Fixing Advisory Firm Marketing Funnels So The Phone Actually Rings With Prospects: #FASuccess Ep 478 With Kendra Wright

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Resources Featured In This Episode:

• Kendra Wright: Website | LinkedIn
• Advisor Marketing Made Simple Podcast
• Jump
• Leveraging Educational YouTube Videos To Drive Hundreds Of New Clients Per Year: #FASuccess Ep 445 With James Conole
• Streamline Financial YouTube Channel
• The Stay Wealthy Retirement Show
• Retirement Starts Today Podcast
• Thomas Kopelman
• #FA Success Ep 368: Getting Real Social Media Marketing Results By Focusing On Your (Ideal) Client's Desire To Learn, With Thomas Kopelman
• Repurposing Digital Marketing Content: How I Grew My RIA Revenue To $16K/Month In Less Than 14 Months by Thomas Kopelman
• Arnold & Mote Wealth Management
• #FA Success Ep 234: Charging Advice Fees To Help Clients Change Their Money Script, With Yohance Harrison
• Kitces Report: How Financial Planners Actually Market Their Services (2024)
• How One Advisor Generated 35 Leads on LinkedIn in 6 Months Without Spending a Dime on Ads

Full Transcript:

Michael: Welcome, Kendra Wright, to the "Financial Advisor Success" Podcast.

Kendra: I am jazzed to be here.

Michael: You are jazzed to be here. I am jazzed that you are here. Jazzed is actually a new one, having done this almost 500 times. I love jazzed.

Kendra: Well, we're going to go a lot of new places today, Michael.

Michael: We're going new places. This is awesome. That is truly apropos to the topic because we're going new places. Because we're going marketing today. And I'm super psyched to get to really nerd out on marketing with a fellow marketing nerd. Because I find marketing is just a fascinating thing in our advisor space. Because I really find at the end of the day, most of us talk about the ways that we try to market ourselves. And when I really look, I really don't see most of us doing marketing. We tend to be, as I would characterize it, sales-driven organizations more than marketing-driven organizations in the advisor world. It's just how we're trained, "Go out there, meet people, interact with them. If you get through enough nos, you'll get to a couple of yeses. Hard-labor it through as a contact sport until you make enough contacts to get a certain percentage of them that close into deals."

And when I was early in my career, I remember asking someone, "What's the difference between marketing and sales?" And the way it was explained to me was, "Marketing makes the phone ring. Sales is what you do when you answer it," which felt like a joke because the phone doesn't ring, that's like the fish jumping into the boats. That's not how it works. You cast the fishing rod out there. But the truth is, and we see this now in the advisory research studies we do on marketing. There are firms out there that are doing real marketing, scalable marketing, where the phone rings, or at least the email inbox rings, because they usually email. But the opportunities actually come in. And it's not that marketing doesn't work or doesn't work in our industry, I just find it's that, much love to our advisor peers who are listening, most of us are really not good at marketing. We're good at sales if we're here long enough to survive, and we manage with marketing. So, Kendra, I'm excited today to talk about what real advisor marketing actually looks like. What the mystical, magical things are that you can do where the phone actually rings and you just have to answer it and there are prospects, because it sounds like a fantasy, but I know it actually happens for a few firms.

The Three Parts Of A Successful Marketing Funnel [05:38]

Kendra: Yeah. I think what's really fascinating, my personal opinion is that I think what makes advisors good at being advisors can often make them terrible marketers, and that's really challenging.

Michael: How so?

Kendra: Because a lot of marketing is creativity and thinking in a different way than the analytical approach that advisors take in the master of their own craft. So, for example, when I talk to my clients or even other advisors, and I say, "Hey, what kind of questions are people asking you?" They talk to me like they're talking to another advisor. And I have to train my own clients to take off their advisor hat and put on the Kendra hat, which is, "Talk to me the way that they talk to you." And the way that I explain that is. "How would you talk to one of your favorite clients if you wanted them to understand something really complicated but you didn't want to confuse them?" And at first, it scrambles their brain. And I have to shift them into a marketing mode versus advisor mode. Because really, I think what marketing is, is just, how do people find out you exist, understand the problems that you can help them solve, and then evaluate if you're the person to solve it for them? That's it.

And I think there's a lot of ways to complicate this process. But there's also a lot of ways to simplify this process. And I think that's a few things we'll talk about today together here.

Michael: I really like how you framed that. Marketing comes down to... I want to make sure I got these three pieces, I think. How do people find out you exist, understand the problems you help them solve, and evaluate if you are the right person to help them solve those problems.

Kendra: Absolutely. And really, all I did there was take you through a marketing funnel. Top of funnel simply is, how do people find out you exist? If Michael is an advisor, how do they go from not knowing Michael is around in the world, to, "Hey, I know about this Michael guy, he's kind of cool." Maybe they find a way to you through a LinkedIn post or a YouTube video or an in-person event. There's a lot of ways for people to find out you exist. That's the start of the process. Then, once they find out you exist, how do we show them the problems that you can solve for them? We all know that people don't wake up excited to hire an advisor. They're excited to solve real problems in their life. They're like, "Yeah, I woke up, my back hurts today. Oh crap, I need to start thinking about retirement." That's how they get to you. So, they really need to understand what are the problems that you solve for them that they care about. And that's middle of funnel. Really, we're just earning trust there.

So, top of funnel is, how do we earn awareness. Middle of funnel is, how do we earn trust. And then bottom of funnel is where they evaluate you. This is where you actually earn assets. So, a lot of advisors want to go from top to bottom really quick, or they might not even have a top. And so, I think how do we take them through this clear, simple process to help them find out who you are, that you exist, how you help them, and to evaluate, are you the right person for the job.

Michael: So, I'm feeling like maybe you can take us through an example. Just contextualize this a little bit more for us. I think for a lot of us as advisors, it's still hard to translate this, I go out there, I meet people, I go to the chamber of commerce meetings, I explain that I'm a financial advisor. If I tell 10 people I'm a financial advisor, three of them will schedule a follow-up meeting, and one of them will probably become a client. That's my process. How is what you're talking about different than those kinds of, I guess, traditional approaches, as I'll frame it, that most of us have done? I call these the sales-based approaches. I get out there, I meet people, that's how they know I exist. I tell them about what I do, that's how they know I solve their problems. And then I try to build a relationship with them so they'll do business with me. I know what you're talking about is different, but help us paint a more marketing-oriented version of this.

The Four Ways Advisor Funnels "Break" [09:35]

Kendra: So, I think a really good place to start here, before we jump into an exact funnel is, let me actually explain the four ways that I've found pretty much all advisor funnels break.

So, the first one is, who are we talking to? Let's say you are going to that chamber of commerce event, who are we actually trying to reach? So, if you don't know who you're trying to attract with enough clarity, that's going to break your entire funnel. So, that's the first thing. And we can go a little bit deeper in each of these, but I'll give you a flyover. First is, who are we talking to? I call that ideal client clarity. Number two, where are we going to try to reach them? I call this channel focus. So, maybe you want to go to that in-person event. Maybe you're over in-person stuff, and you want to go online, maybe YouTube or a podcast, or LinkedIn, or you're just like, "You know what, I don't like that online stuff. I'm really more relationship based. I'd like to actually grow my book of business through my own clients."

We have to choose where are we going to reach them, these new clients. Number three, we know who we're talking to, we know how we want to reach them. What the heck are we going to say to get their attention? People are busy, platforms are crowded. This step here is targeted content, and not helpful content, and we can dive into that a little bit, but targeted content. And then number four, which is, how are we going to move them from content to client? So, I find a lot of advisors have many marketing activities in very few marketing funnels, so we need a full funnel structure there. So those are the four things that I try to get very clear on with any advisor before we even start talking about in-person networking, or we talk about YouTube, or channel, or LinkedIn. There are core foundational pieces that we have to really align. And then we get to get into the nittier, grittier pieces of that, like, how do we actually build a funnel that works?

The Importance Of Having "Ideal Client Clarity" [11:28]

Michael: Look, I'm struck even as you are talking through these be because my experience over the years, most of us get stuck on the very first one, as you framed it.

Kendra: Yeah, this is why I think most advisor marketing doesn't work.

Michael: Ideal client clarity. People who can afford my services who will pay me enough to be able to stay in this business. That's usually where it starts for most of us. My ideal client is anyone who will pay me let's be honest. Maybe later, that shifts a little bit, but early on, most of us are just going for anyone.

Kendra: This is interesting. So, our mutual friend Taylor Schulte and I, we did a podcast. We had 60-plus episodes. And at the end, we decided, "Hey, let's do our look back on what the most surprising pieces were." And one of the things that Taylor brought to the table was, "I'm astounded how unclear people are about the person the kind of that they want to work with." And so, we started to go from what I like to call ideal client confusion, you're not really clear here, to ideal client clarity. Really, we need to answer one simple question, which is, who do you love to serve that can afford to pay you, and what are the big problems that they would be excited to pay you for?

