You're listening to Financial Adviser Marketing, the best show on the planet for financial advisers 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 TheAdviserCoach.com, where you can find an entire suite of products designed to help financial advisers grow their businesses more rapidly than ever before. Now, here is your host, James Pollard. [00:31.7]
James: Another week, another fantastic episode of Financial Advisor Marketing coming your way. I want to take a moment and show some public appreciation for the people that are on my team. Now, there are several people who come together to help The Advisor Coach and run the way it does. And I want to say thank you to those people and that includes The Podcast Factory.
Jonathan: Thank you.
James: So.
Jonathan: That’s very kind.
James: You are welcome.
Jonathan: So financial advisors, if you're interested in starting your own podcast, feel free to reach out to ThePodcastFactory.com or you can send me an email james@theadvisercoach.com and I will put you in touch with them. Maybe they can help you, maybe they can't, who knows, but it's worth a try. And I actually wrote about podcasting in my October, 2020 inner circle newsletter. So it's been several months, not necessarily because of the strategy itself, but because of the idea of having a nice thick bank roll of episodes, it's, it's so powerful. Like the ability now for me to just go up to someone and say, yeah, I've got a hundred episodes or I've got more, more than a hundred episodes at this point. But essentially when you drop that big number, the triple digits, people perk up and pay attention, saying I've got a hundred episodes that you can listen to is a lot more powerful than saying, check out my podcast. It's like, I've got 15 episodes. [01:47.2]
Jonathan: My new show.
James: My new show. It's like, everybody and their mother wants to start a podcast now. And they're like, Oh my God. It's like anybody with a microphone and anybody with like a Mac book pro, they can just plug it on in, they want to start a podcast, that’s good for you. That's good for you. Could you just collect the dough? But people like me, it's just getting saturated. I gotta stand out.
Jonathan: I like…I like the description James.
James: And to stand out is to have a bunch of content. Because I talked about building marketing collateral on the show before and podcasting is an excellent, excellent way to create that type of collateral. Be, it works for you, whether you're working, sleeping or on vacation. I don't have time for a fancy opening today. So I will jump right into the show. [02:35.0]
So we're continuing my little series on the financial advisor, laws of power. This is a continuation of the last episode, if you haven't listened to that, make sure you go back and do it. This was all inspired by Robert Green's book, The 48 Laws Of Power, which is one of my favorite books of all time. It's a big thick book, but have no fear. I am picking out the most important laws that I think apply directly to financial advisors. And there's also a lot of information about these laws on the web. So many, I mean, many different people have written about the 48 laws of power. It's really fascinating. So if I mentioned a law and you want to dig a little deeper, you can probably type it into Google and a bunch of articles will pop up and you can get even more modern examples. I mean the book; I think 48 laws about where it came out in 1999, if I'm not mistaken. So it's been several decades since it was released. And there've been more modern examples. I've read a couple articles. It's like Kanye West does this, Leonardo DiCaprio does this. Barack Obama did this. Donald Trump did this. So you can get more of a view into how they work in the modern world. [03:37.6]
But let's get started. The next law I have for you in this series is law 13 in the book. And it goes like this, ‘When asking for help appeal to the self-interest of others, never to their mercy or gratitude.’ So as humans, we're all self-centered to an extent. And it's a disappointing day; when you find out that people tend to care more about themselves than they care about you. I promise you even your mother didn't wake up today thinking about how she can make you happier, maybe every once in a while, but statistically speaking, it didn't happen. Like you are the one who cares the most about you. Now it may be nice to think that people are waking up and say, well, how can I make James happy today? What can I do to improve James's life? But it's just not reality. And I've got to deal with it just like you got to deal with it. And Zig Ziglar once said, you can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. So that's the law in a nutshell, that's the nicer way to say it. And it's especially relevant for financial advisors in the marketing because your marketing must appeal to people's self-interest. This is why certifications don't matter as much as people think they do. [04:49.2]
I know I catch a lot of heat for that financial advisors get in a little tizzy every time I mention it, but here's what I want to make clear. Can certifications help? Absolutely! If you've got two financial advisors and they're both serving someone's, self-interest in exactly the same way then yes, certifications can be the tie breaker, but I guarantee you 100% rock solid ironclad guarantee that if you have a financial advisor with alphabet soup, who is trying to appeal to prospective clients, mercy or gratitude, like Robert Green called it, that advisor will fail when compared to the financial advisor with no alphabet soup who appeals to the prospects self-interest. So if you want to make your marketing more effective, you've got to take the focus away from you and put it onto your prospective clients. [05:41.8]
