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. [00:32]
James: Today I have another incredible guest for you here on Financial Advisor Marketing. Sometimes I amaze myself at how I'm able to get such high quality people in the show. The gentleman I have today, he has such a depth of knowledge and wisdom that advisors can tap into. I am absolutely honored to have on the show this week Coach Joe Lukacs, thank you so much for being here.
Joe: And it's wonderful to be with you and your audience, I'm looking forward to digging in.
James: So we are actually recording this episode, obviously in the past, if you've been listening to the show for any length of time, you know we'd record them well in advance. We're actually recording this in March when stuff is hitting the fam with Corona virus, we talked a little bit about it before we even went on the air. Coach Joe, do you have any advice for advisors dealing with this crazy stuff. Hopefully it'd be over by the time they listen to it but for the next time I suppose. What should they do? [01:20]
Joe: Well, you know it….You know James it’s interesting. You know when in times like this, when there's a, when there's challenges, right? There's uncertainty, so this is when advisors have got to make decisions and I mean very conscious decisions on what this means to them. The one thing all advisors need right now is a sense of certainty because if you're, if you're operating in the, “I don't know zone,” then how can you communicate? How can you influence? How can you lead not only your clients who desperately are looking for you to do that, but how can you go ahead and key in the market and fill business. Reality is that in times of high emotional pain is where the real true marketing and business development opportunities are. The challenge is 80% of advisors are so focused on playing defense and surviving, they aren't even asking the simple question, “What can I do to grow my business during this time?” [02:15]
James: Sure. Yeah. I'm seeing the same thing. Some advisors are freaking out. It's amazing to see like the dichotomy here where I've got some advisers who were coming to me and obviously I don't do one on one coaching like you do. So they come to me and they're like freaking out. And then there are others who are just doing totally fine and really digging in and really appreciate any opportunity they have in front of them.
Joe: Yup.
James: So it's amazing to see the difference.
Joe: Yeah. And you know, you know, it's I think everybody can be a really good adviser in normal times when, when we have times, like now where high levels of uncertainty. It really kind of shows the kind of the mental wherewithal somebody has. And you know, I've said for decades, this is the ultimate personal development business. This is 80% mindset, 20% action taking, right? [02:59]
And so it's very simple to split advisers into two camps. I can't tell you it's, I think its equal camp. I think a majority of advisors are going to be in what I'll call the ‘No Go Zone,’ you know scarcity, survival, not sure what this means, uncertainty. And then you're going to have, unfortunately, it's going to be a minority of advisors who are going to be, I'll, I'll give you this meeting. It's a challenge; I will rise to the challenge. I will do my best work with my clients, I'll grow my business. Like it's almost like you've got to prepare for battle. And I think you know, if you're thinking, and I know, I know the time that we're actually doing this recording, well, the advice I'm giving my clients is very, very simple. Number one, have certainty. So give this a meeting, figure out timelines for yourself. [03:42]
Well, you can't go into, you can't go into this game, not clear on what your objectives are. Number two, it is not normal. This is not normal time. So if you're concept is, well, I'm just going to go in the office like I always do and kind of operate, that I've always operated. And then you get whipsawed right with things, the clients calling freaking out, stuff like that. You mentally did not prepare for this game, for this battle. And what happens is you'll just get overwhelmed and that's where you'll see James clients, you know, advisors throwing in the towel, just kind of all kinds of sideways. Right. And the reality is they're sideways because they actually subconsciously put them in a position themselves in the position to be sideways. Right. It didn't do any success protocols, no morning ritual, no getting their head around what they need to do for the game today. And they don't serve themselves well, their teams well, their clients well, their marketplace well. It's very unfortunate. [04:35]
James: Yeah. I mean I'm glad that you brought up the fact that it's 80% mindset or you emphasize the importance of mindset because I see the same thing and advisors really, at least some of them downplay the importance of mindset. I'm glad that you provide this service for advisors. I was reading on your site that you've been coaching and consulting, consulting with financial advisors for over 25 years and you've been named one of the industry's top troubleshooters by Registered Rep Magazine all the way back in 2000 so this is not your first rodeo. I mean you've been through 2000, 2001, 2008 I mean, you've been there before, you've kept this up for quite some time. So what exactly keeps you motivated to continue serving financial advisors? [05:13]
Joe: You know, its a great question and I know we'd be talking about this and I think it’s really kind of the, the, the, the kind of the funny answer and then the, I think the accurate answer. So the funny answer is that I'm really unemployable and I'm not good at anything else about this. Right, it's funny one. The right one is that, you know, Dan Sullivan believes everybody has unique ability. Well, I just happened to find my unique ability. I love what I do. I eat, live, breathe and sleep this industry. I love this industry. My daughter's coming in this industry. So I, I've, you know, I value it greatly and I want to contribute to it for a long, long time.