Now, let me break that down a little bit. Because there's actually a couple of things going on here. Number one, who do you love to serve? I'm here to build businesses that my clients do not want to escape from. There are certain kinds of clients that sound exciting to serve because maybe they sound profitable or they're easy to target. Who do you love to serve? Who would you be excited to see on your calendar? What are the kind of problems that you love to solve? And there's a lot of ways to go about figuring that out. You can look at your own current book of business, you can do some research. I'm not here to have that conversation. But you need to know that when we really start to get clear on who we want to attract in your marketing funnel, we have to be clear on who you love to serve. And number two, can they afford to pay you? This is bonkers that we got to say this, but advisors are helpers. They want to help people. And if you don't stay in business, you can't help people. I had a client that came to me a year and a half ago, and I remember the first call I had with them, and they were talking about that they had been trying to build this niche for two or three years. I'll give them an A for effort, because, man, they were trying everything.

And I remember telling them something, and I was afraid to tell them this, but I said, "Listen, is this client actually profitable for you? How much are you charging this client?" And they told me the number, and I was like, "That doesn't sound profitable." I think it was maybe right around the $3,000 to $4,000-a-year range. I said, "Second is this niche…are they easier to serve than this other niche that you've been going after?" And they were going after pre-retirees, that's their standard niche. And they're like, "No, it's actually harder." So, I was like, "You're telling me this client is less profitable and harder to serve?" And I said, "You're going to have to ditch this niche because they can't really afford to pay you, and they're hard to serve." And that was really scary. And in that moment is where this piece came into play in my strategic mind, is our ideal client, it's not enough to know who they are, we also have to make sure that they're profitable. That's a big piece.

And then the last piece here, which is, what are the big problems they would be excited to pay you for? Now, this is really important because people come to advisors to solve problems. They don't come for financial planning. Financial planning is just the way that we solve those problems for them. So, there's certain problems they might need solved. So, for example, let's say they're a tech executive and they don't have any estate planning docs. They might need to solve that problem, but they don't care about that problem until you help them unravel their equity decisions or fix their anxiety about their taxes. Those are the problems they care about right now. So, when we start thinking about problems, what are the painful, urgent, expensive problems people call you to serve?

Michael: It does click for me. I've certainly seen the similar phenomenon that some of us get really focused on how to help people who can't actually afford to pay what it takes for the service, just a very challenging reality. There are a lot of folks out there who can't afford what it takes to deliver financial planning. And there are pro bono and other ways to try to balance that out across our businesses. But at a most fundamental level, if your clients can't afford what it takes to run and scale the business, you're not going to help them for the long run because you're going to be out in three to five years when you burn yourself out.

And the idea that we need to find the big problems that they would be excited to pay for, it certainly resonates to me because…your comment that it hurts in some ways, but I think it's important clarity from the marketing perspective: no one comes to us for a financial plan, not literally a financial plan. No one wakes up at 2:00 in the morning really stressed and full of anxiety because they don't have a financial plan and that's what's keeping them up at night. There might be a thing that's bothering them that a financial plan will help come up with the answers to, because it's an illness, a death, a divorce, a business event, a financial event. There's all sorts of things for which the answers might be, you're going to go through a financial planning process and we'll craft you some recommendations and help you implement them. But they don't come for the financial plan, they come because something hurts, something's wrong, something's broken or painful, and they're looking for relief for that thing.

Kendra: Definitely. And for advisors listening, a really helpful way to get a little bit more clear on this is, if you're allowed to, one of the things that I have our new clients set up is call recording software. So, a lot of our clients use Jump. You can use whatever you want. But what's funny is, over time... I used to ask my clients what their clients ask them about. I just stopped asking and I just went straight to their clients. So, now I get to listen to their words, I get to look at the data, I get to look for themes. And so, when I build actually avatar documentation, I will take 30 calls, and I ask my clients, I'm like, "Tell me the prospects you talk to that you would be excited to slide a contract across the table and have them sign, like 'I can't wait to help this person'?" So, I take that data and I look through it and I find, what are themes and the big problems that they're asking?

Michael: I love that. I just want to pause there for a moment because for a lot of us who have brought AI note takers into meetings, often not just client meetings, but prospect meetings as well, you have a fascinating point that we literally now have a repository of clients actually literally asking us the things that are bothering them because we have a transcription and AI note summary of the meeting. So, go through your meetings, find the ones that actually really felt like they were the good kinds of prospects you would want to work with, and just ask your AI note taker, "What were the common themes and problems in these meetings? What questions were they asking?"

Kendra: Yeah. And then I would add to that one additional piece, which is, "Tell me what they asked in their words, not mine." I really want to hear their language patterns. Because that's really, really important. When we think about, for example, "Hey, I help clients with business exits." Yeah, technically, thematically, that's true. But you don't just help with business exits. It might be like, "Hey, I've got this big sale coming up and I need to make sure that all this money that I'm going to work really hard for, you help me make it stick." It's not just business exit planning, it's really the fears, the concerns they have in their language. I think that's so important. And so, when we come back to getting this ideal client clarity, and this is so important for advisors listening, if you can't get this step at least somewhat clear, everything in your marketing is going to suffer, particularly when we start to look at building marketing funnels.

I'll give you my business' example on how I explain this, and then I'll give you an advisor's example. Because sometimes it's really easy if you step outside of your own industry to hear it a little bit more clearly. So, for example, my own business, here's how I answer the question, who I love to serve that can afford to pay me and the problems they're excited to pay me for. So, at Rebel Media Agency, we help RIAs who manage $500 million or more of assets, number one, replace random marketing tactics with a clear strategy. Number two, attract profitable clients. And number three, scale beyond referrals. And if you go to my website and you look at the top of my website, that statement is there.

Michael: I would say, I've seen your website, those are literally the words on the website right there above the fold. At the top of the homepage. We are very unambiguous.

Kendra: And here's the thing, what I want advisors to understand, is that marketing is not just about attracting profitable clients, it's also about repelling the wrong ones. Especially advisors who are finding, "Hey, we're getting leads and prospects, but they're not the right people." Your marketings serves a part of that process to help filter. And it's funny because you hear people reference these things. Recently, we upped our minimum, we were at $300 [million in Assets Under Management], we moved to $500 [million]. And I had so many advisors who had literally messaged me and say, "I'm not at 300 yet, but as soon as I get there, I'm going to call you." And it was like, ding. They see that. So, that's my business as example. Let me give you an advisor example so you can see what this sounds like.

So, this client's example…they work with tech professionals, and their statement would look a little bit like this, or they'd sound a little bit like this, "We help tech professionals who earn strong six-figure incomes, who feel overwhelmed by equity decisions, anxious about taxes, and they want the ability to work less or work differently." They might want to downshift in their career. Maybe they're burned out. When you're working with this segment of the market, they are so burned out. So, you can hear, who do they love to serve? Tech professionals who earn a strong six-figure income, and they can afford to pay them. And then, what are the big problems they would be excited to pay you for? Now, this doesn't mean that this client doesn't help tech professionals solve other problems. It doesn't mean we won't talk about some of those other problems, but we really need to make sure we understand, what are those core, big burning questions, big buckets of problems that we can speak about before we move on to the next step, which is choosing where are we going to try and reach them?

So, that first step, who are we talking to? You've got to get some clarity around that before you move into that next step. And one final thing here, Michael. You can serve multiple kinds of clients, but you can only market to one in your marketing funnel. And if you want to market to multiple client types, you're going to have to build multiple marketing funnels to do that effectively.

Michael: Boy, I have so many questions here. I'm going back to the framing you had, "We help tech professionals to earn a strong six-figure income to navigate..." I think I got these, "To navigate equity decisions, help them be less anxious about taxes, and potentially work less or differently." So, it strikes me, again, getting back to the, people don't come for financial planning, they come to solve problems. I can appreciate the strength of the statement for tech employees I've worked with over the years. There's an equity event coming. Options are due, options are vesting, RSUs [Restricted Stock Units] are vesting, the company is IPO-ing and I have to make all these decisions. Navigate equity decisions tends to be a trigger point. I've been knowing I need to get an advisor for a while, but they just sent me the paperwork and it's due a week from Friday, so apparently, now's the time.

For better or worse that often, I've watched that become a trigger event for people to say, "Now is the time." Ditto, anxious about taxes. If you weren't sold on this because you have to make an options exercise, you might have been sold on it a month or two earlier knowing that you're going to have to do some options things soon because you know there are horrifically large tax events and you're really anxious about it. And knowing that's coming, I want to solve my giant tax bill anxiety. So, these strike me for the nature of, yeah, this feels like the kind of stuff that these clients would actually be up at night about, even the... I forget how it was worded, potentially work less or work differently. Maybe the reason I'm up at 2:00 in the morning is because I worked 75 hours again this week and I'm just burning out, and my body's in stress meltdown mode. So, I'm up in the middle of the night, and I can't even figure out if I could leave this job because I can't afford it. Maybe I need a financial advisor to help me do that analysis.

