Between Now and Success

If a prospect asked you, "Why should I choose you?," could you answer it in seven words or less? In this world of short attention spans, you better be able to. The rap on financial advisors is they all sound the same. In the past, you could get away with that because there was so much business to go around and consumers were less discerning. Today, it's a much more competitive world and this means you must find a way to become "uniquely remarkable" or else resign yourself to commodity level income. Ian Chamandy is the co-author of the incredible book, Why Should I Choose You? He joins the podcast today for a fascinating look at how to answer the "why should I choose you" question in, get this, seven words or less. In fact, Ian says this is the most important question in business because answering it will shape every area of your business, not just sales and marketing. I run into advisors all the time who struggle with trying to articulate what makes them different and how to answer the why should I choose you question. Fortunately, Chamandy and co-author Ken Aber have created a roadmap to help you figure it out. I strongly encourage you to order the book and learn more about Chamandy and Aber's process by visiting their website. And click here to learn more about how financial advisor coaching through Belay Advisor can help you become "uniquely remarkable" and attract ideal clients.

The top marketing people realize that when it comes to marketing the services of a financial advisor, you'll have better results if you purposely repel a significant segment of the population. Most of us want to be liked by as many people as possible so the thought of gearing our marketing to repel potential clients seems ridiculous. But one very successful advisor at the Barron's Top Independent Advisor Summit has built a top business by becoming the recognized expert for a select type of clientele. That's just one of the many takeaways from part II of our roundtable discussion with attendees from Barron's Top Independent Advisors Summit. Our goal was to pull out the key takeaways from America's top advisors and deliver Actionable Intelligence to you. See here for part I of the conversation and the detailed blog post I wrote covering six key takeaways from the first day of the conference. The roundtable participants were Jack Davis of Navigation Retirement Group, and Bill Keen and Matt Wilson of Keen Wealth Advisors.

America's top advisors gathered in Scottsdale, AZ on March 21 - 23 for the annual Barron's Top Independent Advisors Summit. I held a roundtable discussion with three top advisors who attended the event and our goal was to pull out the key takeaways from America's top advisors and deliver Actionable Intelligence to you. The roundtable participants were Jack Davis of Navigation Retirement Group, and Bill Keen and Matt Wilson of Keen Wealth Advisors. This is part I of a two-part podcast. Make sure you visit www.belayadvisor.com to read the article that goes along with this episode.

Financial advisors used to get paid for managing money to help clients safely reach their retirement goal. Going forward, financial advisors will get paid for creating a client experience that shepherds their clients through a lifetime of experiences and transitions that taken together, add up to a life well lived. In today's podcast, I touch on a major shift I see happening in the industry. The shift is from the destination (retirement) to the client experience (here and now). Three forces are coming together to give rise to this shift from the destination to the client experience. First, as the millennial generation becomes more pervasive in society, this idea of retirement gets obliterated. Most millennials will never stop working. Instead, they'll seamlessly blend their work and life to create a way to make money and have fun at the same time. Second, events such as The Color Run, Tough Mudder, Comic-Con (and the hundreds of other "Cons") are stoking our interest in a live client experience that allows us to "do" something as opposed to passively consume something. Research clearly shows that humans value experiences more than things. Experiences bring us more happiness than do possessions. So, become an experience maker! Third, big brands are moving away from interruptive advertising and creating an immersive client experience where the product is part of the production. If you watched the finale of American Idol, you couldn't tell where the commercial for Ford ended and the Idol show began--it was all integrated into one seamless production. These forces make it imperative that you reimagine your client experience and make it one our clients want to remember and experience over and over again.

I've always taken the attitude that you're never too smart to learn or too good to improve. So even though I get paid handsomely as a professional speaker, there's always room to become better. And at a recent Master Class with top professional speaker Michael Port, I picked up three excellent speaking tips when he critiqued my performance. Michael was a guest on my podcast (Read the show notes/listen to it here) and I was looking forward to meeting him in person at the Social Media Marketing World Conference where he was a featured speaker. We met and I got to practice my speech at during his workshop and here are three key tips he shared with me. These are speaking tips that can help you too.

