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, what's going on, financial advisors? I hope you're doing well. Over the years, I've noticed that these podcast episodes do better when I talk about myself and what's going on in my life at the beginning of the shows, so I'll start with something like that. [00:00:46]
I know it may be hard to believe, but talking about myself does not come naturally to me. I genuinely like focusing on others and serving others and seeing what they're doing. Talking about myself, once I get going, I guess I can do it, but it's just that it's hard for me to shift my mindset from focusing on others to be like “me, me, me.” I personally don't think that my life is all that interesting, but I get a lot of financial advisors who ask about things I casually mention, like sleep and diet and nutrition, and TV shows and movies and books, so I will keep doing it, I guess.
One of the things that I've been sharing in my emails is that I have hired a grip coach, and here's why I did it. A long time ago, I was a hobbyist power lifter. I would bench, squat, and deadlift regularly. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of relying too heavily on lifting straps for my deadlifts, and since the lifting straps do most of the gripping for you, my hand strength lagged. Therefore, my grip strength has always been relatively weak compared to my other lifts.
To be clear, it's not like I'm super strong or anything. I'm actually extremely weak compared to a lot of people out there. There's an old saying that comparison is a thief of joy. That’s certainly true. If I compare myself to other people, I would have no joy whatsoever in this case. [02:00.8]
Anyway, I got a coach because I wanted to practice what I preached. I talk all the time about how you should be coachable and willing to get help. A long time ago, I actually remember taking a personality test, and one of the sections of the results was coachability. It measured how open and receptive one is to guidance, constructive criticism and feedback, and in the spirit of full transparency with you here, I maxed out that result so I am extremely coachable.
I say that because not everyone is, and goodness gracious, I've had to learn that lesson the hard way with stuff like my Inner Circle Newsletter, because I've discovered that even though I give step-by-step marketing instructions on many topics, because I write in a buffet style, where I talk a little bit about this and a little bit about that, a little bit about this. I try to make sure there's something in there for all financial advisors, at least one thing that they can use. I mean, you wouldn't go to a buffet and have every single food item. You'd have a little bit this time. Then you’d go back to the buffet, you’d have a little bit the next time. That is how I write. I try to put all that stuff in there, along with direct email access to me for questions and monthly office hours, exclusively for Inner Circle members. [03:08.4]
But even though all that stuff is available, some financial advisors, both Inner Circle members, that's rare, but also non-Inner-Circle members, of course, do absolutely nothing, and it is so foreign to me because it's literally the polar opposite of my personality. I will gladly seek out someone to help me and implement that person's advice.
When I first started training grip, I ordered these grippers called Captains Of Crush, and that's a lesson by itself because they're considered the gold standard in grippers and I believe that if you're going to do something, you might as well go for the best. You might as well go all out and give it your all, so I went with Captains of Crush. Other grippers that aren't as good, I didn't want to start there.
Anyway, Captains of Crush, their grippers come in different resistance levels. One is called their trainer, which they say, has 100 pounds of resistance. Who knows how they’ve come up with that number? There are different ways of calculating resistance and it's just not 100, but we'll say it's 100 because that's what they market it as. They recommend that strong guys start with the trainer, and I found that I could rep that fairly easily, with no problems. I mean, I was repping 20-plus on the trainer easily, not breaking a sweat. [04:18.3]
Another level is their No. 1, which has 140 pounds of resistance and they say you should be able to close that if you're already gripping, if you're involved in the grip world, if you have a strong grip, and I was able to rep that, but it was more difficult.
