The Profitable Advisor Podcast

As we move into 2021, we'll look to feature more advisors on the show in order to provide a first-hand account of the business and strategies that are working across the country.

Let's kick off the year with someone we've known for many years, Brie Reyes. Her and her father, Tim Estes, run Estes Financial in Fort Worth, Texas, but she also founded Smart Financial Divorce in 2019 when she saw a need. She's a great guest for a number of reasons, but today we'll focus on a few key areas.

The first area we'll go through is target marketing, which has been an on-going discussion on this show. Reyes works with two primary clients and they require completely different focuses. At Estes Financial, federal employees make up a significant portion of the business and it's a specialty they've really homed in on. The second business works exclusively with people going through a divorce.

It's always interesting to hear how advisors decide on a niche because it helps inspire and spark ideas for other advisors. With her father's background in the military, he got a first-hand look at the lack of financial guidance and advice that was given to federal employees. It became a clear need that they wanted to help with and it also fell in line with the principals of the military of service and giving back.

Divorce isn't necessarily a specialty that you'd think about immediate when it comes to financial planning but it makes a lot of sense. For Reyes, she saw it in her family as a child when her parents split. Seeing how assets were split then didn't seem equal. Later in her career, she had clients that came to her after their divorce produced less than equitable distributions, and she could clearly see the need to help people going through this difficult life event. So she created a business to provide a solution to that specific problem.

The next area we want to spend time on is the marketing side of the business. How do you find clients for those specific niches? Being a specialist rather than a generalist is very important, as Reyes explains, which is why she's built a tax-free retirement toolkit that's customized for federal employees and one that is more broad that anyone can benefit from.

Like many other advisors, her pre-COVID marketing strategies included seminars and workshops. The past year has forced many people to put these things on hold and redirect the energy and resources elsewhere, and that's been difficult.

Time management is a challenge for just about every business owner, and that's no different for Reyes. With multiple businesses and small child, she gets pulled in a number of different directions. One solution she's implemented is designating appointment blocks for specific days to give her more control over her calendar.

One last thing that we really want to dive into during this episode is growth during the age of COVID. We've talked previously about the strategy of taking seminar materials and turning that into courses that people can access. The challenge, as is typically the case, is where to start. So Dan will provide feedback specific to Reyes' business and help her get a better grasp on the first steps to take to accomplish this, which will hopefully jumpstart ideas for you.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• How they've come to specialize in federal employees
• Pre-COVID vs post-COVID marketing
• Finding the need for financial help during a divorce
• Target marketing for people going through divorce
• Collaborative divorce
• Outside the box marketing
• Repurposing seminars into other market solutions
• Improving time management
• Why multitasking isn't always effective
• Going from a large company to an independent business

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

What we discuss on this episode:

1:41 – Welcome on Brie Reyes

2:41 – Why target federal employees?

5:52 – How they marketed pre-COVID

7:51 – List-building with federal employees

9:51 – How she got into the business of divorce

13:25 – How do you target people going through divorce?

16:39 – What she hopes to focus on with marketing in 2021

18:54 – Collaborative divorce

23:03 – Working with men versus women

24:30 – Outside the box marketing strategies

30:56 – Make seminar materials and make them a course

33:06 – Time management is a big challenge

37:01 – Trying to multitask

41:05 – Being a part of a larger company versus going independent

43:50 – If you aren't happy doing what you do every day

45:43 – Growing in the time of COVID

This show helps advisors find a path to profitability and shares strategies to build your business. But no matter how many ideas and action plans get laid in front of you, it all comes down to whether you have the mindset to chase your dreams and believe in your own success.

Most people, not just advisors, lack this 'Millionaire Mindset' that our guest Nina Cooke talks about. She is a business growth coach that helps entrepreneurs develop a mindset to reach success, and we wanted her to help us get a better understanding of how to achieve this.

When you talk about a mindset, what we mean is it's all about what you think and what you believe is true about you, other people, and the world.

When you have a mindset that you'll go out and get what you want, you'll find away to reach that goal. Most people, however, don't have that level of confidence. A lot of that thinking is formed as a child and we carry that into adulthood. As we move through our lives, we look for situations that confirm that belief that we can't achieve those extreme goals.

So how do you get there? Cooke goes into detail on this during the episode. But the key pieces to having a strong mindset are these three: make a decision, make a commitment to that decision, and then follow through.

We also ask her to lay out steps someone can take to improve their mindset and begin moving closer to their goals. First, become aware. Acknowledge when you're beating yourself up with your thinking or comparing yourself to other people. The second step is acceptance. Accept this is how you think rather than wishing things were different. The third step is to take action. After you've accepted where you stand, how are you going to change it? That's when you sit down with a clear mind and begin to lay out a plan.

