In a new episode of the Financial Planning Podcast, financial advisor Larry Sprung explains how his family’s love of hockey has translated into the growth of his practice.
The business of the 20-year veteran advisor’s Hauppauge, New York-based RIA, Mitlin Financial, jumped by 25% in terms of revenue and 17% in net new assets last year after it joined the Carson Group’s Carson Partners network, according to Sprung. A significant part of that expansion came from engaging with clients and potential clients through social media posts about hockey, charity and his family.
Some advisors may be
In the podcast conversation with FP Chief Correspondent Tobias Salinger, Sprung answered the following five questions on the key lessons that other advisors can learn from the practice’s experience in building its social media presence.
1. Your firm is among the 21% of RIAs that have a Twitter account and the 56% of practices using multiple social media outlets. That's from the Investment Adviser Industry Snapshot of 2021 compiled by the Investment Adviser Association and National Regulatory Services. What would you say to any advisor who's on the fence about whether a social media footprint could help their firm grow?
2. You told me a story about your son scoring a game-winning goal for his hockey team. What is the story of that game, and what was the impact to your practice from posting a video of that goal?
3. Now what about the videos you post from rinks around the country? How did you and your team get that idea, and how does it work?
4. We’ve talked about new clients coming into the firm as a result of social media, but now let’s shift to the existing base. How can social media help strengthen relationships with clients, and do you have any examples that include cupcakes?
5. What advice would you share with other advisors who are hearing this and want to take the next step toward boosting their social media footprints?
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Transcription:
Tobias Salinger: (
Welcome back to the Financial Planning Podcast. My name is Tobias Salinger, and I am your chief correspondent at Financial Planning. We're very pleased today to have as our guest financial advisor, Larry Sprung the founder of Mitlin Financial. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Lawrence Sprung: (
Hey, thanks for having me. Tobias. It's pleasure to be here.
Tobias Salinger: (
Of course, sprung is a 20 year veteran advisor whose practice is based on long island and Hapague New York. He's also the host of the Mitlin Money Mindset podcast. Mitlin Financial is an RIA only practice affiliated with Carson groups. Carson partners sprung joined Carson in 2020. Since that time he says Midland's net new assets have grown more than 17% year over year. Revenue has jumped by 25% and profit has increased by even more today. We're going to talk about how the practices social media presence has fueled that growth. And your firm is among the 21% of RIAs that have a Twitter account and 56% of practices using multiple social media outlets. Those stats are from the investment advisor industry snapshot of 2021 from the investment advisor association and national regular services. They're pretty eyeopening figures. Uh, when you think about the year 2021 and only 21% of RIAs, uh, that have a Twitter account, uh, what would you say to any advisor who's on the fence about whether social media footprint could help their firm grow?
Lawrence Sprung: (
Yeah, so by that's a, that's a great question. And I, I think that the, you know, the stats that you just, uh, outlined is a very telling tale. Um, interestingly enough, I think what it, you know, depending on how you look at it, right, you could say, Hey, you know, it's, uh, it's getting saturated, or you could say there's a huge amount of upside, right cup, half empty cup, half full, so to speak. We, you know, we look at it as a great opportunity and we think that every firm should be there in some way, shape or form, uh, you know, maybe Twitter, isn't the lions share of the firm's out there, main outlet. Uh, you know, I think it does take some time to that point that, you know, you don't want to be out on every channel unless you can keep up with it. So maybe the stat is just there, cuz maybe advisors or RAs are more heavily utilizing Facebook or LinkedIn perhaps. I don't know. Uh, but we're using all the channels, uh, that are available to us and, and I would highly recommend it. I think there's some, uh, definite tangible benefits from being there
Tobias Salinger: (
And um, on that note and you know, you're right. Twitter, maybe that's just not the, the preferred medium, uh, uh, sometimes it is just, uh, it, it becomes a, a real place full of journalists, uh, more than, uh, more than a lot of financial advisors and financial firms. Um, so very good point. But, um, but getting back to the larger theme of social media, uh, you told me a great story about your son's scoring a game winning goal for his hockey team. Um, what is the story of that game and what was the impact to your practice from just posting a video of that goal?
Lawrence Sprung: (
Yeah, so I, I think one of the things that's most surprising to me over the years is the lack of interest by folks with regard to the financial stories, right? And the real interest in the human inside of things and the people story. So, uh, this was really one of the first instances where we saw a tremendous outpouring and really some opportunities with, uh, perspective and really gaining new clients, which I'll talk about in a minute, but essentially, yeah, my son was in a precarious situation. He was a, at a, a, uh, a high level hockey tournament and, uh, it was a tight game and it was tied. And at, towards the end of the game, he took a penalty, uh, which quite frankly, was not well timed, uh, put there his team in a, in a terrible, uh, predicament where, you know, giving the, uh, the other team a power play toward the end of the game could have been, uh, devastating and ultimately led to, uh, them losing.
