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. [00:32.0]
James: Hey Financial Advisors, I'm doing something a little out of the ordinary here. This isn't the regular Monday episode, I wanted to record this and release it now to let you know how I would respond to everything that's going on with the Corona virus and people freaking out in the bear market, just a whole bunch of stuff. First of all, I want to say that I'm extremely proud of the advisors I'm seeing right now who are helping their clients and setting them up for long-term success. I am so blessed and I'm so grateful to serve you and to serve this industry. We are going to make it through this and we're going to emerge stronger than ever before. With that being said, now is the time where fortunes are made. I'm not saying you should be a roofless opportunist or anything and focused solely on capitalizing on this. [01:15.1]
What I am saying is that there's an opportunity here that didn't exist before. There's an opportunity to improve your business, to plan what you're gonna do in the future, to build your systems, to dig into your marketing, to make everything better, to help more people, to serve more people, to make a bigger impact. Now is the time to really dig in and I got an email from a financial advisor who said that I saved his business and I'm going to read it to you here. He says, “James, I wanted to write you and say that even though you don't know me, you saved my business. I'm an avid listener of your podcast and your concept of having multiple marketing strategies really hit home for me. I'm a financial advisor and for the last few years I have been growing my business primarily through seminar marketing. You got me to open my eyes and realize I was being too dependent on that one strategy. About six months ago, I started switching things up with my marketing and had been going through other channels because of the Corona virus. Lots of advisers who were in my position are getting squeezed because they became too dependent on seminars, not me. I am forever a fan now. Thank you very much. [02:17.3]
This is exactly what I'm talking about. I've tried my hardest to prepare financial advisors for stuff like this. Having multiple marketing strategies is more important now than ever before and I can't stress that enough. That's the number one key than seeing financial advisors use to become successful. And if you feel as if your world has been rocked by all the stuff that's going on, I want you to understand that big external changes often require big internal changes, big mental changes, which means you may need to adjust your mindset first. You may need to focus on your mental toughness and it may also mean making some necessary adjustments to your business of course that's going to happen. And recently advisors have bound themselves working from home. They've been and receiving more phone calls, they've been making him receiving more emails to the prospects and clients and they're just trying to keep up with a world that seems to change by the minute. I feel your pain, I'm there with you. I've been impacted too. [03:12.0]
However, I don't want you to lose sight of the fact that downturns and turbulent times like this, they will happen again. This is not the last one. This is not the last time it ever happened, so don't think that this time is really different and lose sight of the fact that you've got to dig in. You've got to build your systems, you've got to expand. This is the time to capitalize on the opportunity. You still want to help people, you still want to serve people, you still want to be a blessing to people, but now is the time to capitalize. [03:37.7]
I got this question from a financial advisor. He says, “These past few weeks have been particularly stressful. I've only been an advisor for three years and this is my first bear market. Is there anything I should be doing to calm down my clients?” Yes, these have been some pretty turbulent times and here's an answer you're probably not going to like, I mean, of course you want to tell your clients that everything's going to be okay and they should keep a calm head and you've got to be calm and all that stuff. But for the advisors who are listening, the best time to dig your well is before you are thirsty. The best time to prepare your clients, so they are calm, is before stuff like this happens. Right now all you can do is give them the data that the stock market has gone through stuff like this before, they have been through so many bear markets, there's a recovery process, etc. [04:22.5]
And the reason I bring this up is because that same idea of digging your well before you're thirsty, it's a popular book. Yeah, that came out decades ago, you should read it, tt's actually about networking. But this idea applies to your business because the time to build plans and marketing systems is before you need them. I'm seeing so many financial advisors right now, they are scrambling to put something together and they are at a serious disadvantage to the advisors who have been thinking and planning throughout the years. So take this time to get serious. If you are just now thinking about content marketing or if you are just now thinking about social media or email marketing, I've been harping about email marketing again and again and again for the past several months. If you are just now hopping on that boat, you shot yourself in the foot a long time ago. [05:08.7]
Now it's not too late. It is never too late. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today, so if you've been on the fence with email marketing, if you've been on the fence with content marketing, social, LinkedIn, whatever, get started today. Don't waste another day. Don't let another second go by without making it happen for you. I'm not trying to discourage you or anything. If anything else, I'm trying to motivate you to get started and make a plan because the worst thing you can do right now is stop your marketing and prospecting. Definitely, do not stop! Keep on pushing. And during times like these door, two things that you want to focus on, well, really they're the same things that you should focus on during anytime and that's ‘expanding’ and ‘optimizing.’ [05:52.4]
You want to make your business more efficient, that's optimizing. You want to become more productive. There's a reason why embrace productivity is literally the first tip in my revamped 57 marketing tips, the landing, the lead magnet that I give away when people join my email list. There's a reason that's the very first tip, because it's extremely important. At the same time, you want to make sure that you're reaching your niche market. You're still getting in front of people, you're still moving the needle, you're still having a marketing machine work for you. Without that, your business will come to a standstill and you never know how strong you are until you're tested. You've got to view this situation as a gift to let you know how strong you really are. And with all that said, one of my favorite quotes is this one, and it's especially applicable here, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.” [06:41.4]