So many people also struggle with implementing an action plan and it's often due to their mindset. That's why we going to have Nina involved with the Renegade Advisors program, which we'll have more details on soon. In the meantime, visit Nina's website and download The Millionaire Mindset Scorecard.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• What makes a good and bad mindset
• Examples of people that succeed
• How we end up with self-limiting beliefs
• The role your parents play in your mindset
• Habits you can instill
• Steps to improve your thinking
• The use of visualization
• How Dan approaches thinking

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

Here's the rundown for today's show:

2:02 – Beginning our interview with Nina

3:16 – What is mindset and what distinguishes a good one from a bad one?

6:34 – Why don't most people have the confidence

8:11 – The impact of parents

11:41 – Dan's shares his childhood

16:08 – The habits people can employ to improve their mindset

23:51 – The power of visualization

31:11 – Nina going to be a part of a program we're offering.

33:40 - How to reach Nina

Sometimes the best way to improve your business as a financial advisor is to speak with people outside of that arena. While there are plenty of nuances to your business, you'll find there are many common themes between successful business regardless of what type of product they're selling.

That's why we're turning to Liston Witherill on this episode of the Profitable Advisor podcast. He's the creator of Serve Don't Sell, which is an online sales training and coaching platform aimed to assist professional and business development. He does that by taking the focus away from traditional methods of selling and moving it to serving prospects. Doing so produces more trust with clients over time and helps you drive the business you know you should.

As you'll hear on the show, it's not about reading from a script when selling and putting such an emphasis in closing. Like we've talked about quite a bit on this podcast, you have to be comfortable turning business away that doesn't fit your business. And that's the case with our profession as advisors.

Many times we will value every prospect that comes into the office as someone we can't afford to lose. That's part of the problem. If you get to the point where so much is at stake with every prospect, it's difficult to say no to a client. The solution for that is to expand your pipeline so that more leads are coming through the door.

So how do you do that?

Traditionally, ebooks or webinars have been a key tool for building lists, and webinars continue to have value during the pandemic. Witherill also uses podcasting and SEO to generate leads and he explains how he does that on the show. He also identifies what he calls 'mega-assets' as a key tool to leverage, and that's something he gives examples of during the conversation. Ultimately though, whichever method you choose to use needs to lead back to the list you're building and then you should sell strictly to that list.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• You can't serve everyone. Determine who your ideal client is.
• Figuring out your niche
• Creating more pipelines for prospect
• Techniques and strategies for list building
• His approach to using podcasting as PR
• A give-first approach

Learn more about Witherill's services here: https://servedontsell.com/

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

What we discuss on this show:

0:44 – Meaning behind the name 'Serve Don't Sell'

2:57 – Choosing a niche or definition of your ideal client

5:17 – What makes a good niche?

8:35 – Be clear who your services are not for

14:11 – List building for email marketing

19:52 – Podcasting for PR

23:52 – Dan's small business podcast strategy

30:00 – Providing good direction for people

33:16 – How to connect with Liston

The role of a financial advisor is as much about consulting clients as it is being a salesperson and pushing certain products. You build relationships with clients and garner that trust so that they will follow your guidance on how to manage their portfolios.

While you might not always consider yourself a consultant in the literal sense, it's important to understand what makes consultants successful so that you can apply the same strategies and processes in order to create the business you want to have.

That's why we asked Michael Zipursky to join us on the show. He's a consultant's consultant and authored the book ACT NOW: How successful consultants thrive during chaos and uncertainty. Can you think of a more appropriate book for the world we're living in currently? So we want to provide the insight from that book for you and get some of the secrets behind his success.

As you'll hear during the interview today, it all starts with finding the right clients. Zipursky believes it's important to make client selection a priority, which is something we talk quite a bit about as well. If someone isn't going to implement the guidance and recommendations that are made, then they don't need to be working with you. That will cause some pain in the near term but it will lead to much more success over the longterm.

So how can you do this? Zipursky gives us three steps to making this happen and it's all about preparation.

From there, we have a great discussion on marketing. From automation to offline marketing, what methods does he see working and what strategies can be implemented to get results from these methods. As always, consistency is going to drive success and we'll reiterate that on this show. And we'll close things about by talking about the chaos and uncertainty of COVID-19. What has changed for businesses and what impact will it have on your business moving forward?

