Book Credibility Proof Points

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I can say we're going to bring in a billion dollars of organic assets right now, and our closing ratio has never been better from prospect to client. And I have to believe that a big part of that is the actual book writing credibility. So it was a client who came to a seminar and it was a two workshops. And at the end of the first workshop, is we give all the attendees a copy of my book. And she came back a week later for the session and said, Hey, I read your entire book. I'd like to become your client. And that sold this retired, soon to be retired school teacher. She didn't need to hear anymore. She was good and just like, I want to give you all my money and I trust you guys, which is kind of cool, right? I probably have at this point a hundred stories where the book's been super helpful. We got a referral from a CPA friend. And the decision to move forward was twofold. It was one, become highly recommended from my accountant, which means a lot to me. And two, I love that you have a book. And literally the words were, you must be really important to have a book. And that was why this particular couple decided to work with us. I try not to sell on my podcast, right? But for the investment in having a book for the rest of your life. But just to say, hey, I wrote a book, like this is pretty cool. Yeah. Right. My smiling face, right? Um, so on, etc. And just the fact that I have it is cool. The more hands you get it in, the more you promote it, the better and bigger your credibility.

Series Intro And Guest Bio

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Welcome back to the top 50 most innovative voices in advisor growth series. I'm your host, Paul G. McManus. In this episode, I'm joined by John Cutton, founder and CEO of Cuton Wealth Management, the largest American with more than 18 billion in asset center management and more than 250 team members. John is a Barons Hall of Fame advisor who has been consistently recognized among the nation's leading financial advisors by both Barons and Forbes. Over more than three decades, he has built, acquired, and scaled one of the most significant advisory organizations in the industry. He also leads Cut in Consulting Group and hosts the Quantum Growth for Financial Advisors podcast, where he helps advisors think bigger about leadership, acquisitions, organic growth, and building businesses that can scale beyond them. Now, this episode is a little different than the other ones in our series. John originally invited my brother Gabe and me onto his podcast to discuss my new book, The Authority Operating System. But when you have an opportunity to sit down with someone who is built at John's level, you don't just answer questions, you ask them. What follows is a candid conversation about organic growth, acquisitions, building trust at scale, and turning your ideas into influence that extends beyond you. John also shares specific examples of how the book we helped him create has helped his team win new business and why he believes the book and the credibility surrounding it have contributed to the strongest prospect of client closing ratio his firm has ever experienced during a period in which the firm expects to bring in 1 billion in organic assets. Before we jump in, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or wherever you're listening so you don't miss a new episode of the top 50 most innovative voices in advisor growth. And now here's my conversation with John Cutten.

Brother Banter And Backgrounds

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Welcome to another episode of Quantum Growth for Financial Advisors. It's your host, John Cutten. I've got an exciting episode today. And I've got a repeat offender who actually has now brought his brother on, who is also this business partner. So, Paul, welcome back. Gabe, nice to have you here on the show today. And let me just ram things out. You know, so Paul McManus has been a friend of mine and my practice wealth management for a long time. And he and his brother just came out with a new book. And I want to make sure I get it right, guys. It's the authority operating system, turn your expertise into visibility and authority that attracts your ideal fit clients. Did I get that right? You did. Fantastic. You know, what I wanted to do today, gentlemen. So in full transparency, I've got a great business relationship with Paul and Gabe. We do a lot of business together. I was fortunate to have them write my first book and working on my second book and have actually utilized their system. So I wanted to kind of bring them on today, have our audience uh get to know them a little bit and how their business has evolved over time and what they're up to. So, Paul, maybe you could just say a quick hello and just introduce yourself and exactly what your organization does.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Yeah, fantastic. And thank you so much for having us on the podcast. And I believe this is my my fourth time on the podcast. And I want to know is there anyone else who has been on the podcast four times other than maybe John Randall? Um, I would say I had to look back.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Rick Kelly's been on quite a bit as well, but I'd say four definitely puts you in the top three. Ooh, two. And Paul, for those of you watching, I am Paul's minimi. We have similar haircuts now. Look at the previous episodes. Paul has a little more hair, not much, but he finally, I like to say, took the plunge.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

And I I did. I learned this from Tony Robbins. He has this saying that success leaves clues. And I I studied the most successful advisors that I work with, and I looked at you and I'm like, okay, what is it about John Cutton that makes him different and distinct? And there was one thing that stood out to me. And so I took the plunge, I shaved it. Um, anyone that's watching this on video will be able to see that.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

