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: Hey, financial advisors, you are listening to the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. If you're in the wrong place now, just stop listening to the podcast quick, because we're going to talk about something super controversial, super interesting, in my opinion. This is part four of my four-part series into what I'd like to call the financial advisor laws of power. It's inspired by Robert Green's book, the 48 Laws Of Power, it's one of my favorite books. And as I was rereading it, I saw that some of the laws applied to financial advisors more than others. So I decided to turn it into a podcast series and share them with the listeners and ended up being a four-part series with three laws each I think it has been so far. And I hope financial advisors are enjoying it. If you have enjoyed the series so far, if you haven't listened to the first three episodes, seriously, make sure you go back and listen to them. If you've enjoyed it, please share it with somebody, you know, share it with a financial advisor, friend of yours, share it with a family member or friend, I don't even care, they don't have to be a financial advisor because the laws apply to everyone. [01:34.1]
And Robert Green has a lot of books. Another favorite of mine is the Laws of Human Nature, but I think the 48 Laws Of Power, it is his best book. One of the biggest criticisms of the book, however, is that people think it's somehow evil or is for egomaniacs. I don't think that's true. I think the laws are neutral. Just like the laws of physics, the law of gravity neutral. You can use them for both good and evil. So if you read the book or if you listen to the series and you think about nothing but evil stuff, I think that says more about you than it says about the book. Seriously, there are some people out there not to get off track, but there was an inner circle member who was subscribed for a long time. And he asked a bunch of questions. He is a good inner circle member, he is a good financial advisor. And for some reason he just started acting strangely. His questions started to get a little weird, his feedback wasn't as positive. Like he started getting really like, for lack of a better term, like nasty. He just like, he didn't cancel or anything. He just like this sucked. I have issue with this, whatever, but he was praising, praising, praising, praising, praising, and then it was like a light switch went off like, Whoa, dude, like what happened to you? And eventually he canceled. And as my assistant removed him and blacklisted him and did all the other stuff that comes along with, I mean, we blacklist people who cancel, she found his name up in like several different lawsuits. [03:01.6]
It's like, Holy crap, people are suing him because he's screwed a bunch of people over. So this is an example of somebody who used the Laws Of Power to be evil. Don't do that. Do not use the laws of power to be evil. Like this guy did, it was very scary to see like someone just flipped. And I was like, is this guy who, okay, like I'm answering these questions. I'm not going to dive into his personal life or whatever. Cause like, I, I don't really care. You know, I care about helping him in his business, but there's other stuff is going on, they not to be mean or anything, but I just, I don't have time for all that, but it was very interesting to see, like he's getting slammed up in all these lawsuits because he was being a bad little boy, essentially. So keep that in mind as we go through the laws of this episode, you can, it's just like money. Money is neither good, nor bad. It's just neutral. You are the one who gives meaning to the money. I can support a children's charity like first book, one of my favorites with the same dollar I can use to, I don't know, get a weapon or something and hurt somebody. I don't know. Let's get into these laws. [03:59.8]
The first law in this episode that I have for you is actually law number 35 in the book, and it's ‘Mastered the art of timing.’ This is the good law to observe in the marketing world because your strategies, your marketing strategies, they can change with the times. So when reaching out to prospective clients, your approach, it can change depending on where they are in their lives, based on their timing, not just yours, but theirs as well. It can change based on your previous contacts with them. And yes, it can change depending on, on where you are in your business. So in order to master the art of timing, you have to be observant. You must pay attention to what's going on around you in order to say and do the right things at the right time. [04:46.1]
So for example, I remember several financial advisors who started doing video marketing back in 2016 and 2017. They didn't get much traction then. So they eventually got frustrated and they quit. I mean, it happens, right? They drive video marketing, didn't work at that time, they quit. And other stuff happened in their businesses. They're no longer financial advisors today, but they were in my opinion ahead of their time. I think that if they had the same video marketing today, they would be much more successful. They were doing the right thing at the wrong time. Now the reverse that is that you also have financial advisors who are desperately clinging on to old school sales training and marketing tactics that don't work anymore. The timing is not in their favor. They were doing the right thing at the right time. But now they're, it's the wrong time and it just doesn't work anymore. [05:39.5]
Now, another example of mastering, the art of timing is if you have a niche right now, because the financial services industry has already begun shifting to a niche based model. If you're someone who has a niche and you're building a marketing machine to appeal to that niche, you are ahead of so many other financial advisors right now. You are mastering the art of timing because we have already entered the specialization wave more and more financial advisors are realizing how profitable it is to specialize. But to be candid, this approach will become less effective in the future as thousands of financial advisors niche down. So you have a choice to make. You can either put timing in your corner or you can make it your enemy. The choice is yours. If you want to niche down, you're putting timing in your corner. If you don't want to have a niche, if you want to be a generalist and you want to try to appeal to everybody who can fog a mirror, you're making this your enemy. You are violating a law of power and being very clear with you. Now I'm being very serious with you because this is serious stuff. If you don't master the art of timing, if you don't understand the trends in the financial services industry, if you don't see what's coming down the pike like email marketing, content marketing, niche marketing, you are going to get wrecked. So that's it for that law. Let's move on to the next one. [06:56.4]
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Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more. [07:19.0]
James: It’s law number 40 from the book and it's ‘Despise the free lunch.’ Know you're going to like this one JR. Despise the free lunch free lunch. Hmm.
Jonathan: Yeah.
