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: Hey, financial advisors, welcome to another episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast.
You may have looked at this episode title on thought to yourself, Limiting beliefs? What do those have to do with marketing? I thought this was the “Financial Advisor ‘Marketing’ Podcast.” I think it's important for financial advisors to know about different limiting beliefs for two reasons. First, they can acknowledge the beliefs within themselves, because financial advisors aren't immune to these beliefs. [00:58.9]
I mean, one or more of these could be holding you back from achieving, not just your financial goals because, yes, this is about money, but, I mean, because money is involved in everything that we do—it could be your business goals, your life goals, even your fitness goals—if you don't have your money right, I mean, health is wealth, it's going to play a part in limiting your health as well.
I'm going to be transparent as we go through these beliefs, so I can share with you the ones that impact me most. I mean, quite frankly, all of these impact everyone at some level, but it's just that, are you more impacted by one more than another? I'm going to share my journey in the hopes that it can help you, too.
Second, these limiting beliefs are common because, as I just said, we all have them to some varying degree, and since they're common, your perspective clients have them, and knowing that they exist is the first step for you to, a) deal with them in your marketing, and b) deal with them in your sales process. Someone who believes that money is hard to come by should be approached differently than someone who believes money is abundant. [01:59.3]
This is one of the problems with classical sales training. Classical sales training assumes that there's one right way to do things. It assumes that if you learn how to, quote-unquote, “close” or how to ask the right questions, you'll be successful with prospective clients.
That's not necessarily true and it's one of the many reasons I prefer strategies over tactics and it's why I tell you not to resist dogma necessarily, but that dogma is dangerous. There is never one right way to do things because, as human beings, we're all unique individual little snowflakes. Your tactic could be to use a specific closing line, but your strategy could be to accommodate your presentation to the person sitting in front of you. I hope that makes sense. You're going to accommodate what you do to the people based on their limiting beliefs, or at least the ones that you pick up on.
I don't want to spend a bunch of time hyping this up because we have a lot of ground to cover. Let's start with the first one.
Number one: “Money won't make you happy.” Money itself won't make you happy. Money has been a lot of things over the years. It has been corn, seashells, gold, and, finally, little pieces of paper. These little pieces of paper will not make you happy. [03:09.2]
However, the feelings associated with money have a big impact on your happiness. A lot of this stuff is relative. What if I ask this question? Would you be happy if you woke up with $10 million in your bank account tomorrow? Most people would say yes, but what would a billionaire say? Absolutely not. I'd be devastated if I woke up and only had $10 million. I'd be worried that the rest of my money was lost. So, it's all relative, and I’ve found that money doesn't make people happy, but it solves a lot of problems that make it easier to be unhappy. I hope that makes sense, too.
At the end of the day, you choose happiness, but if your car is broken down and you've got no money to fix it, or you need knee surgery and you have no money for that, it's going to be easier for you to be unhappy versus happy. In that sense, money can bring you water, but it can't force you to drink. Just because you have money, it doesn't mean that you've chosen happiness for yourself. You have to choose to be happy. [04:08.4]
I've had absolutely nothing, no money in any bank accounts. I didn't even have a bank account at one point and I’ve been happy. I’ve had a bunch of money and, by some standards, I still have no money whatsoever, but by other people's standards, I have a lot of money, and I’ve been happy and I’ve been unhappy, and I’ve been unhappy in the scenario where I didn't have any money. It's all relative and it's all about what you make it. Life is what you make it, so that's what I will say there.
It is a big limiting belief that people have when they believe that money can't buy happiness or that money will make you happy, and that's true to an extent, but a lot of times it's a cop-out because they either haven't made it themselves. They don't want to make money. They're dissociating from the reality that money plays a huge role in our society. [04:56.5]
Number two: “Money isn't important.” Yes, it is. Money is important in the right context. Money is a tool. That's like saying a screwdriver isn't important. It depends on what you want to do. A screwdriver isn't important if I'm trying to vacuum my carpet, but it just so happens that there are a lot of things in life that require screwdrivers. If I want to tighten something, if I want to adjust the cabinets in the house, I need a screwdriver, so when I need to adjust those cabinets, money is indeed important.
