Why Clients Really Refer

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There's a Cerulee study out there that says that clients, they're not going to refer you because of your investment performance. Investment performance is table stakes anymore, right? I can look at a room full of advisors, I can go to any one of them, and I can get similar investment performance. The ones that are more likely to refer you are the ones who you, the advisor, have built not just a relationship with, but a significant and meaningful relationship with. You said something earlier about maybe they don't do it because they don't have the time. And I don't think in a today's day and age, we're all busy. But now that AI has come along, it's real hard to say you don't have time. And so while AI will help you streamline your processes and will help you find efficiencies in your practice, and you can train it to think like you, and you can train it to act like you, it's not gonna replace you. There is no replacement for you, the human being, and the connectivity that your clients are seeking when they're looking for an advisor. I feel like gone are the days where somebody referred me to you and I just pick up the phone and call and make an appointment, right? I'm gonna Google you and now I'm gonna, you know, use AI to find you too. And so that digital presence is super important. Familiarity, whether I've actually ever met you or not, builds trust, right? So I think about the people that I follow on social media that continue to come up on my feed. I'm familiar with them, and so I think if I ever met them in person, the conversation would be really different than if I had never met them before.

Show And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Welcome back to the top 50 most innovative voices in advisor growth. I'm your host, Paul G. McManus. In this episode, I'm joined by Michelle Lynch, Senior Vice President of Practice Management and Growth Consulting at Raymond James. Michelle has spent more than two decades at Raymond James with experience spanning marketing, advisor development, field leadership, and practice management. Today, she helps financial advisors grow across every stage of their careers. In our conversation, we explore what she has learned from seeing the advisor business from so many different perspectives. We discuss why growth often requires advisors to move beyond doing everything themselves, identify where they create the most value, and build teams that allow them to step more fully into the role of CEO. We also dig into why referrals are ultimately a byproduct of trust and how deeper client relationships, community, thoughtful wow moments, and stronger connections with the next generation can make an advisory firm more valuable and more referable. Michelle also shares why AI should create capacity, not replace the human connection at the center of advice, and why an advisor's digital presence needs to reinforce that same trust before a prospect ever makes the call. Finally, we discuss succession and why the best transitions begin long before an advisor is ready to exit. 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 Michelle Lynch.

Michelle’s Path Into Advisor Growth

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Michelle Lynch, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

I'm doing great. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

I'm doing great. All right, so thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with us today. Really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah. So let's go ahead and dive into it and love to know a little bit about your background. What got you into the financial advisory services and industry in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

I really fell into this career, to be honest with you. My undergrad and my first starting out of my career was really all around marketing and public relations. And when I graduated college, all I wanted to do was go and work for an ad agency. And then I went and worked for an ad agency and I absolutely hated it. Okay. And so I then went to, you know, work for an internal marketing agency with, you know, a pretty big company here in Tampa Bay. And then I but I used to drive past the Raymond James offices every day. And I'm like, gosh, it would be really great to work there. So that's how I got my foot in the door 22 years ago, was in our marketing department. And my career has literally been a windy path ever since. But that's how I got exposed to advisors and fell in love with working with them.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Very cool. I I have a passion for marketing. So I want to I want to learn a little bit more about your your story there. So what is it about marketing, public relations that initially attracted you, excited you?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

You know, it's interesting. I, according to my my grandparents, I'm born and raised in Tampa, like when I and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents when I was little. I used to be able to, according to them, tell you every single jingle that came on the TV. I could tell you every single billboard that was that was coming up and what they were selling. And so I think it was maybe ingrained in me from a really young age for some reason. And then when I got to college, I started taking a bunch of market, you know, going into the business college. And I'm like, all this accounting and all of this, you know, finance, like that, like I just want to do marketing. And so I actually switched majors to become an advertising major so that I was able to put all of that into play. But my my skill sets lean more on the relationship management and the account management side of things versus the creative side.

SPEAKER_00 4:58

And if if I could ask, what was it about the actual ad agency? You don't need to mention names or anything, but what was it that turned you off?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

The it was a very, very small advertising agency, and the owner wasn't the kindest person. And so there was that dynamic. And then also I learned, you know, you lose an account, you can lose your job. And so there wasn't really a big, a whole lot of stability that came from it. And so I I decided that that wasn't maybe the right approach and looked for something a little bit more stable since my parents had cut me off at that point.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, interesting. Tell us a little bit more about your role today at Raymond James.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Sure. So I lead our practice management and growth consulting team, which is really centered around all things growth. It's it's helping advisors grow their businesses, whether that's new financial advisors coming into the industry or experienced advisors that are that are here and also working with succession as well as they either sell their business or or pass it on to the next generation.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah. Share a little bit about the the path. So from the the ad agency that you didn't like until today, what transpired along the way?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Well, I stayed with marketing and I worked for a company in in Tampa for six years doing marketing and public relations. They had a travel agency, they had financial and insurance services. So I was I did a lot of that. I sort of got a little bit involved in legislative affairs, which was fascinating. And then, you know, I had my oldest son and I was on maternity leave and a girlfriend of mine who had left the company that I was with and come to Raymond James. We had lunch and told me how great it was here. And I'm like, well, that's nice because I drive by those buildings every day. So she made the introduction to the head of marketing at the time. And that's how I got my foot in the door all those all those years. And like I said, it's been a windy road. I, you know, quickly, after you know, being here and starting to work with advisors and learn the business, went off and worked with our asset management area for six years, came back into the marketing department and got more closely involved with private client group. And then I led our network for women financial advisors for a number of years, which was a great fun role to try to get more women into the industry. And then I was the sales manager for our employee channel. And then that kind of took us out of COVID. And then I went and I led our Tampa Bay market for four or five years here, leading our our 17 offices in the Tampa Bay area before coming back into the home office. So it's been a windy, windy journey.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah. And just the whole time though. I mean, it I mean, you've been with Raymond James, you've accumulated a ton of experience. And now, if I'm not mistaken, so now you essentially support the whole Raymond James advisors, 9,000-ish or so with advisor growth.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Correct. It's uh we do a lot of conference strategy. We're really getting, we're working closely with our IT partners on AI, you know, utilization and adoption. There's a lot that we kind of touch on, but generally the overall theme is how do we help them grow?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah. And that's what this series is all about. So excited that you're here and to learn from you.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Me too. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Digging a little bit more into your time in the Tampa Bay market, I'd I'd love to know just because you know, you have an interesting perspective because you've you've you've been in marketing your whole career, you've been with Raymond James, you've been supporting advisors, and you've also seen it from different lenses, I would, I would imagine. So when you were in the Tampa Bay market, tell us a little bit more about your day-to-day there, what you saw, and what lessons that you learned during that time.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Yeah, I think it's really interesting. You know, Raymond James is very advisor-centric and advisor-focused. And you learn that in the home office. Like we're very service-minded. The advisor always comes first. And a lot of the decision making here is really focused around advisor first. And and that's reinforced a lot. I'll I'll add that many of our leaders at the firm still own a book of business, including Tom James, right? They they all still have a business, right? And so we we've been, you know, when you come here, you're taught to look at things through that, through that, that lens, and which is which is great and it's wonderful. But I'll I'll tell you, it's different when you go into the field. Like that's when my eyes really opened to, you know, a variety of different things, but to name a few, to see firsthand the excitement and joy that an advisor gets when they land that big account, right, that they've been fighting so hard for. Or on the flip side, the disappointment that comes when perhaps they didn't win that account. I mean, you don't, you don't see that here at the home office very, very much. You know, some of the the client interactions of being able to help them plan for that retirement, help them be able to, you know, get that child off to college, you know, being able to do some of those things that are so rewarding and why many of them are actually in the business to begin with, it's it's fun to see. And then on the flip side, like to see the frustrations firsthand too, right? All the regulatory stuff that continues to come out and can bog them down and administrative stuff, the the barrage of emails that maybe come from the home office, right? From all of the different departments trying to fight for attention and and exposure, and you know, perhaps having to call the back office a couple of times because they, you know, are seeking an answer. Um, so you you see like all sides of it in a through a different lens. And so being able to come back into the home office and bring those experiences has been truly helpful as I think about how we we approach advisors

