Conversations for Financial Professionals

By Dominique Henderson, CFP®Business Entrepreneurship Careers

Conversations for Financial Professionals episodes

January 27, 2020 Preparing For A Job Interview - Tips for Aspiring Financial Advisors
Show Notes:
How do you show up when preparing for a job interview?
I've heard from so many of you about career opportunities being presented to you in financial services.
What are some tips for success to kill that interview?
How you appear online. Your digital footprint is as big a deal as ever. I can tell you how many people don't get a minute more of my attention after I spend 5-10 minutes researching them on social before a scheduled meeting. We all have the same amount of time, but there's a higher premium on the time of some and you don't want them to make a snap decision before they get to know you in the 3rd step. What are some things you can do to maximize the amount of time someone will spend with you even before they meet you physically?
Prime your social profile. (misspelled words, incorrect contact information, inappropriate emails, pics of you in super revealing clothing or drinking with your buddies.)
Understand the type of opportunity/job your after. You're trying to help people with their money...THINK ABOUT IT!
Watch how you "show up"
Use tools like Canva to create a LinkedIn banner that pops, spend money on some professional headshots and buy a good dress suit.
How you appear on the phone. Prepare for your phone screen. If you're being interviewed make sure you spend the requisite amount of time on the following:
The company and its mission
The person(s) conducting the interview (social profiles, resume, etc)
The program you're being considered for (what is the program goals, who are they looking for, connect with previous applicants via LinkedIn)
How you appear in person. If you're lucky enough to make it to this 3rd stage you need to be prepared to WOW them.
Assuming your interview will be formal like most are, dress to impress. If you cannot afford a nice dark suit (gray, black or navy blue) borrow one. Of all the days, you want to make sure you are looking your best is this one because you may not get another chance. Also, get a hair cut and groom appropriately.
Show up early, better to have time to kill in the lobby than running late.
Maintain eye contact and relax take your time before speaking. It's ok to ask for a question to be repeated so you can think first. You will likely get at least one "stumper" of a question in which case it's fine to say..." you know that's a really great question, I'll have to give that some thought and get back to you."
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14 min
January 20, 2020How To Make Money As A Financial Advisor - Breaking Down the Pricing Models
Show Notes:
There are so many ways to make money as a financial advisor, I want to break down some of the more popular models to make money as a financial advisor.
Previously, you might have wondered do all financial advisors, planners, coaches get paid the same?
Is it from products sold?
Services rendered?
How does that AUM thing work? Let's tackle all of that today.
For traditional financial professionals that are regulated by the 1940 Act, just find the ADV. Within that, you will see the various compensation models.
Here's a video I've done describing this with my own ADV down below.

Once you find that ADV, you'll likely come across a few different models...

AUM
Flat Fee
Products/Commissions (life insurance, 12b-1 fees)
Hourly

If no ADV, this would be a more non-traditional route and means that you could see a different variety...

subscription - probably the most popular (i.e. Financial gym)
courses,

Ultimately what you charge for and how much that will be up to: (1) your expertise and the (2) of client you will serve. But keep in mind flexibility and fit.
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
13 min
January 13, 2020Unpacking the Financial Professional Career Path
Show Notes:
Have you ever thought of a financial services career?
What is the career path of a financial professional? How do you move through the ranks?
When it comes to terms like "analyst", "lead service advisor" or "senior advisor" what do they mean? And even more so, what do those jobs look like?
Although I've talked about my fairly non-linear path as a financial professional, there are career paths that are more linear in nature.
If you're contemplating a career as a financial professional, check it out to see what you might expect.
Years 0-3. This job role/description can take on many names but you are basically an analyst. By definition, you will see a lot of data and you will be challenged to synthesize mainly for YOUR sake. There's not a lot of liability on you from a client standpoint because you're still learning. Owners don't want you with that level of responsibility quite yet.
Tasks may include: inputting data into software, running reports, sitting in meetings and having things go over your head.