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• How to determine who is an ideal client
• Why marketing needs to be polarizing
• Being honest and straight-forward builds trust up front
• Strategies you'll find from successful consultants
• Automation is killing marketing
• Does offline marketing still have a role?
• How COVID has impacted businesses
• What do things look like post-COVID?

Learn more about Zipursky's services here: https://secure.consultingsuccess.com/act-now-consulting-book

Get his book for free here: https://secure.consultingsuccess.com/act-now-consulting-book

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

What we discuss on this episode:

1:52 – Beginning of interview

2:53 – How to consultants get clients to take action?

8:12 – Marketing that polarizes

11:36 – Steps to implement

15:14 – Strategies that successful consultants use

19:42 – Why he believes automation is killing marketing

24:45 – Is offline marketing dead?

30:28 – Impact of COVID now and going forward

38:22 – Free copy of his great book

Most businesses have turned to some form of social media marketing to promote their brand and increase their bottom line, but how effective is this method?

On this episode of the Profitable Advisor, Dan welcomes Brian Hahn to the show to give you the turn on social media advertising. Hahn is the owner of Go Social Experts, which helps companies build a successful digital marketing strategy.

More and more advisors are turning to social media to help attract new clients and drive people to their website. As we've talked about quite a bit on this show, your marketing wheel needs multiple spokes and social media can be one of those.

What's important to note as we dive into this conversation with Hahn about a variety of social advertising questions is the principals of marketing don't change when you go from offline to online. You're going to have the most success if you have a plan for following up with every lead and then maintaining communication over a long period of time.

Many of the businesses seeing an increase over the past few months already built and nurtured a list. Now they're seeing the fruits of that labor. It helps that they've also created fresh content like webinars to engage that audience, and we'll also talk about how to get the most out of these alternative to seminars.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• What you need to look for when determining whether social media ads are effective.
• Putting a plan in place to follow-up on your ads.
• Why you have to remain topical and keep the message fresh.
• Why list building continues to be so important.
• Live webinars vs recorded webinars
• Do's and Don'ts of social media campaigns

Learn more about Brian's services here: https://www.gosocialexperts.com/

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

On today's show:

0:39 – Why panic takes us to today's conversation.

3:46 – Introducing our guest for the show.

6:26 – What's the difference between between using social media correctly vs incorrectly?

9:01 – You have to have a plan for follow-up.

13:16 – Strategies for getting results, especially from webinars recently.

16:43 – Are clients able to pull in total strangers for webinars or are the successes coming from good list-building.

19:33 – How his approach is different than a lot of social media marketing companies.

21:45 – This is a long-term commitment.

23:10 – Should a webinar be live?

26:59 – What information do you try to acquire from the webinar signup?

31:09 – Can failed social media campaigns be the advisor's fault?

36:22 – The Do's and Don'ts

38:38 – Why people are getting good response rates right now.

44:23 – How to connect with Brian.

Every business wants to increase referrals but what methods are the most effective?

On this episode of the Profitable Advisor, we want to tell you about advisory boards and why you should consider adding one to your practice. Full disclosure, this isn't something we currently have in place but we are hoping to change that.

We've asked Steve Wershing to come on the show to explain the methods and processes behind his Client Driven Practice. Wershing is a Certified Financial Planner that's spent years helping advisors develop effective referral systems like this client advisory board.

As you work to improve your customer experience and strengthen the relationship with clients, there might not be a better way to do that than with an advisory board. Think about it for a second. What the advisor thinks is important is not always what the client thinks is important. So what if you could tailor your message to truly connect with what your client thinks is most valuable? How much more effective could your marketing be?

That's the goal with an advisory board and why clients are a part of the process. Think of it as a long-term project that has multiple meetings over a number of years so that you have the ability to truly deconstruct the client experience.

That loyalty you build with clients when you give them the opportunity to share their opinion and be heard leads to a better chance of referrals. Over time, you build up a strong referral system that can withstand times like we've experienced in 2020 when traditional marketing tactics are unavailable.

A concern for a lot of advisors is what happens when they ask for something that you aren't able to do? Remember, your commitment to the client is to listen and consider not to do everything they ask. The key is to be straightforward with them about how you've considered the feedback and they reasons why you can't accommodate the idea. Also, you can offer up other ideas or options to show you're serious about their feedback.

So we'll spend this show explaining everything about the advisory board and learning quite a bit from Wershing along the way.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• The importance of an advisory board.
• How to find clients to be a part of that board.
• How often should you meet?
• Why the advisor should be a part of the meetings.
• How it increases your value to clients.
• Determining which clients you should work with.
• Referral marketing is a long game.

