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, it's James Pollard, as always. I mean, who else would it be? Who else were you expecting? Welcome to another episode of the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. Today, I want to give you something a little different, but still insanely valuable. I mean, at least I think so. I know value is in the eye of the beholder. [00:49.3]
I want to walk through a couple of things, seven things, actually, that I recommend doing if you want to massively upgrade your life and your business, and not just in a vague self-help way. These are real S-tier, battle-tested changes that directly impact how successful you are in your business. Let's jump in.
No. 1: ruthlessly audit and control your environment. Lots of people believe that I am an exceptionally disciplined person, and honestly, not going to lie, you can make the argument for that, because, for example, for every single day for the past several years, I have been sending a daily email. I've been emailing every single day. I've been talking with financial advisors almost every single day. There's been two days in the past year where I haven't gotten any emails from Inner Circle members.
I have been writing the newsletter. I've never missed a deadline with any of my Inner Circle Newsletter issues. I am always getting stuff done in my personal and professional life. I am on Day 961 or something of using the Bible App every single day. I go to the gym. I do all the stuff. I do my morning routine, which we'll talk about. However, the truth is that the things I do have less to do with raw willpower and discipline and more to do with how I design my environment. [02:03.2]
People love to beat themselves up by saying they need to be more focused or they need to stop procrastinating, but most of the time, it's not a discipline problem. It's an environment problem. If your office is cluttered, if your calendar is a game of Tetris with no white space, or if your phone lights up every time someone posts a little cat meme on Facebook, then you're not set up for success. You're set up for distraction, and this especially matters if you're a financial advisor trying to grow your business, because, let's keep it real, marketing and business both require focus and they require intentionality, and if your environment is working against you, even the best marketing strategies won't get implemented.
My wife likes to pick on me whenever we travel or go somewhere on vacation because I will inevitably start to complain about how I miss the things that I have at home. I'll say like, “Oh, I miss my office,” or “Oh, I miss my bed,” or “I miss my fan,” and all the little things that I have that make life better at home, and the things I have at home are structured and set up in such a way that make me optimally productive. [03:01.2]
For example, the computer I have, the computer setup, is arguably the best computer setup you can have for my type of business. I have a high-quality microphone right there. I have a decent webcam. I've got a great keyboard. My computer has a ton of RAM and storage space. My internet is extremely fast. I have two monitors, actually three, depending on what day it is and what I'm working on. Sometimes I'll put a third one up.
I have a fridge right behind me for water so I'm hydrated. I have a gym behind me so I can take breaks and hop on the treadmill, do a couple exercises here and there. Down the hall in the bathroom, I have a red-light therapy panel, so in the middle of the day, I can do red-light therapy. I can take a break. I can listen to audio books or something.
My point is that my environment is structured in such a way to facilitate success. So, take a look at your environment. Examine your physical space. What's on your desk? Do you have your goals right in front of you or do you just have piles of paper and distractions? Look at your digital environment, too. What does your desktop look like, your computer? Are your bookmarks optimized for productivity? Do you have news and social media and YouTube, and just things that will distract you? [04:05.4]
And, yes, this also applies to your marketing environment, because think about this—what's the first thing a prospect sees when a prospect lands on your website? Does that prospect see everything that you want him or her to see, where you say, “This is who I am. This is who I help. This is what I do,” or does the prospect see something that makes him or her want to bounce?
But enough about that. I don't want to spend the entire podcast episode talking about the environment, so let’s move on to No. 2, which is track your time like a CEO. Here's something I used to do back in the day when I was coaching financial advisors one on one. Heck, it's one of the things that I talk about in “The Ultimate Financial Advisor’s Guide to Getting More Clients,” which was the first information product that I ever built, and that is time tracking. [04:50.2]
Most people have no idea where their time goes because they don't track it, so here’s a challenge for you—track every 15 minutes of your day for one week. Just one week. Start with one week. You don't have to do it for a month. You don't have to do it for a year. Just a week. Write down exactly what you're doing, when you're doing it, how long it takes, everything. Write a couple of notes. You'll start to see patterns. You'll find time leaks. You'll notice tasks that feel productive but don't move the needle at all.