Advisor Centric Culture And Book Ownership

SPEAKER_01 10:20

going forward.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

I can imagine. I'd love to dig a little bit more deeper. And you you said advisor-centric. Now, I would imagine that a lot of companies, you know, might say something along those lines. You already mentioned one specific about, you know, people in leadership still have their own clients, which I can tell me a little bit more about that, why that's a policy and then anything else specific that really makes what you guys do advisor-centric.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Yeah, but it's not a policy, it's a choice. So you know the leaders, many of our leaders maybe started off as financial advisors and then transitioned into leadership and were able to carry their books with them. And and so it's a choice. You're not required to do it. I I don't have a book of business, but I I greatly appreciate those that do because again, it it provides they they use the tools, they use the resources, and so their perspective on things is, you know, it's real time. I I would say some of the other things that we do that make us truly advisor-centric is, you know, we grant ownership of the book to the advisor. So they are free agents, you know, they can leave at any time if they if they wanted to, and we let them leave unencumbered. We don't try to retain the clients here, we let them take them with them. And so what that does is I think about even my time and as the complex manager, the the market leader, it's I woke up every day thinking about how was I gonna add value so that advisors didn't want to leave, right? Because you you want to retain, you want to keep the advisors here. And so being able to clear roadblocks, clear obstacles out of their way, you know, bring them new ideas for growth was ways that I approached my my job. And it was more carrots than sticks, right? We don't really use sticks. It's, you know, there's no mandates to do a certain number of mortgages, there's no mandates to do SBLs. I mean, it's whatever the advisor feels feels is right for their business is what we encourage them to do. So those are just some examples of of how we really approach our views on on working with advisors.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And from my understanding, that's fairly rare in the industry, right? I mean, like a lot of it's more like captive and you can't leave. We're gonna go after you and your family.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

There's a lot of that. We see a lot of those advisors find their way here, yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah, yeah. And and I can imagine though, you know, I mean, it it sounds very it sounds very appealing. So I can see why an advisor would be like, that's fantastic. You know, from what you can share, or just whatever perspective you have, from a company standpoint. I mean, and maybe you said it, right? It's like now your job is to wake up every day and say, How can I how can I add more value? Because we want people that are here because they really want to be here, not because they feel stuck in any way. Okay, so in your role, you help advisors across all the channels at Raymond James. If you could start just by sharing a little bit about what those different channels are, how they're unique, how they're different,

Employee Versus Independent Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_00 13:02

et cetera.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Sure. So we call it advisor choice. So advisors can join us in a variety of different ways. So we have our employee channel, our W-2 channel, where advisors typically sit in a branch location all around, you know, we have them all over the country. And then we have our advisor select channel, which is sort of a hybrid between employee and independent. They're still W-2 employees, but they have more flexibility as it relates to their PL. They, you know, they have their own office space, they hire, fire on their own with some with HR guidance and support, of course. Then we have our true independent, our 1099 channel, where these are independent contractors who work all over the country as well in their own offices. And many of the lead advisors are the branch managers. And then we have our true RIA channel, right? We call it RCS, where it's they clear through Raymond James, you know, we custody the assets with them, but they're free to use others as well, like Schwab and Fidelity and anyone else that they choose. So it's just it's a spectrum. And if you join in our employee channel, you have the flexibility to move to any of the others and vice versa. If you join our independent channel, we've we've had some go back to the W-2 channel because they wanted the support of the branch versus, you know, doing it all themselves.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Aaron Powell Tell me a little bit more about that, because it's interesting, right? On the one level, it's like, oh, freedom, great. And then it's like sometimes, you know, a little bit too too much freedom is for some people, it's great. For me, I love it. For other people, it's like, huh, I need a little bit more structure. Any stories or examples about the kinds of people or who team who tends to gravitate towards one or just any patterns that you see?

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Aaron Powell Well, I I think you know there's a there's a nomenclature out there around independence, right? You know, independence means that you get a higher payout, you have more flexibility, et cetera. But I would say independence is really book ownership. And regardless of how you affiliate with us, you own your book of business. It just depends on how you want to do business. Um so for those that are in the W-2 channel, they don't want to have to worry about paying the electric bill and you know, hiring and the firing of staff and having to worry about what technologies they need. They just want to come in, flip on the lights, and go to work and not have to worry about it. And they're willing to give up some of their payout for that. Versus the independent, they they truly want to run a business. They want to own the real estate, they or rent the real estate, they want to, you know, forgive me for saying it, but it's not trying to be crude, but they plunge the toilets when they get backed up, right? Or they have cleaning services, but they have to do all of those things. And and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a different way of doing the business. And depending on how you run your business, it can be pretty lucrative. If you your expenses are low, your profits are higher. I would say that, you know, in down markets, which we haven't had a whole lot of in the last 15 years, those that model can get, you know, sometimes can be a little bit more stressed from the advisor's perspective because their expenses are fixed and they don't they don't go down versus those in the employee channel where the branch and the the firm becomes a little bit more pressured because we continue to maintain the payout. So it just depends. There's trade-offs to each. It just depends on the preference that the that the advisor has and and what they want their day-to-day to look like.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

I I would imagine it's a matter of, you know, do you just want to focus all your time on advising and being the best advisor you can be? Or do you want to maybe look more at a little bit of leadership? And I would imagine, you know, maybe having some junior advisors, things of that nature, a little bit more flexibility. Is that kind of how it breaks down?

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Pretty much. I mean, and there's still support for our independent channel, you know, here we have business services that they can tap into and and leverage so they don't have to go out and find all of the resources themselves. And so there's certainly, you know, we we make it easy for for the advisor, depending on which channel they want they want to be in.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Yeah. And you support advisors across all three stages from people just starting out to now they've been in the business, they're looking to grow. And then ultimately, how do you, you know, succession, selling their book of business? I mean, you you said, I mean, everyone keeps their book of business regardless of channels. So, you know, at some point you're gonna exit the business. And so succession, leaving it. Tell us about what's happening there, patterns, insights that you have when it comes to advisors looking to retire themselves.

