Between Now and Success

In a Nutshell: Growing your business -- especially during a crisis -- depends less on your ability to manage money that it does on your ability to become an important part of your client's story. Guests: Arthur Ambarik CFP® is the CEO of Perigon Wealth Management, which currently has $1.8 billion in AUM. Rachel Elson has recently transitioned from a career as a personal finance journalist to working as a Financial Planning Associate at Perigon. My Key Takeaway: In order to make you and your services major players in your client's financial narrative: Do what other advisors don't. Find those pain points like helping family members or advising on a potential career change that fall through the cracks of old-fashioned advisory. Be your client's friend. And remember: friends do things for each other because they genuinely want to help, not because they expect something in return. Look outside the box when you're searching for talent. Money managers are a dime a dozen. Caring, curious, motivated people who are excited to learn the ropes are gold. Also Learn: 1. Why Arthur and Rachel replaced traditional discovery summary letters with personalized financial narratives. 2. How your quality of service trumps your asset management when it comes to getting referrals and winning new business. 3. What Arthur has learned about balancing CEO-level responsibilities with client service responsibilities.

Recently I was a guest on the Better Conversations, Better Outcomes podcast presented by BMO Global Asset Management. Host Ben Jones and I discussed my 5-point framework for effective communication with clients during a crisis. I developed this framework based on the mistakes I saw some advisors make back in the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). These advisors got hit with a double whammy of market declines and lost clients as they failed to effectively communicate with their clients as the GFC unfolded.

In a Nutshell: Silicon Valley unicorns make the billion-dollar headlines, but the true measure of an entrepreneur's success is how you align your business with your goals, your lifestyle, your values, and the impact you make in people's lives. Guest: Author, journalist, and speaker David Sax. His new book, The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth, approaches entrepreneurship from a broader, more personal, and more realistic perspective. My Key Takeaway: To define success for yourself as an entrepreneur: Accept that your business isn't Amazon or Facebook. You don't have to become a billionaire to be successful. Be yourself. The misfit eccentric who dropped out of high school and skateboards to the boardroom in a hoodie is the exception. Successful bakeries, salons, restaurants, and, yes, financial advisory firms are run by hardworking people like you who have a dream and put a plan in place to achieve it. Set purposeful but personal business targets. Don't try to grow like everyone else is. Build the business that you want to run. Also Learn: How to "get over the hump" of not seeing yourself as a real entrepreneur. Why taking on loans or third-party investments to accelerate your growth might hurt your business more than it helps. What seeing Heidi Klum on the cover of Maxim taught David about the unrealistic expectations our country sets for entrepreneurs. The process David uses to write his books.

Seth Streeter is the CEO and founder of Mission Wealth, a leading wealth management company with more than $2.5 billion in assets under management. Seth was an early proponent of our industry's shift into Life-Centered Planning, and I could listen to him talk all day about how advisors can help folks redefine what wealth and happiness really mean. Recently I heard an episode of the Wellness Revolutionaries podcast in which Mindbody co-founder Blake Beltram talked with Seth about this concept of redefining wealth. Their discussion was so insightful that I reached out to Blake, and he's been kind enough to let me share this episode here. Some of the topics Blake and Seth cover include: Why Seth believes money counts for only 10% of a person's wealth. Seth's 10 Dimensions of Wealth and 7 Dimensions of Wellness. How the values of a new generation of workers are reshaping the classic American Dream. How to help retirees develop a "Life 3.0 Vision" based around the freedom to pursue passions, strengthen relationships, and build their legacies. Preparing your business for the paradigm shift Seth sees in how our culture views money and defines wealth. Thank you Blake and Seth for letting me post this episode.

In a Nutshell: Hard work, a deep love for his clients, and a niche working with retirees of a particular company led this advisor to the pinnacle of the profession. Guest: Barron's Hall of Famer Scott Tiras, President of Tiras Wealth Management, which is a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services. Scott has more than 30 years of experience as an advisor. Currently he manages around 700 family relationships and more than $1.5 billion in assets. My Key Takeaway: To create an experience that makes clients feel like they're your only client: Identify your "bread and butter client," meaning the people to whom you can bring the most value over time. Focus your pitch and your value proposition on what Scott calls "the soft side of retirement" — the things clients and prospects will be retiring to, not just their raw numbers. Challenge yourself and your team to excel. Scott channels his competitive energy into running a world-class business. You need to find a similar motivation and drive to deliver "hall of fame" service and keep growing. Also Learn: 1. How Scott targets a local company niche with on-site workshops that demonstrate his expertise and lay the foundations for strong relationships. 2. How Scott leverages his team of 16 to support him and personalize the relationship building touches that keep his clients connected to the business. 3. What Scott does to build his brand and play an active role in his community so that he has a noticeable, positive presence.