You might discover that you're spending two hours a day on email that you can outsource to a virtual assistant, or you're only doing 30 minutes a week on marketing-related tasks, and that's the moment when you step into CEO mode, because CEOs know how to spend their time for maximum efficiency. They are capital allocators, yes, but they are also resource allocators, and one of the most precious resources they have is time.
When you start to operate like a CEO, you direct your energy toward high-leverage activities, such as writing an email that generates appointments, building a system that follows up with prospects automatically, or reviewing your top-performing LinkedIn posts and doubling down on those. When you track your time, you move from just being busy to being strategic, and I'm all about being strategic here. I talk about strategies over tactics all the time. [06:06.5]
You can ask the question, “What is the highest and best use of my time as a financial advisor who wants to grow?” or “What is the highest and best use of my time based on whatever goals I have?” and you will actually have an answer and you can prioritize that thing. I've been tracking my time since around 2017 or 2018. I don't remember exactly. I'll have to go back and check. But it is very cool that I can go back five years ago and see exactly what I was doing on a random Tuesday, and I can tell how my progress has improved over the years based on the actual actions that I have taken. I can see every single thing that I've done.
If I ask you, “Hey, five years ago on a Thursday in December, what were you doing to move the needle in your business?” and you can't answer that and I can, then I am simply going to have more data to make better decisions than you, period. There's no way around it, so stop making excuses and start tracking your time. [06:58.1]
No. 3: move from consumer to creator. Consumer scroll. Consumers binge. Consumers research endlessly and hoard PDFs and videos, and take notes that never get implemented. But creators act. Creators ship. Creators attract. In this space of financial advisor marketing, there's an obsession with learning—and don't get me wrong, I love learning. I am a learning machine—but when it becomes a substitute for doing, that's when it becomes a problem.
Reading marketing books doesn't bring you clients. Posting content that solves your prospects’ problems does. Binging YouTube videos about marketing doesn't build trust. You can't build trust by just sitting there watching freaking YouTube videos, but hosting webinars, hosting seminars, sending direct mailers and doing stuff in the actual marketplace that builds trust.
So, ask yourself, “What did I create this week? Did I publish a piece of content? Did I build out a new client experience? Did I record a follow-up video that's going to convert leads?” If not, if you aren't creating anything, then you cannot be a creator. You are, by definition, not a creator, because you're not creating, and the real danger in being a consumer is that it feels productive. [08:13.0]
You feel like you're working because you're listening to podcasts. Ooh . . . did I just throw myself under the bus? Or you're watching a YouTube video, or you're reading another godforsaken book, and you feel like you're doing something, but the real results come when you implement the material. So, please, if you're listening to the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, please, thank you, and you're welcome, and all of the pleasantries and polite things that I can say, but make sure you actually implement the information.
And here's something that you can implement. It is No. 4, which is, build a minimum viable morning routine. Let's talk about morning routines for a little bit, not the ones you see on TikTok or Instagram with lemon water and meditation and reading a book at sunrise, unless that's your thing, of course. I'm talking about having something that is minimally viable, having that minimum viable morning routine—just a couple of things, a few simple things. [09:04.4]
You strip it down to the basics so you know you can do it. You're more likely to implement it, if it's just a couple of things. It doesn't have to be some convoluted 12-step thing. It's just nutty that people think they need these crazy morning routines. I've never been a believer in the fancy morning routines where people will wake up, spend an hour meditating, spend another hour doing yoga at the gym, then come back, take a shower, spend another 30 minutes reading. It just doesn't jive with me. What are these people actually doing? You know they don't do that stuff.