Instead of talking about how many years you've been in business, talk about how that experience helps you serve them better. It's not just, I'd been in business 30 years. You should do business with me because me, me, me, me, me, it's I've been in business for 30 years, which means I have seen the best of the best and the worst of the worst. And I can help people just like you I've been doing it. I've been through various presidential administrations. I've been through various tax law changes, and I have helped my clients every step of the way. So instead of talking about your credentials, the alphabet soup, talk about how those credentials will make you the obvious choice to serve their needs. I mean, there's a reason, even in my own business, there's a reason why my email opt-in is called 57 marketing tips for financial advisors and not 57 reasons James Pollard is awesome. That's what a lot of financial advisor marketing looks like. It's like 10 reasons that XYZ financial or whatever is amazing. And you should do business with us. No, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. It should be 10 reasons why I love serving teachers. 10 reasons why I love serving dentists, whatever. [06:48.9]
And this law also applies to forming strategic alliances with attorneys and accountants and other professionals. They don't care about your business. They just don't. They care about their businesses. It's so this is where it seems like Machiavellian. This is where it seems like brash and bold and rude, but it's true. We operate in reality here. They care about their businesses. That's why it's important for you to point out how your alliance will benefit them. Show the accountants, if you want to partner with accountants. Don't, you don't need some fancy, like nine step sequence and all this other BS that's just out there and just, Oh, it gives me a headache. You just got to show them what they have to gain. I promise you if you want to use the fancy stuff and use the sequences and the steps and the quizzes and all these other things that are out there. That's awesome. But just make sure you talk about what they have to gain, that’s right. Because otherwise it's just going to complicate your business. It's just going to be more trouble than it's worth. [07:49.5]
Hey, financial advisors – if you’d like even more help building your business, I invite you to subscribe to James’ monthly paper-and-ink newsletter, The James Pollard Inner Circle.
When you join today, you’ll get more than one thousand dollars’ worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren’t available anywhere else.
Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [08:12.0]
James: Now, sometimes people will tell financial advisors to like just network with these professionals. Hmm…but do you really think that just handing out your name and number is enough to get them to send you referrals? If so, let me know how that works out for you. A lot of times the strategic alliances, they're hesitant to give referrals, because they know they're putting their reputations on the line. So when I say that you should facilitate referrals instead of just asking for them. If you've listened to the podcast episode about referrals, I talk about facilitating them. This is what I mean. You need to give them a clear vision of how your process will enhance their reputation. If you can do that, you might not have ask at all, just being completely candid with you. You might not have ever, ever, ever have to directly ask for referrals. They might just give you the referrals because they are acting out of self-interest. You have tapped into their self-interest and they're going to give you the referrals. So I can spend all day on this law, but I want to get onto the next one, so we don't ramble on forever on this podcast. So the next law, let me just let me pump the brakes a little bit. Producer Jonathan, what did you think of the, the previous law about the reputation? And did I explain it clearly enough and appealing to self-interest and all that good stuff? [09:25.7]
Jonathan: I don't want to take you off on a side trail, but I just used this today and didn't realize I was using it when I was trying to book Ben Settle to come train our copywriters. I was like, Hey, I need your help. Can you train some copywriters? By the way, I'll send it out to my 40 clients who pay a thousand plus a month and, and, and I'll buy 50 of your books. So he's like, yeah, sure. I'll do it.
James: Now, do you think that if you just said, come train my copywriters, that he would have been a little more hesitant or maybe even had just said no, flat out
Jonathan: I’m…I'm pretty certain. And, and so here, here was a strategy. Just to give you an idea. I asked the ask at the top and in the PS, I put all the benefits to him. And so the last thing you read is the last thing you remember. So all he remembers is going out to the newsletter, to all my clients and me buying 50 of his books. [10:17.4]
James: Yeah, yes. As a way to use it. And I am going to take those notes for myself because I've got a couple of people that I want to reach out to. We're recording this before the holiday season and I send out a bunch of gifts and stuff. And if you are someone who is a mover and shaker in the industry, you may be on my list. Let me check it twice, who knows. But we're onto the next law. It's law 23 from the Laws Of Power Book. It is ‘Concentrate Your Forces.’ Now this is closely related to increasing your productivity, which is something, I mean, I've talked about on this show. I've talked about it a lot. I've written about it a lot, but this law, it's not necessarily about checking more things off your to-do list. A lot of people think that's what productivity is all about. It's more about finding your source of power, concentrating your forces, because when you find the source that will sustain you for a long time, you have an advantage over everyone else. It's about finding your strengths and using those. [11:18.0]
Now it's very easy to mistake activity for achievement, but they're not the same thing. Far too many people believe that just doing is achieving checking tasks off a to-do list is not achievement. I would rather do less total activity with my concentrated forces than more activity with scattered forces, if it meant getting better results. And I talk a lot about knowing your personality and tailoring your marketing to your personality. So for example, if you're a naturally social person and you enjoy networking online, social media is obviously for you, if it's your personality. If you enjoy talking and you can carry on a conversation with someone, maybe podcasting is for you. Now, personally, I like writing. I may not be the best writer in the road, I make a ton of mistakes typos, because I write fast, essentially that's the reason why. Many people would say I'm even terrible at writing, but I can do it with ease. Now, another person might struggle to write, but I can just sit down. I can pour out the words without much work. I can just write, I can sit down. I can do it without really thinking, without hyping myself up without getting motivated, without taking 10 different courses, reading 50 different books. I just write. [12:26.0]