Ric Edelman is one of those rare people who can make bold, provocative statements AND have the experience and track record to prove that he’s not just blowing smoke. If you ask industry people who has been the most successful financial advisor over the past 30 years, Ric Edelman would likely top the list. Starting from scratch in the 1980’s, Ric built a juggernaut with 30,000 clients, 125 financial advisors, 500 employees in 42 offices, and $15 billion in AUM. When I asked Ric what the next 10 years looks like, he said, “10X. Add a zero to everything.” What’s even more impressive than the raw numbers Ric has generated to date is how he did it--through organic growth. Ric leveraged his journalism background and became a massive media star spanning multiple bestselling books, a nationally syndicated radio show, and a popular television show. Through educating the public, Ric Edelman gained trust and the clients followed by the thousands. Be sure to visit BelayAdvisor.com and read the special article I wrote to accompany this episode. I cover some of the highlights from this episode along with my color commentary.

Knowing what you know now, what would you do over if you could restart your business today? I posed this question to 6 successful advisors and their answers were insightful. And here's the funny thing, you can implement these ideas now and benefit from their hard-fought mistakes. You'll also hear my color commentary on each of their do overs.

How well are you using advisor technology to automate your business, augment your work as an advisor, and segment and personalize the value you deliver to your clients? Have you thought strategically about your business model and how you use technology to support it in a profitable way? In today's show, I chat with Michael Schrage, who is one of the world's most provocative thought leaders on innovation. He's also a research fellow at the MIT Sloan School's Center for Digital Business, a columnist for Harvard Business Review, Fortune, CIO Magazine and MIT'sTechnology Review, and the author of multiple books. Perhaps no one knows more about how to maximize return on investment from innovation processes than Michael. I first became aware of Michael nearly 20 years ago when I read his article, The Relationship Revolution. In the article he said we should think about technology as a way to enhance relationships, and not just a way to add value to information. It stuck with me. Our conversation covers several topics including: How to align using advisor technology to automate, augment, and segment and personalize the work you do. The importance of figuring out your business model (e.g., a highly automated mass market model like Betterment, a high-end, hands-on boutique like AdvicePeriod) and how you use advisor technology to support it. How you can use advisor technology to gather information that leads to insight that allows you to deliver greater value with greater confidence to your selected clients. How advisor technology can deepen your client relationships instead of just "scaling" them. How to use data to optimize what's in the best interests of your clients. Why robo-advisors are not commoditizing investment management--despite what many people believe.

Financial planning as practiced today is going away and will be replaced by an entirely new way of interacting with and delivering value and connection to clients. The days of offering a free financial plan in order to snag AUM are done. In today's show, I chat with Phil Cunningham, CEO of Advicent, the global provider of SaaS technology solutions for the financial services industry. You may know them better through their products including NaviPlan®, Profiles™ and Figlo™ financial planning tools, the Advisor Briefcase® marketing tool and the Narrator™ application builder. Advicent has about 100,000 advisor clients across North America so Phil has a bird's-eye view of what's happening in the fintech space. Our conversation covers the spectrum including: The changing role of the financial advisor (See: Going beyond money management to make a deeper client connection). How advisors can stay relevant and add value. The impact of technology on the client experience, managing your business, marketing it, and advising clients. What "big data" means for advisors and how you'll benefit from it (See: Jud Bergman discussing big data). Where financial planning fits into the equation and how the definition of financial planning is changing radically. What you should do with Robo-technology to benefit from it instead of being threatened by it. How to compete against a big brand like Vanguard.

Tony Robbins, a peak performance strategist, entrepreneur and bestselling author and Peter Mallouk, the #1 independent financial advisor in the country have joined forces to offer comprehensive planning services to clients with a minimum of $50,000. In today's podcast they explain how they came together and what they hope to accomplish. We also talk politics, the fiduciary standard, why advisors need to be a practical psychologist, the disastrous 401(k) industry, how Mallouk grew his firm from about $50 million in AUM to roughly $18 billion today, and we even mention the Showtime series Billions. It's a packed episode you won't want to miss.