Kendra: Yeah. "How do I turn this equity I worked so hard into the real freedom I thought this job would give me when I took it?"

Michael: So, it does strike me how directly that language connects. And it all starts with, "We help tech professionals who earn strong six-figure income." So, almost by definition, you should be able to afford the services, assuming I'm priced fairly, typically, "You earn a strong six-figure income and you have these problems, my $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 financial planning fee should not be the deal killer for you."

Kendra: And really, what we're looking for is those painful, urgent, expensive problems that would warrant professional help. And again, this doesn't mean we won't talk about other problems. So, for example, in this example of tech professionals, buying or selling a home still applies, but it might apply differently to a tech professional who might take a role in another city.

Why A Hyper-Specific Niche Isn't Needed To Achieve "Ideal Client Clarity" [25:32]

Michael: So, I want to stay here for a moment though. I'm trying to channel my inner advisor fears now. When I set up this framing, like, my website says, "We help tech professionals who earn strong six-figure income navigate equity decision and anxious about taxes, who potentially want to work less or differently." So, am I now pigeonholed into these solutions? Now, if they just wanted to use their big income to buy a house, did I just lose my prospect because it didn't also say buying a house? Should I add that as a fourth one here? How long am I allowed to make this list, Kendra? Because I don't want to miss someone who would've picked me for one of the things that I didn't put on the list because I made the list too short.

Kendra: Here's how I think we can approach this. There's really two buckets of advisors. There's those solo advisors who are smaller. And I think on the website, you could say something as simple as, "Financial planning for tech professionals." Another way to do this, and this especially applies to bigger firms, if you want to have, let's say, multiple ideal client types, is you can have a simple thing or a little dropdown on your website that says "who we serve." And you can say, "Tech professionals, pre-retirees," whatever. Whatever those buckets of clients are on your website, you can have those individual pages. And then your main website of your homepage can be a little bit more general. And I want to underline that because I know the advisors listening right here, I'm about to give them an inch and they're going to take a mile.

For the homepage, you could say, "Financial planning..." Let's say you serve tech professionals and pre-retirees. Your homepage could say something like, "Financial planning for tech professionals and pre-retirees." And we can keep a little bit of that general. However, when it comes to marketing to people, we cannot go general if we're going to build a way for them to find you, trust you, and hire you. We've got to go more specific there. So, I think when we talk about how we apply this to marketing, there's different arenas, different areas on how we apply this. Your marketing funnel looks very different than maybe your website, but your website plays an important piece, so you've got to get more narrow there. Sometimes I look at advisors' websites. We had somebody come on the podcast recently and they said, "Oh yeah, my ideal client, one of my, like five, was pilots." And I did a control find on their website. And I've only found the word pilot once. And it was in their own bio about how they're a professional pilot.

We can't do that. We've got to have on your website, when people land there and when they land in your content, they got to know, "They serve people like me. They get me. They get the problems I want to pay to solve right now." So, I know this piece is really hard for advisors, but we have to get a little bit more clear here if we want to find new ways to grow beyond just word of mouth from our own clients.

Michael: I hear you. I'm still struggling with the fear, but I'm afraid to go narrower. I'm afraid to pick fewer. If I pick the wrong things, I'm going to blow up and fail my business. How do I know I'm picking the right ones that are going to work?

Kendra: Well, I think that, one, it takes time. I think that fear is super relevant. I had the same exact issue in my own business. Before, I was really narrow in mind, I slowly got a little bit clearer over time. So, for me for the first seven years of the business I owned, I was a generalist marketer. And over time, there's this exercise I really love, and I heard it along the way and it was...anytime I feel overwhelmed in my business or just frustrated, I take a walk and I ask myself a very important question, which is, "If tomorrow my business burned down, and I had to rebuild the same business, but I got to rebuild it with my current knowledge, what would I do differently?" And one day I found myself on a walk, and the thing that came up... and I'll do it on my phone. I actually take notes while I walk. There's something about movement that really jogs your brain.

And one of the things that turned up on my list one day was firing my biggest client. And let me be clear here, this wasn't just my biggest client, but they were actually my easiest client because at the time I was still straddling multiple niches. I was serving a lot of financial advisors and what I like to call financial-adjacent businesses. And I was also serving a Tex-Mex chain that had multiple stores across the state of Texas. So, you heard that right. I got to market tacos. Literally, my job was to find great taco memes and coordinate influencers. And it was a lot of fun. And I remember.

Michael: That sounds fun, I have to admit.

Kendra: It was really fun.

Michael: Taco memes. Are they taco influencers or just influencers who like tacos?

Kendra: Oh god, all the above. And honestly, if you were to ask me before this conversation what my favorite food is, Michael, I would've said queso. Because I love cheese. Pretty sure I will never have abs because I love cheese too much. And so, I had a lot of fun. And I remember going on this walk one day and I was at a breaking point. I was frustrated and I said if tomorrow I had to burn this business down and rebuild it with my knowledge now, but I had to do it better, what would I do? And the first thing on the top of that list was fire my biggest client who is actually easy to work with. And here was the hardest part.

Michael: So, why are you firing? Why is your burn down, rebuild the business advice, insight, "I would fire my big easy client"?

Kendra: Because they didn't pay on time. They were all over the place. And I realized that if I was ever going to be a master at what I did, I needed to focus a little bit more. Now, this doesn't mean that that's right for every advisor, but let's say they are that advisor that's very afraid of who they serve. Can we narrow who you serve down to at least, let's say three different client types, maybe pre-retirees, HENRY's [High Earners, Not Rich Yet], equity comp. We have to go at least a little bit more narrow, and you can represent those on your website. But then when we start to build a funnel, a marketing funnel, we're going to choose one so that... let's say you are posting content on LinkedIn, working to try and attract tech professionals. They need to be able to see themselves in your content.

And then when they start to investigate you because they think you might be the person to solve their problems and they go to your website, they'll see, "Hey, they help pre-retirees, high-earning people, and tech professionals." They see a bit of themselves in your marketing funnel and experience. Because the problem is, let's say we get them to your website and there isn't that clarity, I saw this happen recently. You lose that conversion, that bottom of the funnel piece. So, while we are talking about the way funnels break, this breaks a lot of things. Definitely breaks funnels, but will also hurt conversion. So, we have to get a little bit more clear. And here's the thing, if you want to stay general and you want to just grow through word of mouth and that's working for you, that's okay, that's fine. But if you want to experiment and try to narrow your focus, you can test that too. We work in pixels, not bricks. So, we can change things, we can move things around. But I guess the question I have for you is, if you were to go 10% more narrow, what could that look like? Not 100 percent, what's 10%? Start small. You don't have to do it all at once.

Michael: I'm a little bit struck around this discussion, because as you noted, for the first seven years, you were a more generalist marketer and then you started honing in. I just want to reflect unto itself, seven years is a long time to be in that generalist bucket path. And for better or worse, I feel like a lot of the discussions around picking specializations are like, "Okay, you've been doing this for a bunch of years now, so we're just going to grab the corner of that Band-Aid, give it a big old rip because now you're going hyper-focused." I do see folks who get that clarity and do that Band-Aid rip. I'm struck even reflecting as you're describing this for your own path and journey. We're talking years and years before this fully honed in for you as well.

Kendra: Yeah, definitely. And I think here's the biggest challenge. My business was working, it was profitable. We had clients. My clients were happy. And so, if you like being a generalist advisor and things are working, keep doing what you're doing. I personally believe when you build your own business, you get to build it whatever weird, freaky way you want to build it. People look at my business and it is totally wacky. But I earn the ability to steer the ship, to make the decisions. And there's a lot of decisions in my business that I do radically different than other businesses. So, if you like being a generalist advisor, that's working for you, you are getting enough clients to hit your growth goals, keep rocking and rolling, rock onto the break of dawn.

But if you're an advisor who's like, "You know what, I feel really pulled in a lot of directions. I feel like on the backend, servicing clients, I don't even know how I'm going to continue to do this." Because marketing isn't just about revenue, it also impacts the way you run your practice on the backend. If you feel overwhelmed, if you're just like, "Dang, I really feel like a master of many and not of one." If you're feeling some of those, that might be a little flag to like, "Hey, could I go a little bit more narrow?" But if not, keep doing what you're doing. It's your business. You run the show, not me.

Michael: So, if you were on this path and it was working and it was profitable, why did you go and, I was going to say blow it up. I'm assuming you didn't literally bomb it and blow it up, this was more gradual. Why did you change and reshape what was working?