Like I said before, with the example about the knee surgery, if you need knee surgery and it costs money to do that, then, yes, money is important. Money is the tool that allows you to do that—and if you don't like that, don't shoot the messenger. Don't hate the player. Hate the game.
From a marketing context, it's important for financial advisors to frame money as a tool to be used by their clients. For example, when planning for retirement, money is a tool that provides peace of mind. That is the thing. In survey after survey, the biggest fear retirees have is running out of money. Money itself, including the famous 4% rule that may or may not work depending on who you ask, is a tool to give people peace of mind during retirement. [06:10.8]
Just like a screwdriver is a tool, just like scissors are a tool, a wrench is a tool, it is important within the right context, and because money allows you to exchange it for the goods and services that you need to stay alive and to thrive, quite frankly, it is important.
Good financial advisors will ask their clients about their goals and what they want out of life. Some people might believe that college planning is essential while others will want their kids to get scholarships and work their way through school themselves. Some will want to travel and live a lavish lifestyle while others will want to live in a modest home and only do modest getaways, just like domestic travel or renting an RV. They don't necessarily want to go to London, France, Greece, whatever. The tool of money will be used differently in each case, but in every single case, it will be used to get the people what they want. [06:57.0]
This kind of goes hand in hand with “oh, money can't buy happiness.” People say, Oh, I just want to be with my family. Okay, where do you want to be with your family? Do you want to have a beachfront house? Do you want to have a big house? Do you want to have a small house? If you have a little itty-bitty house, how big is your family? Can your family come over? If you live in Kansas and they live in New York, are they going to fly to come see you, and where are they going to stay? Do you want your family staying at the Ramada Inn or do you want them staying at the Ritz-Carlton? I mean, this is the kind of stuff that you need to think about.
Number three: “I'm not good with money.” Let me let you in on a little secret and this totally changed my life. This is going to sound super-simple, but a lot of the life-changing stuff does sound simple at first. But money management is a skill. You know this. You're a financial advisor listening to the best podcast in the entire world, the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast. Financial literacy can be learned.
Guess what? When I was born, I had no concept of money. I didn't know what it was. I had absolutely zero personal finance knowledge. I didn't come out of the womb with this stuff, which means everything I know today is what I have learned along the way. I have acquired this knowledge. [08:02.8]
For the things I don't know, my network can teach me. I can reach out to somebody. I can take a course. I can read a book. I can get someone to help me understand the concept. I can get that knowledge. If I say I'm not good with a certain software, like QuickBooks Online, guess what? I can learn QuickBooks Online. I can learn different programs that I need in order to be good with money.
I didn't know about budgeting at all and I'm not the best in the world at budgeting. For a long time, I didn't budget, but I have to know the software in order to … I don't want to go into it, but there are certain things that we're doing in the marketing space that require the use of a budget, and I didn't know how to use YNAB. I didn't know how to use Mint back in the day, in 2012 or 2011, something like that when I was using Mint. I didn't know how to use any of this stuff. I learned it.
Financial advisors must walk a fine line with this limiting belief, though, because people who believe they aren't good with money will probably want to seek professional help, which is good. If they're seeking professional help, they want to hire a financial advisor, that's a good thing. But I think it's dangerous to take the reins and not talk to your clients about what you're doing. [09:10.4]
Financial advisors have this belief that they can get a bunch of outsourcers or delegators as clients and they just hand everything over and they say, You do the work. You invest my money. You put the financial plan together and I’ll just follow it, and then all will be right in the world.
That's more of a fantasy than not. Yes, there are some people like that. I am like that in many instances. As long as I understand what my financial advisor is doing, as long as I understand what my accountant is doing, I would get them to, again, teach me this stuff, because money management is a skill. Accounting is a skill.
From a financial advisor to a client perspective, the right answer is to ask your clients how involved they would like to be. If they would like to know every little detail about what you do and why, then tell them. If they don't want to know anything, keep that in mind, but still give them the essentials that will set them up for success, so they can understand what is actually going on. Give them, I don't want to say the bare minimum, but that's really what it is. Give them what is necessary for them to understand, for them to feel comfortable for them to not freak out when things go wrong. [10:15.0]
Above all else, I can sum it up like this. Do what is right for your clients. I must admit this limiting belief is hard to break. It is probably one of the most difficult ones out there and the biggest telltale sign of when people struggle with this belief is when they have excuses for poor financial behaviors.