And if you're a financial advisor, you've probably heard that a bunch of times, it's from Warren Buffet. And I now see a lot of financial advisors who have been swimming naked. It is very clear to me who has been preparing for tough times and who hasn't. It's very clear to me who has been preparing clients for a downturn and who hasn't. And it's very clear to me who has been planning and building systems and who hasn't. And how do I have such a unique advantage point because my business serves a wide variety of financial advisors. There are lots of experts and coaches and consultants out there, and some are awesome, some are okay. I am not really gonna bash any one, but these people charge high fees for the one on one coaching, the masterminds, etc. And I'm no stranger to charging high fees. [07:28.1]
I mean, I do that, I charge a bunch of money for certain consultations and whatnot. But the high price point means that they're attracting a certain type of financial advisor. This is typically someone who runs a company or has a very high disposable income. This means that the the people who charge a bunch of money, they only interact with that type of advisor, most of the time. But I, on the other hand, I offer a wide variety of products at different price points. I've offered stuff for less than 50 bucks all the way up to several thousand dollars. I attract a much more varied audience because I literally have something for everyone, and this means that I've seen the best of the best and I've seen the worst of the worst. So here's what I have observed, and this is definitely you need something you could use right away. [08:10.2]
The best financial advisors are proactive. Without a doubt, they are proactive. They think long-term, they really, they think like financial advisors, they really do. You tell your clients to diversify, to get started early, invest often, that's what they do with their business. The worst financial visors are reactive, not proactive. Let me sound cliche and that may sound like two little buzzwords I'm throwing out here, but it really is true. The financial advisors who struggle, they're the ones who frantically run around trying to put out fires in their business. The financial advisors who win, especially over the long term, they're the ones who make their business fireproof. And nowhere do I see this more than with my monthly paper –and-ink newsletter. The advisors who subscribe to that, they're proactive, not reactive because they're thinking into the future, they're planning, they're building systems. They're not scrambling and trying to put out fires. [08:59.9]
Now they planted the tree 20 years ago and let me tell you a funny little story about the April issue that's coming out. I started writing the April inner circle newsletter at the very beginning of March, like literally March 1st. And I talked about how the stock market at that time had just went into correction mode and I gave some advice on how to respond and then I proceeded to write the rest of the newsletter as normal. Then we entered a bear market, so I sat down on March 15th and I added a little section to the newsletter giving my thoughts on how to handle a bear market and what to do and then the following week was the worst week for the stock market since 2008 so I went back to my newsletter, deleted a bunch of stuff I scrapped most of it, just straight up deleted it. And I rewrote what was left, which means the April inner circle newsletter issue is going to be somewhat different from all of the other issues that I've done in the past. [09:55.2]
First of all, it's written in somewhat of a diary style. May I start on March 1st and then March 15th and I just update it as time goes on. It's like a diary and it means that you can see my four real thoughts as these events unfold, nothing's held back. It's also much less of a marketing advice style issue and more of a here's how to respond during turbulent times type issue. Especially the second half of the issue, which is what I wrote when the poop really started to hit the fan. That is some of the most valuable stuff I've ever put out in any product, paid or free. It doesn't matter, it's just so different from everything else. And I talk about how you can succeed by thinking like a financial advisor, which is so drop dead obvious, you'll slap yourself for not realizing it sooner. [10:42.0]
I talk about how to tell if a financial advisor is going to go out of business soon and yes, there are tell-tale signs or signals that you can use, they are objective. And how you can optimize your business faster than ever before, because in many ways this opportunity that we have is a blessing in disguise. So if you're interested in locking your spot for the April inner circle newsletter, listen up, go to TheAdvisorCoach.com /coaching. It used to be the page where I offered one on one coaching, I don't do that anymore. Go to TheAdvisorCoach.com /coaching. I'm explicitly talking about this particular issue on the podcast, I don't really talk about any one issue, but I'm doing it now because even if I someday decide to sell back issues, I will almost certainly remove this one from the list. You won't be able to purchase it in the future even if I decide to offer back issues. And the reason why is because while I do want to share this information with my inner circle, I also want to keep it as exclusive as possible. [11:45.3]
So that means after March 31st at 11:59 PM Eastern standard time, which is the deadline, it will likely never be available again. And like I said, if you want to check that out, go TheAdvisorCoach.com /coaching. And if that's not enough, you get two cool bonuses, when you sign up, you get a 90 minute MP3 download called five keys to success for financial advisors. You also get an interview that I did with Tom Ziglar who is, if you don't know who he is, he is Zig Ziglar’s son who wrote ‘Born to Win’, ‘Secrets of Closing the Sale’, one of the best motivational speakers of all time. And that bonus is actually really cool because we talk about how financial advisors can build a legacy. Again, you'll see all that when you go to the page you can see it on one more time. TheAdvisorCoach.com /coaching. And all right, that's it for this little update financial advisors, I know that times like these are difficult, but stay calm, pool and compassionate and we will make this happen together. I've got your back. I am here for you. I am here to support you and I will catch you on Monday. [12:50.3]
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