Years 3-5. You might have the title as "associate, lead" advisor but you are basically a service advisor. Having been in the game for some time you may be bumped up in PAY and RESPONSIBILITY for a few reasons. Hopefully, you've deepened your knowledge and invested in yourself to earn a master's degree, designation or both. You've got more experience so you will likely have migrated from synthesizing data for YOUR sake to OTHER stakeholders like firm owners and clients.
Tasks may include: running joint or solo in client meetings, managing client relationships within the business, finding new business for the firm, etc.

Beyond year 5. You have a lot of flexibility. This is where some advisors with a less certain upside decide to go on their own. If you have a good opportunity you may start down a partnership track which could present you with some interesting opportunities beyond just compensation--like ownership during a succession event.
Tasks will likely include a fair amount of business development for (finding and retaining client relationships), you may also wind up portfolio management responsibilities depending on your expertise, or other high-level responsibilities like operations, compliance, marketing, etc.
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
11 min
January 06, 2020How To Stop Procrastinating And Get Work Done Productivity Tips & Hacks
Show Notes:
Have you ever wished you had more time in a day?
Understanding how to stop procrastinating and get work done can be liberating for you.
As a financial advisor to clients and a coach to financial advisors, I've put together a system that allows me to seemingly squeeze more hours out of my day.
Getting more done and being more productive will only help you procrastinate less and thereby be more effective.
I share the method to my madness in the video below...
Have a morning routine. I have a whole philosophy around mindset and how that dictates our result. I strongly advocate employing a system or framework to start your day. Whether it's exercise, meditation, reading, prayer, et. Some level of consistency provides you with the discipline and momentum you'll need to finish your day. My routine is made up of a mosaic of techniques like using the Life SAVERS technique introduced by Hal Elrod in The Miracle Morning.
Develop a capture system. This was probably one of my biggest wins going back to 2018 was finding a way to capture my thoughts. (EXPLAIN... You know when you have an idea and then your brain goes into the stage where you can't remember it because you didn't write it down. This is why you need a capture system. Some may use sticky notes, but the goal of any capture system should be EFFICIENCY. When the idea/thought/to-do hits you capture it for processing later. This is how you keep the maximum amount of RAM available for higher-level activities.

Stay out of your email. This seems a little weird, right? As a financial advisor, you're like well I might miss something from a client or prospective client. Although that can happen you can use an autoresponder during the day. If this is a concern you can turn this on when necessary. Generally speaking, though you should stay out of email because of how much a time-suck it can be. Most are there least productive stuck inside their email inbox marking things read/unread, dragging to folders and contemplating. Set a time in the morning and the end of your day to process your email.
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
14 min
December 30, 2019Career Change At 40 - 4 Tips for Future Financial Advisors
Show Notes:
To all my career changers out there... what do you need to know in order to make it as a financial professional?
As a coach to financial advisors, I run across a lot of career changers from all walks of life and all ages.
I get a very common question, what steps should I take to make it as a financial advisor? It's not an easy question, but I'm going to do my best to help you out. Because this is a great profession in need of really great people.
If you haven't already, navigate here and download my free guide that gives you 10 tips to help you jumpstart your career as a financial professional.
Decide on your route. I've mentioned the traditional vs. the non-traditional route before, but it involves the degree to which you want to be regulated.In short, as a financial coach that just specializes in budgeting and/or debt reduction or student loan counseling that doesn't not advise on investments you can avoid being regulated.
Decide on your build. What does this mean? Well, what are you trying to accomplish? I've gotten a lot of "Hey Dominique, can I be a financial advisor as a side hustle?"Some want to actually quit their current career cold turkey and start. Others might be the "go-to" for friends and family and are considering a switch. Any of these are valid reasons but they lead to the inevitable questions of "what should you build?" If you want a full list of what to consider check out this video.