Kendra: Because it was painful. I was doing too many things. I felt like I really wasn't the best that I could be at what I did. And I really thought about, "I want to be a master of what I do. I want to be the best at what I do." And being good at what you do and being excellent at what you do sounds like a small shift, but it's not, it is huge. And let me give you a practical example. And I learned this from my friend, Taylor. He said something really amazing on our podcast one day. He said, "When I started be trying to be a master of podcasting, I got voice lessons." And I was like, "That is mastery." How many people are so honed in on the craft of what they are doing that they become a master?

And so, I asked myself, how do I become a master of what I do? And I just realized, I was like, trying to sell tacos and trying to sell financial services is just two completely different ballgames. The thing that's really cool about what I get to do now is, because I only work with RIAs, I get to take something I learned over here on client A, and it works, and then I get to apply it to client B, and then it's incredible. Because the mastery compounds, there are some cool things I've learned in my business that work for advisors that I didn't even figure out. My clients taught me through things we built and now I do it for my other clients. It's really cool. And so, I think the thing is, we don't have to go so radically narrow on who you serve, but we have to go narrow enough so that when someone comes to your website, they can see, "Hey, we help tech professionals and pre-retirees and business owners." A lot of times, there's just not that level of even narrowness that all the marketing becomes really muddy. And here's how it impacts downstream. Let's say you serve tech professionals and pre-retirees. Okay. Now you're going to start a podcast. Okay. What are we naming this podcast? What is the content of the episodes?

Michael: I would say, tech professionals and pre-retirees. I'm trying to come up with a really good generic name that will work for both of them. Financial Mastery. Because everyone needs financial mastery.

Kendra: Exactly. Right. So, this is why a lot of marketing we see in our industry is really wide. Now, let's say that you decide, "Hey, we're going to serve tech professionals and we're going to serve pre-retirees. We're going to serve multiple niches." We got very clear, these are the two kinds of people we do our best work with. And we're going to start a podcast. And then my next question for you would be, "Okay, what's your marketing niche?" You might serve pre-retirees, but do you want to market to those or do you want to market to the tech professionals on the podcast? I will make you choose. You will not like me for it. You might not like me now, but you'll like me later when we actually get downloads, when we actually know how to promote this thing, we know how to package this. We know, okay, now that we know we're going to market to tech professionals we're going to choose a name that would speak to tech professionals and their money.

Then when we think about the content roadmap. We're going to talk about topics that apply to tech professionals. We had an advisor come on our podcast last year, and he said, "Yeah, my ideal client is pre-retirees." And I looked at his podcast title and it was something so broad and so generic. I was like, "I didn't even know this was actually a money podcast." You're not pooling that ideal client clarity through your channel, through your content. It's a string that runs from the top all the way through your funnel. So, let's say we change your marketing niche, you're going to serve two niches, but you're going to market to pre-retirees. It's going to change the title, it's going to change the content, it's going to change a lot of pieces in this funnel. So again, you can serve multiple client types if you want, but if you're going to build an effective funnel, we're going to have to market to one of them and get clear on who that is. Who do you love to serve that can afford to pay you? And what are those big problems they would be excited to pay you for? And then we can go into channel selection. How are we going to reach them? But I think if you really aren't willing to get more clear here, you're going to be really unhappy with the results you see in your marketing.

Michael: There's a certain interesting clarity of commitment to me to say, "Oh, it's totally cool. You want to market to tech employees and pre-retirees with podcasting? That's great. You're going to have to run two podcasts."

Kendra: Exactly.

Michael: One for each. And if that sounds like a lot of work, reevaluate accordingly.

Kendra: Here's the thing. Or, what you could do is you could say, "Hey, we serve pre-retirees and we serve tech professionals, but right now in our marketing, we're intentionally choosing our marketing niche, which is tech professionals or pre-retirees." Or you could do one podcast to one niche, and that means you can still serve pre-retirees. We set the website up, so, "Hey, here are the couple of people we serve." If I think about where things click into place, this is the first click. We've got to get narrow enough. Because if I don't know who the heck I'm talking to, how do I say something that catches their attention? I can't. It's hard. And so, I will basically wrestle with my clients. And it's taken different clients different amounts of time to get to this clarity. It's not a steady journey, it's bumpy. We drive off-road, we hit a couple of bushes. Sometimes we think, "Okay, here's who we're going to market to," and then they change their mind. And that's okay. But if you're going to build marketing that's effective with a funnel, we've got to at least speak to one. You can serve a few different types of people, but the reality is, it creates a chaotic practice.

So, this isn't just marketing, there are some practice management pieces in there. So, I try to think about that. At the end of the day, it's your business, build it as weird and funky as you want, you'll get that right.

Michael: So, one more question here about ideal client, then I do want to move on to the other layers of the funneling process. But a lot of what we've talked about now in ideal client is this iterative, you may be a generalist for many years, and then if and when you decide you want to level it up or you want to create more focus, you want to have more mastery, you're feeling pulled in too many directions, you can start honing it in. And I get that. I've seen many advisory firms move in that path. I guess I want to ask, is that the recommended path? Is the guidance then you don't need to pick something narrower earlier, or don't put the pressure to pick something narrower earlier, stay general, and you'll figure it out later, I guess, or not? Is this the path we tend to take or do you actually view this as the right or natural path that we should be taking?

Kendra: I don't think there's a right path for everyone, in the same way that there's not right investment advice for everyone. I think that you have to ask yourself, "What kind of business do I want to build? And what does the next level look like for me?" And clarity can also look like...let me give you a different client example. I had a client come to me, and they were serving pre-retirees, and they were trying to also serve top-producing real estate professionals. And for them, it was actually they were trying to add this additional niche on, and then they just realized, "Hey, this niche isn't working for us." And so, they ditched that niche, they went back into pre-retirees. And that firm, many advisors serve that niche, pre-retirees. And for that firm, we actually got back into that niche. And for them, we were able to target on a local and statewide approach a niche that works for them.

And that doesn't mean that they won't add another niche later, but we're not adding niches like sticking a finger to the wind. We're first going to ask, "Do you love to serve these clients? Can they afford to pay you? What are the big problems that they're excited to pay you for?" And then, how are we going to reach them? How are we going to catch their attention? And then, how are we going to build a marketing funnel that actually brings them to our front door? And so, it's much more of a thoughtful approach.

Choosing A Marketing Channel That Matches And Advisor's Ideal Client Type [43:02]

Michael: So now, take us to the next step in this funneling process. So, I've got my ideal client type, I've created that clarity. So now, what comes next as I'm really trying to hone in, I want marketing that actually works?

Kendra: So, the next step that we have to really click into place here is, where do we want to reach these people? For example, let's say your marketing niche that you're going to market to is tech professionals. Now, where do you want to reach tech professionals? And I have a very different approach for how I think about choosing marketing funnels. I like to think about the medium to choose the channel. So, a lot of advisors ask me this question, which is, what's the best channel for advisors to market on? What's the most effective? And I just say, I have some good news and I have some bad news. The bad news is, there's not one best channel. The good news is, pretty much all of them work, but there's probably one or two that might work better for you.

And so, I'm a big proponent of choosing your channel aligned with your strengths, because I'll be the first one to tell you that marketing is not easy. It is very challenging. But if we can choose a channel that aligns with your strengths, probably somewhere you naturally already spend time, it's going to be a lot easier for you to build a funnel. So, for example, if you like to write, a couple of channels that naturally fall into that medium would be something like LinkedIn posts, Twitter long-form posts, SEO [Search Engine Optimization]-optimized blog posts. If you like to speak, you could look at something like a podcast, in-person workshops, webinars. If you like video, some advisors really love video. It terrifies me, but some advisors love it. YouTube is a great choice, obviously, for long-form content and some short-form content. And then you also have other channels like Instagram, TikTok, things like that.

And then if you're like, "You know what, Kendra, all this digital marketing stuff, I'm not digging that. I don't like..." That's okay too. If you're more relationships-focused, you might look at something like COI [Centers Of Influence] marketing. You might look at client events. And depending on what your growth goals are, how much you need to grow, if you have a large enough client base to hit your own growth goals, referral marketing might be an option. So, when I think about channels, "Hey, where are we going to reach these tech professionals?" The first thing I'm going to ask you is, "How do you like to market? Do you like to write? Do you like to speak? Do you like relationships?" Let's start there.

