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: I have been helping financial advisors get more clients since 2015. I've seen the best of the best and the worst of the worst. I've had 10,000-plus conversations with my Inner Circle members about their marketing, and even more conversations with non-Inner Circle members. I have seen actual bank accounts, ad accounts, social media accounts, analytics accounts, and so much more. I've offered products and services with 100% money-back guarantees because I know they work. I've also had the privilege of personally creating some of the most effective marketing campaigns in the entire financial advice industry. [01:07.3]
I say all that to tell you that I've seen a lot and I've noticed a pattern among unsuccessful financial advisors that holds them back. That pattern is simply not doing enough life. Doesn't care what your reason is for not doing something. It only cares that you do it, so I empathize with you if you're going through difficult times or if your life is set up in such a way where it's difficult for you to do the things I'm going to talk about in the podcast episode. But it also doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is getting the results.
There are some people who think I'm too tough on financial advisors or that I push them too hard, but that's only because I know how valuable a sense of urgency can be. I would rather accomplish my goals in a shorter period of time. If you have the ability, if you have the gifts, the talent, the skill, to get what you want in three or four years, why would you wait 10? Just get it done and get it out of the way so you can live your life. I'm telling you, that is exactly what I did, so I'm not telling you something that I have not done. I have done that. [02:09.8]
I'm also bringing this up because a lot of financial advisors say they want better marketing results, they say they want more clients, they say they want more money, but their actions don't say that. It always makes me think of this quote, which is, if someone watched you for a week, would that person believe you're serious about your goals? For many of you listening to this podcast right now, the answer is no.
Also, if you're like most people, it's not because you don't know what to do. Lots of people know what to do, and even in the miniscule chance you don't know what to do, you at least know that the resources are out there for you. Otherwise, you already have the strategies. You already have the processes that you can use to reach your goals. You know what to do. You're just not doing it. [02:52.7]
You already know that you have to go out and talk to more people. You already know to do things to increase your conversion rates, because that's all marketing is. All marketing is, is getting in front of more people and getting those people to say, people to say yes to your products and services. That is what it is. If you want to improve your marketing, you either get in front of more people and/or you increase your conversion rates. That is what it is. So, that means the issue is not about knowledge. It's about execution.
Some of you are treating marketing like this project that you only do when you have time. You post on LinkedIn every so often, but not every day. You're not committed. You send an email when inspiration strikes, but you don't do it methodically. You dabble in paid ads for a month or two, and then you shut them off because, quote-unquote, “They didn't work,” even though you didn't give them nearly enough time to work. You didn't give your time or give enough time for your pixel to get seasoned. You didn't give enough time for your ad cost to come down or for people to be retargeted. That is not the way to build a business. You need to do more. [03:51.7]
Here's the marketing reality check I want to give you this week. What have you actually done to move yourself closer to your goals? And be 100% honest with yourself. Do not lie to yourself because you're only hurting yourself if you do. Let me ask you some questions. We're going to go through some questions and they're going to be reality checks for you.
First question: how many hours this week, in the past seven days, how many hours did you spend in pursuit of your goals? Are you even tracking your time? Do you know? How can you possibly know with complete and unbiased accuracy if you're not tracking?
Another question: how much money have you spent to assist you in reaching your goals? Ideally, this should be measured as a percentage of income, because if you're only making $100,000 per year, then spending $10,000 on personal development is a lot more meaningful than someone who is making $500,000 per year who spends that same amount.
I hesitate to use rules of thumb or give fixed percentages, but I believe you should spend at least, at least, at least, at least, 5% of your income on self-development and personal development. Ideally, that would be 10% or more, but I'm giving recommendations to a broad audience, so I would just say, at least 5%. If you're making $100,000 per year, you should spend at least $5,000. That is bare bones minimum. You're barely getting by at that point. [05:11.5]
What's nice is, as you invest in yourself and your skills, you should make more money as a result, which means you can invest more. You can make it a virtuous cycle. Your life will improve. If you're someone who wants to succumb to a little bit of lifestyle creep, then you can do that, but you'll still be making more money. You'll still have more money left over.