Most financial advisors, and people in general, wake up and immediately check their phones. They check their emails and the news, and the texts and all the little messages they get, and just like that, their brains are in reaction mode and the day owns them. They're on defense. But what if your mornings were different? What if you took even 15 minutes, just 15 minutes, to do something intentional? Your whole day will shift. [09:55.3]
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.
My morning routine is actually very simple. I wake up, I get dressed and I get to work. I literally will be at my desk within 15 minutes of waking up because I don't want to waste time. That is my routine, if you can call it that. That's my minimum viable morning routine. [11:10.0]
Actually, let me go back. Yes, I do something else when I wake up in the morning. Yeah, I brush my teeth and do the hygiene stuff. I drink a lot of water. Lots of people begin their day dehydrated and they wonder why they have brain fog and can't get anything done. Drinking water solves at least a part of that problem.
I've actually been taking it a step further by drinking mineral water over the past year or two, because I've discovered that your body loses a lot of minerals overnight and replenishing those minerals as quickly as possible first thing in the morning makes a little bit of a difference. I have noticed it. It might be a placebo, but, hey, if it's a placebo, it's a good one.
No. 5: get better sleep and exercise more. Wow, something crazy you talk about on the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, right? I have an entire article about how to get better sleep, so I’ll just refer you to that. If you want to read it, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com/sleep. That's TheAdvisorCoach.com/sleep. [12:06.0]
For now, I'll talk a little bit about exercise. I'll just riff on it. I'll be the first to admit, I do not have the body of a Greek god or anything like that. I am not a bodybuilder. If you want to look esthetic and be ripped and shredded and diced, I am not your guy. I just look like a regular dude, but I am in the top 1% of all men in the big three power lifts, which is squat, bench and deadlift.
My grip strength, which is a predictor of longevity, is in the top 0.01% of men, probably in the 0.001% of men at this point. My heart rate is top 1%. My heart-rate variability is top 1%. I've shared all of these things online, so I'm not just saying this. I literally have videos and screenshots and all that stuff. It's a really cool feeling knowing that I can walk into a room with 99 other men and know for sure that, statistically speaking, I am stronger than every single one. [12:59.7]
Gosh, that makes me sound arrogant, doesn't it? Maybe, but it's not like it was handed to me. No magical fairy came down from the sky and gave me those stats. I worked for them. I earned them. I can't buy them. I can't have them given to me. Nobody can give me top 1% heart rate or top 1% heart-rate variability. No one can say, “Hey, here you go, James. You're in the top 1% bench.” No, it doesn't happen like that. You have to earn them, and I have, and I can tell you, my life has improved tremendously as a result.
This might sound kind of harsh, but I feel like I'm talking to men here, okay. Women, I love you. I'm glad that you're listening to the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, but the majority of my listeners are men. It's just the way the cookie crumbles. I'm going to talk to my men here.
Men, you have to excel in something. The big three areas of your life are health, wealth and family. If you are broke and unhealthy, and your family hates you, then you have literally failed all three of the most important things in life. On the other hand, if you're poor, okay, you can get a little pass on one, right? If you're poor, but you have your health, you're shredded and your metrics are all great, and you have a loving family, then I consider you successful. [14:11.2]
If you just happen to be single, but you're making a ton of money and you're healthy, guess what? You're successful. You can get the family stuff later. If you are missing out on one, then then you can kinda sorta get a pass, but you should aim for all three. We can all dig deep on this stuff. Some other time, though, because I could talk about this for hours.
No. 6: master the skill of deep work, because even in today's age of tech tools and artificial intelligence, focus is still one of your biggest competitive advantages. It is the ability to sit down, eliminate distractions and do meaningful work for extended periods of time. Can you go into a room and just do stuff? If I told you that you needed to map out a social media content strategy, could I just give you four hours in the morning and say, “Get it done?” After today, you shouldn't have to worry about it one bit. Just go in the room and get it done. Can you do that? The truth is, most financial advisors never access that kind of focus. [15:12.8]
That email campaign that could bring in 10 new clients is still sitting in drafts. That direct mail letter that financial advisors have been meaning to write, that's still a bullet-point outline. This is why deep work matters. It is just the ability to block off time, remove all distractions, and focus on the things that need to get done. Whatever it is, it's deep. It's focused. It's high-leverage. You need to create a recurring time block for this. You can treat it like a meeting with your most important client, because, in a way, it is a meeting with your most important client—you, your business.