James: You mentioned Dan Sullivan…my producer, producer Jonathan who is not on the show this week because you're here this week. He is a Dan Sullivan fanatic, so he, he loves strategic coaching, he brings it up all the time. So I, I assume that's the same Dan Sullivan. So that's pretty awesome. It’s a small world.
Joe: Yes, that's correct. Yes, that's correct. It’s the same. Yup. Dan does great work. You know, Dan started his game and I started my game around the same time. [06:09]
If you look back, just kind of track, you know, he does pretty much very, you know, he's more global than I am. I'm very niched. I, I can't tell you I chose this industry because I did a lot of market research. The reason why I chose this industry, at the time I lived in New Jersey and I had lower Manhattan as a territory. So you know, if it was, if I lived in San Francisco, I would be doing tech companies probably. Just kind of fell into it back in the very, very, very early nineties.
James: So are there any common, I know this is a very broad question, so you can go as broad as you want or you can go as deep as you want. I don't really care either way. What are some common success traits that you've seen amongst financial advisors?
Joe: Yeah, so I, I do think, you know, I do think there are some things that if you want, if you think about bottling it, right, but I look at my client, what are the common threads? Right! So, so first common thread is, you know, understanding the business that they're in. And what I mean by that is it a lot of, a lot of guys and women too, are getting in this business because of the love of financial planning, love of the stock market, love of, you know, creating portfolios. [07:10]
The reality is we're in a people business, right? And as soon as you kind of hit that, you know, that's a big epiphany for some people. Number two, it's a business and even though your business card may have one of the larger firms on it, the reality is that you're, you're an entrepreneur, it's up to you to create your success and you take responsibilities for your failures. Number three, this is a personal development business, though where I think a lot of people get caught up in and I got, I'm not anti-designation, you know, you want to go get a CFP, CFA, whatever you want to do, please feel free to do that. But understand that you're going to increase your knowledge base. Knowledge base doesn't always equate into success. [07:50]
There has to be other elements around that. So the one thing that I require all my clients to do is to take 10% of their revenue or income, however they want to do it and it's a line item. It's a budget item and you have to reinvest it back in yourself. Coaches, trainers, other consultants, coaches like yourself, you know personal trainers, right, masseur, whatever you need, you know, style, some people need a stylist, unfortunately to kinda, you know, make them the best version of themselves because ultimately you're the, you're the core product, you know, I don't care how bright you are but if the person doesn't resonate with you, you're not going to get hired. Right. So, and even then, and like I said, while we're doing this recording, even times, like now where a big part of the world has massive mounts of, of uncertainty and challenges and things like that, two things you don't cut in this industry are number one, you don't cut your personal development budget/ your coach. Number two, you don't cut your marketing efforts. [08:45]
Infact, if anything, I would rather my clients deploy more money into marketing and business development and getting a voice out there as people need it now more than ever. Right. So, so common traits are there, I mean there's others. I think those are the big ones. Now, really understanding the business you’re in, understanding that you have to reinvest back in yourself. I mean, those, those are immutable and that goes for everyone of your listeners right now.
James: I could not agree more. And I think that's one of the reasons why I like your videos and I watch them on YouTube and on your Facebook page. I think that your message particularly is so refreshing because you make it clear that Financial Advisors - Yes this, You are an entrepreneur! This is your business! Yes, even though you may have Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, some other advisors from company Edward Jones, it is your business! I think that's so refreshing. On the flip side of the coin, are there any failure traits? Are there, are there any things that advisors should avoid at all costs? [09:39]
Joe: I, I mean, I think there's, I think there's a, you know, what I'll call improper application or improperly of looking at things. So number one, time equals success. You're not paid by the hour. I've never gone to a conference that they send the, you know, the dude that’s done the most hours in the office gets a plaque.
James: Amen.
Joe: I have never seen that, Yeah, in my 26 years. Right. So, so that does, that doesn't really work well for me, you know? So I think that's one of the things you take a look at, no game plan. You know, if you're just showing up bad habit. I mean this is a habit business, right? So, so if you're kind of up late, getting up late, showing up, thinking I'm going to do the nine to five game or even worse, I come on the first one in Joe, the last one out, I said, yeah, but you, you don't do anything all day. Who cares, right? Yeah. You know, you're sitting around. So yeah, there are some, there are some traits like that. I think one of the biggest ones, and you see it really where its head now and through your comment about like you, you, you got a couple of years, you know, couple of your clients kind of go a little sideways. If you were to, if you were to be a fly on the wall, here's what you would probably see. They, all they do is ingest news all day. They start their day with the futures. They start their day in the email bin. [10:46]
They get to the office that got CNBC or Fox business or whatever, playing in the background. And you know, the last 10 years we've had a relatively benign environment, right? No, I remember, Oh, 08-09. And I got a lot of guys who were with me in that window, so we kinda, you know. Nothing's ever the same, it's not the exact same thing, but there's enough similarities. And we saw it back then guys who focused on their game and focused on their clients and focused on growing their business, they won. Guys who got wrapped up in all the news, they lost. Well, it's as simple as that, you got to decide Victor or Victim, what side of the situation you’re going to be on, right? So, so on. So the negative stuff is, like I said, showing up, getting wrapped up in the news. You are having a false, a false set of beliefs that, that says, “The more educated I am, the more successful I am.” Like I said earlier, I'm not against designations, but I've never been able to equate, hey, go get this and you'll make it, you'll add 10% to your bottom line. You know go get a personal trainer, drop three pounds.