When we look at some of the fastest-growing advisors in our space, they're doing this. So, for almost every channel we can think of, I can think of an advisor who is outpacing industry standards. So, when we think about something like YouTube, guess who I'm thinking about? I'm thinking about Root. I'm thinking about Mr. Dave Zoller. When I'm thinking about podcast, I'm thinking about Taylor Schulte. I'm thinking about Ben Brandt. When I'm thinking about Twitter, I'm thinking about Thomas Kopelman. I actually saw someone the other day ask Thomas Kopelman, "Hey, are you growing through LinkedIn? I see your posts." And he is like, "No. I'm growing through Twitter primarily, I just repurpose content over here." LinkedIn, I did a case study on Joseph Stabile. He's growing really quickly through LinkedIn. SEO, we've seen Arnold & Mote. I've got a couple of my own clients. Seminars, there's a firm called AdviceOne. Webinars, we've got David Sandhu, who was on your Kitces Summit. When we think about paid ads, welcome to the game Fisher. When we think about referrals, I think about Yohance Harrison. That dude's doing some gangster work on referrals. So, here's the thing, you can do less and have higher impact on revenue. So, really, who are we talking to? And then where are we going to try to reach them? Let's choose one primary channel that is aligned with your strength, and let's double down there.

Michael: I'm struck with your framing around this. We see a similar phenomenon in the advisor marketing research we do as well, that everything works. Every channel works. There are advisors who are being successful in every channel, and then there's a segment that are being not successful in every channel. But we don't see one magical channel that works better than others. We convert all these into client acquisition costs. At the end of the day, what is the total cost between the advisor's time and the dollars that they spend to generate a new client? And at least, and especially at the average, at the median levels, the channels are disturbingly consistent with each other. We do see a few channels have more outliers than others.

If you go huge on YouTube, the numbers get really big. If you go huge in client events, the numbers only get so big, because no one's running like 1,000-person client events. You can just only cram so many people into the room. So, as I think of it, there are a few marketing strategies that have a longer upside tail than others, if that even matters to you, depending on what your goals, what your strategy are. But anything works, we really do find empirically as well, with remarkable consistency. And so, then when I look at what advisors are "crushing it," it's like they tend to crush it because they're doing a thing that's natural for them already.

So, I'm very much echoing what you said, Kendra, when I look from our data of what works, we see the same thing. Anything works, and the people who are most successful, it's like some combination of, they actually went after a thing that they like doing in the first place. Because if you don't like doing it, you don't persist, and that definitely doesn't work. And they've spent long enough doing the thing that they like that they're finding some ways to iterate and actually make it work. Because it's not always magic the first time. But if you enjoy the marketing channel and then you can stick with it because you're enjoying it anyways, you stick with it long enough to actually iterate and figure out how to make it work for you.

Kendra: Yeah. And I think what, let's just say, for example, you choose a channel like LinkedIn, it's like, "Okay, I know who I'm talking to, I know where I want to reach them. And now I know this is going to be my primary platform here is LinkedIn." That doesn't mean that your marketing is over, your marketing is actually just begun. Because now, I have to think about how do I optimize my profile? How do I create content that performs, which we'll talk about that next. How do I get consistent on publishing content? I think this is a big piece that people don't realize. It's really hard to be consistent when you're doing too many things. And also, I think marketing is vulnerable. I think this is something people don't think about.

But a lot of times, I have advisors ask me... I have an advisor that comes to mind who I love and adore. And they've been asking me about starting a YouTube channel for like two years. And they send me posts on YouTube like, hey, marketing is freaking vulnerable. It's hard to put yourself out there. It's hard to share your expertise. It's hard to watch it flop. And so, sometimes I think we try to solve other problems by just being all over the place. And when you say, "I'm trying to talk to these people, I'm trying to reach them here. Now, I got to say something? Ugh." That makes me even want to throw up on my sweater. For some people, maybe that's not a problem, but I think marketing is emotional and it is challenging to put yourself out there.

And I think when we think about these channels, aside from thinking about the medium, I think, where are you hanging out? Are you shaking hands at your local events? I think that can be a really good way of filtering it. Where are you naturally kicking it online or offline? Because it's going to be really hard to become good at what I call packaging your content so that it stands out without you hanging out there. So, that's another way that you can look through and choose channels. And that doesn't mean that there's going to be one channel. You might think like, "Hey, I could actually really rock LinkedIn or maybe a podcast."

It doesn't mean that one is better than the other. You just need to pick one. So, that we can narrow the focus here and you can become a gangster at whatever channel you choose. Because that's the next thing we got to fix, which is, how do you say something memorable on these channels so that you stand out against all the other people that are publishing content or showing up to these events or showing up to trade shows. So, there's a couple of different pieces there. But I think focus is a competitive edge, and it's just not natural. We all want to do all our things.

Michael: I was going to say, Kendra, in case you haven't heard, we have our thing in our industry like diversification. We're really big on it. Pick a channel, just feels terror. Pick a channel to focus on feels probably not quite as terrifying as the last conversation, which is pick an ideal client to focus on, but it's almost as terrifying.

Kendra: I think diversification shows up on channels when we start to build a real funnel. So, for example, as we build the top of funnel, which is, how do people find out you exist? Let's say, for YouTube, that's going to be long-form videos. And then there's a percentage of people that might move to your email list. That's your diversification. The reach and the availability of people that you can get in front of, that's your diversification. Diversification looks very different in marketing than it does in money. And quite frankly, if your marketing is working, turn off this podcast. I have so many advisors that come to me and they say, "Hey, my marketing isn't working. I feel like I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall." And I'm like, "Cool. Let's take a couple of things off your list so that you can get better at what you're actually doing and actually enjoying."

So, I think I understand the diversification, but also there's a point of it can become overwhelming. And I also believe...this is probably what makes me very, very unique as a marketer. I'm here to grow your business. Marketing is great, but I'm here to drive real impact so that you can help real people. And most marketers don't think about the fact that my clients, they are partners in firms and they have so much more to do than marketing. They have so much more to do. They've got to run a team. They've got to serve clients. They got to answer to the compliance police. There is a lot to do. So, we cannot let marketing become this ever-expanding black hole that we just throw money into and don't get results out of.

So, if you have all these things going on and you clearly are hitting your growth goals, that's great. But what if we could slow this down a bit? What if we could be a little more thoughtful about the kind of people that we love to work with? What if we could be a little more intentional about how we enjoy communicating our expertise to people? That's choosing a channel, by the way. And then, what are we going to say to them to stand out? That's the next step, which is, saying something memorable. So, I think there's just a lot to do in business. You have more to do the marketing and some advisors enjoy marketing and others just need it to reach people so that they can help people. And I'm here to serve both. If you love to market, great, but if you're just like, "Hey, I need to reach people and I want to create some boundaries around this so that my whole life doesn't feel like I'm just marketing," that's who I think I serve best, is people that have more to do than marketing.

Michael: And so, thus the exercise of, can you actually prune some of your marketing and channels and just double down on the few things that are already working and you might get similar, better results and just simplify your life because for most of us, advisors, we have a lot more to do than just the marketing part.

Kendra: A hundred percent. And just because you choose one channel doesn't mean that there are not going to be more things to do. For example, let's say you choose LinkedIn. Well, you've got to write content, you've got to optimize your profile. You got to be staying up to date on what kind of content performs on those platforms. You got to be thinking about ideas, you got to be taking calls, you got to be building a call booking flow that removes unqualified prospects from your calendar. This is just the beginning of an effective process.

Standing Out From The Crowd By Creating "Targeted Content" [54:40]

Michael: So, then, what comes next as we move through this process? Now I think you know who you're going after, you've chosen some channels that align to your style. What are you saying to get their attention?

Kendra: So, a lot of times for advisors, they sound a lot like each other and really, they're just not saying anything memorable. And really what this is in marketing world is just weak messaging. So, now we know who we're talking to, we know where we want to reach them, what are we going to say to catch their attention? So, I call this targeted content. And why I call it targeted is because I don't think helpful content is enough. If helpful content were enough, Michael, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Michael: We're all good at being helpful. I know how to do helpful things.

Kendra: Right. So, when we start to think about, "Okay, I'm going to post a video on YouTube," or "I'm going to post a post on LinkedIn. How the heck do I stand out from everybody else?" And there's a couple of ways to do this. One, you're speaking to one ideal client. I'm not posting content that would appeal to tech professionals, about equity comp, and pre-retirees. One client. Number two, we're going to talk about painful, urgent problems they care about, or maybe they overlook. Because that's another big piece of why people hire advisors, like, "Hey, what do I not know?" Number three, and I think this one's actually one of the most important, is you share ideas that they can't Google. If they can Google it, AI has already got it. Whether it's the AI overviews inside of Google or these different platforms or tools.

So, this is really your opportunity on that middle funnel sharing content that shows how you can solve their problems in a way that is like, "Oh, wow." And the fourth thing, and this is why channel selection matters, is in packaging that works well for the channel. So, what I mean by that is posting written content on LinkedIn needs to be very packaged very differently than it does on Twitter. So, this is why channel selection is reinforced, which is, I got to get really good on catching people's attention on the channel that I'm on. YouTube is a very different strategy as well. The packaging looks very different there. And so, if your ideal client does not immediately understand what your content will do for them, you really don't have a marketing strategy problem, you have a messaging problem.