James: Free is seductive. And as a marketer, if you read copywriting books, marketing books, they tell you free is a very powerful word. It's one of the most powerful words in marketing. It can lead, it can generate leads. You put the word free on stuff, people perk up like, Ooh free stuff, what can I get? But it's very, very, very, like I said, seductive, it's just empty calories. It may taste good, but it provides no nourishment. Now, even though this podcast is free for you right now, I want to be a hundred percent clear. Getting some skin in the game will increase the chances of you taking action. Now I know some of you might be thinking well, I'm different. I actually do stuff with my free information, but science tells us that you would grow even more and you would grow faster, if you despise the free lunch. [08:21.0]
I guarantee you, if you paid like 10 bucks for this podcast series, just a small amount. Even if you just, you didn't give it to me, you just gave it to a charity, right? I tell you I support first book and I support donors choose like, if you just donated the money and you said, this is for James’s podcast, I promise you, you will get more out of it. Scientifically speaking research has been done. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, you name it, they have replicated these studies. They have found that paying for stuff and getting more skin in the game increases people's results. And I did an entire podcast episode on this. If you want to go back and listen to the title of it is the four letter word I despise and that four letter word, of course, spoiler alert is FREE. [09:00.1]
And Robert Green also says, and I quote, “It is also often wise to pay the full price. There are no cutting corners with excellence.” And I couldn't agree more. It's also often wise to pay the full price. There are no cutting corners with excellence. And this is how I think about this as a business person. We're not, it's not James, the financial advisor marketer anymore. It's not James with the advisor coach anymore. It's just me and my own personal life even. I would rather pay someone double or even triple to get 10x the results, because that's what I'm after, results. It amazes me to see people getting business and then worry about cutting expenses, pinching pennies. You are not in business to pinch pennies. You are in business to make money, get that through your thick skull. Your job as the CEO or owner of your own business is to allocate your resources to get maximum results. [10:03.1]
So when allocating money, one of your many resources, you've got time, you've got energy, you've got your health. You've got your employees. You've got your own human capital, but when allocating money, it's often better to pay more. I had, I struggled with this. I was a penny pincher. I must admit I was pinching pennies. I was cutting expenses. It's the wrong thing to do when I flipped this and I started actively looking for ways to spend more money and invest more money. Cause that's really what I was doing. I wasn't spending it. I was investing it. When I was looking for ways to push the money out of my bank account as fast as I possibly could with other people, I started getting more results. Now, a family member of mine to give you an example of this. He just got a new roof for his house. He could have gotten the cheap stuff. Now I'm no roofing expert. I know you're you were in real estate and still are in real estate producer, Jonathan, or maybe help me out with this. [10:52.5]
Jonathan: Okay.
James: I know there are different types of shingles. You got the asphalt roll, you've got the composite shingles, you got all that stuff. So he could have spent like $10,000 on a roof that would last them 20 years. It's just a small house, but would that be the best use of his capital? Well, it depends. What if he could spend $15,000 on a roof that would last 50 years. Now, assuming he'll be around 50 years from now and in the same house, he should spend the extra money. He shouldn't worry about pinching pennies. He shouldn't worry about cutting expenses down to the bone. He should be worried about getting maximum results and with the roof that doesn't even include the additional value it adds to the house and all of the other factors. So look for ways to invest more money. When hiring employees I've said this before, I'll say it again. I would rather pay a virtual assistant above market for her or him to get me multiples of what I'm paying. I would rather pay $50,000 a year for, in a market that would only get like 35 or $40,000. I'd rather pay 50 so I can get the person who's going to generate me a hundred rather than pay someone 35 and have that person generate me 40. I would rather pay more. And that's what I try to do. [12:11.1]
Do I hit it out of the park every single time? Absolutely not. I've got some, I've got some zingers and some people's I'm duds, right? But I'm trying to hit it out of the park every single time. Because if you try enough and you try to invest and you try to just put it all on the line like that, you will hit a few home runs and a couple home runs will take care of everything. Now, the last law and this entire series of the financial advisor laws of power is actually the very last law in the book itself and it's ‘Assume Formlessness.’ This is the last law in the entire book and financial advisors can learn a lot from it. You want to be formless like water. By being fluid, you protect yourself from the ever-changing reality. And Oh boy does reality change for financial advisors, but you want to bend, not break. Powerful people, they're constantly changing their forms. They're on the move. They're always evolving, learning to adapt to new circumstances. And for you to do that, it means thinking for yourself and seeing how to apply information to your situations. [13:23.7]
Now, in some ways it seems like this law contradicts all the other laws in the book. You might be thinking, assume formlessness, does that mean the laws of power can be situationally applied? Can I bend them? Can I wiggle them a little bit? Well, yes and no, not everything you read or listen to, should be taken in, in used. At least not all simultaneously. They must be used in the right time. Remember master the art of timing, these laws must be used at the right time. That's what assuming formlessness is all about, and they must be used in the right way. This also means you should never blindly follow what people say. Even me. Sometimes you have to make a decision on your own, learn to think for yourself and adapt based on your own situations. [14:10.5]
So to recap, the three laws we discovered or talked about and discussed in this final part of the series, they were, ‘master the art of timing, despise the free lunch and assume formlessness.’ And that concludes the four part series of the financial advisor, laws of power. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you did, please leave a review, share it with a friend, put it out there in the world and I'll catch you next time. [14:41.8]
Jonathan: I'm going to jump on that and say, if you hated it, why are you still here?
James: Yeah right, I know
Jonathan: That was awesome, James. Man, totally entertaining, totally thorough. Totally enjoyed it. And if you guys are just tuning in and go back and listen to the other three episodes, you are going to learn, you're going to grow. You're going to evolve and you're going to be a better financial advisor marketer for it. That is a wrap and we will be back in your ear buds next time. Thank you for tuning in. [15:11.1]
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