The level above the No. 1 is their No. 1.5, which is 167 pounds of resistance. That was my sticking point kind of, because even though I could close it, I could only do it a few times. The level after the No. 1.5 is the No. 2, which has 195 pounds of resistance according to the people who sell Captains of Crush. They say, in order to close the No. 2, you need lifesaving levels of grip strength, and I couldn't. I mean, I got really close. I was within a couple millimeters, but if you're in the grip world, you know that a couple millimeters might as well be the Grand Canyon, because you're not closing it, so I could not close that one at all. That was my real barrier. [05:13.6]
Now back to me hiring a coach. I found this guy who has helped a bunch of people, mainly men, because the world of grip is disproportionately men, developed world-class grip strength. Not just really strong, but the strongest in the world. I asked him what I should do. He told me what to do and I did it. Literally, and this is a true story and I have video evidence to prove this—it's time-stamped and everything—within two weeks, I was able to close the No. 2. So, within two weeks, I had lifesaving levels of grip strength because I found a coach and listened to him. I could have made excuses. I could have told myself that I’d figure everything out myself. I could have told myself that it would take too much time or money, but I did not do that. I didn't make any of those excuses. I simply asked, listened and executed. [06:05.7]
I humbled myself. I knew that I didn't know anything about grip. I was brand new to the world, didn't know anything. I was kinda sorta strong in certain cases, but I didn't say, “Oh, well, if, if I can deadlift more than the average man, then I should have a strong grip, and I don't need to listen to this guy.” I didn't do any of that. I just listened and I executed, right? Can it really be this simple? Yeah, I think so, especially when you consider that a lot of stuff is already figured out for you.
If you're a financial advisor and you're struggling to get website traffic, then guess what? That is a solvable problem. If you're struggling to build your email list, then guess what? That's a solvable problem. If you're struggling to get more referrals from your existing clients, then guess what? That's a solvable problem, too. The only question is this: are you willing to find someone who has the solution and listen to that person, and implement the solution? You have to do all three. You can't just find someone. You can't just find someone to listen to that person. You have to also implement the solution. [07:09.0]
Now, wait a minute. Did I just subtly reveal the secret to creating good content, which is going to be in the title of this podcast episode? I guess I did. I won't beat around the bush anymore. Remember, at the beginning of the show, I told you that these podcast episodes do better when I talk about my life, and that financial advisors ask about the things that I mentioned along the way. I gave those advisors what they wanted. Hmm, could that be the secret? Yes.
I'll give you another example. Here's an email I received from a financial advisor. I'm going to read it to you now.
“After listening to your podcast for about a year, I finally became an Inner Circle member on November 29. I finished the bonus material this afternoon and couldn't believe the sheer amount of value you give. Your video about your favorite lead-gen ad got me thinking about my plans for 2025. I want to hone in on professionals in their 40s and 50s who are juggling retirement while putting their kids through college.” [08:07.8]
“The challenge I'm wrestling with is, what kind of lead magnet or lead generation ad would be most compelling to them? Maybe I'm using those terms interchangeably when I shouldn't be. Should I focus on something tangible, like a PDF guide, or should I aim for something more interactive-”
Very good words there, “tangible” and “interactive.”
“- like a short video series? I know you’ve tested a lot of approaches, so I'd love to hear your perspective.”
I congratulated this financial advisor on finally becoming an Inner Circle member. I told him I hope to see him at an upcoming office hour session. I host office hours exclusively for Inner Circle members on the second Tuesday of every month, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We get together on Zoom. We chat about business, marketing and life. It's a lot of fun. You don't have to stay the whole two hours. You don't have to come at all. It's truly for you. If you're an Inner Circle member, it is there for you if you need anything. That is when I make myself available to you. [08:58.2]
I told him that he had a fantastic question, and here was my answer. A lead magnet is the thing that gets people to join your email list. It is the thing that you give them as a result of joining your email list. I like PDF guides for this. I actually recently released one called “Five Marketing Moves Financial Advisors Should Make in 2025”, and it looks like as of now, it'll end up being the fourth or fifth best-performing lead magnet I've ever created. If you want to download it, you could do so over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/moves, M-O-V-E-S. Once again, that's TheAdvisorCoach.com/moves.
I also like videos, but I'm not so sure. I do a short video series. I've always liked doing long-form videos because they allow you to build more trust, more credibility and more rapport with your audience. What's funny is, I actually talk about that in “Five Marketing Moves Financial Advisors Should Make in 2025.” I talk about lead magnets and how they should be longer. That’s a very timely topic. [09:59.7]
Quite simply, I've noticed that there are more conversions, more high-quality conversions from long lead magnets than short ones. The most important thing is, and I cannot stress this enough, this is the secret to creating high-performing content: it must be something your market actually wants. This is where 99% of financial advisors go wrong when building marketing funnels with everything, with podcasts and YouTube, and social media and lead magnets. All content, this is where they go wrong.