James: Yeah [11:44]
Joe: That’ll add to your bottom line, you'll have more energy. You'll get after it. Totally cool with that. Right. Go get a, a CFA, seek any of those. I can't sit there and say to you, “Yeah, that's good.” And that's why guys get frustrated, they, they, they go and say, you know, “I don't understand why I'm not more successful. I'm really bright. I've got, you know, I've got all these designation.” I said, “Yeah, but you don't understand people.” You look at this as the analytical logic game and it's an emotional people game. And if you need any evidence to that, just look around right now. Right?
James: Yeah. Like look around. I mean, people business, definitely, I could not, like I said this before, I mean I couldn't agree. If you're preaching to the choir here, just out of curiosity, like I'm a big Napoleon Hill nut and I love Jim Rohn. I just did an interview a couple of weeks ago with Tom Ziglar, son of Zig Ziegler.
Joe: Yeah.
James: Who do you have any mentors, even if you never have worked for them one-on-one, is there anybody that you study that you really look up to? [12:41]
Joe: Yeah, I mean, I spent, I worked for The Tony Robbins organization back in the early early nineties for a couple of years. So, that was sort of my, I call it my PhD in people. You know, I've, I've done some work with Garrett White over the last last year or so, a couple of his programs, interesting dude, by the way. So I, I kind of will grab, you know, Craig Valentine, I'll grab I’m I'm really, you know, I've got my own personal development budget and I am committed to spending it, right. Investing it. So I'll go grab courses from various people, attend live trainings and that’s fine. We're supposed to go out, my wife and I are supposed to go out to Beau Easton or some stage craft in May that unfortunately had to get rearranged because of what's going on in the world. So, yeah, I mean, I, I tend to, I'm not a guy who like, and nor would I expect anybody to even on my side, you know, kind of go all in on something. So I, I look for certain aspects of, of you know, of a coach or consultant and I'll cherry pick some things out. And I'm a very big collector of ideas and strategies that way. [13:41]
It's like a buffet of greatness, like to call it to myself. And I think for a lot of people, yeah, that's what you need to do. But I would encourage all your listeners to, you know, whatever they think their budget is for themselves. And this is not about Joe Lukacs, this is really about just kind of, you know, go invest in yourself. This is the one I, I'll, I'll share a story, this is this interesting story. So about a month ago, one of my guys came to me and you know, and we're, and he has, and he wants to do this big marketing game, podcasts, video casts, social ads, all this stuff, like really wants to get out there, right? And he's good. So he'll like, he's got good presence, he'll, he'll do well with it. And he's like freaking out, and he was like going, “Oh my God, I'm looking at the numbers in the budget” and dah, dah, dah, dah. I said, “Yeah”. I would say, “What's your problem?” He goes, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to match out my, you know, my retirement planning and dah, dah, dah. I'm since, let me get this right. So let's say hypothetically you're gonna tell you, so let's say it's a $10,000 differential. So you're going to take $10,000 and let's say you were to put in your retirement account. So you're going to put it there. Okay? What happens next? You're going to get a tax deduction. Fair enough. [14:47]
What are you gonna do with the money I'm going to put into the market? All right. Okay. How you doing? Bottom line, you're going to be buying things that invest in other people's company. What's your, what do you expect to get as ready to return? He says you know, 79% that's okay. Not crazy though, right? I see. Not now. All right. So let's say you took that $10,000 and you invested it in Oh, Facebook ads, right? How many clients would you get out of that? How many clients would you need? Right? One, one, $1 million client. Right? So, so what's my yield on that? I still get the deduction. See and this is what I mean by, you know, reinvesting, right? People, you've got to think like business owners and my clients, bought you know, I mean, literally down the line, my core philosophy is never retire. No, unless you absolutely want to. But there's no, we don't need to just an outta here at 60 or 62 or 65 or 70. No, I plan to be coaching into my eighties. I made that declaration to my guys. [15:46]
And you know, but just thinking like a business owner, so you know, you're worried about saving money for retirement; you're never going to take right versus reinvesting, reinvesting back in your business. I mean, all advisors have got, in my mind, an absolute responsibility to reinvest in themselves and reinvest back in their business to market to brand to get their message out there. It's like the, it's one of the core things you have to do as a business person,
James: Especially because the ROI is there, I mean, if someone spends $10,000 and they get, let's just say 13,000 back, it is 30% right there, you know, no.
Joe: Right.
James: I mean, there’s a risk with everything, but it's, it's a lot less than market risk and inflation risk, right?