For example, a real estate agent has to have a nice car. Why? To impress his or her clients. An engaged couple has to have a big wedding. Why? Because it'll be the happiest day of their life. It's what everyone else is doing. The average wedding costs $30,000 now. They’ve got to spend at least that. Do you want to have a below-average wedding? I mean, really? [10:55.0]
Two parents have to live in a certain school district, so they take on a massive mortgage and they get more house than they can afford and they end up being house-poor. It gets dangerous when people believe their own excuses. When people believe, like with the house, right? The couple or the parents believe that they have to be in a certain school district. Then it causes a lot of trouble. It is just an excuse.
The excuse that your marriage, the day you get married would be the happiest day of your life, even though that may be true, you don't necessarily need to spend $30,000 on a wedding, because guess what? Your excuses will always be there for you.
At any time in my life when I needed an excuse or even if I wanted an excuse, if I looked for an excuse, guess what? It was there. There has never been a time in my entire life where I said, I need an excuse for something, and I didn't find one. I've always been able to find an excuse. The opportunity to be financially free will not always be there for you.
At some point, you have to decide that you're going to put aside your excuses and focus on what you truly want. Don't you ever believe that you're not good with money because money can be learned. The skills required to manage money, to invest money, to grow money can be learned. [12:10.8]
Hey, financial advisor, 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 $1,000 worth of bonuses, including exclusive interviews that aren't available anywhere else. Head on over to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to learn more.
Number four: “Money is hard to earn.” If you grew up poor or middle class like I did, I was lower middle class. I was never the poorest person at my school, but I definitely had a lot of people who were doing better than me. I understood it from a very young age. I understood the importance that money had in people's lives and the ability that it had to pay for afterschool activities, to pay for certain clothes, to pay for certain foods. I would notice that I would have baloney sandwiches and other kids would have healthier foods like the to-go salads and all the other stuff that cost a lot more money. [13:08.8]
This got pounded into my head, too, but get this. We live in a world of value exchange. The money itself, I keep saying the money itself because I'm talking about the dollars, the pesos, the Bitcoin, it doesn't matter. The only things that matter are the goods and the services being exchanged. Is it hard for you to acquire goods to exchange? Maybe. Is it hard for you to acquire services to exchange? Maybe.
But follow along with me here. I Googled it before the show and I found out that the average, or the median monthly rent, I should say, not the average, but the median monthly rent in the United States in 1990 was $447 per month. In 2020, it was $1,104. If you own a piece of real estate this entire time from 1990 to 2020, you could raise your rates along with inflation, the rents that you charge. But what is truly making you wealthy? Is it the money that is coming your way or is it the real estate, a.k.a. the housing, the service you're providing to another family? [14:12.8]
Since this is the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast, I’ll use the stock market to give you another example. One way to value stocks is to try to figure out the present value of their future cash flows. You want the money in the future, yes, the money that a stock could provide you, the capital appreciation and the dividends, but what are you really buying? You're buying parts of companies. And what do these companies provide? They provide goods and services.
What do you do when you get the cash? Let's say you get a dividend from a company. You probably reinvest it. Why? Because you want more ownership. Deep down in your heart. You know this to be true. You want more ownership of what's being provided.
You know this to be true. I'm going to give you one more example, though, because this is the most important part of the show. I really want you to understand this, so I'm going to really make sure that you get it. I'm going to hold you by the hand because I care about you. [15:05.5]
Who would you rather be? Would you rather be a person with no skills, no knowledge, no skills, but you inherit $1 million, or would you rather be Elon Musk with all of his skills, all of his knowledge, but with zero dollars in the bank? Assuming you're not a total dumbo, you would choose Elon Musk because you know in your heart, in your gut, that the ability to provide something to the marketplace is more valuable than the dollars and cents. Even if Elon was starting from zero, he could use his knowledge and skills to make far more money because he can provide something people want.