We also want to point you towards these websites to learn more about Wershing and how he helps advisors: http://advisorchecklist.com/

https://cabkit.clientdrivenpractice.com/

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

On today's show:

0:44 – Setting up today's conversation.

2:40 – Beginning of our interview with Steve.

4:28 – Why advisory boards are important and what you get out of them.

8:59 – The value of an independent moderator.

11:07 – Planning fees

13:13 – Why you should have the advisory board?

15:44 – Your value becomes much more than year-to-date returns.

18:32 – Referral systems

22:14 – You have to actually mean it and be willing to truly help people.

25:35 – Determining which clients you should work with.

29:25 – Long-term marketing

32:15 – How to recruit people onto the advisory board.

34:58 – How often do you meet?

35:27 – Tips on executing the meeting virtually.

39:04 – How to connect with Steve.

Every business is searching for ways to separate itself from the competition and customer experience might just be the key. What if you took the incredible service techniques that makes Disney one of the greatest experiences in the world and apply it to your practice?

Vance Morris used to work at Walt Disney World and now brings the lessons and strategies he learned to businesses across the country and helps add magic to the customer experience. We asked him to join the show and share some of the strategies he talks about in classes, books, and speaking engagements.

This is a very valuable conversation for every advisor because we're in challenging times for small businesses across the country. Performance is down across the board and everyone is searching for ways to stand out. Morris specializes in helping clients do just that and he'll share some valuable insight on the show.

Every business is a commodity and what separates you from your competition is the customer experience. If you can elevate that experience, you'll be able to attract more customers and hang onto the customers you already have. If there was ever a time to try something new and create a version 2.0 of your business, it's now. Let us help you do that with a great conversation that touches on a wide variety of topics, including a really detailed look at how Morris packages his version of the shock and awe kit and everything he includes.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• Why to make the customer experience such a priority.
• Bringing out your personality in your business.
• How to see your business the way your customer does.
• What Vance puts in the kit he sends out to potential customers.
• What can you do in place of testimonials?
• The Disney classes and trips he offers.
• Marketing efforts should be focused primarily on retaining clients.
• Strategies for newsletters.

We'd also recommend his book, which we talk about during the show. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Systematic-Magic-Keys-Disnify-Business/dp/1721677178

More on our guest: http://deliverservicenow.com

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

Today's Show Schedule:

1:57 – Start of our interview

4:07 – Why are these strategies so valuable right now?

6:50 – What are some things financial planners can do to improve the experience?

11:43 – Ideas for attracting new clients.

18:07 – Little things that can improve an office.

22:38 – How to take advantage of our current state of virtual working.

27:59 – Vance explains what's in the kit he sends to potential customers.

32:17 – Why Vance still includes an audio CD.

35:43 – What else is in this kit?

37:00 – What to do in place of testimonials.

40:43 – Strategies for newsletters.

44:18 – Ways to thank clients for referrals.

47:20 – The products and services Vance provides that could be of value to you.

Over the past few episodes, we've spent a lot of time on target marketing because we feel it's such an important piece to building a profitable business. Today we're taking the conversation a step further and introducing you to an advisor that's built a national business focused strictly one on profession: dentists.

It might seem like an extremely specific niche but it works very well, and there's a lot we can learn.

Meet Reese Harper, Founder and CEO of Dentist Advisors. He designed a powerful service platform called Elements which is used by dentists across the country for retirement planning. After working for a few years at Northwestern Mutual, he left to start his own firm in 2008 because he wanted to build something bigger than just himself. That's exactly what he's done.

It's a success story that didn't come without a lot of time, sacrifice, and risk. During our conversation, we'll discuss all of that and find out how this idea came to be. As you'll hear, the target market came second to the platform he wanted to design and perfect first.

There are a lot of takeaways from the podcast, but the common thing you'll hear from everyone that makes the decision to focus on specific niche market is that you need to gain the knowledge of that profession before you attempt to market to them. If you don't know your stuff, they'll see that immediately and it'll cost you credibility.

So as you go through the episode today, keep an ear out for some of these topics that we cover:

• Building a business from the beginning.
• Creating systems
• Characteristics for choosing a target market.
• Regrets that he has through his career.
• How important events are to his business.
• How he uses his podcast to find advisors.

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

Learn about the guest: https://dentistadvisors.com/

Today's show schedule:

2:32 – Why did you decide to go into this niche?

4:56 – He built out a spreadsheet to track the things that were important to him as an advisor.

9:24 – How marketing factored into the decision at the beginning.

13:37 – Choosing a target market.

18:52 – How they find clients early on.

20:20 – Events are a big part of his strategy.