Joe: And you have lifetime value. You have referrals that come off that relationship. There's a lot of things, right, that, that, you know, you can go ahead and you know, like if you did like a 10 year curve on a yield on what that one client was worth to you, plus a couple of referrals a year. It's not even, it's not even the same ballpark versus what you would get, you know, in a traditional type investment. [16:50]
And when I talk to clients about that and I get on a whiteboard and I say, let's kind of play this out. And I'm, I look, I'm not a financial advisor, I'm not a financial planner. I just had been an entrepreneur my entire life. And so I can kind of, well, I can take things that are relatively complex and break them down into stick figures, my clients like that. And it's, it's no brain, it's a no brainer analytically and objectively, when you look at the return on investment and we're playing for the here and now, not the, you know, if you're not going to retire, whether you die with 5 million or $8 million in your K plan, CEP, whatever, your dead, it's relevant. So let's go invest now, right?
And let's go grow businesses now. Especially, like I said, we're doing this recording. I, I can't think of a better time to be out there playing in traffic right now as an advisor. In the last, last time I saw an opportunity like this, it was 2008 the fall and the spring of 09 when you know things were, you know, crazy then also. Clients of mine went out there and did when I asked them to do, they're brought in a lot of new households, a lot of new money. So the opportunities there, but you gotta be willing to go after it and unfortunately I think a lot of advisors are so defensive right now. They just don't know what to do. [18:04]
James: Yeah, it's time to expand without a doubt. One of the things that you mentioned to me, I think this is on LinkedIn and it really struck a chord with me, is that Nothing changes until you changed the person in the mirror first. And I think that's so true. And I used to personally just being completely transparent with all the listeners in you. I used to struggle with the mindset quite a bit. I used to believe that I had to work really, really hard for a lot of money and I, that was like my big one. How do you help advisors change who they see in the mirror? Cause it's easier said than done.
Joe: Oh wait, that's, that's the hardest thing to do in a lot of regards. So, so what's, so what's mindset? So to me, I've broken up mindset into four distinct areas. Number one, what do you believe? Right? So number one, what do you believe? So right now, great example, I'm checking on my clients. Hey, three questions. What do you, what's your, where's your mindset? What do you believe? What's your timeline? I believe, Hey, I believe this is temporary. I believe things will get better. What's your timeline? What's your mindset? I'm going to get after it, right? So that's what I've been done the last 10 days. That's all I've done. [19:03]
First question out of my mouth, where are we? Right. So if I've got a good belief set, right? First, for example, I deserve to be successful. I add value to my clients. One guy on LinkedIn, you know, you know, messaged me, you know, just probably, “I don't think I'm providing any value to my clients. Should I be in this business right now?”
James: Oh that’s a tough one.
Joe: Ok, the fact that the fact is, well it’s not tough like, dude, if you believe that, then yeah, get the hell out. Because if that's the way you're rolling, you're not good for anybody. And I'm just brutally honest with people. You know, cause that's just who I am. So beliefs that, right? [19:34]
So do you believe, do you believe you deserve success? Do you believe you add value? Yeah. What are your beliefs? Right? If you believe it's hard to grow your business, you're absolutely right. If you believe you can't get referrals, you're absolutely right. So versa. What do you believe? Second box, what's important to you? Right? So values, right? What's important to you? So if somebody says to me, well, hey, what do you value? I value family, right? Family love, great. I value freedom. Great. Where's success in the board? It's like three or four. I said, okay. So, so here's why you're frustrated, because you've built your business up to a certain point where you can declare economic abundance basically like You're, you're good, family’s been being taken care of, saving money, going on the trips, you know, comfort zone, if you will. But here's the challenge you have. Every new client you now take on in your mind takes away your freedom and keeps you from your family. So subconsciously you're sabotaging your game as a way of saving yourself. [20:32]
So what we need to do is go in there and look at those values, look at those rules, and then figure out how we want to change things. Here's the key thing. Nobody was born with any specific mindset. It's acquired by life experiences, associations, environments, things like that. So it's and, and it's a hodgepodge haphazard process for most. So what I want to do is take that hodgepodge, haphazard, and I want to create order. I want to reboot the system, like reinstalling a new operating system. I want to give it a total upgrade. What I want to do it in a very meaningful manner, a very forceful manner, a manner that we control. So we've got values, rules, third box, internal dialogue, self-talk mean, you know, you know what's, what's going on in your head. What are you saying to yourself? You suck. You're lazy. I don't deserve success. I'm an imposter. Who knows what's going on in there, right? And this is just a bit habitual self-talk, right? So we need to get, we need to know what that is. [21:33]
And I have my guys write that out. Hey, I need to know the truth. Tell me. Well, what your conversations are like, right? And dude, you, you find guys that do $1 billion on a top line and they're running scared. Like they're, there's like, it's a paper bag. It's a paper tiger. All right? So we get in there a little bit. Then the fourth one to one, you alluded to, self-image. Self-image is a more challenging one because beliefs, that you change in a moment. You can make some declarations. Say, I no longer believe that. Boom, right. Your values and roles, again. I can do a session, get that wired in. Boom, done. Internal dialogue. You can declare things yet, boom. If you're like 150 pounds overweight, I can't change that self-image overnight. Right? I stuck with it. Forbid, so, but I need to see change. So I'll go to a client, say, look, you've been looking at the same guy for 10 years. We know what the half a million dollar version of you looks like. I'm talking to him right now. You want them, you want to double, triple your business. I need to know what that man, what that man or woman needs to look like. Like what do they believe, what's important to them? What do they say to themselves? What do they see in the mirror? Because I need that. Only when that happens first does the bank account change? [22:46]
Right. And that's the big, James that's the big thing advisors, they this industry like when like when I and I talked through that, when I do my business planning program event like I do every year and we do, we spend four hours on this like deep dive, heavy duty work, writing it out, sharing it, being totally uncomfortable and open, right? That's like a hundred. Think about a hundred advisors in the room doing this. All alphas, right? In a lot of cases.