I bring this up because your ability to get money is limited by your ability to provide goods and services to the marketplace. You have to have stuff that people want. You can get money by providing results for people. Of course, you should know how to market these results. That's why you're listening to the Financial Advisor Marketing show and I have a bunch of episodes that can help you with that. [16:01.3]
But people can't give you money, unless a) you provide the goods and services or you offer something that they want, and b) that they know you exist. They have to know you exist. If I have a pipe burst in my house and I need a plumber ASAP, I'm going to the plumber, by definition. It sounds silly to even say this, but it helps people get it. I'm going to the plumber that I can find. It is impossible for me to hire a plumber that I cannot find. Does that make sense? The plumber needs to put himself or herself in a position to be found, and that's the marketing part of it.
I don't want to get too deep into the marketing stuff because this is about limiting beliefs, so I'm going to move on to limiting belief number five—and that is “you have to work hard to get money.” This is another belief that is extremely common in the lower- and middle-class households. I had this one growing up, I will admit it. [17:00.2]
My family members worked hard. I had prison guards, mechanics, security, guards, construction workers, nurses, all sorts of blue-collar workers in my family. They busted their butts every single week for either what I'm guessing is an average or slightly below-average salary. I can see why they thought it was hard to get money.
I personally grew up on a farm, so I know what hard work means. Think about this growing up on a farm, it wasn't just farmers, right? We weren't just farmers. They had other jobs. They were doing other things. For me to think that farming couldn't provide a hundred percent of the money that we needed. It was easy for me to make that jump, okay? But we had horses. We had cows, pigs, goats. They all had to be fed and watered. It didn't matter if it was Christmas Day. It didn't matter if I was violently ill. The animals still had to get fed every single day, it didn't matter. If you grew up on a farm, you know this. [18:01.4]
It could be your wedding day. Your mom could have died last night. Those animals still need food. Crops still need to be nurtured, watered, and harvested. If you don't do the work, you don't get the money—so I know where this belief comes from. It comes from growing up on the farm, but is it true? Not necessarily.
I think as human beings, we all have to choose which hard we want. It can be hard to build a fortune, but it can also be hard to live life without the fortune you want. I love Jim Rohn. I listened to Jim Rohn's entire program. There's one on Nightingale-Conant on Audible that’s 13 hours long, I believe. I listen to that once a year. Jim Rohn said we will endure one of two pains, the pain of discipline or pain of regret, and I think that sums it up nicely.
However, I don't think you have to work hard forever. A lot of things in life are like getting a train moving. It takes an enormous amount of energy to get this big, heavy train to move just a few inches down the track. But once it starts moving, it takes less energy, and as it's rolling down the track, it's propelled largely by momentum. [19:13.8]
The same is true with your marketing systems. It can be a lot of work to write a direct-mail letter. You have to figure out what to put as your headline, what to say on your body copy, how to segue to the call to action. A whole bunch of stuff goes into a direct-mail piece. Even something that seems as simple as a direct-mail piece, it could be highly complex. But once the mailer is written, you have an asset that can continue to work for you and show up in people's mailboxes no matter what.
The same is true when building a website or an email autoresponder sequence. I love email marketing, right? You know that. If you've listened to the show, email marketing is incredible. It takes a lot of time to get that train moving, but once it's moving it less energy.
This also applies to building a personal fortune. Let's say that you're investing in stocks. You grind it out. You work hard. You bust your butt. You save your first $10,000 and you have it invested in the stock market in the stock market grows 10%. That means your capital appreciates $1,000. That's nice. I like it. I take the $1,000 every day and twice on Sunday, but it's not life-changing. [20:16.4]
But let's say a few years go by and you now have $100,000 in your brokerage account. That same 10% increase would be $10,000 and, at that point, your growth will begin to catch up with your effort. With a million dollars in capital, we're going from $10,000 to $100,000 to $1 million in capital. The same growth outpaces the median household income in the United States. Your train is now moving because of its own momentum.