But Dave has such a good head of hair there. And I mean, brothers, maybe the bad genes fall. And so, Gabe, are you thinking maybe uh next time we have you back on in six months, will we be tightening up that hairline a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Or I don't know. I feel like John, in six months, I might be joining the club. And Paul points out all the time that you know it's almost there. So I'm trying to find it as long as I possibly can. But you know, at some point you just have to give in.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So for anyone that hasn't uh met me yet, my name is Paul G. McManus. If you Google me, it's always important to use my middle initial G, otherwise you'll discover me as uh an axe murderer out of Ireland. I assure you, or I hope that's not me. I don't remember, I don't recall, I disavow it. But if you Google Paul G. McManus, you'll find me. And I have been working with financial advisors for the past 11 years. We've helped over 500 financial advisors write, publish, and leverage books to build their authority, increase their visibility, and drive revenue. The first thing I always tell people is that when, you know, because a lot of people, successful financial advisors, have thought about writing a book. Oftentimes the excuse is, well, you know, it takes time to do it. You know, I don't have the time because they're busy. And the system that we've developed allows them to do it in weeks, not years. But ultimately, the outcome and the reason why someone should want to consider writing a book to build their practice is that it's 100% not about royalties. You know, if you approach this to say, I'm gonna get rich on making Amazon royalties, that that is the wrong approach. It's all about how you can leverage a book to grow your practice, to define and develop a clear point of view for a specific audience so you can become increasingly relevant to them. And so in the past 10 years, we've helped over 500 financial advisors. We've helped them generate over $100 million in revenue. I know, John, for you, that's probably a Tuesday, but you know, we're we're doing our best. So I started this business 11 years ago, and a couple, it's been, I think at least a couple of years now. My brother, who has a background, and I'll let him introduce himself in a second, he has a background in writing and theater and like all the skill sets that I would want in my business. And so I finally convinced him to quit his day job, join me full-time. And now together we are out hitting the podcast circuit, developing awareness about our latest book, the authority operating system. And Gabe, if you want to introduce yourself and tell us when the change is going to happen, because I think this is probably the most important question that we might get out of this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Right. And John, I'm so glad to get to join you guys and on your podcast. And so thank you for that. I'm the publisher at Influential Advisor Media. And like Paul said, I came from a unique pathway to get here because I was a theater director for many years, a writer, had a storytelling background. And I would have an unusual hobby though, because in my spare time, I would walk in the hills around Los Angeles, Freyman Canyon, and I would listen to books and podcasts on financial topics, personal finance investments, and I loved that subject. And so Paul and I were sitting in the hot tub one day and talking about what he was doing. And I got excited just about the storytelling opportunities for financial advisors, the way that they could share their stories, the best ideas of the things that they do in their practices and meaningful ways that would connect with their ideal prospective clients and draw them to their practice. And so several years ago, began working with my brother Paul and have enjoyed the ride ever since.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I love it. So, guys, I'm gonna pull an audible here. I think what we should do is just sell brother stories instead of talking about marketing. Who's the older brother, by the way? Who's the big brother?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah, you know, we ask that at conferences, but I think the gray beard always gives me away. And so that people know that I'm the older one, usually pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

The way that I like to frame it is that I'm bald, he's balding, and he's fat, I'm fatter. So, you know, if you're like, see both of us, you know, those are two characteristics that you can differentiate us with. Got it. So you're the overachiever.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

You got a little heavier and you actually were bald quicker. So you're overachiever. Exactly. Exactly. So we'll we'll have some

Stop Chasing Leads Start Building Trust

SPEAKER_02 10:00

fun today, guys. So I would just start here, guys. Let me do my frame. And you know, my audience knows I like to do this a little bit. So here's how I think about it. What Paul and Gabe have done an amazing job is actually helping advisors build authority. It's working in my own practice, and I'm happy to share some of that if you all would like to have a recent relevant story as recently as a couple of days ago, which is kind of cool. And I think, like most good things, it started with a concept of, hey, let's write a book, let's build authority. If you wrote a book, right, authority, the word author, right, would mean authors have authority, and you come from a place of credibility and differentiation. And then I think what started to happen as Paul started to do that for many financial advisors is then turned into, well, what else can we do to surround sound that messaging? Because as the book is the starting point. But then how is it that you get the word out there? And how is it that when someone Googles you or in today's world goes to AI to determine are you credible or not, right? Do you have authority? A book is a fantastic part and a key element. But man, if you're also on a YouTube video or been featured in a podcast and you can triangulate that, what starts to happen as a financial advisor is you become the go-to. So think about it this way you're listening to my podcast. And as long as the content is good and consistent and I'm somewhat likable, which I like to think I am usually, what happens is you keep coming back for more. And then ultimately, as an advisor, you start to take some of that advice and maybe even think about joining our practice one day, right? And we've had that happen. Although that wasn't the intent, I think the concept is very similar. So, oh, let me just give you a softball or Gabe, whoever wants to grab it. I'll leave it to the two of you. When you think about marketing in general, what is it that advisors get wrong in your experience? You've met, you know, thousands of advisors, I assume, at this point over the years. But where do you see the industry might not get it right?