Succession Planning Before It Is Urgent

SPEAKER_01 17:11

You know, I think it depends on on the advisor and the business that they're the biggest thing that we see is sometimes advisors come too late to talk about succession, right? So we would love to see them thinking about succession earlier in in their careers and their process. I think a lot of times they some of the things that have made them successful can also be the the hurdle that gets them stuck when it comes to succession, right? So they've been the center of attention, they've been the driver of all of the business, they are the relationship person and they've been at their whole career. And so maybe they haven't done a good job establishing a team or bringing along the next generation of advisor or establishing roles and responsibilities or or processes within their business that will make it easy for or easier for a transition to occur. And so the advisors that that take that time and invest that effort up front, we see the successions be significantly smoother as the time comes. There's a lot of questions that go into it. You know, do you want to just say bye? Peace out, I'm gone, and good luck. Do I want to stay on for a couple of years and help guide the transition? Do I want to, you know, stay on and only work with a couple of clients myself that I feel deeply passionate about? You know, so it there's there's a lot of variables that go into an actual, you know, the succession process and and planning process. So we try to get in front of it the best we can. Can't always do that, but you know, we we really try to educate advisors well in advance of the things that they should start to think about.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, you know, I I I find this question interesting because it's, you know, what do advisors primarily do? It's the you know, they help people plan for retirement, right? And so it's you know, sometimes we're good at giving advice, but not always good at, you know, taking advice. And this is, you know, it's just it's the same thing. So if you were sitting across an advisor right now and you were giving them, you know, your best wisdom about, you know, when you should start, why you should start, and move them not just from, yeah, that's a good idea, Michelle, thank you, but to actually take the next step. What advice would you give them to do so?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

You can need a horse of water, right? But you can't make them drink. I I I would say, and this literally just happened to one of the advisors here in Tampa Bay who I loved and adored. He was in his young 50s and he he unexpectedly passed away last week. And it's hit me pretty hard. Um we never know when that proverbial bus is coming. And at a bare minimum, advisors need to have a catastrophic plan in place. Should something happen to them, their beneficiaries aren't left in a lurch, right? So it's to your point, it's you we talk to clients about wills and estate planning. Advisors need to do that for their practices too, um, because it's an asset. And especially the way we view it, it's absolutely an asset and it has value. And being able to take care of your spouse and your children and and your clients too, it's it's important to have. And you, it it's almost like an obligation that you you have and a duty that you have to them to protect it. Now, for those that have that in place, again, it's it's getting in front of them early and sharing real life examples and making it easy for them to have the conversation and put the the paperwork in place. But if they don't know, if they're a solo advisor and and they've been doing this for 30 years and they don't have a junior and they're getting ready to retire in two years, it's it's a tough conversation, right? Because it takes time to bring on a junior and to introduce them and indoctrinate them into the business and you know, get your clients comfortable. So it's you know, no two situations are the same, but at the end of the day, we all pass away. There's no there's no getting around it. And so it's a given. It's a given. Was it death taxes and exactly all things you have to do? So we we just try to have the conversation as much as we can.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah.

From Advisor To CEO With A Team

SPEAKER_00 21:05

A couple themes under that. So, like you, I talk to advisors every day, and I I love to see patterns. So in in in the visor I work with, they're all generally very successful. And one of the patterns I see, especially as I think most advisors start out as an advisor, right? They they get in the business to be an advisor, and over time, some just love being an advisor and that's all they want to do. And then other times they take on more of that role of I call this the CEO role, if you will. And some, you know, oftentimes, or in between that, so in between being an advisor and being a CEO, there's something that I'm gonna call no man's land. It's just you're kind of trying to maneuver through it, but it's not quite, you know, I got an enterprise or I see clients. And so it's, you know, one of the phrases I've I've heard countless advisors say is that, you know, there's never a book about how to be the CEO of your business. And so I think, you know, there's just a huge no man's land for many advisors about how you navigate that. And along the way, there's frustrations like there is in life, right? It's like, hey, I I got a junior advisor and maybe they didn't work out, maybe they left, maybe they did this. And so, you know, and some people work through it, and others kind of bump their head against that wall and they're like, ah, I don't want to deal with this, right? I don't want to manage people, et cetera. So just kind of that with a broader sub-theme, getting an advisor who wants to go from advisor to CEO of their own firm. Any war stories you can share, or any insights or patterns that you see in helping people get through no man's land?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting you call it no man's land. I, you know, one of the beauties of at least having a book of business here is there's no two CEOs alike. Every CEO is different, they all run their businesses differently. And I think it's our job to be able to help help them navigate no man's land. And so I think, you know, a lot of times people who make the transition from advisor to CEO, they they think the CEO has to do everything. I have to do the admin, I have to do the advising, I have to do the investment management, I have to do all of these things. And instead it's But it's taking a step back and saying, what am I really good at? And what are the things I'm not good at? And how can I continue to do the things that I'm good at while getting the support needed for the other things, right? And and I think that's where good leadership comes in. It's being able to identify where I need to back away and let people who are experts take these things with my vision and my guidance and my, you know, oversight, potentially, but letting them run with it and then staying true to what I do best. And that's what we've seen successful. It's the people who, you know, are willing to change and willing to adapt and willing to ask the questions and willing to take the advice that have a much easier time making that transition through no man's land.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah. An advisor that we both know. He actually introduced us, John Pivelka. He, very successful advisor. He I'd say that he's mastered more on the enterprise level. So he's been doing this for a while. He's, you know, he my understanding is that he doesn't himself see clients one-on-one. He's built out the team. His job is now really around a select few things that he does really well that really grow the firm at scale. I think, I think it comes down to supporting the team, leadership, acquisitions, things of that. And and to Raymond James' credit, you know, he was with another firm and he decided to make his way over to Raymond James for likely a lot of the reasons that you already shared with us. And so he's a great example of that CEO that you know knows what he's good at and wants to get out of the way of the activities that he's not good at that he doesn't himself bring the most value to. You know, I'm gonna respect people's privacy. I mean, John happens to be a client of mine, so I know a bit of his story. Um, but just I don't know, any specific clients, you don't need to disclose names and you know, if if it's private, but just any other people that you've seen make make that journey through no man's land and come out the other side, or maybe someone who's like, hey, I like being an advisor. You know, life is good. I I want more maybe that lifestyle practice, and you know, I get my time. I I I have a great lifestyle, I go have great income.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on again the the