James: 4 hours just on mindset on just doing the digging?
Joe: Yeah, I got, yeah dude. Four and then they're there and there's four hours of homework before you get there. Just on that. All right. We put a ton of time into it because if that doesn't get right and you know from your game, you know, you, you know, advisors come to you, right? Because they're, they're seeking to be better and in their minds, I need a system. James could help me. Oh, he called me and my LinkedIn game, right. He helped me with my marketing. Right. You do these things and they hire you and you get in there and then after a while you realize that this dude doesn't really have a LinkedIn problem. [23:49]
He's got a heat problem. Right.
James: Yup.
Joe: That's the problem, right?
James: Yup.
Joe: And they don't want to face that. It's either; the easiest thing in this industry to do is stroke a check or try to fix something. My thing is, look, you can stroke a check unless you do the work, it's irrelevant. You pay me all you want man, unless you're ready to rock and roll and make change, it's irrelevant to me. Right. So, so the self image, I'll, I'll literally say, look, we, we can't cut a hundred pounds of fat off you today and it just doesn't definitely do. I need you to change your appearance, so shave, grow a beard, get a different haircut, get wardrobe change. I need you to look different in the mirror. I need you when you get up in the morning and the man or woman in the mirror has got to have a different, it can't be the old, it can't be the same person. So I was talking about identity. We got current idea, identity and future identity. The future identity, what you construct there is what you move towards that will dictate your level of success. Nobody talks about denim, our space. Yeah. That's everything. Just, you know, and when I talked to, you know, other consultants, whether the practice management consultants or recruiter, headhunters and, and and process people, you know, all these practice minded people, you know, their, their frustration is they've got great stuff to share. [25:02]
But if you can't get the person to change it just, it's one of the most frustrating things, right? So my specialty is that, that's what I did. So, so when you say, so mindset's really has four things, right? You go through that, we categorize, we really kind of look at it, we get the truth on it and they always say, well what should it be? So if you're a half a million dollar guy, you want to be $1 million guy, what should you believe? What's your, your values look like? What do you talk about? What you, what does the man or woman in mirror half look like? Right? And normally you'll hear the manner they need to be athletic, high energy, confident, congruent, rock star, like attitude, like, you know, we create, they create the, you know, we create this, this new character of it in essence, right? [25:43]
And I said, look, you gotta, you know, you got to act as if you're that person today. And even though it's physically you're not there, know we're gonna fix that. Cause really you're going to go get a personal trainer, you're going to get a nutritionist and I've had guys and women lose 50-75 pounds and doubled her business. We did nothing on the practice management side. We just made them a much better version of themselves and that just carried on into the business. Really fascinating.
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James: That's some deep stuff and I'm glad that you're bringing this up cause you're making me feel a lot better. I've seen stuff like that in the past. For example my specialty is email marketing. I've got probably more data than anyone else in the world on financial services and email marketing and I have seen cases and it's kind of embarrassing to share because I'm basically discrediting some results here. And yeah, being transparent, what's happening is I can take one adviser, give that person the same exact email campaign as I'm giving advisor number two and this has happened the same exact one. The list is big enough to where it would be statistically significant where all the data should fall through. But it doesn't, and it's the weirdest thing. I mean I've read about law of attraction.
Joe: Yeah.
James: And yeah, self-image and there's something to it. And for the advisors who don't get it and aren't in that world and don't realize that that's a thing, they refuse to believe it. Because I've told some advisers in the past, look, I have given people the same exact marketing campaign. I've seen it in direct mail where we send out the same direct mail campaign, but one it gets, it should be the same thing. But one gets completely stellar results and the other one, not so much. [27:59]
Joe: Yeah.
James: I mean it's crazy.