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah. I'd love this to be a conversation. I will answer the question in a second. I will have Gabe expand. And if you're okay with it, John, I'd love to put it back to you because I mean, you know, we're here with the GOAT, right? So we might as well get it directly from you. And it's interesting. I just had John Randall, who we both know on my podcast. I've I've just started a new YouTube series called The 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth. And we were talking about this. And the the first thing that even successful advisors are thinking about is I need more leads, I need any more business. And sure, you know, we all, you know, as business owners, we all do. And as you know, John Randall has a theory of constraints, right? So what's really holding back the practice? In my case, what I've noticed is that people come to us for business growth. Fantastic. That's what we want them to come to us. But oftentimes their mindset, their frame of mind is built around more of, I need more leads. I need more leads. And I get it, right? The approach of thinking I want more leads typically translates into I need to do activities or I need to pay for services that drive some name to my calendar that I can then try to sell on my services. And so, you know, I won't mention names, but there's different services out there that'll get you more leads. And I find that the more successful the advisors, the more they hate this process because it's often, you know, it's very cold, meaning that the lead that they're getting, they know nothing about the advisor. And, you know, possibly they're competing with a couple other advisors. So it becomes this auditioning process where they have to try to compete ultimately. And that ultimately leads into chasing, right? And I think chasing does a couple of things. One, it repels the prospect because they, you know, as soon as you start chasing, they know, right? I mean, think about the I always love using dating as an analogy. You know, as soon as you're chasing, you know, the other person pulls back. And so it's just fundamentally broken. Now, can it work? Absolutely, right? There, you know, plenty of people get leads, they chase them, they have some level of success. But I think fundamentally, the more successful the visor is, the more they hate it. Because it doesn't recognize their level of expertise and experience years and decades in the business. I mean, you know, take you, for example. I mean, you've been in this business for 30 years. Imagine you haven't seen a client in 14 years now, I believe it is. But you know, imagine if you had to, you know, get up and chase down leads and you know, try to convince someone who maybe wasn't even the best fit for you, you know, oh no, I'm John Cutton, you know, you should work with me. I mean, you would hate your life, right? And so in for the audio listeners, John, John is shaking his head in a in an up-down manner, agreeing with the statement. And so, you know, that's just I think the reality for most people when they think of marketing. And so then they, I would call it retreat into this idea, I'm a referral-based practice. Fantastic. We all love referrals, referrals work. But I think if you look under the hood in the psychology there, why is that? It's because it's a process that respects their expertise. Because when a client introduces them to another person, one, they're similar in nature, so they're probably a good fit. If a CPA introduces to someone, they're probably a good fit. But ultimately what happens is trust transfers. And so instead of having to be this, you know, mindset of I'm trying to audition and chase and win your approval, now it's flipped. Now it's okay, hey, how can I help you? You know, you were referred to me. How can I help you? And so I think that's fundamentally respects the advisor's years of experience and their expertise. And that's why most advisors are attracted to that model. But the only problem with that model, as we all know, is that you don't control the referral. You don't control the frequency of it, you don't control how often it happens, if it's someone's going to do it. And so if you're actually serious about growth, then you have to say, okay, well, how do I grow? And I know that you have, and I'd love to get your, John, your input on this, but you've mastered the game of acquisitions, right? As well as other things such as CPA referrals and other things, but you've mastered the acquisitions as a way to create quantum growth in your business. But I think for a lot of people, you know, probably pre-acquisition stage, they're at that point where, okay, I want to grow, but how do I do it effectively in a way that I feel good about? I can wake up every morning, enjoy, and want to do more of this. That would be my take.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Well

How A Book Wins New Clients

SPEAKER_02 16:13

said, Paul. And I'll just jump in real quick and then we'll give you the final word on the subject. So yeah, I referenced a story before, which like recently relevant, literally two days ago. So we do a fair amount of seminars to the public, right? Prospecting seminars, et cetera. And I do a session with about 25 of my advisors who were involved in our CPA referral program and also our seminar program. And just to make a very long story short, there were two stories that morning of how our book and our credibility in the marketplace helped us win business. So, one, it was a client who came to a seminar and it was a like a two-step process. There were two workshops. And at the end of the first workshop, one of the things we do is we give all the attendees a copy of my book, The Certainty of Uncertainty, as a gift. And to make a very long story short, uh, this is a school teacher who's ready to retire, who had about two and a half million dollars put away for her future. And she came back a week later for the session and said, Hey, I read your entire book. I'd like to become your client, literally, not to me, to one of my advisors. And it was it was proof of concept, right? That she was able to read that book, understand the value proposition. And by the way, these are adult education programs that we teach at like a local university. So it has absolutely nothing to do with selling KWS or wealth management for. We don't even talk about it. It's a brief introduction, but the advisor's job is to be the professor. But that professor, if you will, class, right, which is very much geared to not selling, but just educating, coupled with a document that someone can tangibly hold and read, though that element together made the person say, Well, he's got credibility, this advisor, because he taught a great class. Now I know what their firm stands for, without my advisor even having to share it. And that sold this retired soon-to-be retired school teacher. She didn't need to hear anymore. She was good and just like, I want to give you all my money and I trust you guys, which is kind of cool, right? The second story I have, and these are like literally like hot off the press. I I probably have at this point a hundred stories where the book's been super helpful. We got a referral from a CPA firm recently, very high net worth client, eight figure investable assets, so on, et cetera. So it came from a very endorsed third party, their CPA. And the CPA sat in the meeting with my advisor, et cetera. But they had an existing advisor that they weren't thrilled with, and they wanted to make sure they interviewed at least two advisors. And uh one was us, and the other was our competition. It was actually someone from a warehouse. And the decision to move forward was twofold. It was one, you come highly recommended from my accountant, which means a lot to me. And two, I love that you have a book. And literally the words were, you must be really important to have a book. And that was why this particular couple decided to work with us. And I wrote the book three years ago, by the way, right? So it's still relevant, and we do everything we can to get it in every client, every prospect, every COI's hands. And it's not like people call and go, out of the blue, I read your book and I want to give you my life savings. But what happens is it's a credibility piece, right? And a differentiator. Well, let's think about it. If you're choosing between two financial advisors, they're both competent, you like them both, they both seem to do a good job. One has a book and one doesn't have a book. It might just tilt the scale a little bit in your favor to go, well, wow, John book, he he must be really important, right? And the way you know Paul and Gabe have created it, it's really inexpensive to write a book, relatively speaking, to the value that we all get from it. And they make it really painless. They, you know, they built a system around it.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

