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, what is going on? How are you doing? How are you doing? I have been very busy lately, a lot busier than normal, so I'm taking today to just relax, chill out a little bit, as if that's possible for me. This podcast episode is one of the few things I have on my to-do list today, and I'm going to knock it out. I'm going to make it a good one for you. [00:55.0]
I spent this morning taking my time, getting ready. I got my shower. I did my little skincare routine. If you're interested, basically get products from CeraVe. If you're a man, seriously, still use this stuff. I know you might think it's womanly to put the lotions on and the creams, but you're going to thank yourself when you get older.
I remember seeing this image of a woman circulating online who had put sunscreen on her face for pretty much her entire life, but not her neck, and I'm telling you right now, the difference between her face and her neck. Just google this. Google “woman sunscreen face neck,” and you'll see it. It'll probably come up. It is crazy. So, take care of your skin, and you will thank yourself.
I've done some red-light therapy this morning, too, and I must say, getting a red-light panel has been one of the best things I've ever done. My skin is looking better. It's healthier. My joints feel better. I'm recovering faster from my workouts. I cannot recommend it enough. I'll give you a specific example. [01:55.6]
Since June 2025, I have been doing hip thrusts, because I know that, again, we're talking about some womanly topics here. I know that that might be sexist or whatever, but it's all in good fun. I jest. So, not only am I doing skincare, I'm doing hip thrusts in the gym. So, what’s next for James? Who knows?
Anyway, I have a very bad habit of over extending at the top, and when you overextend at the top, you put a lot of stress and strain on your lower back. It's a really bad habit. I'm trying to get better at doing it, but I just want to make sure I get the most out of every exercise. I have this weird fear of stopping short, and because I have that fear, I just push more than I should. But my lower back will hurt a little bit throughout the day because I overextend at the top of these hip thrusts. When I do my red-light therapy, that pain goes away so much faster than if I didn't do it at all. [02:52.7]
So, if you are in the market for anything health-related, you should probably check out red-light therapy. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a medical professional. I'm just a guy who’s on a podcast. I mean, you need no qualifications whatsoever to start a podcast, but I'm telling you, it's been one of the best things that I've ever done for my health.
After doing my red-light therapy, I went down to my local Dunkin’—I call it Dunkin’ Donuts because that's what it was and that's what it will be forever to me—and I got a large half decaf iced coffee. I usually listen to an audiobook when I'm in the car. I'm going through The Science of Getting Rich right now and The Millionaire Next Door, two of my favorite books that I'm relistening to. But this morning, I put on some ’90s countries, specifically Rick Trevino. The songs Learning as You Go and Running Out of Reasons to Run are some major, major throwbacks if you're into ’90s country. If you are, if you recognize those songs, a virtual fist bump to you. [03:47.1]
As I've gotten older, I've gotten more in touch with my country roots. I still throw on some Allison Chains and Tupac Shakur on occasion, but more and more of my time is spent relistening to the music I grew up with, and I actually discussed this a little bit in the most recent Office Hours session with my Inner Circle members, because we talked about how I grew up on a working farm with race horses and pigs and cows and goats, and my childhood was spent shooting BBs into cans on fence posts and riding ATVs around the horse track, taking care of the animals. I did archery, too.
I would just run around and play, and going back to the sunscreen thing, I did not wear any sunscreen when I was doing any of this stuff. I got burned so much as a kid playing outside and with the animals, and we had a little above-ground pool. If you're country, then you need an above-ground pool, because bad things can happen with below-ground pools. Also, we didn't have that much money, so that's how we made it work. But I got burned and burned and burned, and my skin is probably going to pay for that for the rest of my life. So, going back, lesson, wear your sunscreen. [04:53.5]
I actually got engaged to my wife at the world's largest Bass Pro Shops in Memphis, Tennessee. Yes, the Pyramid. That is a hundred percent a true story. Why am I telling you all of this? A financial advisor got under my skin recently, and I usually don't let stuff like this bother me, but this financial advisor's niche is primarily rural people, people out in the country and outdoorsmen. I told him that this was pretty much my entire life for a long, long time, and I'll give you a specific example.
A few days ago, I actually digitized photos of myself at two years old hunting with my father, literally on the hunt at two years old, hanging out, doing stuff with him. Needless to say, this financial advisor did not believe me, and it's so frustrating when you tell people the honest, unvarnished truth, and they just don't believe you. It happens with me in the marketing world all the time, because I will tell financial advisors exactly what works, exactly what does not work for building their businesses and getting more clients, and some just simply refuse to believe. [05:59.0]
In this case, I get it. I kind of do, so I can't let it get under my skin too much. I understand, I seem like a suburbanite these days, but I grew up country and became a suburbanite. I wasn't always the person that you see before you today. The guy in question, the financial advisor in question, likely grew up a suburbanite and is now cosplaying as an outdoorsman. I'm sorry, but that Ford F-150 has never gone off the highway. You've never actually hauled anything with it. You don't have a trailer. You don't do anything with the things. You're just posturing. You're cosplaying, and that bothers me. It bothers me that they're appropriating my culture, dear listeners. I'm sick of this cultural appropriation.