I spent far more than 5% of my income when I was in my 20s. Today, I still spend more than 5%, but not as much, I mean, because the ratio has changed because I'm making more and there's only so much that I can do in the marketing space. It's not like the 100th online ads course I take is going to be significantly better per dollar than the 99th course that I've taken. [05:53.8]
I remember people thought I was out of my mind. People thought I was so silly that I was a complete lunatic for spending thousands of dollars on coaching and courses, and programs and books, and trainings, even though I used those resources to improve my skills and make more money. I bet those same people today don't think that way. They don't think I'm silly anymore. Maybe they do, but not for that reason.
I sell courses and programs, too, mostly because I know how insanely valuable they can be when they're used, because you have to use them. I’ve purchased books that cost more than $1,000. Normal people would think that's ridiculous, but they don't understand that getting one thing from that book can make me more than that $1,000 and that's all I think about.
That's how I think about investing in myself. I am interested in dollars in versus dollars out. I do not care about the absolute dollar amount being invested. I only care about what is going out and what is coming in as a ratio. I do not care if it's $1,000 going out or $10,000 or $100,000. I have paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting. These are literally just phone calls or Zoom meetings with some of the best people in the world at whatever it is they do. [07:07.2]
I've had people comment things like, “$2,500 for 30 minutes? Ha, I’d never pay that, duh,” but their reluctance to pay that price is exactly why they're getting the results they're getting—and, obviously, I can't guarantee results because I don't know you or your specific situation, but I've had meetings with financial advisors where we legitimately solved seven-figure problems right there in the meeting. Fixing one or two things in the business would add at least $1 million in revenue, and sometimes that's in a year or two. Other times, that's over five years. But how much should a financial advisor pay to solve a literal $1 million problem? But enough about that. Let's continue with the reality check. [07:46.5]
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.
Here's another question to ask yourself: how many books, programs, courses, etc., have you consumed related to your goals? Let's just say, in the past month. Okay, so in the past month, how many courses have you taken? How many books have you read? How many programs have you gone through or seminars have you attended, or webinars have you attended? How many of those have you had? This is different from the money you're investing, because you don't have to invest a lot. Sometimes a $10 book can change your life. [09:13.2]
One of my absolute favorite motivational speakers and business philosophers is Jim Rohn. I listen to his audio recordings at least once a year, usually in November or December as I plan for the following year. In one of his programs, he talked about how he read a book called Think and Grow Rich and it changed his life, and he explained that he would recommend that book all the time and tell people how much it helped him, how much money it made him, and so on, but very few people would actually get the book. They would continue doing whatever it was they were doing.
Isn't that sad? Here you have a guy who is telling you straight up with real financial proof and the results to back it up that this book changed his life. Assuming your goal is to make more money, shouldn't you at least listen to him? Yes. But you'd be surprised. I guess people have far more important things to do with their time. I guess whatever is on Netflix is far more important than achieving your goals. [10:08.0]
Here's another reality check question. How many people have you asked to help you with your goals? I would go so far as to say that if you failed any of those questions so far, then you're not going to make it, but this one especially so. I am someone who wants to help financial advisors. I am someone who offers help. I put myself out there as someone who can help, and I am someone who makes it easy to get help, but I see firsthand how many financial advisors absolutely refuse to get help—not just from me, either, because it's okay if financial advisors don't want to work with me for whatever reason. Maybe they don't like the things I talk about. Maybe they don't like my personality. Maybe they don't like my philosophy, even though it's correct in a lot of ways, but they won't get help from anyone. [10:59.1]
There are lots of people out there who are able and willing to help with whatever you want, whatever you need. You just have to be willing to a) ask for that help, and b) invest in it if it requires some form of payment. A lot of times, the help does not require payment, okay? I give Inner Circle members free email access to me for their questions. That is a bonus. I don't have to offer that. I have the monthly office hours. That is a bonus, okay? I don't charge extra for that. That comes with the Inner Circle Newsletter payment. I don't have to do that, right? That is added on top of the newsletter, and one of the perks of being an Inner Circle member, right, is that direct email access to me for marketing questions.