Client Advisory Boards That Create Demand

SPEAKER_01 25:02

the business. I've seen a couple of things. I think one of the success stories that I've I've seen is of an advisor team who was kind of doing it themselves and plugging along and telling their clients the way things were. And and I think they took a step back at one point and they said, you know what, clients should be telling us what we're doing right and what they want out of this relationship. And so they actually created this really great advisory board. So it's it's about, I think it's about 16 people. It's two-thirds clients, existing clients, and one one-third centers of influence that they have relationships with, right? And so they bring these people, it operates like a board. They bring them together three times a year, they do a dinner, they'll give a market and practice update, but then they then they take something to them that they want their their guidance on. And the example I like to give is they they were in the process of rebranding their themselves. And so they brought all the marketing concepts with them. And they said, what looks like us, what sounds like us, what feels like us. And they took the feedback from the clients and and implemented their their feedback into what is now their marketing brand. And so with each of these meetings, they'll bring something to them to get their their, it's a feedback loop, right? And because there's something that you, an advisor, could be doing that they think is wonderful. And their clients are like, I mean, take it or leave it, right? Or there might be something that they're thinking about stopping doing, and then the clients are like, please don't. Like that's that's partly why we love and we're with you, right? So having that feedback loop, I think is really helpful and and intentional. And by the way, that drives significant referrals too, right? Because the the the clients love being on this advisory board. And so they talk about it with others and oh well, my advisor doesn't do that, and well, let me make an introduction. And so it's it's turned into a pretty significant revenue flow for them, too.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Yeah. How common is that for people to execute?

SPEAKER_01 26:52

To be honest, I'm not really sure how common it is, but I can tell you it's gonna be super easy to do.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Somebody asked that question, so can't think of the word, but but the bit essentially the advisory board, so concept. So I'm I'm familiar with this. I became acquainted with the concept. I I helped a person, his name's Dr. John Randall. He was actually an earlier guest on the series, and he's a coach and consultant for advisors. And in the book that I helped him write, he talked about that concept, right? He's like essentially have the advisory board. And so, you know, I'm I'm the kind of person that sees a good idea. Hey, I'm gonna run with it myself. And as a direct result, I did my own version of it where I now have I called a mastermind group, but it's kind of the same thing. And in my case, I invite all my clients to a monthly one-hour Zoom call, which is really the most fun call that I have all month.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Because it's, you know, I mean, I mean, in terms of cost, it's cost me nothing. Hour my time. I actually enjoy it. It's it's a fantastic feedback loop because I am not as client-facing anymore, but this, you know, helps me understand the issues because it's really centered around them and a pure exchange, et cetera. And it's probably one of the best things that I've done for my business. And it's interesting though, because you know, I like to do things and then recommend and suggest things to others. And this is one of those things I'm like, hey, you know, why isn't everyone doing this? Why doesn't everyone have an advisory board? Why doesn't everyone do this? And then it's like, uh, well, I'm busy, or what would I talk about, or what would home office say, or, you know, all kinds of excuses come out of the woodwork for this. And so, I mean, I think it's a fantastic idea. I mean, just anything else you can share about it, just in terms of it's actually really good for referrals, it's really good for feedback, and it doesn't actually take all this time, effort, and resources that you might be imagining.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

And it helps you deepen the relationships with your clients, your best clients, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:31

And it helps just to underscore that. The people that attend this, well, guess what? They happen to be the people that are the best referrers, that give me the best feedback, that are, you know, are the most invested in everything that I do.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah, exactly. And and and even if they weren't, being part of a feedback loop like that will make them that way, right? It it engages them at different levels.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

That's 100% correct. That's 100% correct. That was the missing thing for me because we didn't have that mechanism. And so I felt like I didn't have that closeness, especially as I became less client-facing. And what it did is that it created that community and that sense of closeness that absent I would not feel like I have today. It's it's been hugely impactful.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yeah, yeah, 100%. And, you know, I think there's a Cerule study out there that says that, you know, clients who are more likely to refer you, they're not going to refer you because of your investment performance. Investment performance is table stakes anymore, right? I can look at a room full of advisors, I can go to any one of them, and I can get similar investment performance. The clients, according to this report, and I believe it, are the ones that are more likely to refer you, are the ones who you, the advisor, have built not just a relationship with, but a significant and meaningful relationship with, right? And those are the ones where that wow factor has been created. And you you said something earlier about maybe they don't do it because they don't have the time. And I don't think in a today's day and age, we're all busy, but now that AI has come along, it's real hard to say you don't have time, right? Because AI can make things so much more efficient. And it can pop out ideas to you in 30 seconds, 10 seconds, five seconds, right? That may have you you may have had a two-hour think tank meeting on before, right? So it's anyway, I think that report is is super interesting as it relates to to why clients refer and how and how they can stay engaged.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

Yeah. Are you finding just in terms of setup? I'm I'm curious myself. In my case, my clients are spread all over the country. And so for me, Zoom is just my, you know, doing it online is just my natural preference, but also just, you know, it makes more sense. Whereas I would imagine a lot of people who, especially that they work locally, they are probably more prone to do it at a dinner or event or something where people meet in person. Do you have any insight in terms of what works better? Does it matter? Do you see anyone doing it on Zoom or some sort of platform like that versus in person?

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Well, I mean, we all live through COVID, right? So I think that used to the virtual world and and dynamic. And I and I think it's super easy to do that way. I think you do sacrifice a little bit of that personal connection and that, you know, community a little bit, particularly for bringing people together from all over the country that there's something about being at dinner, right? And sharing a glass of wine and being able to have conversation while you're waiting for the programming to start that you can't replicate on on Zoom. But if you had doesn't mean you couldn't do many, many versions of these. So if you're, you know, you have seven or eight clients in Arizona, right? Being able to pull them together for a coffee and just do mini sessions and feedback loops as another as an alternative.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah, I'll share just what I did as an example is that you know, I've opted to do it monthly, which I think is great. There's a frequency there. The people that are invested, they attend, they've they've become much more invested in what we do and and how we can help them, et cetera. They become better clients, better referral partners, better introducers, et cetera. And into your point, though, it's like, you know, it's like, okay, you know, meeting online misses something, right? And so just a few months ago, I had the opportunity to go to an event in Denver, and I knew that a large number of my clients would be there, right? So the first thing I did is I I put together a happy hour that and I invited them all to it. And this was probably my first time to meet many of them in person. And it was fantastic, right? So the actual happy hour was, you know, it was two hours. It was, you know, it wasn't even business, it was just come socialize, have fun. And it was probably this, it was the highlight of of my trip there, because to your point, you know, you got to meet people in person. And so I guess what I guess what I'm just kind of thinking through right now is that it could it doesn't necessarily have to be a either or, it can be a both and. I think both formats have their place.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yeah.