So to be fair, we make the short book formula painless. We can talk about the long book formula separately.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

Yes, I took a lot of air time there. I don't know if you had anything to add, but uh, I'll give you the the conch.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

Well, no, I I love those examples, and I think that the book becomes the ultimate trust builder. And I think, John, you said you know it differentiates you from the advisor that doesn't have a book, and I think it does it in a major way because when you share the best of what you do, the best of what your team does, and things that connect with your ideal clients and that build trust in you and in the process. And when they take that and there's stories in it that motivate them to immediate action, when they read that, they come in feeling like they already know you. There's a complete difference. You're not having to convince them, you're not trying in a first meeting to tell everything that they've already gotten it from the book. They understand those best ideas. And so I think Paul and I have seen this too, that in meetings where people have either engaged with the book or engaged with the content that we've created that from that foundational layer of the book. Now we've gone out and done podcasts and created clips, done short form content that I'll get into a meeting and I feel like the person already has connected with me. They already act like they know me. And then that turns around where I feel like I'm more familiar and know them too. And the connecting is so much faster. And because they understand already what we'll do for them or what the financial advisor will do for their client. And so it's been captured in the book, the best of it. And so when you get to those meetings, it's just Paul and I say pre sold that they come in and they say, I already know what to do. I'm ready to go to work. Yeah. And I think I'm a pretty good testimonial for that.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

We see it happen over and over again. And it really does. It makes a difference in the relationship building. They do come in knowing the story, and that's One of my favorite things. And I get to see on the wealth management side. And then, you know, I forget. I think I've had this podcast for maybe five or six years now. Sometimes we'll meet an advisor and I'll be telling a story. And they're telling me my story. And they're like, oh yeah, your parents got bankruptcy. And then you I'm like, wait a minute, we've never met. I'm like, how do you do all this? It's like, well, I've been listening to your podcast. I've listened to a hundred hours of your episode. So it's the same concept. And one of the things you hit Gabe, which I thought was great, is stories, right? When you can, and I learned this from you, Paul, when I went through my own book, right? And you helped me write it because I was a little afraid to do that. And is really painless, the short book formula. Paul and his team make it really easy to do that. But I remember every every chapter you'd say, Well, do you have a good story? Do you have a client story about that? And what happens is, and this, you know, our financial advisors will certainly appreciate this. When you can tell someone that you know what their problems are and what they feel through a story, what happens is they feel super connected because they're like, wow, John really understands exactly what a 62-year-old that's two years away from retirement's worries are, right? And that was my book was called The Certainty of Uncertainty. If you are specializing in working with doctors or lawyers or whatever your niche may be, when you understand what's inside of the mind and the fears and the concerns of that listener or that reader, all of a sudden, if you can connect to that, it's a draw, right? Where that person's going, I gotta go work with John or Paul or Gabe because I don't know how he understands me. So it's it's really powerful. So I think great dialogue. Paul, I want to move us in a slightly different direction, if that's okay.

AOS As A Marketing Playbook

SPEAKER_02 23:51

You did something really clever. You know, you had shared in your book uh that you kind of think about what you built as the AOS system. So a lot of my listeners will know a lot about the EOS system, right? The entrepreneurial operating system. That's what I've run on for a long time. And I know, Paul, you run your business on EOS as well. Maybe you could talk about what is what is AOS and what does that mean to our listeners?