Inner Circle members get a subject line they can use to get my attention and get top priority in my inbox. They can ask me whatever they want. I will do my best to help them. Sometimes I'll shoot back one sentence, maybe two sentences, if that's all it takes. Other times, I will give them a highly detailed explanation with context, and sometimes I will literally record a video showing them exactly what to do and how to do it. But guess what? Fewer than 5% of Inner Circle members, fewer than 5% of the newsletter subscribers, ask me questions on a regular basis. [12:06.6]
I also have monthly office hour sessions, I just mentioned that, where Inner Circle members can swing by. They can get direct marketing help right there on the spot or they can just sit back and listen to what other financial advisors are doing, and again, I see the same number. Fewer than 5% of Inner Circle members attend the office hours meetings.
Now, I know for sure that percentage is much higher than the general population, because if I were to survey the general population about who is likely to ask for help, that number would probably be 1%, and I guess those are the same people who are in the top 1% in whatever they're doing, because here's something else I've noticed—the financial advisors who actually engage and ask me questions tend to be the cream of the crop. [12:53.2]
I'll get to know them as people. I'll get to know them, what they're doing. I'll get to know their background, what they like, what they dislike, what their goals are, what their ambitions are. I'm interested in them as people. I want to know about them so I can help them. I want to pour into their lives and be a resource for them, right? I want their world to be better as a result of me being in it, and I am blown away at how awesome these people are. They are completely different from the 99% of everyone else out there, and that is not coincidental. Your willingness to ask for help is a competitive advantage.
I want you to imagine that you're competing with another financial advisor who has the same exact niche market, same experience, same certification, same offer as you do. Everything about you two is the exact same, except for one thing—the other guy is willing to ask for help and you're not. He will seek out people who can solve specific problems for him. He will get advice and solutions to his problems while you try to figure everything out yourself. That other guy would kick your butt. It would be no contest. [13:58.6]
If you're not actively seeking help from people who have done what you want to do, or at least can help you get there, then you're choosing the longer, harder, more expensive route, on purpose. And why in the world would you do that? I'll never understand it, but it's what a lot of people do. That's how a lot of people think.
I guess a good way to sum up this reality check for financial advisors is with this one question: what are you actually doing—not thinking about, not dreaming about, not wishing for—what are you actually doing to get what you want out of your life? Again, the world does not care about your excuses or your current situation, or whatever else you have going on. It only cares if you're doing the right things in the right quantities to get what you want.
I'll give you a lifting example. Since my lifting stuff tends to get a lot of engagement on social media and in my emails, why not talk about it here, right? The human body starts to lose strength after about three or four weeks of not training a particular movement. That means if you want to improve your deadlift, you will never improve it by deadlifting once a month. You just won't because any strength you gain will go away by the next training session. It doesn't matter how badly you want it or how many affirmations you tell yourself in the morning. It is human biology and you would be foolish to fight it. [15:15.6]
If you want to get stronger, if that is your goal, then you have to train more frequently than once a month. It is the same thing with your marketing. If you want to get better results, you have to do certain things. It is not a nice-to-have. It is a necessity. You have to do it with a certain frequency—and in this case, it's deadlifting for more than a month for the lifting thing, and, no, other activities would not be as efficient. You can get stronger by doing squats. You can make a stronger deadlift out of doing more squats, but it won't be the same as if you just did the deadlift correctly.
So, if you want to reach more clients, then you have to just get out there and reach more clients. If you want to get clients, your best course of action is to do the activities that get more clients and to do them often.
I hope this helps someone, just a little bit of a shorter episode than usual, but if it helps just one person, I've done my good deed for the day. Thank you so much for listening. I will catch you next week. [16:13.3]
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