Marketing legend Dan Kennedy used to tell stories about how Harley Davidson would make a killing selling the biker image to people like dentists and chiropractors, and attorneys and guys who spent all their time in climate-controlled offices. Harley understood something that most people miss. [06:57.5]
The purchasers of the bikes were really buying permission, so Harley Davidson was selling permission, namely, permission to borrow an identity without having to earn it the hard way—and that's what this financial advisor is doing by appropriating my darn culture. He is just putting on some camo and going outside, and somehow believes that that's his identity now, despite going back to the Starbucks and all of the other things that he grew up with. And I know, I know, again, I'm a suburbanite these days, but that's not who I am. That's not my identity.
But back to the Harley Davidson thing. Harley didn't care that the bike would mostly be ridden on sunny weekends. They didn't care that it would be washed more than it would be raced. They understood that fantasy plays out in people's lives all the time, and it pays well, too, because, hey, these attorneys and these doctors, and chiropractors and dentists, they were buying those bikes. [07:58.0]
They weren't buying the bikes. They were buying ways to step into a different identity. They were not buying transportation because they already had their minivans and their SUVs. They were buying that biker image. That is such an important lesson. I could stop the podcast right here and you could meditate on that all week and use it to transform your marketing. It is so important to know the identity behind the audience you're trying to appeal to.
But I got back from Dunkin’ Donuts, I should say—Dunkin’ Donuts, the way it should be named—and I checked my email. I saw some success stories and some questions from Inner Circle members. One is a fairly successful financial advisor in New Jersey. He's growing like the dickens, using direct mail to people in a 100-mile radius. I mean, direct mail is so effective if you can do it correctly. It is so effective for local areas. I mean, not just local areas. People will mail to occupation-based niches and age-based demographics, and anything under the sun, but there's a very specific way that you can use it if you're trying to market to people in your local area, and it is wickedly effective. [09:06.0]
Another financial advisor is in Missouri, and he sells very high-priced financial planning packages to high-net-worth households in several states throughout America. I actually told him to increase his prices back in December 2024. He did, and his conversion rates have gone up, not down since then. So, he is charging more and a higher percentage of people are saying yes to those packages where he's selling more, okay? So, that is a win-win.
Another financial advisor is in his 20s. He's growing faster than people who have been doing it longer than he has been alive, and it's not that difficult to do if you know what you're doing. In fact, younger advisors have a humongous advantage over experienced financial advisors if they play their cards right. [09:49.2]
It really is remarkable to me to see the success stories that financial advisors are experiencing and having in the Inner Circle. It's not surprising per se because that is the expected outcome of doing the work and applying the principles, but it's still really nice to see just how many people put in that work and get the results. It is so cool. I love it. I love it. I never get tired of it.
That actually brings me to the topic of today's episode, which is how to become a top 0.0001% person. That is, one in a million, and here's how to do it—you need to be a top 1% person in three areas.
Now, of course, I know that success traits are not independent of each other, so it's not really one in a million if you want to get nit-picky with me. Maybe it's more like one in 400,000 or one in 600,000 or something, because if you have high intelligence, then you're more likely to do this thing, and if you're strong, you're more likely to do this thing, and if you're healthy, you could do this. They connect together. I understand that, but just humor me for a second. [10:53.8]
If you are genuinely in the top 1% of an independent trait, that's a one in 100 position. That's what 1% is, one out of 100. If you are also in the top 1% of a second independent trait, you're not one in 100. You're one in 10,000. If you do a third independent trait at the same level, then you are now, my friend, a one in 1 million person.
I'm a big fan of Charlie Munger's inversion philosophy, which goes like this. Instead of obsessing over how to succeed, spend some time thinking about how people fail, and then avoid those paths. If people fail by doing activities A, B and C, then for the love of all that's good and holy, do not do A, B and C.
My uncle loved this philosophy as well. He used to tell me, only half-jokingly, that most people are weak, dumb and broke—and you know what? He was, right? It's funny how you get older and you realize that your relatives have gotten a lot smarter. I used to be like, Oh, that's kind of harsh, man. Don't. Why would you say that? But as I've gotten older, I’ve realized he was onto something. [12:07.7]
The Fed's 2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking found that 37% of adults could not cover a $400 expense with cash or its equivalent. 13% said they would not be able to pay it by any means. That is so scary. The Fed's Survey of Consumer Finances reports a conditional median transaction account balance and things like checking and savings accounts of $8,000 in 2022. That's a little old, but I imagine it hasn't changed much. [12:40.7]
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.