So, here’s a tip: if you're going to do this, put your phone in another room. Do not have your freaking phone. Do not check your phone. No phone, okay? Do you hear me? Do I make myself clear? No phone. Close every tab except the one you're using, and if the task doesn't require a computer, don't have a computer. [16:02.2]
If you're just thinking about your goals and planning out your business, all you need is a notebook and a pen. A piece of paper and a pen. Yeah, that's it, right? I said notebook, but don't even have a notebook because you could rip off a couple pages and make a paper airplane. Literally, remove all distractions and just get the stuff done. Don't come up for air until you've made real progress.
If you can master this, even for just 45 minutes a day to begin, you will, I promise you, you will outpace financial advisors who are scattered and distracted every single day of their lives. This one habit will set you apart in a sea of noise.
No. 7: cultivate relentless self-honesty. Here's a life, life, life-changing truth—you cannot fix what you don't face. Dr. Phil says you can't fix what you don't acknowledge or you can't change what you don't acknowledge, or something like that, so thank you, Dr. Phil. One of the biggest differences between successful advisors and those who plateau is just this self-honesty, this brutal self-honesty. [17:05.4]
Are you really doing the work or are you just doing what's comfortable? Are you using busy work to avoid the real stuff, like marketing and sales? Are you holding on to beliefs or strategies that used to work but no longer serve you? Look, we all have blind spots. I've got a ton of blind spots. I screw up all the time. I've got a graveyard of failures. We all have excuses that sound like logic. I'm the king of excuse-making sometimes. I try not to make excuses, but, goodness gracious, I make a ton of excuses.
When you start being radically honest with yourself, things start to change. You stop saying, “I don't have time for marketing,” and instead just say, “Look, I didn't prioritize marketing.” You stop blaming the market or your niche or your tech platform, and you instead ask, “What's the one thing I have to do to change this? How can I exert my control? How can I change my environment? How can I accelerate success in my life?” [17:59.2]
This level of honesty isn't always fun. In fact, it's almost never fun because you're looking at your blind spots and that's not very fun. It forces you to admit when you've been coasting. It shines a light on your avoidance behaviors, but it also gives you back your control, because once you're honest about where you are, you can finally create a plan to get where you want to go.
So, if you're stuck, plateaued or frustrated, look in the mirror. Ask the hard questions. This habit alone can unlock the next level for you, and again, it's probably going to be difficult. It's hard to look in the mirror and tell yourself that you haven't been giving a hundred percent to your health, wealth and family. It's difficult to realize that you've let a lot of time slip through your fingers and you haven't accomplished much of anything.
It's excruciatingly painful to look back over the past 10 years or five years and realize that if you made a couple of shifts on day one, you would be so far ahead of yourself right now. But you have to do it. You absolutely have to do it if you want to catapult your life to the next level. [18:59.6]
Notice how none of these seven things are hacks. None of them are “one weird trick” gimmicks. These are fundamentals. These are the things that high-performers across multiple industries do consistently, and they're the same things that advisors who grow faster, build stronger businesses and serve better clients do, too.
The beauty is you don't have to start with all of them today. Just pick one, that's it. Pick the one that made you pause, the one you know you've been avoiding, the one that stung a little bit, because that's probably the one that needs your attention the most—and once you implement one, you'll have more clarity, more confidence and more capacity. That momentum will begin to build, and suddenly, you're not just running a business, you're running the business for you, the business that is aligned with your best self.
I'll catch you next week. [19:48.2]
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