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: Last week's episode about the Star Story Solution Formula was very tactical, so this week, I want to keep it high level. I want to talk about how you can repel the wrong prospects. It's one of the greatest productivity strategies I've ever discovered because it keeps you from wasting time with people who aren't a good fit for you. It's called “The Meat Cleaver,” and I first heard it from copywriter Gary Halbert. [00:54.4]
He said the stuff he did was like a meat cleaver, but he never coined it as a strategy. He never said, “This is the meat-cleaver strategy,” so I think the strategy itself should be called the Meat Cleaver, and it goes like this. He talked about how his newsletters, speeches and personality were able to cut through the sea of humanity, separating those who have any type of contact with him into two distinct groups.
Group No. 1 was hard-working, risk-taking, fun-loving people. Group No. 2 was, in his words, “losers unable to laugh at themselves and who are scared witless at the idea of taking risks.” He had a sharp wit. He never dolled it down. He openly mocked fear-driven excuse-making behavior, so if you had a thin skin, you would be going in a heartbeat. You wouldn't even stick around to hear what Gary had to say. You would despise him. You would not want anything to do with him, and that was the whole point. That is the idea of the Meat Cleaver, because he didn't want those people in his world. He was going chop, trim in that fat. [02:01.8]
Therefore, the meat cleavers ended up becoming phenomenal productivity tools for him, and I don't think he ever sat down and said, “You know what? What can I do to improve my productivity? I think I'm going to develop this strategy called the Meat Cleaver.” No, it just happened naturally. He was himself, and people who liked him gravitated toward him, people who did not like him went the other way.
The Meat Cleaver strategy eliminated the single most important drain on any entrepreneur’s time and energy, which is the wrong people, or having the wrong people in your business. This includes hiring the wrong people, if you're hiring. It includes getting the wrong people as clients, and yes, it also includes getting the wrong people in your world in the first place. There are people who take up space on your social media feeds, on your email list, and just everywhere in your business. You can become more productive by getting rid of those people, or, even better, never having them there in the first place. [02:56.6]
Allow me to give you an example of a meat cleaver a financial advisor might use. At its core, a meat cleaver can be about just, again, like I said, showing up as your true self. This automatically does the filtering for you, because the truth is, in most people's businesses, especially for financial advisors, they try to just smooth out every rough edge of their personalities. They want to be, quote-unquote, “professional” and appeal to everyone, but the paradox is, the more you try to appeal to everyone, the less anyone connects with you.
When you show your personality, two things happen. First, your ideal clients feel an instant connection. They feel like they know you. They feel like they could sit down for coffee with you, or a beer or wine, or water or a smoothie, whatever it is that you drink. See how each of those drinks has its own personality? Right now, I'm sipping an iced coffee mixed with collagen and creatine. That is a very specific drink, but if you are someone out there who also drinks collagen and creatine mixed into water or milk or coffee, then you're going to relate to me, because I just said that. [04:03.2]
Second, the wrong people opt out. They leave. Maybe they don't like your humor. Maybe your values don't resonate. That's okay, because they were never going to be clients anyway, and even if they did become clients, they would frustrate the heck out of you. For example, maybe one of your values is personal responsibility. If you openly talk about how you expect clients to take ownership of their financial lives and how you're not a fit for people who constantly blame other people, that is a meat cleaver. It's a meat cleaver I use all the time, too. I want financial advisors to take accountability for their lives.
I'll give you another meat cleaver I use, and that's ambition. I want to be around people who just want more out of their lives, that I want people who want to be more, do more, have more. I want people who want to serve others. I want people who want to make an impact in their community and with their families. I want people who are striving, who are pushing themselves, who are trying to grow. [05:00.2]
If you're happy staying where you are, like a bump on a log, I am probably not for you, and that's fine. There are plenty of other people out there for you who will take your money, who will make you feel happy, who will appease you. But in my world where I make the rules, I want people who are moving forward.
I want you to make progress in something. Maybe that's building a better business. Maybe that's getting healthier. Maybe that's building a stronger relationship with your spouse and your children. Whatever it is, I want that progress for you, but I cannot want it more than you do—which means, if you don't want it at all, then we're not going to jive, okay? Do you understand that I want this for you? I want you to become a better person. I want you to become a more fulfilled version of yourself, but if you don't want that, right, then I can't want that more than you. It's just not going to work.
Think of a meat cleaver like pruning a tree. At first, it feels really harsh. You're cutting out branches—like, aargh, you are going to screw up the tree—but in reality, pruning is what helps the tree grow stronger and healthier your business is the same way. The more you cut away the wrong people, the more room you create for the right people to thrive in your world. You're making your business healthier so the right people can come to you. [06:11.7]
One of the most obvious meat cleavers in the financial advice industry are strict minimums, whether that's for assets under management or simply the minimum you charge to create a financial plan. If you say that you only take on clients with $500,000 or more in investable assets, that is a meat cleaver. It cuts straight down the middle between people who have that money and people who don't have that money. It doesn't make them good people or bad people, or anything like that. It simply identifies them as a good fit for you. That is all it is. It just cuts down the middle.