They try to create stuff that they think is valuable, but they don't take the time to understand what their audience truly wants or needs. You must spend more time with your audience. You must get to know them. When financial advisors try to create stuff that they think is valuable, their lead magnets, their content, their emails, their social media posts fall flat because they're misaligned with their market's desires. I'll use myself as an example here. I'll be the guinea pig for you. How did I come up with the “five marketing moves lead magnet” idea? I'll tell you. [11:01.7]
Listen up, financial advisors. This is something special I'm doing exclusively for people who listen to this podcast. If you subscribe to the Inner Circle Newsletter over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching, I will send you a collection of seven copyright-free emails, personally written by me, that you can use right away to begin getting more clients.
I call these my “objection-busting” emails, because they are designed to overcome the biggest objections financial advisors face. All you have to do is send me an email letting me know you’ve subscribed and I will reply with a link where you can download them for free.
I originally offered these in the May 2024 Inner Circle Newsletter issue, and it was one of the most popular bonuses I've ever given away. Today, these seven objection-busting, copyright-free emails are only available to listeners of this podcast, because I'm not mentioning them anywhere else. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/coaching to subscribe today. Now, back to the show.
Every single year around November, December, January, I've noticed that my marketing materials do better when I reference the upcoming year. Every single year, this happens. I did it in 2016, talking about 2017. That worked well. I did it in 2017, talking about 2018. It did well. Every single year, it does well. [12:23.4]
It's actually even better than that, because the financial advisors I want as my Inner Circle members or my customers and clients, those are the ones who start thinking about their plans, their goals and their strategies for the year ahead. They are the ones who are thinking about this stuff. The low-performing financial advisors cannot be bothered to think about this. That's a huge lesson right there, so if you want to pause the podcast and reflect on that, that's a huge lesson.
My lead magnet is an automatic qualification mechanism, because the advisors I don't want in my world don't even bother downloading it. That's a true win-win scenario, because not only is it super appealing to the financial advisors who want to be more, do more and have more. It's not appealing to the financial advisors who don't. That's awesome because it is appealing to the right audience and it's repulsive to the wrong one. [13:14.8]
Also, every year, high-performing financial advisors ask me questions like, “What trends should I focus on for the upcoming year? What can I get a head start on in January or before January? What should I be doing in the coming year to get more clients?” just questions like those, and those questions tell me exactly what these high-performing financial advisors want. I don't guess. I don't blindly put stuff out there. I don't throw spaghetti against the wall to hope it sticks.
In this case, what I did was I created a lead magnet that financial advisors actually wanted, and it's working well so far. I mean, it's working every single day. I'm going to take it away on February 1, 2025, because there's really no need for me to continue having it. Also, having a deadline increases conversions, so I put a deadline on there. I mean, that's really the marketing secret for this particular case. [14:09.4]
If you want to create a lead magnet that works or content that works, you need to do the same thing. Pay attention to what your audience actually wants. Listen to their questions. Identify their pain points. Understand their goals. When you do that, you're no longer guessing. You're giving them exactly what they're looking for.
But big disclaimer here, what they say they want and what they actually want can sometimes be two different things. For example, a lot of financial advisors say they want to grow. They say they want to build better businesses, but their actions suggest otherwise. This isn't just true for lead magnets, it applies to your entire marketing strategy. That's why this podcast title isn't the secret for high-performing lead magnets. It's the secret for high-performing content. Whether it's a lead magnet or an ad, or a blog post or an email, the most successful content you create will always be aligned with what your audience genuinely cares about. [15:05.0]
Now, let's circle back to the financial advisor who asked me about these lead magnets. He’s targeting professionals in their 40s and 50s who are juggling retirement planning and saving for their kids’ college education. Here's what I told him. First, you have to ask yourself, what are their biggest concerns, for his target audience?” It might be “How can I save for both retirement and college without running out of money?” That's good, but that's a good test, right? I would test that.