Lawrence Sprung: (
Uh, the good news is he went to the box, the game ended up going to overtime. And in overtime he came out of the penalty box and like really a, a player possessed pick up, picked up the puck and essentially ended up bearing it and scoring a game winning goal. And what we ultimately did was took that event and created a, a social media post, which we used predominantly across all social media platforms, basically turning it into a life lesson and saying, Hey, you know, sometimes we make mistakes as human beings. Uh, but you know, we have to own that mistake. And if we have the opportunity to go out and take care of it and, and make it right, like he did in that instance for him and his, uh, his teammates and the outpouring of folks that started commenting and the number of views, I, I think across somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 or 15,000 views across, you know, that we were able to track across all the platforms, if not more than that.
Lawrence Sprung: (
And we ultimately ended up getting people who were asking, you know, inquiring, who we hadn't talked to in a while, we had one individual that said, Hey, you know, this is great. I haven't seen you in a while. I actually change jobs. Uh, you know, I'd be interested in talking to you cuz we, he may be in the market to, uh, you know, for a new financial advisor. And then, you know, that was somebody who I knew. And then we had another individual from the Midwest who reached out to us, uh, who loved the clip and saw, you know, had been following me, saw I was a hockey guy, looked at some of our, our content and then ultimately reached out to us as well. And we ended up getting about two, two new clients from that post in particular that we were able to directly connect back to that post, which, you know, again, it's a life lesson. It's an interesting story. And it really to of started a conversation and, uh, gained an interest with people that may not have been interested or may not have been interested in any of our other posts for whatever reason.
Tobias Salinger: (
Well, it is a powerful tool when, uh, when there are 12 or 15,000, uh, views out there, uh, on social media from, from just one post or one video. Um, and listeners, we are speaking with Larry sprung of Midland financial. We're going to take a very short break and we'll be back with more tips about social media, stay with us. We'll be right back. And we're back, we're speaking with Larry sprung of Midland financial. So we're talking about social media and we're talking about hockey. Um, what about the videos you post from rinks around the country? How did you and your team get that idea and how does it work?
Lawrence Sprung: (
Yeah, so that was, uh, that was an interesting thing. And it's, it's taken on a life of its own and in a very good way. So essentially again, I, I, I don't remember even which one of my boys, but we posted a clip of a situation where they were playing hockey or something like that. And people started commenting and saying, oh, I know that rink you were at. And they tried to name the RI and some of people were right and some people were wrong and I sat down and I said, you know, we go to all lot of rinks. It seems interesting, cuz a lot of people who follow me have a hockey background, maybe kids that play or they play themselves, et cetera. And I said, what if we turn this into a thing and we start making little one minute videos at every rink we go to and then we post them, give people an opportunity to guess what rank I'm at.
Lawrence Sprung: (
You know, we give 'em a little bit of information with the scenery and what have you, uh, let them guess. And then when they make their guess also tag a charity of their choice and then essentially after a week or so, we'll pick a, uh, a winner from all the right folks that, uh, guess correctly and then essentially make a hundred dollars donation to their charity of choice in their name. And, uh, we started out initially we were doing it, um, weekly, which was a lot, but we had a lot of rings that we were visiting, which was good. And then the pandemic hit. So we took a little bit of a break and now we brought it back with the NHS L uh, opening, uh, this past September and we're doing it on a monthly basis and it's, it's just become a fun thing.
Lawrence Sprung: (
Like I run into people and they're like, oh, you're not at a rink today. You know, it's become a funny thing, but it's been a great opportunity for us to have some fun, uh, give some donations to some great charities that we know of. And we've learned about a lot of charities that we were unaware of that, you know, a hundred dollars donation and was very meaningful to them and they were very appreciative of it. And you know, we've given to the, the, um, the guide dog foundation, Susan G. Coleman, uh, the American special hockey association, uh, you know, a ton of different, um, great charities. And, you know, we just announced a winner recently. And, uh, it was somebody who guessed, right. I was at the Walter Brown arena in Boston. Uh, so this is not just located on long island or New York, it's all throughout the country.
Lawrence Sprung: (
And we made a hundred dollars donation to his charity, Susan G Koman and he sent me a personal message. And he said, you know, you, you don't understand what this means to me. He's a, like my wife, I, I don't know if you know this and it's somebody I had known, but haven't really kept in great touch with my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. Um, you know, fortunately she's in remission, but this is something that's really meaningful to myself and my family. And he was like, uh, I'm overjoyed that, uh, I won and you this donation. Um, so those are the messages that we really enjoy seeing. And, you know, just to kind of take it one step further, we also take a screenshot when we make the donation showing that we actually make it because we don't wanna be, we don't want any perception that, oh, you're just doing this as a marketing employee and not making the donation. We're very clear. The donation is just as important to us as having the fun. So we take that screenshot of the donation and post it along with the winner's, uh, information. When we, uh, when we pick it,
Tobias Salinger: (
The intersection of fun, uh, charitable donations, business development in what health management and a hockey, uh, always a great, uh, uh, juxtaposition when you've got, got that many different things in involved, always a lot of fun. Um, and we've talked about new clients, um, kind of reaching out or perspective, uh, clients reaching out, um, as a result of your post, um, and your social media presence. Uh, but, but why don't we shift to the existing base of clients? Um, how can social media help strengthen relationships with your existing clients? And do you have any examples that include cupcakes?