It is something that I am so much better than other people as far as like the friction there. I don't have any friction with writing. So I built my business around my concentrated forces. I just gave you absolute goal. Hope, hopefully you picked it up like financial advisors seriously building your business around your forces that are good for you and your concentrating them. It’s legitimately some of the best advice you're ever going to receive. So about my writing, I outline these podcast episodes. I write a daily email, I've got a bunch of blog posts we're actually going to go through and we're going to well, I'm not going to get into it, but the blog posts are going to be awesome. I've got my monthly newsletter. I've got a whole bunch of stuff. It's all based on writing. I have been able to help tens of thousands of finding probably hundreds of thousands at this point, if you consider all the sources, I've been able to help as many advisors as I have, because I have concentrated my forces. My business would not be where it is if I didn't obey this law, it is just that simple and financial advisors you should obey this law as well. So if you're going to read 48 Laws Of Power, read the first one about, ‘Never Out Shining the master and then read this, you will get more out of it as a financial advisor than I think many of the books that are sitting on your shelf right now. [13:39.3]
Then the next law is law 25 in the book. And it's all about recreating yourself. That's what the law is titled, ‘Recreate Yourself.’ And I thought this was interesting because it's all about refusing to let society dictate what your role should be. It's about being the master of your own image, rather than having other people define it for you. Now, this may be tricky for you to do, especially if you're working with a company that won't allow you to have your own website or do much on social media or do any email marketing at all. So my advice, if that's you, if you can't do email marketing, if you can't have your own website, get out, leave. I know that's easier said than done. I know it's going to be a headache for you. I know it's going to cause some problems in the short term. What's the option? You are literally violating one of the laws of power. You cannot recreate yourself. Someone else is giving you an image. You have to live up to it. You're not able to be your own person, at least not as much as you otherwise would. [14:37.4]
So other than that, I think this law can help financial advisors because one of the most effective marketing strategies you can employ is to be yourself. It sounds cheesy, but it's so true. Just being authentic. For example, when financial advisors go through my email marketing system, it's funny cause like it's so simple. Like I I'm around it all day long. And I mean, you've mentioned Ben Settle on this podcast, in my opinion is one of the greatest email marketers of all time. And, you do a lot of email marketing on your team or with your team. So it's so obvious to me and so obvious to produce a Jonathan is so obvious to the people in our world. But when financial advisors go through that email marketing system, they're shocked to discover that some of the best emails, as far as results go and appointments set, they are often very personal and they don't seem to be about business whatsoever, even though they are. But the, it just seems like two friends chatting. So the financial services industry, it tends to have this like professional buttoned up stuffed shirt image. And it's the wrong way to go. Maybe it was okay decades ago, but now people are tired of it. Now, does that mean they want to slob? No, but in a world where people can buy financial products online, where people have access to countless personal finance resources, they want the relationship. [15:52.6]
I said that in the first part of this series, they want to find an advisor who can talk to them on a human level and understand their situation. Your job is to recreate yourself into that image. You are recreating yourself into someone who is more personable, someone who is gregarious, someone who can relate to them and who talks about things that they're interested in. I mean, it, what if I told you financial advisors that one of the most effective emails that we've sent out was about Tiger King, his series on Netflix, it's true. It is totally 100% true. What if I told you that one of the most effective emails that we sent out around Halloween was about different demons and ghosts and monsters and different things like that. I don't want to give too much away, but also true. So you have the power to create yourself and define your own identity. And this goes far beyond mere marketing and business building, by the way. [16:43.6]
So if you want to be wealthy, we're talking about money now. Start working on your wealthy identity; recreate yourself as a wealthy person. If you want to be fit, begin seeing yourself as a fit person, recreate yourself as a fit person. What would a fit person to work out, eat healthy. Of course it begins a positive feedback loop with your identity. So here's what happens. You think of yourself a certain way. So you do certain things. And then because you do certain things, you think of yourself a certain way, even more, and it just gets better and better and better. So those are the laws for this week. That's part two of the Financial Advisor Laws Of Power. Go back and listen to part one, if you haven't. I know I said that before, but it's really important. And next time part three is coming up.
Jonathan: That is it's gonna be awesome, man. I'm I'm enjoying, I'm really enjoying this. Thank you for doing it, James. And thank you fam for tuning in, I'm here with you learning. So come back next time for more. And that is a wrap for Financial Advisor Marketing. [17:42.3]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