Build some runway. This can be done in a lot of forms including (1) Reducing your expenses for "x" months while still working your job, or (2) having a working spouse while you save.In either case, you will need margin and runway while you transition. The biggest mistake I see aspiring financial professionals make is not considering how long this will take and not having enough margin to get up and running. This should be 18-24 months of expenses to help you transition.

Hire a coach. I can't stress this enough. You need someone that can help you through some of the strategy involved in building a successful practice and making the pivot from your previous career.A coach is helpful in deciding the following:(1) How will you focus your energy? What gets done now vs. later? (2) Developing your marketing plan. Which type of clients will you target or go after and how? (3) How should you price your services?
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
12 min
December 25, 2019Client Experience Vs Customer Service - 5 Tips for Financial Professionals
Show Notes:
I want to break down my 5 steps to creating a great client experience—what I call the WOW factor (wonderfully overwhelmed) What is the difference between customer service and client experience.
What makes that interaction good or bad? It is how you feel. Feelings influence buying decision and then we use our logic to justify our decisions. So whenever you can provide a great experience it will be remembered. So how do you do that?
Be Comprehensive- I like the comprehensive approach because it leaves no stone unturned. If you have a siloed approach you can miss opportunities to provide great service. I like to focus on 4-5 aspects of an individual's financial picture and they are the following: (1) Cash mgmt, (2) Investment positioning, (3) Tax strategy, (4) Asset protection, and (5) Non-Cash Compensations & Benefits. This allows me to see all the different pieces of a client's life and help them "talk" so that wealth and utility can be maximized.
Be Curious- If you are genuinely interested in forming a deep relationship with your clients, it will show. You can't expect them to have a good experience if every interaction results in some type of transaction. What about birthdays, anniversaries? How do you react to their wins/losses/challenges in life? Are you empathetic?

Be Ready to go above and beyond- I think this goes without saying, but the goal is to provide more value than what you are receiving as payment. My honest belief is that as financial advisors we have the power to change the trajectory of someone's life and that cannot be valued. But it is imperative that we create a process or framework by which to deliver that type of experience. A lot of this comes in the form of proactive vs. reactive service to the client. Can you get the answer faster? Or do something that saves them time on their end?

Be Straightforward- Beyond honesty and integrity be firm on any positions you take. This definitely means that when you screw up, be the first to apologize when you make a mistake. I've found that clients don't require perfection, just honesty. You won't have a spotless record but you must be the time of person that your client can trust will do the right thing when called upon whether it is uncomfortable for you or not.

Be Thinking of What you Like- This may seem a bit counterintuitive but think of how you like to be treated and do the same. It is the golden rule (more or less). If you like quick responses to your inquiries develop a system to respond to client inquiries and provide them with status updates on items you are working on or they are waiting on.

Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
11 min
December 23, 2019How To Attract Your Ideal Client - 3 Things ALL Humans Want and Desire
Show Notes:
As a financial professional you're going to need to know how to attract your ideal client. There are 8 biologically programmed needs that every human wants or desires that revolve around 3 basic life themes...let's see how those fit into developing your marketing plan.
So in a previous video, I talked about the importance of finding a niche market and the 5 elements of how you would create content to market your services to them. And no matter if you feel you are good or bad at selling or marketing your services it will be helpful to understand that there are some common themes to use when doing so.
Do people want to be in relationships? Feel safe? Feel significant?
The answer is YES...but how do you package that in a way that feels natural and genuine.
Life Theme #1 - Relationship - Everyone wants community. We've been wired to care about what others think in a way that will promote our survival. We care about the protection of our loved ones and we desire a level of companionship.
Life Theme #2 - Safety- Going all the way back to Maslow's hierarchy of needs we have to feel safe. This means that the basics of food, clothing, and shelter have to be provided before other things gain importance.