Another one is your positioning, your niche market, if you have a target market. If you're really committed to only serving medical professionals, then that is a meat cleaver. It splits the sea of humanity between those in medicine and those not in medicine. This stuff doesn't have to be difficult, but it should be part of your business. [07:03.4]
This podcast, the title itself is a meat cleaver. It is the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast. It is not the “Anyone with a Pulse” podcast, right? If people search marketing, they're probably not going to find this podcast in the search results—or maybe they will, I don't know. I have never tried it. I doubt it, because there are tens of thousands of podcasts about marketing. But if someone types in “financial advisor marketing,” then I'm going to show up, right?
If someone happens to stumble across this podcast who isn't a financial advisor, then chances are that person is not going to listen, because the title is the meat cleaver. I am repelling people who are not financial advisors. It's not really to draw financial advisors in, although I guess it kind of sort of is. It is really about repelling people who are not financial advisors. That is the strategy behind that specific tactic. [07:52.6]
See, you don't have to have just one meat cleaver. You can have two or three, or 10 or 50, or 1,000, because, yes, this is the Financial Advisor Marketing podcast, but there are lots of financial advisors who don't listen. There are lots of financial advisors who do not like me because of my personality or the way I dress or the way I look, whatever. That is okay. I'm not for everybody. I don't have to please everyone. At this point in my life, I'm just playing the game. I do not need your money. I do not need your approval. I am just having fun—which brings me to another meat cleaver. A meat cleaver might be what you won't do.
For example, I don't do phone calls or the free consultations, or whatever you want to call them, and I'm not knocking them. I don't think there are bad strategies for marketers to use—and I'm not talking about financial advisors right now, because I think financial advisors should use free consultations. I think those are awesome for advisors. I'm talking about my fellow marketers, so I'm talking to you as James the marketer now. A lot of them will offer free consultations or 15-minute phone calls to see if they're good fits or whatever, and I just don't do that. [08:58.7]
I get messages all the time, “James, can we hop on a call?” “James, do you have time for a quick chat?” “James, can we pick your brain for a little bit?” No, I don't want to do that, so if that's a deal breaker for someone-- If someone needs a 15-minute phone call to feel comfortable buying something from me, then that's okay. I'd rather have that person not buy anything.
For you, it might be that you don't do one-time financial plans or one-off engagements. Maybe your business is built around long-term relationships, like mine. If so, then you might turn away everyone who only wants short-term engagements or one-time financial plans. You just say, “Sorry. This is not something that I do. I can refer you to someone else if that's what you want.” A lesson there, right? Ding, ding, ding, that's a lesson. “You could refer to other financial advisors. You can have relationships with other people.” [09:45.8]
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Another meat cleaver might be based on your expectations. I actually think this is probably the most underutilized meat cleaver out there, especially if you're already successful and you don't really need the money. [10:58.2]
If you're a new financial advisor and/or if you need the money, you should be very careful with this, but if you're already doing well and you just want to smash on that accelerator, this is how you do it—you set expectations. You say things like, “We meet every quarter. There are no exceptions. If you don't meet with me, then I can't help you.” Or you can say, “I require all paperwork to be filled out within seven days. I'm not going to wait around for you.” Stuff like that.
Now, you would dress it up a little bit. You wouldn't be as blunt or direct as that, but you're setting expectations, and I think it's so weird that financial advisors get their panties in a bunch. They get so hung up on setting expectations when it's just a routine business practice everywhere else. I can't even go into a convenience store without wearing a shirt and shoes. It's so inconvenient. Why do they call it the convenience store when I have to inconvenience myself by putting on a shirt? Even at the beach, it says, “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” Those are expectations. [11:57.8]
People have expectations elsewhere, too. In the dating market, it seems like a ton of women coming up these days want men who are at least six feet tall, who make at least $100,000 per year, and there's even a website called “IGotStandardsBro.com” and it has this female delusion calculator where women can put in what they want and figure out the percentage of men who fit those standards.
For example, men who are aged, I think it's 25 to 35 who are not married, who are 6 feet tall and make $100,000 per year, basically the thing that a lot of women online say they want, it's like 1% of the population or 1% of the male population, which means, if those are your expectations, there's nothing wrong with them. It's okay to have expectations. I want you to have them, but you need to be prepared if you're a woman in the dating market and that's what you want, that only 1% of men meet those expectations. I mean, then you’ve got someone like me. I put in my income and my height, and it says I am 0.05% of the male population. That's 1/20th of 1%. That's one out of every 2,000 men. [13:01.4]
So, there’s a dark side to standards, because the higher your standards, the more nos you have to hand out, and the more nos you probably have to receive. Again, that's not a bad thing. I'm not knocking this, but you just have to know what you're dealing with.