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Yeah, so I was inspired by the entrepreneurial operating system or EOS for short, which is based on ideas and books by a gentleman named Geno Wickman. And it's funny, Gabe and I talk about this all the time. We speak to financial advisors every day, and there's always one of three references that come up in terms of, you know, you just said it, John. It's like when you can see the world of your ideal prospects from their point of view, when you know their points of reference, et cetera, you can build trust that much more easily. And the three reference points that we see happen over and over again are Dan Sullivan with strategic coach, Michael Kitsis, Financial Advisor Success Podcast. And the third one is EOS or the entrepreneurial operating system. And invariably, if they're a financial advisor that with any level of success, they follow at least one, if not multiple, of those people and they'll reference their thing. And so, you know, my own business, you know, runs on EOS, you know, and it's funny, right? It's like I probably, you know, know about 10% of what EOS actually means, but I like saying my business runs on EOS because it's a framework, right? It's a system. And what I think to me, the genius of it is that it takes a lot of disparate ideas and concepts and tactics and things that if we looked at them in isolation, we'd get overwhelmed to be like, oh, you know, where do I start? And what I think Geno Wickman did is that he simplified it into a process and a system that now people like you and me, you know, founders and CEOs, can say, my business runs on the EOS. And then there's this playbook that I can give to my operations team and to my team. And now the whole business runs in the US. And I know in your case, when you're working with other firms, you know, we run on EOS and here's the system. And it just becomes the shorthand and in playbook on how to run a well-run business. And so I was inspired by that idea. I think when it comes to marketing or what I would call authority marketing, which to me is more appropriate for a financial advisor because it's really more about positioning and how do you build trust with high income people, high net worth people. So I think in terms of authority and authority marketing, you know, there's a lot of tactics, right? I mean, it's like a CEO. Do I do books? Do I do podcasts? Do I do webinars? Do I do seminars? And so AOS is my attempt to really clarify and to make this systematic an approach. And so it can help an advisor think through, you know, and oftentimes this is the founder, owner, CEO, you know, they're already successful and they want to take their business to the next level. They're probably starting to do acquisitions as a way, but they also want to grow organically. And what they don't want to do is go out and buy a leads list and have to be in that chase mode. And so AOS is about framing this out for them in a way that makes sense and gives them a playbook to build on over time. And so, from Gabe's and my perspective, the book is foundational. And we say the short book. And what a short book means is that it's a book that's about 12,000 to 25,000 words. What that translates into is a book that can be read cover to cover by your ideal reader in one to two hours. And the question always happens, or that I always get the questions like, well, do people even read nowadays? And the answer is yes, especially when they're serious and they're looking to make a good decision. I mean, you referenced this, John, a few moments ago when I think it was the teacher. And, you know, just the random person out there may not read the book, but when you're at a seminar, when you're interviewing a few different advisors and you need some sort of way to determine, you know, out of the hundred thousand CFPs that there are, what makes this one unique and special? Because what we ultimately want is to feel seen and understood, right? If you can show me in advance of meeting you that you understand me, I'm instantly more attracted to working with you and your firm. And so we believe that the book is the foundation. But then the second question is well, once I have the book, and you also alluded to this, John, is well, what do I do with it? Right. Because, you know, we see the book as a tool to build your practice, not as a tool to make royalties. I mean, if you make a couple hundred bucks of royalties on Amazon, wonderful. But that's not the purpose. The purpose is to grow your practice. And so in that case, one, you have to have the tactics aligned with you as a financial advisor. And so if you write a book and you look at online, you know, they're going to optimize for things such as how do you increase sales on Amazon, which is going to be mostly a losing game. And what we've been refining and developing over the years is what really works, because all we do is work with advisors, hundreds of advisors, day in, day out, about first writing a book and then secondly leveraging the book. And what we've come down to is a system of ideas that work repeatedly. And it also helps an advisor. It's not just a one-off tactic, but it gives them clarity in terms of the direction and it gives them the ability to say, okay, if I apply my book and these ideas over time to these set of ideas, I can expect to grow systematically over time in a way that I actually feel good about and enjoy and want to do more of and come back for a second book.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

I think, Paul, when you say authority, and John, you said authors in the word authority, I think that there's a big tie into visibility because you've captured the best of what you do, those stories that connect and build trust and motivate

Visibility Signals Podcasts Videos AI Search

SPEAKER_00 29:20

people into your book. And now the fun part happens because it's a polished version of your voice that we capture in the book. This is the way that you would say things on your best day if you said them exactly the way you wanted to say them. And once that's there, now it's authentically yours. It's exactly what drives your practice. And so now the fun part becomes all the amazing things that you can do to share that, to build your visibility, to grow, and to get your name and your best ideas out in front of people. And so I'm working right now with a financial advisor's name's Ira. And he was so excited about his book, the ideas that were in it. He's the investor's coach. And now the incredible things that he's able to do with it, that he just had a series of commercials. He's taken that polished version of his voice and he's sharing it now on television commercials. He's going on podcasts, he's creating short-form content that he can share. He's building his visibility. All of his best ideas are out there for people to see. And now he's getting recognized when he's driving around in his hometown of Nashville, that people they see him, they identify him with that. When he does webinars and seminars, they know him from his book, from the commercials. His visibility has been increased so much. And these are all the signals that when people go and search on Google or they see the Google AI overview or they go to ChatGPT and type in your name, what's going to bring you to the top of those searches? What's going to bring your name to the forefront? And once you get it to the top of that list, how do you keep it there? And so that's what the authority operating system is is to lay the foundation with the book, but then all the drivers that are going to bring you to the top of those searches, and so people know you and your best ideas and are led ultimately back to you and your practice.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

Yeah, super well said, guys.