And so, what I like to do in this step is take someone from weak messaging to targeted content. If I look at your post and it's not targeted towards me, it almost feels like I've stumbled into the wrong room at a party. If the right person sees your content, they're going to say, "Oh, this is really interesting. Let me take a look." So, the third way that advisor funnels often break is even if you get to the point where you know who you're talking to, you get clear on where you want to reach them, and you really double down with good channel focus, the third thing is, now you got to say something that'll catch their attention.

Michael: So, can you give us some examples now of what this looks like? And we've talked a little bit about problems in the past, but I think I'm trying to visualize what kind of problem addressing content are we talking about? How on the nose are we, and how do I share ideas they can't Google?

Kendra: Yeah. So, first, you really got to think about your perspective and your expertise. So, I'll give you a couple of examples. There's an advisor, I did a case study on Joseph Stabile. So, his ideal client is millennials earning $300,000 or more and they have equity comp. So, again, we know who he's talking to, and his primary channel is LinkedIn. So, with this client, here's an example of a post he wrote that I think is a really beautiful example of targeted content. So, he had a post he wrote about...most advisors, they would say this, "When the years when your kids are really young, are really expensive, you just got to get through it." Well, no wonder. Yeah, we all know that, it's painful, the first couple of years.

Here's how we start to create content that shows not only your perspective, your approach and your expertise. So, he had a client who was going to quit their job because childcare was too expensive, and he said, $70,000 a year. And then he walked them through the trade-offs of quitting their job. "So, what changes when you quit your high-paying job? We already know he's talking to people over $300,000 in income. So, these are the trade-offs. One, she's going to lose her $15,000 a year in 401(k) match. Number two, your insurance costs for your health insurance are going to dramatically increase. And number three, the second home that you've been saving for, I can see this in your financial plan, we're going to have to scratch that off the list." And so, he walks through these examples and then he shared a couple of different ways they brainstormed that they could approach this situation differently.

And here's what he shared: taking three days off, going remote, so that she could drop off and pick up her kids herself. Number two, flex hours to avoid that early 7:00 a.m. morning scramble. And number three, this allowed her to keep her benefits and her career momentum. And then at the end of the post, he says something that I really liked. He said, "Sometimes the obvious answer isn't always the right one." Instead of saying, "Kids are expensive when they're young, buckle up, hang on." He's like, "No, here's a real example. Here's the real trade-offs. Here's couple of solutions we looked at." And this client kept their high six figure earning job, also was able to show up for their kids. The trade-offs are the magic because an advisor helps you see the trade-offs you don't see before the decision. And guess what that does? It shows how you think. So, I think that's a really good example of great content.

Michael: So, I'm speaking directly to my prospective clients. I'm just literally talking about the problems they have, "Kids are young, they're expensive, and I'm burning out of my high-paying job," and I'm just walking through, "Here's the kind of guidance I give them."

Kendra: Yeah. Could someone Google, "Hey, how do I solve this?" That's really hard to Google in that way.

Michael: Yeah. Because there were a lot of factors in there of 401(k) match and health insurance. And I couldn't write a simple Google query for that. I could probably write a complex AI prompt, but at that point, that's more work than I probably want to do as a consumer.

Kendra: Right. And here's what I think good content does. It shows the way your brain works, and it helps people see, there are trade-offs that you are making that you don't even know you're making, and you can make those trade-offs, but what if I could help you see the numbers the hard numbers, and maybe the softer side of planning? There's a lot of softer elements to planning too as well. And so, I think just having someone like that where you're like, "Oh, dang, this advisor, if they help someone solve that problem that way, I wouldn't have thought that's how I would solve that problem. What else could they solve for me?" So, I think the key to great content is it takes time. This post was not written in ten minutes, I guarantee you that.

Most of this great content takes time. And so, I think that's why when we're doing too many things...you know what, when I write a personal LinkedIn post, it usually takes me about 45 minutes. I'm not just cranking this out with AI. So, I think the takeaway here is we have to say something memorable on the channel that you choose that aligns with the kind of person you are trying to attract.

Moving Consumers From Content To Client [1:02:08]

Michael: So, then what's the last step in this funnel process?

Kendra: So, now we know who we're talking to, we know where we want to reach them. We know what we're going to say to get their attention. And then next we have to really think about how are we going to move them from content to client? And so, this is where marketing funnels really start to take shape, but it's these three earlier pieces that the foundational pieces that break before then. So, we start to think about a marketing funnel. Really, all we're trying to answer is, how do we take someone from content to client? And again, usually a lot of advisors, they have many different marketing activities that are very disconnected, but no marketing funnels. So, just to go over what a funnel looks like. Top of funnel is, how does someone find out you exist?

I like to say, at every stage we earn something. So, top of funnel is like, how do we earn awareness? How do we get on somebody's radar? How do they find out you exist? Middle of funnel is, this is where you earn trust. So, how do they learn the ways that you can solve the important problems they care about? And then number three, when they're like, "Hey, you know what, Michael, he got on my radar. I like some of the content he's putting out. He's really making me think about the way I use my money and some of the problems I'm concerned about." Next part of the process is just the bottom of funnel, which is, how do I evaluate if Michael would be a good fit to solve my problems? And that's where I like to say, we earn assets.

So, a lot of advisors, they want to start here, earning assets. But the problem is that the top of the funnel, which is where the visibility happens, visibility actually opens the door to your calendar. But trust is what walks people through it, which is the middle of funnel. So, a lot of advisors think marketing funnels are just the bottom of the funnel. And I think that's another point of why they're really, really frustrated. It takes time to get on somebody's radar. It takes time to show that you are the person that can solve the problem. And then having them evaluate you. And what's wild about that last piece is sometimes I look at advisors' websites and their process to hire them is very confusing or very convoluted. And again, that's a piece that can break the funnel. So, what we have to do here is think about this full path. Once we know who we're talking to, where we're trying to reach them, how we're getting their attention, how do we help them evaluate that? And I can go through what some example funnels look like too.

Michael: Yeah. I think that would be helpful. I think we all get conceptually like, "They're seeing our stuff and we want to do business with them. So, please call me and schedule a meeting and become a client." But not all of us are necessarily getting the results from that that we would like.

Kendra: So, let's walk through what these funnels look like, an example. And this isn't the only way to do this. There's a few different ways you can like crack this nut, but here's some example funnels, and I'm going to break them down. So, you can see why also channel selection really matters. And for the advisors listening, I want you to think about, if you're using one of these channels, do you have these mechanisms in place? So, for example, if we're building a funnel on LinkedIn, top of funnel is actually sending connection requests to your ideal client. You got to get on the radar of the people that you want to help. And the algorithms, yes, they can help, yes, they will promote your content, but it's not enough. You need a top of funnel strategy to get in front of the right people.

Middle of funnel is posting highly-targeted content that is well packaged consistently. So, for this channel, this is probably a minimum of three times a week, sometimes more. But there has to be consistent, packaged, well-performing content that's going out consistently. And then bottom of funnel for a LinkedIn funnel would be make it really clear how to get on your calendar. So, there's a couple of really simple ways you do this. One, you could make a written call to action in a post. You'd be surprised how many people don't realize you're a licensed advisor taking on clients. Or two, you could also mention like, "Hey, if you need help with this, jump over to my profile and you can schedule a call with me on my profile."

And this is really, really important because these platforms, these channels, they don't want you to take people off their platform. But if you play by their rules and you use the way that the different platforms are structured, like LinkedIn doesn't mind somebody going to your profile and scheduling a call. But here's a really good analogy. Think about this. If you were a speaker at a conference and you go on stage and you're just like, "Hey I'm talking, I'm speaking, whatever, after the show or after the event here, I'm going to go across the street and I'm going to answer your questions." The event organizer would not bring you back. They'd be like, "You just took people from a conference." Platforms work the same way. But if you can say, "Hey, after I'm done speaking, let's go to the side of the stage and I'm going to answer your questions there," cool. Platforms will play ball with that.

So, bottom of funnel for LinkedIn is making sure you're taking someone to the side of the stage and not across the street. So, links taking people off the platform usually don't perform well. So, you can put a booking link in your profile and make it really easy to get to your website. And what's wild about that too is that sometimes I go to advisor's profile and I actually can't even find their website link. So, it's these simple three connected activities. Top of funnel is sending connection requests to your ideal client. Middle of funnel is posting highly targeted, well-packaged content that will catch their attention. And the bottom of the funnel is just making it clear how to get to your calendar and your website. So, that's a sample LinkedIn funnel.