26:22 – How has COVID impacted the business?

30:19 – They provided a lot of value to people during these challenging financial times.

32:43 – What would you have done differently if you could?

37:18 – How he uses his podcast.

Successful marketing results in a lot of leads but what good are they if you don't follow up?

That's a place where advisors often fall short due to lack of time or lack of expertise. What if you could find a system that costs a fraction of what hiring a marketing person would run you while automating much of the process?

That's what we want to talk about today on the podcast. We've brought on Dan's digital Swiss Army knife Steve Sharp to talk about the ultimate lead nurture system for financial advisors. Steve designed and manages Dan's websites and also assists with digital marketing.

Today we'll introduce you to Marvelous Conversions. The goal isn't to pitch you this product but rather explain how it works. We'll take you through each step of the process and tell you how leads get followed up immediate with multiple forms of communication. It doesn't matter what day of the week or what time of day it is, the system will make sure that you are missing any potential business.

Not only is following up important, but how quickly you're doing it will likely determine whether or not you'll be able to convert a lead. It needs to happen within five minutes or you've already lost the attention of that lead.

Check out the episode and learn more about what we're doing. If there's something you want to know more about, get in touch with us or Steve. You can find him at https://sharpdigitalmarketing.com/.

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

Today's show schedule:

2:04 – Today we're talking with Steve Sharp.

4:05 – There's so much I don't know about digital, which is where Steve has been a huge asset.

4:45 – Follow-up is where many advisors fall short.

7:00 – Let's explain the strategy and concept of how Marvelous Conversions works.

7:23 – How are people finding out that it exists?

8:52 – Running out of inventory when marketing.

10:19 – When they find the ad, where does it take them?

11:04 – Automation to helps manage the leads.

14:30 – The cool part - what happens after they enter all their info, how they're contacted.

19:55 – You can also set it up to continue contacting leads.

21:46 – Here's what we found when we tested it.

23:26 – At what point should an advisor reach out directly to the leads?

27:02 – All this can be done at a fraction of the cost of hiring a marketing director.

28:06 – Steve works closely with advisors to find solutions that work.

30:14 – If you want to learn more about Marvelous Conversions, here's what you can do.

We've been talking a lot about target marketing in recent weeks so we wanted to continue down that path and speak with someone that's been highly successful using this strategy.

Natalie Schmook, MBA, CFP®, CVA®, is the founder and owner of Hayes Wealth Advisors, and one visit to her website will make it clear that she works primarily with optometrists. It's a very niche area of focus, especially when you consider that fewer than a third of all optometrists own their own practice, but she's built a very successful business with this specialization.

We asked Natalie to join us for this episode of the podcast to have a thorough conversation about this strategy for advisors. Even with knowledge of this industry, she had to learn a lot about the profession, their needs, and their terminology. But that shows you that taking that leap can pay big dividends if you're willing to put in the time and follow the guidance we try to lay out through our program.

The very first thing we wanted to find out is which factors are you considering when you are deciding your target market, and she provided some great insight. First, how many people are out there to target? Second, who is your competition for this target audience? Third is figuring out if you have the ability to access that market.

We'll cover a wide range of topics during this show but some of the key areas to listen for are:

-How she approaches professional conferences.

-What strategy works for her newsletters.

-How to work primarily in a virtual setting.

-What value clients see in working with specialist.

Along with the business and the operation, we will bounce some different marketing ideas and strategies around to get a better sense of how much they'll work for different clients.

We want to thank Natalie for being so gracious with her time. Check out her website to learn more about her business.

For more on this topic and other strategies to growing your business, join us over at RenegadeAdvisor.net.

Today's show schedule:

0:39 – Setting up our conversation for today.

1:39 – Our guest today is Natalie Schmook, founder and owner of Hayes Wealth Advisors

3:03 – Natalie's practice is focused on optometrists.

4:23 – What are you evaluating when determining what's a good target market?

7:25 – What is the value clients see in working with a specialist?

13:32 – What is the long-term health of the industry and should that play into the decision for who to target?

16:28 – The business is national in scope and virtual meetings are normal.

19:13 – How to approach conferences for a target market.

22:22 – Have your own event before the main event.

23:09 – She's had success with newsletters.

25:32 – Consider what your own knowledge and experience is.

28:55 - Webinar success

32:44 - Using the webinar to build a list

36:16 - Specialization lowers overhead

39:17 - Some thoughts on Natalie's website

43:12 - Charging fees up front.

46:57 - Speak the same language as they speak.

47:58 - If you pivot to a specialist, do you have to get rid of old clients?