Wow Moments Plus AI Capacity

SPEAKER_01 32:33

In addition to that, you know, bringing them together, there's there's research to suggest that that clients like community, right? They want to meet other like-minded people. And so ways in which that you can pull those people together to to do that is is great. The other thing that I talk a lot, I just got done with this like speaking circuit where I've spent a lot of time sharing ideas and best practices. One of them is that creating those wow moments, right? Doing something above and beyond that they're not going to get somewhere else. One of the examples I give is there's an advisor who has like a really strong passion for wine and bourbon. And he all of his clients know that he has this passion for wine and bourbon. And he, you know, tends to gravitate, you know, clients. You either like one or the other, maybe both. But what he does that's really unique is he will send on on milestone birthdays, you know, the big birthdays for his clients, he'll send them a bottle of wine from the year they were born, right? Okay. And so he most recently just sent somebody a bottle of wine from 1939. And imagine, right, from a you know, a wow moment, you get this bottle of wine and you're like, this is incredible. But then you take it a step further, you break open the bottle of wine with your friends that you invite over for dinner, and they're like, Where'd you get this wine? Well, let me tell you about my advisor who sent this wine to me. And as well, well, my advisor doesn't do that, right? And so it starts this whole process. So I I underscore the importance of those wow moments. And listen, a bottle of wine from 1939 can be expensive, particularly if you have a lot of older clients. But there's other things that you can do to recognize those milestones.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

Yeah, no, definitely. I also want to underscore just the idea of community because I think, you know, in this AI world that we're living in, and to your good point, you know, you know, time should not be an excuse because AI can do increasingly more and more of the things that used to take time, it can do it for us, or it can help it can help make it take less of our time. But what people I think are starved for is community, connection, right? And I think that's gonna only become even more so as we go forward. To me, and this is my own business, I believe that simply creating opportunities for community and connection is gonna be one of the big reasons that people choose to work, work with me or stay with me and continue with me is you know, they can get the underlying service. I mean, you mentioned it, you know, performance, right? I mean, okay, there's you know 12 different options there. People don't choose for that, but they do choose for these things that are, I think, experiential and that are meaningful. And I think they stay for them too, right? I I think I think maybe they don't come in thinking I want experience and community, but I think that's what actually keeps people long-term much more invested in you and referrals, all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

I totally agree. And I, you know, AI, I hate I hate the term saves time because we only have 24 hours in a day, regardless. So you repurpose the time that, you know, you may have needed to do something else that now you have availability to do something to focus on, right? And so while AI will help you streamline your processes and will help you find efficiencies in your practice, and you can train it to think like you, and you can train it to to act like you, it's not gonna replace you. There is no replacement for you, the human being, and the connectivity that your clients are seeking when they're looking for an advisor. And so that's the, you know, there's a lot of businesses and industries that perhaps AI will will take over. I don't see this as being one of them because it's such a people business. So to that point, if you can find those efficiencies to give you more capacity back in your day, how are you gonna use that capacity to deepen the relationships and create that community and build on those relationships that you have so that they don't get go somewhere else and get it where you know they might not expect it or think that they need it, but when they see others getting it and they're not, they're gonna go seek it.

Niches Events And What Prospects Want

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Exactly. I want to broaden this out to growth. And so we talked a little bit about succession, but growth, I think this is one of those things in terms of keeping existing clients with you. What about attracting new clients? Right. So one of the key things that you do is existing advisors and growth. And what are you finding that today is effective?

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Yeah, you know, I think referrals are really a byproduct of trust, right? And I'm not gonna refer somebody to you if I don't trust you and think you're gonna do a a good, a good job. Um, I'm just not. So, and I think reframing the question that advisor asks, how do I get more referrals? I think the question should be how do I become more valuable to my existing clients to make them want to talk about me with other people, right? And and I think some of those wow moments are definitely in that realm of things that advisors should be thinking about doing. But it's it's really understanding what's going on in their life, right? You know, I I told you my son passed away two years ago. And like somebody's life can change in a blink of an eye. And how are you plugged into those changes that can happen instantly and be there and be a resource and be a trusted partner when that happens? And likewise the things that you can plan for, right? You know when somebody's gonna retire. You likely know if somebody's gonna be selling their business. You know, you likely know when they have a child going off to college or getting married or something like that. So, how can you help them plan for that so that it eases the anxiety and the burden off of them from, you know, having to think through all of the things that they might not be? One example that I like to talk about that I think is hands down my favorite, is how an advisor builds a relationship with the oldest daughter of a client. There's a lot of research out there that suggests that the oldest daughter is going to be the one that makes the decisions when the parents are no longer able to make the decisions. And point in case, my father passed away 11 years ago, and I was with my mom when she made all those phone calls the next morning, including the one to her financial advisor. And I remember sitting there thinking and listening to her conversation, like, I have no idea who this man is. This man has never once reached out to me. And it caused me to look further into her, you know, situation or financial situation. And she's no longer with that advisor. She's now with an advisor team that I know and that I trust and to have her best interests at heart. And so I say that because I think as you think about referrals, right? It's the next generation is is gonna help drive those. And so building that relationship with the oldest daughter is gonna be important because they're gonna be talking to all of their friends who have older parents who are, you know, and it's gonna, well, my advisor, my parents' advisor does this, and then they likely become clients as well if they like the if they like the advisor. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Yeah, no, it makes perfect sense. I mean, I heard this recently. It's not just no, like, and trust, but people like people that actually like them, right? If they've, you know, if you actually demonstrate that you like a person, they're more likely to know like and trust you, right? And so in in this case, I think I think it's probably a very common pattern. They had a relationship with, say, the parent or whomever, and now it's essentially transferring. And if and if it's cold, then the person's not invested in the continuity of that relationship. And so it seems like if you actually thought that through and had a plan, it wouldn't be that difficult to create that no like and trust in advance. I mean, do you have any suggestions in terms of how to do that?

SPEAKER_01 39:45

Yeah, I have a couple. So, you know, getting your hooks in them early, right? So there's one advisor that, you know, when the adult child or grandchild graduates college and they get their first job, she will take them to lunch or she'll have a meeting with them and she'll talk to them about the importance of, you know, their 401k. She'll, you know, help them review their fund options. And then when they, you know, they'll she'll open up an IRA for them. Or when they have children, she'll bring them in and open up a 529. And she doesn't really charge anything for this because she's viewing it as a pure retentive strategy, right? I'm adding this value, I'm helping them along the way because I know at some point in the future these assets are going to transfer and they're more likely to stay with me as a result of that. Now, it cut it takes time, it takes work. It's, you know, there's a there's a time commitment and investment there that has to be made. But if it's for your top clients and their children and grandchildren, there's a long-term play there and it adds value to your existing client relationship because they're like, you're never gonna believe what my advisor did for my granddaughter, right? And it it creates conversation. That's one. The other one is there's an advisor who who it's probably one of my most favorite ideas. He did a Mother's Day event. You know, it was a couple weeks before Mother's Day, and he invited his top women clients to this Mother's Day tea. And but then what he did is he invited all of the adult daughters, right? Their eldest daughter to come. Take it a step further. He called all of the clients and he said, I'm so excited you're coming. As a surprise to your daughter, would you be willing when we go around the room to stand up and say something that you're proud of for her? Well, of course, like what mom wouldn't want to do that, right? But then he called all of the adult daughters and he said, Either I'm really looking forward to seeing you again, or I'm really looking forward to meeting you. Thank you for coming to this tea. I know it means a lot to your mom. As a surprise to your mom, when we go around the room, would you be willing to stand up and say something that your mom has done that's been really impactful in your life? Okay. You talk about a moment that you've now just created between a mother and a daughter in front of a whole bunch of other people, and you've really gone a long way to solidify that relationship with that eldest daughter. So, I mean, those are just two examples of things that you that advisors can can think about and can be, you know, thinking through ways in which they can they can do that and and attack it, but they're pretty creative and have had great success so far for those folks.