Life Theme #3 - Significance- Despite how hard we try we all want to gain the approval of something or someone. Being accepted for who we are and what we do is a big thing in modern society. This need for significance is evident in many different areas of life which is probably where the notion of "keeping up with the Joneses" came from. Regardless there are many different ways to use this as a positive in your marketing strategy...
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
10 min
December 18, 2019Finding the Right Financial Designation For You
Show Notes:
Finding success in your personal financial planning career consists of a lot of things.
For one, which designation, certification or degree program should you use?
There are so many!!!
How do you know which to go after? Which is right for you?
Today, I want to share with you some key considerations for picking the right designation and my top 3 financial designation recommendations.
Accreditation. This is one of the biggest factors in my opinion. Just like you want to attend an accredited college you want a designation that also has accreditation. You can use this site to research designations: https://www.finra.org/investors/professional-designations. Be careful of designations/certifications that are relatively new, have a low amount of members and have a fairly low barrier to entry. It leads to my next point about...
Public Perception/Reputation. One of the main reasons for the time, effort and money that goes into a designation or certification is the reputation it should bring. You want a designation that is reputable not only among your industry peers, but also the public. Public perception can go along way for helping you as you establish yourself. It is not the "end all be all" but having the right designation combined with the correct marketing strategy is powerful (check out this video on the importance of picking the right niche)

Comprehensiveness. Don't forget that the whole point of the designation or certification is also to LEARN something! You want to become more proficient at whatever it is that you are getting the specialized training for. In order to do this, you may want to have courses that are taken (that can be self-study or not) along with an exam requirement.
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
13 min
December 16, 2019 Tips for Successful Investing Strategies
Show Notes:
It can be difficult to choose a framework or form a philosophy for investing your clients' hard-earned money.
However, there are a few principles to keep in mind.
In developing my "true north" for investing, it started with something Sir John Templeton said...
time in the markets is more important than market timing.
To catch that key piece of wisdom and more...check out today's episode.
What is your investment philosophy?

1. Start with strategy design based off your philosophy. For example, I believe markets are efficient and therefore choose to create portfolios that expose my clients to the factors I feel determine portfolio returns. Like relative price, size, and profitability.
2. Develop a method to evaluate assets and/or portfolio managers. Which types of assets will you use? This involves looking at what the client needs in relation to your overall philosophy and strategy. For example, if I see the client requires 6% returns, I find assets that have delivered at least that historically. Next move to portfolio manager evaluation. This holds true if you select mutual funds or separately managed accounts (SMAs). This should be based on the client's investment policy statement which starts with a discussion around risk and return preferences.
3. Develop a disciplined framework to monitor your strategy. Finally, have the discipline to follow the strategy. Largely the goal of a financial professional is to manage the behavior of the client through good times and bad...especially the bad. What benchmarks or goals will tell you if this is working? Client performance? Broad market indices?
Thanks for listening, reading and watching.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
12 min
December 11, 2019Should I Get CFP or Master's Degree in Financial Planning
Show Notes:
I recently brought on my friend and colleague Preston D. Cherry to discuss "how to become a financial planner?"
After receiving many similar questions, I felt it was time to offer 3 distinct paths you can follow to enter the industry.
I thought Preston best to speak on this as his resume speaks for itself...
-instructor at the nation's flagship financial planning program (Texas Tech),
-instructor for Dalton Education's CFP program,
-CFP certificant,
-Master's in Financial Planning, and
-Ph.D candidate.
I could think of no one better!
We are able to cover the following during our conversation:
What's better the CFP or Masters in Financial Planning?
Why the Master's degree is a base or signal to the public...

What is the time/energy/money being invested?

What are the 3 distinct paths?
Preston's website
Preston's LinkedIn Profile
Thanks for listening.
Are you a current or aspiring financial professional? Click here to learn more about how I'm helping you jumpstart your career!
Want to connect with me? Send me a DM on Linkedin (@dhendersonsr) or Instagram (@dominiquehendersonsr).
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Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dom-the-maven/message
45 min

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