Michael: So, I want to make sure I understand. I guess the key part at the end of this is just somewhere at the end of that awesome post that got the conversation going with a bunch of the prospects that you would want to be working with. You actually need to have the words, "Hey, everyone. I hope this was helpful. I'm a licensed financial advisor taking on clients. If you want to learn more about me and how we work together, click over to my profile and schedule a meeting with me through my profile link."

Kendra: I don't think you have to be that direct. I think it's smart to occasionally be that direct. But I might say something like, "Hey, if this is something you're struggling with, this is exactly what I help people with. Reach out if you need me." People are going to investigate. They're going to poke around. When they poke around, do they find your website? Do they find a clear path? And so, this funnel right now, I can point to two or three advisors who are crushing it with this funnel. It is super simple. An important part of this too, and this is why, again, ideal client clarity really, really matters, is when you go to these advisors' profiles, on their profile, they've optimized that profile to speak to one client type. So, "Hey, I work with equity comp individuals making $300,000 or more, who want to take the stress out of managing their money." That would be their profile headline.

So, you have to optimize that profile knowing that your ideal client is going to come there. So, there's another piece to that I think is important, which is profile optimization. So, there's more pieces to this than just sending connection requests, being great at content, making it clear how to get there. We got to optimize a profile and stuff like that. And again, I think this goes back to what we were initially talking about is, if I'm talking to multiple kinds of people, I can't set my profile up appropriately. I don't know exactly who to send connection requests to. You can see how these pieces break down as we move into building an actual funnel, which is, marketing activities that are connected together instead of just throwing spaghetti at the wall.

Michael: So, can you give us some other examples? We've talked about LinkedIn context, maybe some others of what is, what does it mean to do this full funnel structure for a client?

Kendra: So, let's talk a little bit about YouTube and SEO. And I want to be clear here that each channel can be its own funnel. I'm just giving you these so you can see the tangible, how this actually clicks together. So, YouTube is a very different beast. So, this is why you got to know your channel. So, YouTube has incredible visibility. They will put good videos in front of the right people at an astronomical rate. Challenge with YouTube is it's hard to do quality videos and package your content in a way that gets YouTube to promote your content. So, for YouTube specifically, the top of funnel is actually just posting your long-form video. They have immense visibility there.

In middle of funnel for YouTube, because we're talking about long-form video here, is actually your video. So, we got to get it in front of them, they got to click it, and then they got to watch it. Here's the important part. If they click, but they don't stick, you're not going to earn the trust. So, there's a couple of different mechanisms in place there. And then the bottom of funnel for YouTube is really just a clear call to action. Make one a few minutes in...and this is not a hard call to action. This is just like, "Hey, by the way, if you need help with this topic, I'm A CFP, and I help clients with this exact problem, just click the link at the top of the description to schedule a call with me," and you jump right back in. So, it's not all these different activities together. It's, hey, long-form video is top of funnel and middle of funnel. And then the bottom of funnel is clear calls to action, like, "Hey, I'm accepting clients, I help people like you. The link is in the description."

Again, it's got to be there quick and easy. And again, people will do their research. A marketing funnel is just a suggestion. I'm not saying people won't drive off the road and go somewhere else. I'm saying you are creating an intentional journey for people to potentially travel.

Michael: I think the takeaway to me in all of this is just through reinforcement that at some point, at least periodically, you have to literally tell them exactly what to do.

Kendra: Oh, 100 percent.

Michael: "I am an advisor. I am accepting clients. Click through my profile for a link." "Hey, if you need help with this topic, I'm a CFP professional, click the link at the top of the description to schedule a call with me." You have to actually say it.

Kendra: Yeah. And you know why I say that is actually because I've interviewed my clients, and I've also watched my clients…one just recently had a massive prospect who put a contact form in and said, "Are you accepting clients?" I about fell out of my desk chair. I was like, "Are you freaking kidding me? Of course, we're accepting clients." And so, that's something I've seen in our conversations with my clients, what they hear from their prospects. And so, a fun little fact is I'm testing something on one of our clients' websites where I actually put like a little emoji next to their call schedule button and it just says, "Accepting clients." And it's like a little visual. And I've heard some advisors put a little banner at the top of their website. So, I didn't realize I had to let people know that my clients were taking on clients. And I think this really comes back to what we're talking about here on YouTube, is you got to let them know, "Hey, I'm a professional. I'm not just a financial influencer. And guess what? I help people just like you. And if this problem feels like something you want help with, just take a look at the link in the description."

Michael: Your comment there hits home. "I'm a professional, not just a financial influencer." Yes, and consumers can't necessarily tell the difference if you don't actually point this out and say that you work with clients and are accepting new ones.

How Rebel Media Agency Works With Advisory Firms [1:13:03]

Michael: So, now help us understand your marketing business and what you do. And highlighted a little earlier, we help RIAs managing 500 million or more replace their random marketing tactics. But take us full circle now to your business, Kendra, what do you do?

Kendra: So, we only work with RIAs. And to be clear, that was a journey to getting to RIAs. And so, we have a certain level of RIA that we are a remarkable fit for. And the way that I like to describe this one is, I'm a fractional CFO. And so, what that means is you can buy a fraction of my time and my expertise to work on your business. And I have a whole team behind me. I have about nine or ten people. So, the way that my business works, let's think of like an analogy here, is I steer the ship. I decide what are our client's goals, how are we going to get there, how are we going to hit them, and what are the projects that support steering the ship?

And then I have a marketing manager who's like my partner in crime and she runs the ship. And so, she helps me own the things that move the plan forward. And so, if it changes the plan, it's brought to me. If it moves the plan forward, it's brought to my marketing manager. And the way that we work with advisors, and I'm sure a lot of advisors can relate to this, we wear a lot of hats in our businesses. And many of our clients, they might be wearing the marketing hat or maybe they're tossing it around to different people on their team, but there's no clear ownership. So, typically when an RIA comes to me, they're ready to take the marketing hat off their head and place it firmly on mine. And they want me to drive the strategy, drive the execution, and stay accountable to results.

So, I am making a lot of these decisions in tandem with them. I'm saying, "Hey, who are we talking to? How are we going to reach them? What are we going to say, and how are we going to move them from content to client?" And I want to be very clear about this because I think it's really easy to just say "Hey, this is my business and everything's great," but if you were to go to any of my clients' websites right now, there is something I'm embarrassed for you to see, every single client. My clients don't have this perfectly figured out. And for each of our clients, they may be at a different point in the framework. Maybe we've gotten clear on who they serve and what those problems are, and the channels we're going to use, but maybe we haven't gotten the channel really working correctly, or the funnel's not fully built.

So, there's a lot of pieces to this process that we execute for clients based off the framework that I've built here. And it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. But it's a lot of fun. And I'm pretty obsessed with advisor marketing if you can't tell, Michael.

Michael: So, help me understand a little bit more, just scope of what you typically do, how does it price? Just help set expectations for us for folks that are trying to understand what a service like this looks like.

Kendra: Yeah. So, we have a minimum floor of what it costs to hire us. And that's why when I look at setting who we serve, it has to be at a certain level where it makes sense to hire someone like us. So, our floor is $10,000 a month, and it goes up from there based on complexity, number of channels, and what we're pulling together for the client. And as far as what that breaks down to into services, my team, we will run the strategy, the copy, any website build that we need to do, any pages that we build. We've got a video editor, we've got an SEO consultant, I've got a couple of people on my team that write pretty much all the different pieces that come together for marketing. We've got also a graphic designer. All those people around my team, and you pay one set fee per month for access to my help and my team's execution.

So, it's a really unique business model. And also, I think what also makes it super unique is I don't just pass my clients off to just my internal team. Every client actually still works with me. And so, we're intentionally small on purpose, which is radically different to how most people build their businesses.

Michael: I was going to say, is there like a capacity limitation, you only work with so many firms at a time?

Kendra: Yeah. We definitely do. And this is a challenge to the model that I have. But we work with up to half a dozen clients at a time depending on what their scope looks like, sometimes a little more, a little less, depending on what their needs are. And then we grow over time with that client. Typically, as they grow, they want to keep growing. And so, we expand scope and build over time together with them. And I think sometimes there's a part of me that sees other people's businesses that are just like really big and they have all these clients, and I'm just like, "That's not fun to me. I really love our clients.

I really enjoy the camaraderie and the teamwork, and I love the nuance that goes into this. And that doesn't mean we'll always be that way, but I don't ever see us being huge or big. My business is profitable, our clients are very happy, they stick around for a long time, and so does my team. So, it works for me. It's a weird little world that I've built. And again, it's not perfect, there's probably things I'm involved in that I shouldn't be, and I'm learning to really understand where I make the biggest impact for our clients and our team. And then getting my nose out of things that aren't my business.

What Surprised Kendra The Most Building Her Business [1:18:09]

Michael: So, what surprised you the most on this journey of building and marketing your business to help advisors market theirs?