Lawrence Sprung: (
Yes, I do. Yeah. So I, you know, listen a as much as social media can be used for a tool for all those things we were discussing, you know, lead gen and staying in front of and in touch with people. You know, I, I think it's just as important for us, you know, as, as advisors, we always talk about how much more important it is to keep a client, or how much caught more cost effective if you will. It is to keep a client, uh, long term than to acquire a new client. So I think you have to also have in your social media strategy, a way to utilize it as a tool to strengthen those relationships that have with existing clients. So we had one client in particular and, you know, this is how we monitor or keep an eye out for certain things.
Lawrence Sprung: (
We had a client that just so happened to she's an author, and she had a book release and she hit the New York times bestselling list bestseller list. And she just so happened a post on the, uh, on, I think it was Facebook about this and hitting the New York times best seller seller's list. And she said, man, I wish I really had a cupcake or cupcakes right now to celebrate. I just don't have any in the house. So we immediately went to work. We saw this, we saw this as a great opportunity to recognize her achievement and also solidify the relationship and do a great thing. So, you know, in this day and age, when we have things at our finger fingertips, it's very easy to go on, find the best location to buy cupcakes in a client's area. And as you mentioned, we're in Hoppo New York.
Lawrence Sprung: (
This client happens to be in North Carolina. So we, we looked at some research, found a place that would deliver or was on GrubHub or one of those services. And within like an hour, hour and a half, we had cupcakes at her door. And, you know, she was posting about it on social media about how fantastic and how thoughtful it was for us. So that gives us some free press. We didn't do it for that purpose, but that was like an added bonus. And she was overjoyed. She was like, oh, I just kind of put that out in the universe and bam it's here. And, you know, those are the things, you know, you can find out things like, you know, my, my client's kids get engaged and maybe you don't have seeing them for three or six months for their next meeting, but you can know that right on the spot. And if you take advantage of that and call them from actively, Hey, congratulations, you know, it just shows you're paying attention. And there are various ways to do that. You know, when you're taking your 10 or 15 minutes a day working on social media, just make sure you take a look at the feed and see if there's anything meaningful in there that you can benefit from or utilize as a tool to solidify those great relay that we all have.
Tobias Salinger: (
And what other advice would you share, uh, with advisors who are hearing this and want to think of taking the next step toward boosting their social media footprint?
Lawrence Sprung: (
Yeah. I think you have to have a game plan. I mean, we talk all the time with clients about having a financial plan. You need a plan for social media to, um, and it's, it's a little bit, you know, it's a learning process. You have to start out with a plan. And like we said earlier, maybe start out with one or two different channels, uh, to make it so that it's not overwhelming dip your toe in and you gotta kind of feel it out and see what takes hold for you and what your audience is most interested in. Maybe it's just that my audience isn't in as interested in the financial stuff as they are the personal stuff. Um, other advisors may have a different experience. I, I don't necessarily think so, but you know, you find out what people are interested in and, you know, find that niche or that area that you could speak to and just start building an audience and, and curating and sending content and important information or things that people are interested in. And you can gauge what gets the impressions, what gets the views, and then just start at replicating and utilizing that and, and doing more and doubling down on the things that work and getting rid of the things that, uh, don't work.
Tobias Salinger: (
And there you have it listeners. Um, if you are thinking about social media, um, as Larry says, it doesn't have to become exhausting. You don't have to turn into a hot take machine. Uh, you don't have to post, uh, things that nobody else has ever thought of. Uh, you only have to think about your own family, your, your own life, your own hobbies, um, and lo and behold, uh, it could really positively impact your business, uh, really positively affect your, your business as, as well. Um, Larry sprung of Midland financial, thank you so much for joining us today.
Lawrence Sprung: (
Hey, thanks for having me Tobias. It's been a pleasure to be here and, uh, make it a great day.
Tobias Salinger: (
And thank you for listening to the Financial Planning podcast. This episode was produced by Arizent with audio production by Wen-Wyst Jeanmary. Special thanks this week to Larry Sprung of MIT financial. Rate, review us and subscribe to our content at www.financial-planning.com/subscribe. From Financial Planning, I'm Tobias Salinger. Thanks for listening.