Joe: Yeah. And you know, so what's the variable, right? The man or woman, I mean that's when you, when you break it down, that's the variable, right? You know, why can, some people do seminars and the, the, the rock star, others try and it's really failures, right? What's the difference? It's the man or woman. I mean, that's what it boils down to. And, and you know, the challenge James that we have, right? You know, you and I is that we also deal in an industry, a profession that's not unlike the medical profession, the doctor profession where you have a lot of ego and arrogance in the game. Right? And so, so that's the other part of it. We tend to deal with highly educated people. We think they really do know it all. And and that's where that, that that arrogant game comes in and, and that's my, and that's, that's what I'm very, very good at. I'm very good at getting grown men to cry because I break them down cause I break them down. Not, because I enjoy doing that part of it because it's necessary. And that's the game, right? So I've been doing this thing a long time. I really don't see anything anymore that surprises me quite frankly. [29:09]
And I know I can talk to somebody, come up with a game plan and know exactly what we need to do because we're all humans. Right. And there's a lot of commonality, a lot of the same traits. But yeah, it's always a, you know, I'm fascinated by people and, and, and behaviors. And so I've always, I’ve always, you know, you look at somebody like at a big firm, same office, same branch manager, same local market, right? So really saying they can share an assistant, like literally everything's the same and yet they're gonna have, they're gonna have two totally different outcomes. Why? Person, right?
James: Yeah.
Joe: But what does the advisor do? All compliance, all my brand like you play, you know, marketing emails, right? How many times do you hear your guys' full compliance for their lack of success or their branch manager or this like, and they got 1,001 reasons why they're not where they want to be. They never take ownership and say, you know what, I'm not at my best level. [30:02]
I'm not the best version of myself. Right. Until they can admit that all bets are off, man, it doesn't matter. They are just going to kind of go through what they're going to get, what they're going to go through and and not getting any better because in their mind they don’t have to.
James: You ain't ever lied. I see a lot of MOTU syndrome, master of the universe. God complex, whatever you want to call it. I, I refused to, I said I used to coach one-on-one years ago and I stopped because I just get too pissed off with people who do like that. It just, my personality doesn't align with that. I mean, I respect everything you're doing and I appreciate it and someone's gotta do it, but it darn sure ain't gonna be me cause I never put up with that stuff ever. And I realized that there was a lot of successful financial advisors who do have the motu, you know, God complex. So I had to move on from that.
Joe: Yeah. I, like I said, it's like I said, everyone's got their unique ability, right. So mine just happens to be a, and I, and I think I do. I don't, I don't think I really do a big gig anymore. Like, you know, I worked with maybe 75 personal clients back in 2008, 200. Oh, that's when I was young, That's when I was young, dumb and crazy. [31:07]
You know, just nine, just rolling from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM five days a week, four weeks, four weeks a month. It was crazy back then. So every call, every, every time I talked to somebody, I learned something. Right. So that's why when you, you know, when I've done 55,000, 56,000 sessions, whatever it is now, you'll learn a lot. The thing about me is I give a lot but also learn a lot. I always get a distinction from somebody, a piece of information, a way of doing something. So, so for me it's, it's really a duality. I'm there to give to my clients, but I'm also learning from them and I can then take that knowledge and like a bee pollinate other advisors with them. Right. And just make everything better.
James: Yeah. Yeah. It is amazing to see this stuff at the switch gears a little bit. I know, you do some video marketing and like I said before, I enjoy watching videos on YouTube and Facebook and the video that I really like from you and advisors, by the way, feel free to look them up on YouTube and Facebook. You're going to like his stuff. I promise. The one that I like, if you want to watch it, it's called Are you leaving revenue on the table? [32:15]
And it's the video where you talk about advisors, missing opportunities right in front of them. And that struck a chord with me as well. What are some easy opportunities or opportunities that advisors can seize right away?