SPEAKER_00 42:07

Those are fantastic ideas. I mean, it I mean, on the one level, it seems simple in a good way. And on the other hand, it's like, why doesn't everyone do that? It's it seems so, you know, once you've heard that, it's like you can't unhear that and you see the power of it. So I I guess the question I have is maybe from your role in in sharing best practices, ideas through the people that who who you support, how do you help, or how does Raymond James help make sure that you translate good ideas into good action that people actually follow through and do? And so it's not just left as a good idea, but they're actually embedding this in terms of how they operate.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Yeah. Uh, I mean, again, you can lead a horse to water. So we can provide the ideas, we can provide the structure around the ideas. But at the end of the day, they're gonna have to decide if it's what they want to do and they wanna be able to invest the time to do it. Now, again, AI can be super helpful, right? Right? You can have a conversation with AI and say, I have these 20 top women clients that that look like X, Y, and Z. I want to host an event with their like ask AI for ideas, right? If it, you know, you might not be able to pull off a Mother's Day tea. Another one I'll share that I love too is an advisor recognized that her widowed clients got really sad around Valentine's Day. If you have a significant other, it might not be Valentine's Day. It's, you know, it's a Hallmark holiday, but right, but it's hard if you don't or you've lost somebody you love to go into a store and not see like red and pink everywhere and to see the flowers and the joy commercials and the can't and all those things, right? So she actually started hosting an event for her widowed clients where she brought them together to do a fun trivia contest and just the community that we talked about. But then it grew. The next year it was like, hey, my friend Susie lost her husband. Can I bring her to your event? She'd really enjoy it. Well, of course, bring her, right? And now the event has grown to the point where she's done other things where she's, you know, brought in a jewelry estate. Appraiser to one of them. She brought in a ballroom dancing instructor to another one, right? But the point is that she's created this community of these widows that has grown and become a strong referral source for her. And so I just encourage advisors to think about that too, right? You don't need to create a Valentine's Day event. But if you you know who your widowed clients are, call them on Valentine's Day. Send them a card on Valentine's Day. Send them flowers, send them, do something to recognize that, right? So we can give advisors those ideas all day long. But they're going to have to pull their list of clients and they're going to have to sign the card or make the phone call. And many of them do it because to your point, it just seems so simple. And it's it's an easy way to create a touch point, to build the relationship, and to show that you care.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

So I think those are great strategies geared primarily towards giving value to your existing clients with the goal of getting more referrals. What about strategies beyond referrals? What about, I mean, for example, dinner seminars or educational workshops, you know, is been one of the tried and true ones that advisors do and have done for a while. But just kind of from that broad view that you have in terms of supporting 9,000-ish advisors, whether it's dinner seminars, educational things, or what else is there that you can do to bring out essentially strangers and move them more seamlessly into wanting to become clients with you.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah. I mean, I think advisors really have to think about what are they most comfortable talking about and what do people want to hear about, right? So what if I think about what am I good at? Who is my who is my target audience? Is it business owners? If it's business owners, then the people that I invite to the webinar should be business owners. The topic should be business owner focused. It should be focused on the challenges they face so that I can demonstrate that I understand those, right? If it's, you know, high net worth families, right? Family practice type. I'm only inviting those people. They're probably not webinar people, but you know, but I'm only inviting those people. I'm going to be talking about the challenges they face and I'm going to demonstrate that I understand how to deal with those things. And so oftentimes I see advisors do webinars and they bring in a partner who talks about the market. And, you know, it's the same thing. And the people come for the hors d'oeuvres and the wine. And that's that's why we're there. Right. So it's really identifying and honing in on what it is that you want people to leave with to really make sure they understand that you get them, that you are the person because you understand. And then there's an example, there's a an advisor who he he works a lot with UPS, you know, retirees. And you go to his website and sure he caters to other people too, but there's an entire section on his website that literally says UPS and FedEx, I think, too. Like he speaks their language in each one of those sections. So he demonstrates before he's, you know, even met the people that he gets them, right? So if he invited a group of UPS people to set a webinar, he can point to his website. They're going to go there because that's what people do and they're going to see, oh yeah, yeah, this guy gets me. I really wonder I'm going to retire here in two years. Let me go see what he has to say. So I think it's really important if you're going to do a webinar and you're going to be bringing people together, you know, make sure it's intentional.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

And and I would add to that, because because this is one of my favorite topics, that's intentional, but it's also specific, right? So one thing I don't know if it's controversial or not, but whenever I hear a market commentary, as a person who has an advisor, if they ever invited me to do a market commentary, personally I would say no and I would fall asleep if I want. And I have zero interest in going to that. I can ask AI, you know, if I want, you know, how's the market doing? I don't I don't need to attend an event for that. But if I was part of, you know, UPS or FedEx or whatever the community is, well, now I'm curious. Now I'm interested. Now I know it's more relevant to me. Now I know that there's people around me that I might actually enjoy talking to. I think I think often at you know many events. I mean, you know, I'm sure we both go to many um in-person events, and oftentimes what you hear is that, you know, as much as I enjoyed the you know, speakers and this, that, and the other, where people oftentimes get real value is the people that they are, you know, their peers, right? They have a chance to talk to their peers about similar things and just in that environment. And and so, and so I love it when someone can identify a profession. And then the pushback I get a little bit is well, I don't work with a specific profession, right? And so for someone that says that, how would you guide them to become more specific and and essentially more relatable? I think ultimately is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Yeah, I mean, if you're a retiree walking into my office, I'm gonna talk to you very differently than if you're a 35-year-old that's just, you know, starting out your career, right? You're you talk to people differently based on what their needs are and based on where they are and their life cycle, right? And so approaching webinars or approaching your marketing should be the exact same way, and in my opinion, right? So you can be all things to all people, but you'll be a master of none, right? And and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it's gonna, it will become a more fragmented business, potentially. It might be more potential to monetize it in the future, right? Because bringing in somebody behind you to try to understand and become a master of none versus, you know, um, somebody who specialized in something, it could, it could create some challenges in the future. But I think everybody naturally gravitates towards a particular segment or not, right? Or or a couple of different segments. And you you have the people that you enjoy talking to most. Who are they? Are they are they older? Are they younger? Are they business owners? Are they retirees? Like what do you enjoy? Who do you enjoy talking to most? And then start thinking about, okay, well, can I who are those people currently in my book? What percent of my book does that represent? And you might find yourself that you've really naturally already have some of your niches defined. You just might not have looked at it that way.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Yeah. And and I would add to that, it doesn't have to be profession. I mean, I think it's totally awesome when it when it can be, because it just becomes from a targeting perspective, it becomes easier. I mean, whether it's broad, you know, I I work with technology employees or or executives as an example, or specific companies can always be fun. It can also be like owning a problem, right? I mean, to your point, you know, different ages have different periods in their life. To me, I think increasingly it's putting a stake in the ground, especially online. I mean, especially as increasingly the center of influence that you really want to influence is AI, right? You want AI to send you the referral. You know, before before it was Google, it still is Google to some degree, but increasingly, I would call the ultimate center of influence is AI. And it's, you know, I'm talking to many clients, myself included, and I'm finding people show up on my calendar and always ask the question in my calendar, it's like, where'd you hear about this? I got one today, Chat GPT. Okay, that's interesting. And I think this is becoming more commonplace, but in order to make that happen, you have to be specific, you have to own a problem, you have to be associated with a problem, you have to do have content that talks about a problem. And so I would argue that increasingly becoming more specialized, at least in terms of your marketing, is even more important today than it was before. Because, you know, simply saying, I'm a CFP, we offer comprehensive wealth management, you know, we put our clients first, you know, there's 40,000 other firms that say the same some version of the same thing. There's 100,000 plus other CFPs that say it. And to the marketplace, it's like, you know, you know, and unless unless they do what you what you suggested, and you know, the daughter, you build a relationship with the daughter in advance. Now there's a personal relationship. So now they can say, Oh no, this person's different. I like them, they like me. We want to go forward, versus looking at the phone book and saying, well, who do I choose? I think in my mind it's becoming increasingly more important for at least your marketing to position yourself in such a way that not only the right people can find you, but AI can increasingly find and recommend you.