So, do you have to work hard to get money? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe me saying that and not just giving you a wholehearted “No, you don't have to work hard at all,” maybe I still have that limiting belief deep down inside me. Maybe I do. I don't know. I do know that we're moving on to number six. [21:02.7]
Number six: “It's selfish to want a lot of money.” This belief is held by the holier than thou types who typically have never done anything with their lives. They try to justify their own lack of success by telling you that it's selfish to want success, to want money. They haven't made money because they're better than you. They're not selfish. Come on, get real.
Honestly, I'm just going to be straight with you. I think it's selfish to not make more money. Again, money is a tool and that tool can be used for both good and evil. A knife is a tool. A knife can be used to save a life. It can be used to take a life. Who is to say that you can't use your money to support worthy causes? Who is to say that your money can't be used to teach valuable skills or to provide for your family members who need it? [21:54.0]
In my own life, I donate a lot of money to a charity called First Book. I'm actually their donor of the month for the month of January 2022. I'm literally featured in their newsletter and everything. I did a whole interview with them. I am proudly telling you—I have a big smile on my face right now—I am the donor of the month, for real, of an actual real charity. I'm being featured. This is so cool, and it's because I donated money. I gave them a lot of money. Am I selfish because I want to make money to support the causes I care about?
Sometimes I get criticized for being so brash and being so open about money and really everything but money, but the critics totally ignore the fact that I'm the donor of the month. I'm going to say it again because I'm proud, I really am. Let me see their receipts. Show me your receipts, haters. Let me see the receipts. What have you done? What have you done? How much have you given to support low-income children across America? What impact have you made? [22:53.2]
Yes, I want your money. I would love to have your money. I have this podcast, my website, all my assets, because I would like to get my hands on more money. Do you know why? Because when money changes hands, just like I said, it means value is provided. If you give me 1,000 bucks, it's because you believe that I can give you at least—at least—$1,000 of value in return.
If you're unhappy with the exchange, guess what you'll do? You'll tell your friends, you'll tell other financial advisors, and I won't have the reputation that I currently enjoy, which means I won't be able to get as much money in the future. That's how business works. Is it selfish to want to provide more value and get more value in return? I don't think so.
Number seven: “you need money to make money,” and I'm going to keep it quick with this one because I don't think this is true at all. Money can make it easier to make money. Let me be straight. You definitely do not need money to make money, but I will tell you money can make it easier to make money, but it can also make it easier to lose money. [24:01.2]
All you have to do is to find a list of these venture-backed startups that had money thrown at them. They became comfortable. Look at the failure rate on those things. You need courage, you need commitment, you need knowledge to make money, and you need to offer something people want. I've said that before, I'll say it again and I’ll say it again in the future.
The good news is that there are people out there who want help with money. If you're a financial advisor, that's really what you're doing. You're helping people use this tool. They want a financial plan. They want to know how to use the tool of money. They want to avoid costly mistakes. It's up to you to get in front of those people and present your value proposition in a way that gets them to say yes.
Can having money make it easier to get money? Like I said, yes, as long as it's combined with knowledge. If I give you a million dollars and you don't know what to do with it, you will struggle. If I put it in dividend stocks and I tell you to live on the dividends alone, you might get $30,000 to $50,000 per year with, quote-unquote, “no effort.” However, the knowledge when combined with the money is what makes it work and it’s what makes it grow faster. [25:10.5]
But that's not the end-all and be-all, because knowledge and money, they come together in a virtuous cycle. You know things, which causes you to make more money, and knowing what to do with the money itself can cause you to make more money, which allows a cycle to repeat itself. Knowledge leads to money, and because you know what to do with the money, you make more money, and that knowledge leads to more money and that knowledge leads to more money, and it just gets better and better and better.
That is it for the show. I hope this helps you. I hope this episode has been enlightening for you. Depending on the feedback I get, I may do more of this type of content in the future. I don't really want to be known as the “money guy” or the “limiting-beliefs guy”, but it is an important topic and I genuinely want to help people. I care about financial advisors. I want them to succeed.
If you like this, leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast. It helps me out. It helps more people discover the show. If you haven't connected with me on LinkedIn yet, make sure you do so by searching “James Pollard, the advisor coach” or “James Pollard, Financial Advisor Marketing” and you should find me.
Thank you so much. Thanks again. I'll catch you next week. [26:16.7]
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