Joe: Right. So, so you, we're going to go back to what we call principles of optimization. One of my mentors, a Jay Abraham, I spent some time in his protege program back in the early nineties also. So, so Jay really taught me about risk reversal. Taught me about it testing, but he also, one of his, one of his keynotes was always optimization. So when I looked at how that works in our game, how to deploy it, you know, I, I sat there and said, okay, so if I am an advisor and I have a client and now I've kind of, I've evolved it to like a wheel. So I want you to picture like a, like a round circle, right? And you put your client with the client's name inside the circle. Write it out or you can just on a whiteboard if you want. And so we start doing questions right. Number one, do I have all their money? Yes. No. Right. And not like, I think so it's definitive, right? [33:15]
Who handles their insurance? Do they have a financial plan? Is there any lending and things, any, any lending requirements that we need? Right. And so again, everybody's service models are gonna be different. So, so the, the, the, what they do is give me a little bit different, but the bottom line is a lot of advisors, and I've had people tell me this, like when I first take somebody on or, or we're just talking at an event or something and we'd bring up optimization and I always get the one guy who says, “I'm, I'm, I've got this really good man I ain't got, I know we're all like, I've got all my clients' money. I know it. I've got my clients for 20 years.” Dah, dah, dah. Great, excellent. “Do you have a financial plan? Do you have a balance sheet that's less than a year old? Like net worth statement?” Like, like, what do you have to verify what you just told me? And usually there's not something there, right? I said, “look man, here's the deal.” And I'll say it the way I'm, and this is the way exactly I say, and some of your listeners may say, man, I'm, I'm a little crazy, but this exactly how I roll. I say, “so here's the deal. So are you willing to bet your family's life on this? So here's what, here's my challenge to you. If you have all you will, you swear on your family's life, they have all your client's money. Because if you don't want to come there and kill them, are you that short?” [34:18]
And normally they just be silent for a second. They go hmmm, “Well if you put it that way, I'm pretty sure.” Ah, okay. So here's a story. I can give you a thousand stories of clients that I've had. This is a good one. Guy who's got his hunting buddy of 20 years as his client, right? They're doing a review. He knows I'm going to yell at him if he doesn't do this. So he goes, “I'm in a review of my,” and he'll tell the story, I can give you the guy's name and he'll, he'll verify this, “I’m in the review, and we're wrapping it up.” And I go, you know what, “Hey, before we leave, I just wanted to do a quick balance sheet just to make sure we're not missing anything.” Stuff like that. And he goes, “Hey, and in addition to the council half year, do you have any other investment accounts, money markets, stuff like that.” [35:07]
And the guy goes, “Now you mentioned that, I've got a $400,000 account with the advisor at my CPA's office.” And like, my guys like flat look, this is his hunting buddy. Like they go and do, you know, stuff in the woods together, right? And he's like, he's flabbergasted. And he goes, and so he goes, “How did, how did that happen?” He goes, “Well, you know, my family sold a piece of property we closed and we were talking to a CPA, didn't know what to do with the money”. So he just said, “Hey, why don't you just park with this guy here?” And I, and he goes, I never gave it any thought.” Right? And I got story upon story upon story. I now, luckily we brought the money in and we've, you put it under management, its feed, it's good, ready to go, right? But here's reality. [35:47]
Assumptions are very expensive in this business. And that client of mine was working under the assumption that this is one who's best buddies in a client for a decade and a half. Know him, birthday parties, happy hours, all that jazz, right? No assumptions. So my protocol for all my clients, minimum, standard of care balance sheet, every one of your clients is a balance sheet and it's updated every year. That way we know definitively what's going on. So I talk a lot about protocols. I want protocols versus assumptions and that's the game I play with my clients, right? So, so if an advisor will just say, Hey, I'm going to go ahead and balance sheet everybody, I will guarantee all your listeners that if they do that, they will find hidden opportunities that they had no idea were there because they were assuming that the client would bring it to them. Right? [36:38]
So number one, so what else on what else? I'll leave him money on the table. Leverage. So we talked about optimization and leverage. So leverage is leveraging through your client to other relationships. Fancy word for referrals and introductions, working through their COIs or centers of influence, things like that. And like what can you do with a relationship? That's why I do what I do the circle. I said, okay, so on the, on the right side of the circle is assets, financial plan, balance sheet, all that jazz, left side, leverage, leverage with their CPA, who's their attorney, who's their realtor, who's their property councilor person. Do they belong to any organizations that need a speaker? Like, you know, there are questions and they also need to take this one relationship and all of a sudden you have all these possibilities. Now, if you have a 100 clients, 150 clients, 200 clients, right? Do that 200 times. Your possibilities are infinite. So when somebody sits there says to me, I can't grow my business, I have a real tough time with that. I said, that's just a narrative you're telling yourself because you don't want to get uncomfortable and do the work, because that's what this game is about. [37:38]
You know, being uncomfortable as a mental aspect. I'm not asking me to run a 4k or do anything crazy, right? I'm just saying, hey, ask for some referrals, do a balance sheet. Yeah if you can't suck it up and be that uncomfortable, I know what to tell you. Right? Maybe you're not. Maybe you shouldn't be in this business, right? This is the game more, James the more comfortable an advisor becomes, the faster they grow their bank account. Period. As one of my, immutable things
James: That’s what I have seen.
Joe: Yeah.
James: Even in my own life the more uncomfortable I am the better I get at it, that’s success.
Joe: Yeah. Success is that. That's the game. And you know, you know it's vehicles, right? So you, you have your vehicle. I have my vehicle advisors have their vehicles, right? But at the end of the day, we're all in the success business. We're all on the people business, right? Well, the laws are universal. You know, they may, they may get tweaked a little bit, language may change, right? But I eat my own cooking. I do my morning ritual. I have my own business plan. I'm highly uncomfortable every day. You know, I force that on me. Right. I want to do that because it's the mindset game. [38:39]
And so that's why like, again, as we're recording this, I'm, I'm, I'm locked down with what I believe and what I'm telling my guys to do. And, and getting out there and doing what they need to do because I'm, I've got a level of certainty I've been through, like you said, I been through 2001, through 2000 all right. I was through also the tech crash, 9/11, 08-09 now this. That’s right, it all passes. It was different flavors. It all feels a little bit different. There's always uniqueness to it. But in every situation it's temporary, this is true.