Digital Presence That Builds Trust

SPEAKER_00 51:50

Do you have any thoughts on that when it comes to I could not agree more with you?

SPEAKER_01 51:54

I I feel like gone are the days where somebody referred me to you and I just pick up the phone and call and make an appointment, right? I'm gonna Google you and now I'm gonna, you know, use AI to find you too. And so that digital presence is super important as you know, from a consistency of messaging standpoint, because familiarity, familiarity, whether I've actually ever met you or not, builds trust, right? So I think about the people that I follow on social media that continue to come up on my feed. I'm familiar with them. And so I think if I ever met them in person, the conversation would be really different than if I had never met them before and, you know, or you know, had never seen them before meeting them. So I think that's really, really important. But I also think advisors need to think about the connected journey, is how I'd like to refer to it, right? So you've built this presence online and that's just the f that's getting to know you, right? Now when I go and I Google you or I go to your LinkedIn profile or I go to your website, it needs to be consistent, right? It needs to, the things that you're putting out there in your podcast or your webinars or whatever you're doing needs to be consistent with what I see in your digital presence, right? But then I I'll take it a step further and say, okay, now I'm good. Now I understand Yuki meet my need. Now I'm gonna pick up the phone and I'm gonna make the phone call to make the appointment. That person on the other end of the phone needs to extend that experience for me, right? So making that all a very connected experience for me is just gonna continue to reinforce and build that trust going forward. So we can't lose the the digital stuff is so important, but that in person, going back to what we were talking about earlier, is equally as important.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

So I want to I want to go uh deeper into these categories. These are some of my my favorite. So I think for advisors generally, they they see themselves more as salespeople, less as marketers. And so when you talk in terms of technical marketing things, like you need to do more posting on, you know, social posting, you need to do SEO, you need to do this, that, and the other, it's it doesn't really connect because it's it's like someone trying to tell me the difference between large cap stocks and something else is like, you know, these are words, I get them, I don't really care. It doesn't really connect to my daily life. And so, you know, if we agree that establishing consistent, visible, congruent presence online, so that when someone does get the referral or find you somewhere else and they do what we all do and they Google or attach PTU, that you have that consistency, what are some of those basics and maybe more advanced things that you would recommend to an advisor and really from their point of view, right? And so, you know, you and I are, you know, marketers, you know, and we can talk about probably you can probably geek out on some of the technical things, but from their point of view, it's like, you know, what are some of those things that they should be considering that they don't just see as, yeah, my assistant does that, or you know, it's I don't see the value in it.

SPEAKER_01 54:40

Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a tough one. I I think at a bare minimum, everybody should have a LinkedIn profile, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:46

That's LinkedIn and and why if if you can explain why.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah. So, you know, LinkedIn is probably one of the best when it comes to search engine optimization. And they have the algorithms down pat. So when when somebody types in your name, typically LinkedIn is one of the first things that comes up when somebody is searching for you. So for me, that should be if you have nothing else, that should be what it is. A website would be, you know, the second sort of table stakes kind of of thing that I would expect an advisor to have. And you'd be surprised, by the way, at how many don't have either one of those things. It's really interesting to me.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

In 2026.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Yep. So, like sometimes, you know, we'll interview other adva advisors from other firms when they come here and they're kicking the tires with us as well. And anytime I go into one of those meetings, I always try to Google them ahead of time just to understand a little bit about them before I go into the meeting. And there's a lot of times I can't find anything on them.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

It's really and and and just to expand on that, what does that tell you? I mean, just in your daily life when you're choosing a service professional, if you can't find anything about them, what's happening right now as a potential consumer for that service?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Then I go and look at what firm they're with, because sometimes some of the firms don't allow them to do that, right? Because it's a form it's a form of marketing, and so that can weigh in. Their age may have a play a factor into it. Their team, their younger team members might be on there. I mean, there's a lot of uh variables that go into it, but it still continues to to be surprising to me. But in my opinion, those are the two things that should be bare minimum that advisors need to have. Now, not everybody's good at marketing, I get it. You know, that can be one of those things is you know, your earlier comments of going from advisor to CEO and sort of that no man's land. What are you good at? If marketing's not something that you're good at, you should be thinking about as a CEO, what does my team look like? And do I need to have a role on my team of somebody who is good at it so that they can help me, you know, build my profile, build the visibility of the firm going forward. And so those are the conversations we have with with folks. I was at a conference not too long ago, and an advisor literally bent my ear for 20 minutes about a radio show that he's doing. And he's really excited about the radio show. But when I started asking questions, like, well, who's the audience of the radio show? Oh, I don't know. I listen to it all the time. Okay, well, you might want to know where the audience is. So that, you know, are you are is your messaging that you're delivering good? Is it, is it on point? Is it gonna hit the right targets, et cetera? So there's so much that goes into it. And I'm not sure if I answered your question or not. I kind of want to find up.

SPEAKER_00 57:14

Well, what's fascinating to me about the radio one? Because I I see this in the clients that I work with. And I think the reason that maybe a lot of advisors are attracted to that is because they're talkers. I mean, not everyone, obviously, but you know, a salesperson, a talker, you know, this gives them some sort of emotional satisfaction. I got to talk about the things that I love, you know. And so there's a payoff. But then to your good point, it's like, well, you know, who's actually watching it and is it the right people, and et cetera, et cetera. And so it, you know, I always like to look at the world through incentives and, you know, structures and, you know, why people do what they do. And so I think there's a lot of psychology surrounding it.

