bang, and then the results plummeted. So what they did was they got three more new sales people and they put them in another building, or maybe it was another office, it was something, they put them in a different environment, and they were the only ones there and they did just fine. That's pretty wild stuff, but it's directly applicable to financial advisors. So if you brand new, I mean hey, do what you want, more power to you, you choose who you want to listen to, but here I am giving you a study that literally says when you hang out with the experienced people they infect you. [0:16:14.3]
Toxic to a point. There's the data, do it you want with it, and I've seen it, I have seen it. If you're a new advisor and you don't get infected you tend to do well, you just have a blank slate and you can get it right from day one, you don't have anybody giving you this bad information. Just to recap, there's are three things I wish all new financial advisors know about, and I feel like the industry as a whole would be much better off if all financial advisors listen to this episode before starting their careers. Those three things were to be very, very picky about choosing a mentor, don't let your inexperience bother you, it doesn't matter as much as you think it does and all the stories you're telling yourself and how you're talking to yourself, and number one is being a financial advisor, it's not for everyone. [0:17:08.2]
There's no shame in admitting that it's not for you if you find out that it isn't. And by the way, I want to add one more thing. A lot of people think that you have to be an extrovert to succeed as a financial advisor. This is definitely a limiting belief, and it's a limiting belief that a lot of new financial advisors have, but what I have found, this is my experience, you can take it what you want, I'm only the guy that has basically mastered the subject, and I don't know, I'm the host Financial Advisor Marketing, so what I found is that introverts often make the best financial advisors. Why? Because introverts, they have a few qualities which almost always make them successful, and I don't have time right now to talk about the whole introvert extrovert thing because we're running out of time here on the podcast, but if you want to learn more make sure you go to TheAdvisorCoach.com, click on that products tab that says "for new advisors", find the product, it's there, Google it, Your First Year as a Financial Advisor the advisor coach, however you want to get it, get it and I talk about the introvert extrovert thing in depth there. That's pretty much it for this podcast Jonathan, those three things will help a lot of new advisors, I know it will. [0:18:23.4]
Jonathan: No kidding. So James, what you have coming up for us next time?
James: I'm actually going to talk about how financial advisors can take more time off, and they can get time freedom in their business.
Jonathan: What? No, no, no, I got to hear that.
James: Time off. I mean hey, some people want that, some people want it. True wealth, at least in a sense that some people understand it, is about having free time. So you can say I'm going to help financial advisors become wealthier.
Jonathan: Look at this guy. Alright, that is a wrap for another Financial Advisor Marketing; we will be back in your ear buds next time, thank you for tuning in.
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