The Book As Non Salesy Gift

SPEAKER_02 31:01

You know, as you're both thinking or as you're both speaking, I can say I'm thinking, and I try not to sell on my podcast, right? But at the end of the day, for the investment in having a book for the rest of your life, just to say I have one, right? I mean, one, there's a financial benefit, but just to say, hey, I wrote a book, like this is pretty cool, yeah, right. My smiling face, right? Um, so on, etc. And just the fact that I have it is cool. The more hands you get it in, the more you promote it, the better and bigger your credibility. And it gives you the courage to help. Because the biggest issue that I find advisors have, whether it be in asking for a referral or even doing a presentation, or think what I just said, like I hate to sell on this. Nobody wants to be perceived as a salesperson, right? What a book is, is here's some intellectual capital I have, and I'd like to give it to you. Please read it. I think it can be helpful to you, your family, your friends, right, your colleagues, so on, et cetera. Or when someone is out searching for a financial advisor and thinking about is this the right thing for me to do? Do I need a financial advisor? How do I find the right financial advisor? It's more data, right? It's not just what you Google, right, or what you put into Chat GPT or artificial intelligence. Of course, that's part of the process. And you guys have a part of your AOS, which I want to get back to, does that as well. So I just I just wanted to share that you know with our listeners in that for a price point, the beautiful part about, and I think advisors get stuck on this, Paul. You started the talk before about organic versus inorganic growth, right? The reality of it is most advisors don't spend enough time, energy, or money investing in marketing, growth, awareness building, you can call it media, whatever you want to call it, right? They're focusing on just servicing their clients and hoping, we hope it's not a great strategy, that they get referrals or they find a practice to acquire, even if you bought a book of business. Man, wouldn't those clients that you bought want to get a copy of your book so they know whose hands they're gonna be left in? So it's like a it's like a Swiss Army knife and a universal tool. And one extra client, one retention, you know, one client who you retain from an acquisition, a referral who hires you because of the book, a call and lead that you get because you wrote a book and you were on a podcast or had a YouTube video, so on, et cetera. When you think about the lifetime value of one million dollar wealth management client that pays you $10,000 a year for 25 years because retention in our industry is 99%. And you think about how inexpensive it is to actually write one book, you kind of look at it, and I have a hard time understanding why advisors don't all have them, which is why, of course, I actually did it. So feel free to comment on that, guys, at all. And I want to go a little deeper on AOS once once I give you both a chance to comment if you like to.

Trust Transfer To Teams And Acquisitions

SPEAKER_01 34:21

Yeah, perfect. Wow, I'm I'm taking notes as you're speaking, and and I can go in a million different directions, but I'm gonna try to be disciplined here. Um, and a couple things that I've heard you say, John, over this, and I'd love to get your perspective on is that Gabe and I work with mostly founder CEO advisors, right? And so mainly they do around 100 million AUM and above, you know, some less, but but oftentimes 100 million AUM is a sweet spot for the clients that we work with and above. And they typically are trying to solve for one of two things. One is to fill their own pipeline, right? And so a book can be a great tool for that. But the other tool that people don't always think about, but you know, you you said Swiss Army Knife is that how do you transfer trust, not just to me as the author, right? So if I'm looking to fill my own pipeline, a book is a great tool to transfer trust to me. But the bigger opportunity for founder CEOs, how do you take your best ideas and your years of experience and vision and philosophy and best practices and point of view and use that in a leveraged way to transfer trust to your team, right? And I think just going back to something that you said, John, I mean, I like the stat because I'll say it again. You know, you haven't seen a client personally in 14 years. And even in the example that you were using earlier with your book and seminars, I don't know that you were in the seminar, were you? I mean, your book was, your ideas were your handsome face was on the cover of it, but it's become a tool where you're in every meeting and every seminar without actually having to be in the meeting or the seminar. Your ideas, influence, experience, what you've built is influencing all that. So people are not just saying, you know, I trust the person in your team. I'm you know, I'm sure they do, I'm sure they do a good job, but they're also saying, oh, well, this is a firm that's backed by John Cutton. This is a person who's built a brand. I trust John's judgment. And Gabe and I see this every day. And so I've stepped back a lot from client-facing work. And I'm still the quote unquote rainmaker, meaning that I do the visibility, I do the media, I author the books, and people at this point come and have the initial conversation with me. But immediately, you know, if we decide to go forward, you'll be working most likely with my brother Gabe. And so I've invested a total of 15 minutes with the prospect who has heard me on a podcast, read my book for some combination, seen me in an event. They schedule time with me. So I'm not chasing, they're coming to me. And I'm just modeling this for what I want advisors to be able to think about for themselves. I have a great 15-minute conversation with them on the phone. And if that goes well, we schedule a 30-minute conversation for Zoom. And that second conversation, I say, hey, by the way, I'm gonna have my brother Gabe be on the call. If we decide to go forward, you'll be working with him. And between the two calls, I send them my book. I also send a nice video of Gabe and me talking about his ideas so they can get to know him. And because they're serious, they're not tiger kickers, they're actually trying to make a good decision. What we find invariably is that they read the book, they listen to the book, they watch the video. I mean, Gabe and I were just on a call the other day. They're like, yeah, I watched the video twice. And the funny thing that happened is that, and there was a client specifically, his name is Fred, and I'd done this, and you know, I was thinking, okay, well, we'll start the call and I'll introduce Gabe and like, oh, this is Gabe. And immediately he just starts talking to Gabe. I felt totally ignored. You know, I'm like, you know, wait a minute, you know, you don't know Gabe, but you know, this is my call. And I'm joking there because I loved it. I didn't have to be the point of trust. The trust transferred immediately to Gabe. And I think that that's what many founder advisors want is that they feel trapped in a way. I mean, like, you know, we all love referrals, we all love to grow our business, but you know, if your calendar has no white space on it, it's how do you find a mechanism that can seamlessly take the best version of you so that clients are still coming for you and your ideas, but then immediately transfer the trust to your team. And John, you've done this at a very large scale in multiple ways, book being one of them, but you also reference the podcast because the mechanism is the same, right? I mean, it's just a different medium. You know, this podcast right here is for advisors. And, you know, why have you done it and what are the results that you get? And partially is that when people decide, you know, when they're making trying to make a good choice about which firm should I affiliate with or things of that nature, they maybe have never met you in person, but they know you. They know your way of thinking, they're inspired by it, they're motivated by it. And so they trust your judgment in advance of ever meeting you. And so whether it's a book or a podcast or some combination, and we like the combination, is that the fundamental idea is that you're in the trust business, right? You're in the trust business, period. There was a study that I saw in 2025, thousand US investors were surveyed, and 76% said that the number one factor in choosing advisor was trust. And that beat both experience and even investment performance. And so you are flat out of the trust business. And so, you know, back to one of the earlier questions is you know, what are you optimizing for? You should be optimizing for trust because that's the currency that we're in.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

