It was 2011. I sat in Madison Square Garden, one of 20,000 fans watching Prince perform what would be one of his last major concerts. At the time, I worked out of a small office managing a portfolio of around 20 clients. My reach was very limited, my phone never rang unless it was a wholesaler and I spent a significant amount of time looking for prospects.
As I watched in awe as the iconic artist performed his catalog of hits, I set myself the goal of placing my financial advisory skills in front of a larger audience.
Fast forward to 2016. One day I found myself sitting in the office of an old friend who worked in the insurance industry. While doing the usual networking center-of-influence dance seeking introductions to each other’s clients, she shared that she co-hosted a daily radio show on SiriusXM and asked if I’d like to come on the air to discuss wealth-building. Of course I agreed.
On the day, not wanting to go alone, I asked my partner, Tiffany Hawkins, to come along.
Turns out it wasn’t just any radio show, it was a drive-time program on one of the biggest talk stations on the network! What was slated to be a 15-minute interview turned into an hour-long session with live callers seeking financial advice on air. That evening our website nearly crashed and the phones rang constantly. The host was so impressed with our segment that she invited us back, which led to a monthly segment on her show, and ultimately our own weekly SiriusXM show on Sunday mornings.
Tiffany and I hosted that show for three years as the leads poured into our firm. But in fall 2020 we learned our contract would not be renewed. I was extremely disappointed until I realized that during those years we had developed a national following — one which, thanks to digital technology, we had direct access to.
We launched our podcast, “
Today, my 10-person firm brings in five to 10 leads a week from across the country. The potential clients are aware of my background and nearly half fit into the firm’s client profile. Most of the qualified prospects become clients after two relatively brief meetings. To be sure, we have also continued to leverage traditional print and electronic media, from writing forFinancial Planning to appearing on CNBC, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg and the Black News Channel. However, we have found the biggest lead sources to be social media and podcasting.
Not every financial advisor stumbles onto a national radio show on SiriusXM but almost all planners and firms have the ability to launch a podcast or YouTube channel. In order to do so successfully, however, there are three major challenges that need to be faced and overcome.
Consistency
If you set out to create a weekly podcast, you have to actually put out a weekly podcast. It is easy to start a podcast but difficult to stick with. Episodes should drop the same day each week and at around the same time. It is easy to become discouraged with the process and difficult to come up with fresh content each week.
It’s also nearly impossible to host the show alone. If you over-rely on guests, you’ve just made your job even harder because you have to not only coordinate schedules but also ensure the guests are actually interesting. And, news flash, many of the guests you may have in mind will come across as boring in front of a microphone.
Equally as important as releasing episodes regularly is engaging with your social media pages afterwards. After each new episode is released we send out 20 to 30 tweets summarizing the content we covered. We respond to every listener’s tweet with actual answers — not just rote invitations to schedule a call.
Be who you are online, but not too much, experts say.
Original content
The second challenge is creating interesting and unique content. There are so many financial advisors out there and most of us sound exactly the same. You have to find your own voice and use it to deliver advice with your own slant. For instance, when we covered socially responsible investing we titled the show, “Is your money racist? Is your money sexist? Is your portfolio ruining the world?” When we recently discussed estate planning, we called the episode “Trust fund babies.” Our holiday gift-giving show was “No body wash for Christmas.”
Not only do we lure people in with catchy titles, we keep them listening with conversations that you’d have with a friend over a drink as opposed to sounding like we’re delivering a seminar.
Building an audience
The final challenge is finding and growing your audience. Building it to a crescendo may take months, if not years. Ironically, many of the most popular financial “experts” out there who are the best at building followers on social media happen to also have the worst advice. Social media needs strong, credentialed planners like you.
You can build a following by guesting on other people’s podcasts — any podcasts. I love being on platforms where audiences are not specifically looking for financial advice. You want to get some practice and you also want to cross-pollinate a lot of different channels — that's how you get crossover listeners.
You can also gain listeners by leveraging your own social media, writing thought leadership pieces and, as mentioned above, staying consistent with your broadcast and social media activities.
Follow this advice and, while I can’t guarantee that you’ll have the success of Prince Rogers Nelson, I do believe you will help a lot of people — and gain some clients in the process.