Also, that's exactly why most people don't use meat cleavers in their businesses. They're afraid of either saying no or being told no. They're scared to repel anyone because they think rejection means failure. But if you're not actively repelling the wrong people, you are, by default, attracting them and then wasting precious time, energy and mental bandwidth dealing with them, and that's all you have. You're giving your life away to people who are just not good fits, people who will never work with you, people, even if they do work with you, they'll be horrible and you just will not have a good time.
For better or worse, my religion has become a meat cleaver in my business. Lots of people will say you should never talk about religion in business. I kind of disagree, because why in the world should you hide something that's who you are, something that is extremely important to you? But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that everything has been fine, everything has been hunky dory, because it hasn't been. [14:12.8]
I started opening up about my faith in 2022. Lots of people were supportive. I loved getting emails and messages from financial advisors who told me how much they admired me talking about my beliefs, but I was also very surprised at how many people were just jerks about it. I got a lot of negative comments and messages, and what's crazy, crazy, crazy to me is that the most spiteful, most hateful stuff came from people who publicly talked about how tolerant they were and how understanding, and how we need to love everybody and we're just super-duper tolerant, and we love everyone and we include everyone, but hey, screw those Christians, right? If someone believes that Jesus Christ is God, oh, to heck with that person. It's just, these people are just straight up hypocrites. [14:59.4]
I'm just telling you, I have walked this path. I have experienced it. It is absolutely something that blows your mind, legitimately. It is mind-blowing because these people are like, Oh, we love everyone. We include everyone, but, oh, you're a Christian? No, we hate you, and that's what it was like. I had a lot of Inner Circle members leave, which was weird to me because they were willing to give up a resource that provided them with a positive ROI simply because they didn't like my religion. Isn't that weird? I just can't really because I personally would never do that.
I have Inner Circle members from all walks of life. I've got atheists. I've got Christians. I've got Jewish people, Hindu people. I'm pretty sure I have some Buddhists in there, too. I've got them all. You're free to do whatever you want, but I guess it all comes back to being yourself.
One more thing about the meat cleaver—it's all about taking your power back, because in business relationships, the customer or client is free to refuse, and that's okay. We want it to be that way. Trust me, you don't want to have a society where clients and customers are not free to refuse. People can leave for any reason, I understand that. [16:06.0]
I say, “Hey, I practice this certain religion or this belief,” and people say, “Ah, nevermind, I don't want to do business with you.” That's okay, right? It's frustrating. I think it's a little weird. Yeah, it's kinda sorta hurtful, but it is what it is. I would rather have people leave if it's truly not a good fit.
But back to the taking your power back thing. Let's say that I get a plumber to come out to my house for an estimate. I am 100% within my rights to refuse to work with that plumber for any reason. Maybe I don't think he'll do good work. Maybe I think he's unsafe for whatever reason. If the plumber didn't have any standards for himself, then he would basically be at my mercy and I don't want that. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for me. I don't want anyone to be at another person's mercy. I don't want that. [16:55.2]
I want people to take their power back by choosing who they want to work with, too, because that's the other side of the equation people rarely talk about. We're so used to thinking that the client holds all the power. But guess what? You're a professional. You're not a beggar. You get to choose your path in life. You get to choose what you want. You get to say, “I don't work with people who constantly reschedule.” “I don't work with people who are rude to my staff.” “I don't work with people who treat this relationship like a transaction instead of a partnership.” You get to walk away. You get to take that power back.
That is freedom. That's emotional freedom. That's mental freedom. You stop bending over backwards for people who don't appreciate you. You stop tolerating mediocrity, and you finally run your business the way you see fit. That is what the meat cleaver represents. It's a tool, yes, but it's also a mindset shift. You go from chasing everyone to choosing the right people. You become a lighthouse instead of a tugboat.
You are not the one desperately pulling the ships to the shore. You are grounded. You are shining your light. That's all you can do. You're just right there. You're shining that light. If people come to you, cool, and if people don't like your prices, your process or your standards, let them go. Let them be mad, because it means your message is doing its job. [18:11.5]
I've said this a bunch in my emails and on the podcast. I would rather have four diamonds than 100 lumps of coal. That's one of my core beliefs I have in my business. I would rather have 100 people unsubscribe from my email list because I talked about something that mattered to me than 100 subscribers who were never going to do anything anyway. I mean, why water a dead plant?
So, if you're listening to this and you've been holding back, if you have been hiding your values, your personality, your beliefs or your expectations out of fear of rejection, let this be your sign from the universe from me to stop, because the truth is, your business becomes so much easier and so much more fun when you stop trying to keep the wrong people happy and you start designing it for the right people from the very beginning. [19:04.6]
So, sharpen that cleaver. Swing it with confidence, because you're not just cutting off the wrong people. You're making space for the right people to walk in.
Thank you so much for listening. This was a good episode. I really liked this one—and I will catch you next week. [19:21.3]
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