I was going to say, John, one of the things that I hear in the book coaching process over and over again is that the advisor that I'm working with come back and after they've done a little bit of the assignment, we only ask for about an hour of writing before they come and they talk to me. And then we talk out the content of their book, their stories, their frameworks. And one thing that they say over and over again to me is that it's a clarifying process, that it gets them to think more deeply about their practice, what they do, the best of what they do, and that that reshapes the way that they talk to their team. It reshapes the way that they talk to clients. And the book becomes the playbook that the team members now can operate from. And so even when you're not in the room, the team members are sharing those same ideas. This is exactly what Paul and I do, that he captured his ideas in his books and did this for a long time. Then I step in, I'm operating from his playbook. I'm running with the same, the same thing that he set up. And so I'm sharing his best ideas. And you were talking about the acquisition process about, you know, you're being introduced to all of these new people. We work with an advisor that she's acquiring practices, and the book becomes foundational in that too, because when new people come into the fold, that they're able to send that book out, and that's that trust builder, that first step that they say, Oh, this is, I see the systems, I see the stories. I now feel that trust built in, that trust transfers, like Paul says. And as she's also acquiring new team members, that's another thing that they're she's spoken about the ideas in her book on podcasts. People hear it, it's raised the visibility. And so they're attracted to it. She says in her practice that they like to wrap their arms around their clients' entire financial situation. And so prospective team members, they hear that and they say they identify with it. They say, that's something I'd like to be a part of. And so when they go to work for her, they're coming because they already have a great understanding of who she is and what she does.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Yeah, I mean, you both make outstanding points, and we could probably go on for two hours, right? But we're having a fun

Compounding Hours With Books And Podcasts

SPEAKER_02 41:02

conversation. I would kind of highlight a couple of things that I think the three of us are aligned on that I want our audience to align on. So go back to what you had said before, Paul. I think you're absolutely right. Whether you're a solo practitioner or you're running a larger team, it gives you the ability to describe what you stand for, what your client experience is, what the values of the organization are from in your tone, right? And Paul and Gabe do a great job of helping you bring that out, right? And I think what you just shared, Gabe, is exactly right. Not every advisor is super clear on that, but you actually get clearer when you go through the process. So I do feel like I get to meet every client that reads the book without actually meeting them. The other piece that I would share, which I've given a lot of thought to, and I've heard it on other podcasts and stuff, but it's it's an interesting way to approach it. I think this podcast that we're on right now gets about 6,000 downloads per month. And that doesn't mean this episode will get 6,000. It means one person might listen to 10 episodes right this month, just as an example. But if you just start to do that math and you go, if the average episode is an hour and I get 6,000 downloads, there's 6,000 hours a month or 72,000 hours a year that people are actually, while I'm sleeping, hearing what we're talking about right now, right? And it's the same with a book. So I think, and again, we run a large business, so on, etc. But I think we've given away about 30,000 books over the last three years or so. 30,000 books. Now, I don't know if every person read them, but even if half of the folks read the book, to Paul's good point before, for an hour or two, right? What I now know is I had 15,000 people actually read an hour and a half about our term. That's really powerful when you think about that. Way easier than going out to do a physical seminar, right? Or way easier than trying to cold call, so on, et cetera. So I just wanted to share that. The other piece that I wanted to hit, which I think is really important, and you were kind of saying this, Paul. Um you may agree or disagree, but I'll just give you my perspective on it. So my perspective is I don't personally believe that the main benefit of your kind of surrounds system, books, podcasts, videos, right, is the cure for bringing new prospects into the business. I think it is additive that new prospects will be connected. I do think that if you couple a more of a marketing work, I'm going to call it a business development culture with the surround sound media, if you will, right? And the credibility pieces that we're talking about today, I think it makes it much, much more effective. And then over a longer period of time, it will create its own lead generation as well. Does that resonate, Paul? I'd be interested in your perspective on that.

