Between Now and Success

In a Nutshell: Webinar marketing and digital communication is here to stay. In today's show, I talk to Eight Digit Media founder Chris Ross and we discuss a detailed, step-by-step strategy for generating tens of millions of new AUM each year from webinar marketing. And I'm not talking marketing fluff here. I have coaching clients who work with Chris and I've seen firsthand the results his team helps my clients deliver. Let's be honest, most advisors are not natural marketers. We'd rather spend our time helping people navigate life transitions than battling with Wordpress plugins and managing Facebook ads. That's where firms like Chris Ross' "done for you" Eight Digit Media come in. Chris and I went down the rabbit hole of webinar marketing and you'll learn the details of how to benefit from this powerful marketing strategy. Guest: Chris Ross, CEO of Eight Digit Media.  

For seven years, I’ve started each year with 3 words that I’ve carefully chosen to motivate me, remind me, and guide me on my road to making the New Year my best year ever. My 3 words are printed at the top of my Daily Outcomes sheet (my prioritized to-do list) so I see them multiple times a day. By being thoughtful when I identify my 3 words and then reviewing them on a daily basis, I have a daily reminder of my key focus for the year and this will (ideally) help me stay on track and on plan. In today’s show, I review my 3 words for 2021 and discuss how well I executed on them. I’ll also share why I am NOT doing this exercise in 2022 and what I’m doing in its place.

What is the “real value” that financial advisors deliver and that clients are willing to pay for? The value delivered by financial advisors has morphed over time. Decades ago, it was picking stocks and facilitating transactions. Then asset allocation and money management came into vogue. In the past 15 years, financial planning has become popular in parallel with the rise of financial planning software such as MoneyGuidePro, eMoney, and NaviPlan. Underlying this has been the accelerating pace of technology change as smartphones make the non-behavioral aspects of saving and managing money as simple as a few screen taps. Today, average financial advisors who remain wedded to the way they’ve been doing business will soon find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists. They’ll be chased out of business by prospects who never became clients, by clients who left to work with advisors better-suited to their evolving needs. Just like smartphones replaced laptops, and laptops replaced desktops, the value delivered by financial advisors is shifting from being “all about the money” to a focus on helping clients align their money behavior with their life satisfaction. In this world, money is simply a tool. And the advisor’s role is to smartly manage the money and collaboratively guide the client’s behavior so they can live their best life possible with the money they have. In this world, advisors who remain focused on the “mechanics” of money will be replaced by advisors who focus on the “alignment” of money.

Guest: Ashley S. Murphy, CFP® AIF® CEPA™, Founder and Executive Director at Global Financial Planning Institute and Founder and Principle at Arete Wealth Strategists. Insight: Where do you want to be at the end of next year? Most of us can see the top-line goals we want to achieve. What's harder is identifying the smaller steps you have to take every day to get to that destination. And what's harder still is having the discipline to keep taking those steps, even on the days when you're just not feeling it. One common characteristic of the highest achievers I've talked to on my podcasts is that they've all settled into a daily routine that puts them in the right physical, mental, and emotional space to complete those select, specific tasks. If your approach to goal-setting needs a shake-up, start experimenting with your routine now. When the calendar flips to the New Year, you'll be ready to hit the ground running.

Guest: Janine Wertheim, who recently retired from Securities America after spending 37 years with the company. Janine started shortly after the company was founded and served in a variety of leadership roles. Most recently, Janine was President of Securities America Advisors, which is the $75 billion RIA firm she and a small team founded back in 1994. Insight: I started my financial services career working for Janine back in 1993. Under her leadership, we built Securities America Advisors, the corporate RIA, from $0 to nearly $2 billion in AUM by the time I left in 1999. Today, the RIA has $75 billion in AUM and Janine has served as its long-time president. It was a real treat for me to interview Janine as she reflected on nearly four decades of leadership. The industry has changed over the last four decades, but a constant has been her thoughtful, innovative leadership.

9 months of job interviews. 27 “No’s” from top advisory firms. 33,000 cold calls. That’s all it took for Erin Scannell to open up his independent office and land his first client back in 1999. Few people would have powered through that long, but as Erin Scannell explains on today’s podcast, he learned some hard lessons in perseverance and resilience growing up that continue to motivate him to this day. Erin is the founder and CEO of Heritage Wealth Advisors in the Seattle area, where he directs 50 team members, 18 advisors, and about $2 billion in assets under management. Erin is also a regular on Barron’s list of the top advisors and an inspiration to anyone who thinks the next hurdle in your business’ growth is insurmountable – even if that hurdle is a global pandemic. (June 2020)

Guests: Patrick Brewer, CFA, CPA is the President & CMO at WealthSource, a full service national independent registered investment advisory firm. Prior to that, he was the founder and CEO of SurePath Wealth Management, a financial advisor practice with seven offices across the country. SurePath was acquired by WealthSource Partners in early 2021. He’s also the founder of Model FA, which supports financial advisors as they grow sustainable businesses, increase their visibility, and change their clients’ lives. Stephanie Bogan has had a long career in financial consulting, including founding her own consulting firm at the age of 24 and selling it 12 years later in a seven-figure deal to a Fortune 200 company, and a stint at United Capital as SVP of Training and Client Experience. Today she runs Limitless Advisor, which is a program for advisors and founders to create bigger, better futures. Insight: Financial advisors have never had more marketing tools at their disposal, more options for how their businesses can operate, or more access to prospects who value real human-to-human guidance. Your use of these mechanisms has to be connected to a clear, overriding strategy that will break down trust barriers between you and your niche, demonstrate your value proposition, and help your business grow.

Jim Crider, CFP® and CEO of Intentional Living FP discusses how his desire to guide people through the personal stress that money can create led him to a career in financial services and, ultimately, founding his own firm.

In a Nutshell: Technology is going to absorb most of the technical aspects of our work, so we have to become experts at what it means to be human. And advisors who embrace and further develop their "human" side of advising will thrive no matter how technology evolves. Guest: Clare Ciervo, CFP®, Advisor & Financial Planner at Balanced Rock Investment Advisors.

Most advisors effectively handle the money question. Few are adept at handling the emotion question. In this discussion, retirement expert Mitch Anthony and Steve Sanduski, CFP® show how you can become your client’s retirement coach and help them navigate this tricky transition to retirement. For the full presentation, please register for our free webinar on June 29 at 2:00 ET.  To register, visit: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bkodSXOASbyT0eTyIBH4wg   This program has been accepted for one hour of CE credit from the CFP Board and for one CE hour toward the CIMA/CIMC/CPWA designations.