He could also do “Am I sacrificing my future financial security for my kids’ education?” He could do “Are there strategies to reduce college costs or maximize financial aid?” Those are specific emotional pain points, and that's where your lead magnet should focus. If it were me, I would lean into the idea of sacrificing your financial-future security for your kids’ college education. But the point with this episode is that he must go to his market. I cannot do that. I cannot offer the right answer. I mean, I can give you ideas. I can point you in the right direction. I can be a guide. But I cannot be the market. [16:05.6]
If you are targeting divorced women, guess what? I'm not a divorced woman, so I cannot give you the right answer. I can tell you what I've heard. I can tell you what divorced women have told me. I can tell you what I've seen in tests, but I cannot be the market for you. You must go to your market.
So, if you're a financial advisor listening to this, I want you to think about your own business. What's something your audience really wants? What questions are they asking? What problems are they trying to solve? The answers to those questions will guide you toward creating content that not only gets attention, but also brings in the right people, the people who are willing to work with you, the qualified people. So, go out there. Put in the work. Create something amazing, and if you need a little help along the way, that's what I'm here for. [16:49.1]
Actually, you know what? I was going to end the podcast episode there, but I want to go back to the qualification thing, because I think that's something a lot of people don't understand. If you are a professional services provider, meaning you're spending time with your clients one on one, or you hire people, you have associate advisors who are spending their time that you're paying directly or indirectly, then quality should be a priority for you—and if quality is a priority, then qualification should be a priority, because every minute you spend with someone who isn't a qualified prospective client is a minute that you can't spend with someone who is, and your content should do a lot of qualifying for you.
For example, I get asked all the time to either hop or jump on calls with people. I'm not sure why it's always hop or jump. Oh, and most of these calls are quick, too, or at least that's what they tell me. They want me to hop on a quick call. I don't know where that came from, where the hop and the jump is going to be skipped. Next time, let's skip on a call. I say no every time.
Refusing to hop on every single call that comes my way, maybe that's a bad business decision. I'm sure I've missed several golden opportunities, but maybe not. I still built a multi-million-dollar consulting business and other businesses while refusing to take a single unwarranted phone call. So, who knows? [18:11.6]
I made the decision a long time ago that I was going to be in control of my time, or as in control as I could be. You can't be 100% in control of your time because, depending on what you believe, there are other forces outside of you that have more influence than you. I promised myself that I would not sacrifice my known variables for unknown variables.
My marketing materials, ads, podcasts, emails, etc., are known variables. I know what they will look like. I know how long they will take to create, and generally speaking, I know how well they will perform. Phone calls with random people are unknown variables. I don't know what they want. I don't know who is on the other line. I don't know if they're serious about doing business. [18:58.0]
It could be someone looking to pick my brain for free advice. It could be someone who isn't a good fit for what I offer. It could be someone who will waste valuable time telling me about his or her life story before ever getting to the point. It is an unknown variable, and let's face it, again, every minute spent on an unproductive call is a minute I'm not spending growing my business, creating content for financial advisors, or enjoying time with my family and just living my life. I've got a life, too.
Again, I'm sure I've missed some opportunities, but the overwhelming majority of quick calls that people want me to hop on are unproductive, and I will gladly let one great opportunity slip away if it means avoiding a thousand terrible calls.
That's why I designed my marketing to do the heavy lifting for me. What is this? It's qualification. My marketing is like an army standing at the gate. They're gatekeepers. They educate. They pre-qualify. They filter out people who aren't serious about working with me. By the time someone reaches out, that person already knows the value I bring. That person already knows me, already knows what I can do, already knows that I have a track record that's kind of crazy, honestly, and that person is ready to make a decision. [20:05.2]
I highly, highly, highly recommend this approach, if you can stomach it. Yes, it's different. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, it takes time, but I haven't hopped on a quick call in years, and life is good.
All right, now I'm going to end the episode. I am so excited for what 2025 has in store, and again, if you haven't downloaded “Five Marketing Moves Financial Advisors Should Make in 2025”, then you can get it for free over at TheAdvisorCoach.com/moves, M-O-V-E-S, like the marketing moves you're going to make in 2025. That's TheAdvisorCoach.com/moves. And I will catch you next week. [20:44.0]
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