Social Content People Actually Share

SPEAKER_01 57:47

Yeah, there is. There's an advisor that we have that I I think is probably one of the best at social media. And he's just terribly consistent with it. He does a wonderful, great, you know, great job of promoting his team. And what I what I love is he has his own office and he got a puppy and he lives in Nashville. The dog's name is Jolene. And so I have followed Jolene on social media since she was a puppy, right? And he's always posting about her and showing her sleeping in the office and doing all these fun things. And now, you know, to to extend it, going back to that, you know, the connectivity of it all, if you go to his website under his About Us, Jolene's picture is there and she's the director of stress management. And but what he's done even to take it even a step further is he's actually now just written a children's book and he's called it Jolene and the three buckets, right? So he's he he takes the things that he does on social media that's really, you know, obviously I'm talking about it. Others are talking about it because it's it's it's so fun. And he's extended it now into you know, financial literacy and being able to help his clients talk to their children and grandchildren about financial, you know, success going forward.

SPEAKER_00 58:54

I want to follow Jolene.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

I know. And so to that point, like, you know, what advisors post on social media doesn't need to be all about what the stock market did today. In fact, commentary. I I would argue the more you get away from that, the more powerful your social media will be.

SPEAKER_00 59:11

One of the ways I like to reframe content, because again, just going back to what we're talking about, is like if you hear content, it's like, eh, you know, I'm not a marketer, or it's like, yeah, you know, I got, you know, I post some stuff, or my assistant does, and they don't, and people don't necessarily value it because they don't see the they don't see the return. I think about it more as how do you become referable, right? And and there's and there's different ways to look at this. So there's how do you become more referable to your client base? How do you make it easier for your clients to refer you? How do you become more referable to a center of influence? So maybe whether it's a CPA or attorney or someone else that's a center of influence that could refer you. And then the ultimate one, which is I call it the ultimate center of influence, is how do you become more referable to AI, you know, and that literally is your digital presence. And so if you reframe it in terms of how do you become more referable, now I think it's from a lens that people, you know, their ears pick up and be like, okay, that's that's more meaningful to me now in in terms of why I should be doing some things. And so open any question. We've talked about some of this already. I have ideas. I mean, so and I'll just see them right here, but you know, books, podcasts, media, things of that nature, how do you become more referable from whichever segment, whether it's clients, COIs, or ultimately the Google and ChatGPT, et cetera?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:26

You know, who's your audience is what I keep going back to, right? If if your audience is 70 plus, are they gonna be listening to podcasts? Are they gonna be really maybe they're on Facebook, but are they gonna be on YouTube? Are they gonna be, you know, on some of the other areas? Probably not. Their children will be, you know, my generation will be. Generation behind me, probably not on Facebook. They might be on Instagram, they might be on TikTok, are they they they they might be listening to podcasts. I mean, it just it it's who is the audience and what are you trying to communicate to the audience? And I think that is what, in my opinion, should drive what mediums you use to execute on it. You know, business owners most likely are listening to podcasts, right? They're listening to what other CEOs are doing, they're listening to what businesses are doing that are successful, probably a great place. Younger generation doing a financial literacy YouTube video on things that they should be thinking about as they are, you know, moving into the uh the sandwich generation, right? My generation as it relates to taking care of elderly parents who are maybe starting to have some mental, you know, difficulties versus in raising children at the same time, right? That sandwich generation, I'm probably gonna follow that and listen to and help me guide and navigate. So I think it all comes back to what is the content, what's your expertise, and who is it that you're trying to reach. And then the mediums will follow. And then once you do that, then it it and it's a domino effect in in my mind. I'll be able to find you. AI is gonna pick you up really fast. What's gonna be interesting with AI, just as a total sidebar, is you know, you've got paid search with Google. It's not gonna be long before the same thing happens with AI. And oh, it's already there.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Chesapeake already has its ad ad system going.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:05

Yep. You know, LinkedIn, for example, we talked about SEO with that, trumps a lot of the sponsored stuff. It'll be curious to see what what emerges as the leader in the AI space, or is it all going to be sponsored?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:18

I would agree to an extent that I mean, I totally agree with like pick the platforms that your target audience is on 100%. I would expand that to just the importance of if you want to be referrable, that you need to have some sort of specificity in the marketplace. So I so I think of you know, owning a problem. You know, if you own the problem, then you also can own the solution, and it's much more easier to identify you when that problem comes up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

Yeah, I agree, but I think it all comes, referrals all come back to what we talked about earlier, and that's trust, right? And and familiarity, at least initially, can be built in the digital space, in the digital world. But at the end of the day, like I'm not gonna refer you. I may say, hey, listen, go listen to this great podcast that I that I heard, or go read this book that this person wrote. Definitely, I'll do that all day long. But when it comes to like, I'm not gonna refer you to my advisor unless I have that trust with that person. And and I just think that that's all going back to the connectivity between the whole journey that somebody experiences with an advisor.

Final Takeaways And How To Connect

SPEAKER_00 1:03:24

So this has been great. I really have enjoyed the conversation and getting your insights into these different topics that we both have a passion for, which is advisor growth and seeing it from the different perspectives and lanes and just, you know, really your macro view of what's going on in the market. I definitely took some notes and good ideas about ways to do it. I love the one about building the relationship with the oldest daughter or oldest sibling or a child, because I can see the power in it and how effective that would be. Is there any question that I haven't asked you that you think would be valuable for our listeners to know about the work that you do, about Raymond James, et cetera?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

We are we are really focused on helping advisors, you know, really grow their businesses the way they want to, right? It's there's nothing directive. It's all a conversation, it's all coaching, it's all consulting, it's really diving in deep to better understand what their challenges are and what are the tools, resources, and support that the firm has to be able to help them accomplish those. You know, I really spend a lot of time encouraging advisors, particularly the ones that have been in this business for a really long time, who have been through various market cycles. And because we've been in such a bull market for so long, there may not have been as many reasons or opportunities to reach out to clients when you're only talking about the market, right? So, really encouraging advisors to build those meaningful relationships with clients when the market isn't driving the conversation. And there's lots of ways to do that. And, you know, I I feel like that is the is one of the keys and driving growth, driving referrals, and really continuing to make a business sustainable in the long term.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

For someone listening to this, they want to know more information about you or about Raymond James, what are the best places for them to check out?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

Google me, LinkedIn. You'll find me all over LinkedIn there. RaymondJames.com is a is a great place to get more information about the firm and pretty much anything you want to know.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:15

And and I'll add one final question there is who is the right advisor in terms of the person that should be exploring more seriously Raymond James?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

I would say any advisor that really and truly wants to own their business and own their book of business and have the freedom and the flexibility to run their business the way they want to, you know, the way that they see f the best fit for their clients going forward. Those are the people that we wanna, we want to talk to. We have a wonderful culture here at the firm. And, you know, we we turn people away at times that if they're not a good cultural fit for for us, we're looking for people that are gonna really fit in and be part of our family. And so if somebody's looking for a culture like that that comes along with all of the other benefits that I mentioned, then we would love to talk to them.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:00

Fantastic. Michelle Lynch, I've enjoyed the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Me too, Paul. It's great. Thank you so much and happy to answer any of the questions that may come up uh in the future.