Kendra: Oh, man. I think all the challenges along the way that--- I thought it was going to get easier. I just feel like there's always something broken. There's always a hard conversation I have to have to set expectations, sometimes even with myself. And I think it always feels like everyone else has it figured out but you. And I think the other thing that's been really surprising to me is how hard it is to want what you want. And what I mean by that is I don't want a big agency. I want an agency that does amazing work for incredible advisors that I believe in, and it still gives me enough time and energy to live a remarkable life. And all those things working together create constraints.

And sometimes I've really struggled with just owning what I want. I always feel this pressure of more, I always feel this lagging question of, what is enough? And growth can be wonderful. I just think that you have to really understand, what kind of business do you want to build? What life do you want to build? And then we build the business to support your life, not the other way around. So, a lot of clients come to me and they want to grow, and they're genuinely excited about it. But some advisors are just like, "You know what, I'm getting enough referrals based off the clients that I have." And I'm like, "That's awesome." Build the weird, wacky business that you want to build. And always be asking yourself, who am I? And who do I want to be and what kind of life do I want to live? And how do I align my business with that?

And that's been so hard, particularly when there's opportunities, particularly when there's different partnerships that come up. I think it would astound people on the backend, what I say no to. And it feels like a flex, but honestly, it hurts. It hurts to say no, and it's just never gotten easier.

The Low Point On Kendra's Journey [1:19:59]

Michael: So, what was the low point for you on this journey?

Kendra: I think one of the low points was just firing my biggest client. I took a walk and went through that exercise at one point where I was really frustrated with this client not paying their bill, and I realized I needed to fire this client. And financial services really intimidated me for a long time. I'm sure a lot of advisors can relate to that. Different elements of this field can be very intimidating. And it felt very counterintuitive to make a big decision like that. And I remember firing that client and being like, "Well, we're going all in. I'm going to really have to own this decision." And I think the hardest part about it was, I really loved the client just as people.

This client had been with me like five or six years, and they were the easiest client. They were like, "I'm marketing tacos." And so, I think firing that client meant that I was all in on financial services. And what I didn't realize at the time is it was going to turn me into a master of my craft, and it was going to ignite the passion I have for the work I do. And that doesn't mean that for the advisors listening, you need to fire clients. But you probably have a couple of big brave decisions that you've had on the back burner for a while that if you were honest with yourself, you're like, "Gosh, darn it, I really need to make this decision."

And maybe it's hiring someone, maybe it's firing someone. Maybe it's just accepting what you want your business to look like instead of just seeing other advisors growing on these platforms and you're like, "You know what, I just really love a tiny and mighty business. I love serving a handful of clients." Own what you want. And they be radically committed to just trying to build that. I think that's really, really hard. And if I were building my business based off what's culturally accepted for an agency, it would look radically different and I would be so unhappy.

Kendra's Advice For Her Younger Self And For Newer Advisors [1:21:43]

Michael: So, what else do you know now you wish you could go back and tell you from five, ten years ago as you were coming down this path?

Kendra: I would say one of the things I've learned is that someone could be a great person and a bad client. I have had to fire people along the way that were great people and they were a bad client, or just I had outgrown them. It was actually in their best interest for me to not do their marketing anymore because they had evolved or I wasn't a good fit for them, or they weren't a good fit for me. And so, I think not being afraid to accept the things that I've outgrown, and I think that's one of the biggest thing for me. And then also I think your next level is usually found through a hard decision. And I always think about, what's that big scary thing that I need to do next?

And for me, it's actually being the captain of the ship and steering the ship in my business because our clients will actually be served better if I stay focused on using my energy in the way that really prioritizes the strategy and the priorities and those high-impact decisions. I can be really bad about getting in there and things that are not my business, the execution, and the project management. So, even for me, I'm still always asking myself, "What's that next hard decision I need to make to go to the next level?" And sometimes the next level isn't more clients, more workload. For me, the next level is actually less chaos, less extremely working hard and finding a more sustainable pace for myself. So, I'd say what I've learned is sometimes people can be a great person and a bad client, and then also your next level is usually found through a hard decision.

Michael: So, what advice would you give younger, newer advisors coming in and trying to set a good marketing path, a good marketing foundation for themselves?

Kendra: Well, I think the first thing you have to understand is at what point will you be stable in revenue? So, for example, maybe your average client value is X thousand dollars per year. And once you get to ten, 15, 20, you'll be stable. I think the most important thing for a new advisor is you have to stay in business. If you don't stay in business, you can't help people. So, really understanding what is that first flag in the sand that if I get there, then I can at least run this thing. I might not be like paying myself beaucoup money, but really understanding what that looks like. Because I think for a lot of new advisors, they never actually established that breathing point where then they can start to step back and start to really develop a tighter, deeper strategy on how they will grow.

But until you're stable, until you have revenue, you are not going to be able to sleep at night. And at that point, you might be trying a lot of things. You might be doing a few different things. You might be experimenting, and I think that's an important milestone. First is understanding what that point in your journey is going to look like. And it's usually a lot less than most advisors think. And then I think the next step is really starting to understand, going back to the start of this conversation is, "Who is a profitable client for me? How many clients do I want to work with?" And starting to get a little bit more clear on who you want to work with, where you might want to reach them. And then just test. I'm still testing all this stuff with our own clients, but I do know that throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall is a really fast way to set a lot of money on fire.

What Success Means To Kendra [1:25:00]

Michael: So, as we come to the end of the podcast here, this is a show about success and one of the things that always comes up is just literally that word success means very different things to different people. And so, you're on this wonderful path with the success of the business as you've noted very clear on who your ideal client is and how you want to serve them and how you reach them. And the team seems to be in a great place. So, the business is doing so well from a success end. How do you define success personally for yourself at this point?

Kendra: To me, success is really about doing meaningful work with clients that I believe in, and still having enough energy and time to build a life that feels adventurous and uniquely mine. And I think there's a couple of different components to that. So, let's break that down. So, meaningful work. What does meaningful work mean to me? This means that I want to ship work for our clients that I'm proud of, and I want that work to actually help people. So, if a piece of content gets a lot of views or it goes viral, but it doesn't actually help people, it's not a win in my book. So, I want to ship meaningful work that helps people.

As far as clients I believe in, they have to pass what's called the airport test. And I heard this from a friend of mine many years ago, I've never forgot it. And quite frankly, it's cost me a lot of money. Which is, if Michael, you and I we're on a layover at the airport and we our flight's delayed, are you kind enough, warm enough and friendly enough, do I like you enough to just go have a drink with you at the bar? If I don't, you are not the client for me. And I heard someone say a while back, if you want to know what you actually believe in in business, look at what you're willing to lose money over. And I will lose clients over the fact they don't pass the airport test. I don't care who you are, I don't care how much you think you want to pay me, you cannot buy your way onto our client list. You have to be a good advisor that I believe in that really, really truly believes that financial planning changes lives. Because I believe that. Do you believe that? And would I have a drink with you? Clients have to pass the airport test.

And number three, building a life that really feels uniquely mine, having enough energy and time, those are two key things. Because you might even have the money, but you don't have the energy or the time to do the things that you want to care about, that you want to do outside of work, I failed. If I build a business that doesn't allow me to go to Africa and sleep in the middle of the Serengeti with lions, which I've done, or it doesn't allow me to go to my favorite little coffee shop across the street. I have this weird thing that I do with my boyfriend. We go to the coffee shop across the street three or four times a week. That is a life that is uniquely mine. We have this little cute community and we meet with a bunch of locals.

And so, a good question to ask yourself is, I am too busy when... blank. And for me, I'm too busy when I don't have time to go to my local coffee shop three or four days a week and talk about life and culture and laugh. And that's what I think success looks like to me. Meaningful work with people and advisors I believe in, and still having enough time and energy to live a life that feels uniquely mine. And to be honest, it's really hard. I think I've gotten really good at the first part, gotten good at the second part, but I really struggle with the third part. I work a lot.

I really care about the results of our clients. Their goals are my goals. Because I'm not just looking at a firm that wants to grow. I think of my clients and their individual names and what that growth means to them. And so, the back end of that equation of enough time and energy to do those things that are uniquely mine, make my life unique, is something I'm still working on and I'm still getting better at. But I do think understanding what success means to you is very important, because you'll notice what didn't come up in my equation is massive growth. I'm going to stay as small as I can for as long as I can. That doesn't mean I won't grow, but I will grow on purpose with intention. And if any growth means that I can't do meaningful work with clients I believe in and still have a life outside of work, it's not the right growth for me. And really getting clear on that makes making decisions a lot easier.

Michael: I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Kendra, for joining us on the "Financial Advisor Success" Podcast.

Kendra: Thanks so much for having me.

Michael: Thank you.