Integrate Books Into Seminars And Sales

SPEAKER_02 44:23

So just I just want to clarify one piece just to make sure I'm laying on the plan. So as an example, if you're a financial advisor and you do client events, you invite your clients to come and ask them to bring a referral, right? If you do that and you have a gift bag that gives your book to each and every one of those prospects, your conversion ratio will be better. If you do dinner seminars, adult ed seminars, partner with CPA firms, do client events, send holiday gifts every year. Does that make sense, right? Now that you've got this other surround sound book and the other things that we're talking about, it just makes everything better. And because you've actually elevated your authority, your results from those things will be incrementally better as well.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

Yeah. I would say both are true. And so the book, you write the book. So the biggest mistake you can make is you can write the book, you can say, I've written the book, it's sitting there on Amazon and sit back and wait for the money to pile in. So that does not happen, right? So do not go down that path. And for any advisor who's written a book and said, Well, you know, I didn't get the results I was hoping for, most likely with some version of that path. What you're describing, John, is I think the immediate opportunity for most advisors to leverage their book to start growing their business. And I'll be, I'll be very specific. And so it's it's 100% an integrated approach, meaning that the book works as well as you integrate it into what you're already doing, which is what you're describing. For example, the seminar. We have clients, uh, in addition to what you shared, two teams come to mind, Russ and Mike, they co-authored a book about social security optimization. Before they wrote the book, they were already successfully doing seminars. This was their main way to create awareness and to bring in new business. And they've been with us now for a couple of years. And so we have a lot of good reported data back from them. And what they said very clearly and emphatically is that after they published the book, they went on their best-selling tour with us. And now they're positioning in those seminars and they they lead with that, right? So who are we? Why are we different? Why should you listen to us type stuff? They lead with the book. Now they're still doing the same seminar, but the book has now been integrated into that approach. And from their reports, the conversions from seminar to meeting, and then from meeting to client have essentially doubled, right? And so this is all about leverage. And so absent doing the seminar, you know, the book doesn't do anything, but you apply the book to the seminar, and suddenly, if you can double your results, that's a huge win. The other one that comes to mind for me is the sales process. And this is what I do myself religiously, and I teach and I encourage advisors to do the same, is that people schedule with me, right? I don't chase anyone, they schedule with me, they've heard me on a podcast like this, they've meet met me at an event, they decide, okay, I'm gonna, they don't go to Amazon, find the book, and reach out. I mean, that's like a, I don't even know if that's happened. I'm sure it has, but it's very rare. It's because of the marketing activity I do around the book, the message to get it out there that they hear about it and then they might read it, buy it, read it, and come to me. And the process is that I want to accelerate the speed of trust. I want the person to come in already familiar enough with me and why they should work with me so that I can spend as little time as possible getting to the next step, which is bringing them on as a client so that we can actually help them, right? And so my process comes down to about 15 minutes and 30 minutes. 15 minutes, they come in, they've heard me speak, they've seen me at an event, you know, we basically see if there's a potential fit. I very intentionally send them both the physical book and the audio book in between that first call and the second call. Second call is 30 minutes by design, very limited. And I give them quote unquote homework. I don't require it, but I kind of jokingly suggest, hey, you know, before the next call, here's some resources. I encourage you to check them out. I'd say 90% of the people come back and say, Yeah, I read the book. Sometimes I read it twice, right? And then I have zero presentation. I don't have to justify my value. I don't have to talk about why I'm different. I simply start with, fantastic. What questions do you have? And the second call, even though I give it 30 minutes, it's usually about 15 to 20 minutes. Gabe and I are oftentimes in that call together and you know, they come in and they're like, Yeah, I'm ready to sign up. And then I like make the mistake of starting asking questions. Like Gabe's like, what are you doing? I mean, you know, they're ready to sign up. Why are you right exactly? They just said I'm ready to go. Don't talk fast to close. So it's it's good work with your brother because he can call you out. And so those are some of the, I think, you know, align with what you're saying. And so absolutely, those are some of the ways that you can accelerate trust, leverage your time, get your time back, make more of an impact. So there's also a whole range of ways that you can attract completely new people into your system. So there are strategies around that. And that is in addition, what the authority operating system is all about. Oh, I think Paul just I see what he did there, Gabe.

SPEAKER_02 48:56

You just proved a series. I like it. Yeah, well, we are just about out of time here. So let me wrap like this.

Billion Dollar Organic Growth Takeaways

SPEAKER_02 49:04

Very grateful, one, for you helping me with my own marketing. It's made a big difference and it's continuing to compound. I can say we're gonna bring in a billion dollars of organic assets right now, and our closing ratio has never been better from prospect to client. And I have to believe that a big part of that is the actual book writing and credibility. So I'm grateful. And I would say to our listeners, take a meeting with Paul and Gabe, learn about it. I know many of the people listen to the podcast, I'm friends as well, and I probably know, I don't know, 50 advisors that have gone through your process, maybe more than that at this point. And they've all had great things to say about the process, you know, the end result, most importantly. So grateful for that. I'm gonna wrap there, guys, because we are out of time. But Dave, Paul, thank you very much for being on the show today. I believe our listeners got a lot of value out of it. I am open to a part two. If you guys would like, we can think about that in the future. So thanks again, Paul. Thanks again. Thank you, thank you, John. Enjoyed it.