In a Nutshell: A "wow" customer service experience meets clients needs, engages customers on terms that gel with their lifestyle, and creates genuine human connection. Hitting those check marks is what separates Ritz-Carlton, Starbucks, Zappos, and the best financial advisory firms from the rest of the pack. Guest: Joseph Michelli, a bestselling author, an international speaker, an organizational consultant, and one of the world's leading authorities on how to develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on the customer experience. My Key Takeaway: To give your clients a "Ritz-Carlton" advisory experience they'll be sure to tell their friends about: 1. Don't strive for excellent customer service. Seek perfection. The companies that try to deliver better service tomorrow than they did today are the ones that build the priceless brand loyalty that sets them apart from their competition. 2. Focus your client experience around addressing "peaks and pains." Find small ways to celebrate big wins with clients that your planning helped them achieve. Use your financial expertise and your human empathy to mitigate painful moments -- like, say, a sudden market downturn after a global virus outbreak. 3. Make the most out of every face-to-face interaction you have with a client. Your most effective marketing doesn't happen in Facebook ads or on a billboard. It happens when a client is in your office getting five-star treatment from the moment they walk in the door. You won't have to ask your clients for referrals -- you'll be earning them. Also Learn: 1. Why you wouldn't take a first date to McDonald's and what that says about good service vs. great hospitality. 2. How to integrate your tech stack with your advisory team to create elevated customer experiences on a consistent basis. 3. What Joseph Michelli learned about world-class customer service and team leadership from Howard Schultz, Airbnb, and Mercedes-Benz.

On this special bonus podcast episode, I'm doing something I've never done before: republishing someone else's podcast. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode of the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, hosted by Matt Halloran and featuring guest Mitch Anthony. This was a really fun listen for me because I go back a long way with both of these guys. Matt was one of the best coaches we had when I was running Peak Advisor Alliance. And Mitch is my business partner in ROL Advisor, our online platform that's helping advisors refocus the planning conversation on people's lives, not just their money. And that idea is at the heart of Mitch's conversation with Matt. They do a real deep dive into how advisors can use the discovery process to reveal the client's story and understand how significant life experiences have shaped the client's relationship to money. In addition to discussing how ROL Advisor builds out that initial storytelling into an engaging client experience, Mitch and Matt also talk about: How to guide clients towards an empowering decision-making mindset that makes them feel more in control of their planning. What kinds of questions you can ask to help clients connect their means to a sense of meaning. Why dialogue is more powerful than monologue. What the true purpose of money is. How to get more comfortable and more adept at helping clients manage the emotional side of financial life transitions. How to pull all of the above together to create a value proposition that's truly valuable to clients and prospects. A big thanks to Matt Halloran and the team at Top Advisor Marketing for letting me share this insightful conversation.

Where does the drive come from for top achievers who keep knocking it out of the park long past the point that many of us would have kicked up our feet and called it a career? That question has fascinated me for decades and today's podcast guest, Laila Pence, CFP®, shared with me one of the most compelling stories I've ever heard about overcoming early life challenges to become one of the country's most successful and respected financial advisors. As we talked at the Barron's Teams Summit in Las Vegas, Laila also explained how her approach to overcoming some incredible personal hardships informed how she built her billion-dollar advisory firm with an intense focus on creating true, lasting relationships with her clients. Laila Pence is the President of Pence Wealth Management, one of the nation's leading private wealth management firms with over $1.0 billion in AUM. She's currently ranked in the top 1% of female financial advisors nationwide and, in 2019, she was named among the top 6 female financial advisors in the country by Forbes, and the #38 top independent financial advisor nationally by Barron's Magazine. Forbes also ranked Laila #1 on their Best-in-State Wealth Advisors List for Southern California in 2019.

In a Nutshell: All financial advisors deliver services and advice. The ones who are growing their businesses find creative ways to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace and attract a niche of clients they can offer the most value to. Guest: Steve Wershing. Steve is the President of The Client Driven Practice and the author of Stop Asking for Referrals. He's also the cohost of a great podcast called Becoming Referable. My Key Takeaway: To differentiate both your firm and your prospective client base: 1. Discover, design, develop, and declare your niche. 2. Craft a unique client experience that will cater to your ideal client. 3. Remember: a niche is a need that sets your clients apart, and a need that you are able to service in a unique way. Also Learn: 1. Why separating "target" from "niche" is essential to transforming your business. 2. How simple tweaks to things like your meeting calendar can have a big impact on your niche client experience and drive up your value to clients. 3. What kinds of dialogues you can have with clients that will lead to referrals ... without you having to ask for them.

In a Nutshell: Delivering great service is table stakes. Drive toward extraordinary by creating a unique, emotionally engaging experience for each individual client. Guest: Julie Littlechild. Julie is a leading expert on the drivers of client engagement. She's also the cohost of the Becoming Referable podcast and the author of the book The Pursuit of Absolute Engagement. My Key Takeaway: To create an engaging client experience that becomes a magnet for new ideal clients: Be intentional about designing a discovery and planning process that engages your clients emotions and makes them feel more connected to you. Focus less on a prospect's assets and more on how they view themselves, then deliver an experience that is tailor made for who they are. Draw a distinction between service and hospitality ... and excel at both. Also Learn: 1. Why creating a client journey map should be an essential early step in thinking about your systems and services. 2. How to put your firm and its ideal clients to an "Authenticity Test" that will make you think about what you're really trying to accomplish as an advisor and as a business owner. 3. What it means for advisors and their clients to "co-create" a financial planning experience together.