CARFAX reported 29% of owners are behind on oil changes. That's nuts to me. I'm a 5,000-mile guy. I know synthetic. The manual says you can go longer, but, no, no, no, I'm not going to do that. Oil changes are cheap. Engines are not. [13:56.6]
According to the CARFAX report here, the car care program data, if you want to check me on this, 44% are behind on tire rotations. Just take one tire and move it over here. Then take the next tire and move it over here. It's not that hard. One in five are behind on both, crazy. 28% of adults scored at Level 1 or below in literacy. What that means is a person at Level 1 can usually read short, simple sentences, but struggles once the task requires inference and comparison or synthesis and just the harder things. Below Level 1 is a lot more severe, so people in that group have difficulty even with very basic written tasks. Things like filling out forms, following written instructions, or understanding short notices, might as well be rocket science to them.
I'll give you some more. According to YouGov, the average American reads only two books per year. The average American reads two books in 2025. Are you freaking kidding me? Two books? I've read two books in the past seven days. [15:04.4]
According to the National Health Institute survey, in 2020, only 24.2% of American adults met the federal guidelines for both aerobic activity and muscle strengthening activity, and those standards aren't even that high. I mean, these are not crazy standards.
Here are the federal guidelines. Adults should do at least one of the following each week: 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity, like brisk walking, not difficult stuff, you're just walking fast; 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity; or some equivalent combination of the two, so you go hard a little bit and then you do some brisk walking, or you do all brisk walking, or you do all vigorous activity, whatever. They should also do muscle strengthening activities at least two days per week—75.8% of Americans, literally, three out of every four people you meet, can't even do those things. They can't. Or I shouldn't say can't. They choose not to, and that's before you talk about nutrition or sleep, or consistency or any of that stuff. [16:10.3]
If you can earn a top 1% income and/or have top 1% wealth, have top 1% health metrics and have top 1% intelligence, then you end up occupying a slice of the population so small that it barely matters whether the math is perfectly clean. Whether it's one in 600,000 or one in a million, you are still functionally operating in a different universe than the average person, and it will be a long, long, long time before you meet somebody that is just like you.
The typical person legitimately cannot relate to you, because the constraints governing their lives are completely different from yours. They are making decisions under constant pressure. They've got this pressure from their self-created conditions, or not. I understand there are variables beyond our control, but let's be 100% real here. A lot of people choose not to better their lives. They are making conscious decisions to avoid these things. [17:06.2]
Most people cannot bother to improve their lives. They just drift along, letting life happen to them. They are victims of whatever comes along and just slaps them in the old rear or the old face—and I can tell you from firsthand experience that working with people who want to get better is amazing. It is a lot more fun than working with average people.
I'm proud to say that many of my Inner Circle members are top one percenters. Some in all three areas I've listed, so health, wealth and intelligence, but nearly all Inner Circle members are top 1% at something in their lives. It doesn't have to be health. They don't have to be the strongest people. They don't even have to be super-duper intelligent. But they're top 1% at something. They're good at something. It could be time spent with family, jiu-jitsu, playing a musical instrument, whatever it is, cooking, I don't care. [17:57.6]
I'll tell you why working with top one percenters is just so much better and so much more fun for me. When I work with Inner Circle members, the conversations start off at a much higher baseline. That makes my life easier and it makes it more fun. When I try to help average financial advisors or below-average financial advisors, it's like I'm negotiating reality. I will say, “Oh, gravity's real,” and they'll say stuff like, “Oh, but what about this specific situation? What about this hypothetical that I made up? What if all of these things happen that are extremely unlikely to happen and that blows up the situation?” or “I'll have to do some more research and come back to you.” It is just goofy.
When I deal with the top 1%, I don't have to do that. I don't have to convince them that marketing matters or that consistency matters, or any of that stuff. It is already assumed. That allows the discussion to be more high-level. We can get to better stuff. For example, in my inbox, the questions are almost never like, “Does this actually work?” They're more like, “Here's what I tried. Here's what happens. Here's what I think the bottleneck is?” and that's a completely different posture. [19:06.4]
Implementation speed is another big one. When I suggest a change to top 1% financial advisors, I don't get blank stares. I don't get all of these endless hypotheticals. I just get follow-ups and screenshots and data, and sometimes I get a message a week later saying, “You were right. This broke and this is what I'm adjusting.” It just feels like working with adults who are actually playing the same game, and that is so awesome.