James: So financial advisors, I hope you go back over this episode and listen to it again and again if you need to because Coach Joe has demonstrated several different ways where he can essentially pay for himself. Now I know you currently run Magellan, which is a mastermind for financial advisors. How exactly does that work for people who don't know, how do you run it? Like give them the dirty details?
Joe: All right, so, so MagellanMasterMind in that where it's really two separate functions. So the first part, there's a networking function, which is the group coaching parts. So an advisor can come in for 30 days. [39:46]
We don't ask for a credit card or there's an application which I review personally. We bring into our game for 30 days. You try it out and see if it makes sense. I'm the first one to admit I'm not for everyone. You've got to, you've got to find a coach that you resonate with. There you go. You know what I get with that person saying, you know, and I can see that. So number one, you come in for 30 days, you, you play, you see if it makes sense in that 30 days, you and I will have a 30 minute interview just to answer your question and make sure if it makes sense. So, so network is open to any advisors, any advisor, right? You come in and you play it and see if it makes sense for you. Right? I'd welcome all your listeners to come play. Right! . [40:24]
It doesn't make sense. No harm, no foul. Right? Number one, about 50% of the people that come in on trial stay. I'm very happy to announce and it's all month to month. We lose two members a quarter and pick up like 30-40 members a quarter. So I'm very happy with.
James: That’s awesome.
Joe: Yeah, I'm very happy with the dynamics on that. Now the mastermind part is a little bit different. So I, I started 10 years ago wasn't even called ‘Magellan’ back then. It was just a ‘Mastermind.’ But my private clients, we said it'd be nice to have him. It'd be nice to have a mastermind. I resisted it for about five years until I said, if I don't do it, someone else will do it for him. So we launched it back in back in 2010. And and so that group started and we still have a lot of the founding members in it. There's 20 professionals, not including myself in that group. It's called Magellan Elite. [41:14]
And then actually this week, the, a lot of, part of a March here, Oh, we were supposed to do it live. We're going to do, it'd be a zoom. We created M4 for Magellan 4, and that's the mastermind. And that's 21 advisers all around the United States and Canada. We'll come together physically twice a year or virtually at least quarterly, if not every six weeks. They have their own private message ward and they just, they're, they're building, they're creating their own team and they're working together. They're sharing the best practices. And you know, a lot of guys James, and the reason why I did that as a lot of guys, even though there are big offices, it kind of feels like they're on the island by themselves, especially about, especially if you have a certain mindset, I attract a certain mindset. [41:56]
And so what's interesting about this, we have guys and gals, men and women wire house and dependent RAA, insurance-based senior market, guys in their late twenties, people in their seventies in these groups, it's a real interesting bunch, right? My job is to kind of do, is create, is to find a, a group of advisors who have enough commonality to get along, but they're different enough to be interesting to each other. That's my job. Like putting a team together. I've got a draft, I've got to pick the right players and then put them in position. So, so mastermind and network, you know, are really two different things. It's something I started a couple of years ago just because I wanted to, you know, I can't work with everybody individually. I’ve started to coach companies in my career, harming other coaches and stuff like that. I don't like working with other coaches and mentoring and things like that. [42:48]
I like doing what I do. Like I'm a guy who wants to be in the kitchen cooking and doing his thing, and I don't see anything else. So, so Magellan network gave me an opportunity to do scale where I can take my philosophy is where I play and put it out there to to a lot of advisors, hundreds of advisors. And we do it every day. The one thing every day I do a video in the morning that’s 4:55 AM all of the day. We do virtual masterminds. A couple of times a month. via zoom live events. So it's a, it's a very what's the word I'm looking for is very expansive, a way we do things and I'm really excited by it.
James: That's really cool. Well, there's a lot of stuff in there, so [inaudible] people want to get in touch with you to learn more. How can they do that? [43:36]
Joe: My prime website's probably the best place, so CoachJoe.Guru CoachJoe.Guru , it’s the shortest way I can get a website without funds for my last name. So that's a, it's pretty easy to remember.
James: Yeah, I mean that's, that's actually very smart of you. I didn't even think of that until you mentioned it. I was like, Hmm, that's actually really smart. But yeah, it has been an absolute pleasure. Like, seriously, this is one of the best episodes that we've had so far. Simply because you, the stuff that you say, like when you mentioned one sentence, it could be like a book because there's a, I know there's a depth of knowledge behind it. So you're summarizing. I can tell, cause I know I'm in the space. You're summarizing like books in books and volumes are just intense knowledge. So thank you so much for doing this today.
Joe: James, it was really my pleasure to be here and to share my experiences with your audience. Thank you for having me. I really do appreciate it.
James: So financial advisors. I will be back next week, so I will catch you next time.
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