Contrast that with the average experience most people have when they try to help the average person. You try to explain something. You give context. You outline why they should care and why they should do it, and then nothing happens. Or worse, they try to do it and they have implemented, they sabotage it with their poor execution, and then they say, “Oh, it didn't work,” and they complain and they have a bad experience. [19:56.3]
This is also something I am very intentional about teaching financial advisors, because most of them don't realize they're allowed to want this. You're allowed to want to work with higher-quality people, higher-caliber people. Financial Advisors sometimes assume that their job is to help whoever shows up, whoever books a call, and that sounds noble, but it turns your business into a constant drag of babysitting and dumbing stuff down. It's just not a life I want to live. I mean, hey, you're free to make your own decision. This is just not for me. I know I'm projecting my biases into this episode, but it's my show, okay? I can do what I want.
For financial advisors, when they do that, it includes clients that don't follow through with what they're told. It includes clients who are super sensitive about what they charge. It includes clients who need all of these explanations of the same basics, and life is just too short for all of that noise. [20:52.3]
Working with high-performers, it feels different. It feels like a partnership. You give advice, they execute. You adjust, they adapt. You both learn faster because the feedback loop is tight. I’ve learned so much from my Inner Circle members, because they give me the explanations. They give me data. I learn from them just as much as they learn from me. I probably learn more actually. Now that I think about it, I probably learn more from them, because there are way more of them than there are of me. There's only one of me. I can only give so much marketing advice, but they tell me so much. They help me so much, and I love that.
That’s why I'm constantly telling financial advisors to design their business to repel as much as it attracts. Repulsion is not arrogance. Lots of people say, “Oh, that James guy is so arrogant.” It is not arrogance. It's just respect for everyone's time, because when you clearly communicate who you work best with, you protect yourself from misalignment, and you give the right people a clear signal that they found their place. I am telling you this from firsthand experience, because I see it every day at The Advisor Coach. [21:57.7]
What's funny is that the Inner Circle is a relatively small part of the advisor coach as a whole, but it's where I spend the majority of my time, because I have the most fun there. I'm around people who think like me and want good things out of life like I do.
It's also why I priced it at $199 per month, and I'm very open about the fact that it's not about maximizing signups. I don't want the most people to join. If I wanted that, I could just drop the price. I could run a big promotion or a flash sale, but I have never done that, not even once. I have done flash sales over the years for various products, but I have never, ever, ever done a single flash sale for the Inner Circle.
It has never happened, because even though it might attract more people, it would destroy the very thing that makes the Inner Circle work so well, because at $199 per month, the wrong people select out. It is about keeping the wrong people out. The people who think it's a lot of money or are unwilling to invest in themselves, they never join, and that's exactly what I want. I do not want those people in my world. [22:59.7]
I don't mean that in a negative way. I don't think they're bad people. It's just that I personally have chosen to build my life around a certain group of people, and they're not it. The people who belong in the Inner Circle don't experience $199 per month is a stressful decision. They don't need to think about it. They don't need to justify it to themselves. They recognize the trade-off immediately. They realize that if one idea pays for the entire month or year or decade, cool. If it saves them time, cool. If it helps them avoid one bad decision, then it is already a win. For them, $199 per month is a rounding error. It just is.
I know that that might seem like they're operating on a different planet than most people, but that's exactly what I'm talking about. The top 1% people, the one in 10,000 people, the one in a million people, they really are on a different planet. They are doing stuff differently. They could throw every single newsletter issue in the trash, they could attend only one Office Hour session per year out of the 12 that I do in a year, and they could get an idea that makes them $10,000 and that is a tremendous ROI for them, because they recognize it is an investment. That's how investments work. That's how the top 1% of people think. Everyone else does not think this way. [24:12.6]
So, if there's a single thread running through all of this rambling that I'm doing this week, it is this—quality compounds and misalignment taxes everything. It also compounds, but it compounds in the wrong way, like debt that just grows and grows. When you stack your income and your health, and you're thinking you're not weak, dumb and broke, you change the physics of your life.
When you stack your business around people who operate at that level, you change everything for you. That is why I'm unapologetic about who the Inner Circle is for and who it's not. It is not a value judgment. It is a design choice. I built it to be a place where serious people can go, and I highly recommend that you take a similar approach with your business, because it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, especially from a happiness perspective. I am way, way, way happier working with higher-quality financial advisors. It is not even close. [25:09.7]
So, that’s how you become a one in a million person. You become a top one-percenter in three areas. Think about how you can do it. Apply it to your life. And I will catch you next week. [25:21.8]
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