Advice Line: How To Focus Your Marketing Efforts For Better Results (Ryan Furlong)

Summary

Advisor Marketing Made Simple Episode Summary: "Advice Line: How To Focus Your Marketing Efforts For Better Results (Ryan Furlong)" Release Date: November 6, 2024
Hosts: Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright
Guest: Ryan Furlong, Purpose Path Capital

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Introduction to Ryan Furlong and His Challenge

Timestamp: [00:00 - 01:33]

Kendra and Taylor welcomed Ryan Furlong from Purpose Path Capital, a financial advisory firm based in St. Louis, Missouri. With a decade of experience, Ryan primarily serves young professionals, millennials, and Gen X individuals and households earning over $200,000 annually. Ryan expressed his main challenge: aligning his firm's 1099 advisory structure and website with his personalized approach to client service.

Ryan Furlong: "Things like service, process... what you can expect from the first phone call till the day that we work together, pricing things of that nature. And also, find that in the current moment, it is a little bit more general as far as the target client and audience."

Current Marketing Efforts: Twitter and LinkedIn

Timestamp: [01:33 - 03:05]

Ryan detailed his marketing activities, highlighting his use of Twitter as a primary platform for testing concepts and generating educational content. He is also ramping up his presence on LinkedIn to leverage storytelling and personal connections.

Ryan Furlong: "My goal there has really just been to be as educational as possible... it's been really helpful for people that know me and didn't fully realize what I did."

Kendra added that Twitter serves as an excellent testing ground since it doesn't penalize for less polished content, unlike LinkedIn.

Defining the Ideal Client and Identifying Pain Points

Timestamp: [03:05 - 07:27]

Taylor prompted Ryan to further refine his ideal client avatar, emphasizing the importance of understanding deeper pain points beyond surface-level issues like being too busy to manage finances.

Taylor: "Focusing on those pain points is specific enough to help narrow down who that avatar is without feeling this pressure of like, I gotta, you know, only work with dentists making a certain amount of money."

Ryan shared that his clients value their time, seek high-level financial management, and often lack a financial mentor, leading to concerns about future financial stability.

Strategies to Uncover Client Pain Points

Timestamp: [07:27 - 13:56]

Taylor recommended conducting interviews with both current and prospective clients to uncover deeper pain points. He shared an example where a prospect’s mention of "tsunami of RMDs" led to effective messaging.

Taylor: "Another way to do that, it could just be interviewing your ideal clients that are not clients yet... ask you questions and take notes."

Kendra supplemented with specific questions to ask prospects, such as:

• "What are the top three goals you want to achieve in your finances the next three months?"
• "What inspired you to get help with your finances now?"
• "What are the big decisions you're considering in the next 12 months?"

Kendra: "What inspired you to get help with your finances now... it will help us prepare for our call."

Choosing the Right Marketing Platforms: Twitter vs. LinkedIn

Timestamp: [13:56 - 18:21]

The discussion shifted to platform selection, with Ryan favoring Twitter for its authenticity and LinkedIn for its professional network. Taylor advised focusing on one primary platform to avoid dilution of efforts.

Taylor: "Choosing one of these platforms and going all in on it is probably, well, it will give you the most success... master one platform before you go and try to add another one."

Kendra emphasized the need to align platform choice with the specific decade of life and corresponding pain points of the target audience.

Customizing Branding Through Landing Pages

Timestamp: [20:08 - 25:53]

Taylor addressed Ryan’s concern about his firm’s website not aligning with his personalized approach. He suggested creating a separate landing page that reflects Ryan’s brand and process, directing traffic from social media platforms.

Taylor: "A landing page would be ideal in terms of how do you go and do that. It could be as simple as, you know, go find somebody you know, a consultant, a contractor of some sort, like hey, just build me a one-page landing page."

Kendra offered additional support by explaining that content on platforms like LinkedIn can seamlessly integrate with a customized landing page, ensuring consistency and clarity for potential clients.

Repurposing Content Effectively

Timestamp: [25:53 - 32:02]

Kendra introduced the concept of repurposing content within existing platforms rather than spreading efforts across multiple new ones. She recommended using tools like Shield for LinkedIn to identify top-performing posts and revisit them with slight modifications.

Kendra: "Repurpose that post three months later... change the hook or the outro a little bit."

Taylor agreed, emphasizing the importance of maintaining focus and avoiding distractions from multiple content streams.

Taylor: "You may find out that like you don't need video at all... just do a great job with this one thing."

Final Takeaways and Actionable Steps

Timestamp: [32:54 - 36:03]

As the conversation wound down, Ryan acknowledged the value of simplifying his marketing efforts and focusing on refining his message. The hosts reiterated key strategies:

1. Refine the Ideal Client Avatar: Narrow down specific demographics and pain points.
2. Focus on One Primary Platform: Choose the platform that best aligns with the target audience and master it.
3. Customize Branding with a Landing Page: Create a dedicated space that reflects your unique approach.
4. Repurpose Existing Content: Leverage successful posts by revisiting and refreshing them periodically.
5. Stay Authentic and Consistent: Align marketing activities with personal comfort and authentic voice.

Kendra: "Continue to refine your avatar a little bit, build up that landing page, choose a platform that feels good to you and just go to town."

Taylor: "Avoid building a chaotic practice by staying focused on defined niches and avoiding the spread of resources too thinly."

Ryan expressed gratitude for the actionable insights, recognizing the importance of simplifying his strategy and maintaining focus to achieve his growth objectives.

Ryan Furlong: "But number two, really making sure that you're going all in on the platforms that you're doing and starting there first and foremost."

Closing Remarks

Timestamp: [36:03 - End]

Kendra and Taylor concluded by encouraging advisors to embrace the fundamentals of marketing, such as knowing their ideal clients and focusing their efforts on specific platforms. They reiterated the importance of simplifying strategies to avoid overwhelm and chaos in practice growth.

Kendra: "Know who you love to serve with as much clarity as possible... choosing a primary platform like podcasting or YouTube, and then moving them through the sales process."

Taylor: "Identify your pain points and your niche... avoid building a chaotic practice."

They invited listeners to join future "Advice Line" episodes by signing up through the show notes, emphasizing community support and continuous learning.

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Key Quotes:

• Ryan Furlong [07:37]: "Another way to do that, it could just be interviewing your ideal clients that are not clients yet."
• Taylor [04:40]: "Focusing on those pain points is specific enough to help narrow down who that avatar is without feeling this pressure..."
• Kendra [25:53]: "Repurpose that post three months later... change the hook or the outro a little bit."
• Taylor [35:18]: "Avoid building a chaotic practice by staying focused on defined niches."
• Kendra [37:57]: "Putting yourself out there is a sign that you're headed in the right direction."

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Resources Mentioned:

• YouTubeTranscript.com: Tool for generating transcripts from YouTube videos.
• Pocket: Chrome plugin for saving articles and ideas.
• Notion: Organization tool with plugins for clipping content.
• Shield: LinkedIn analytics tool.
• Landing Page Examples: Nate Hoskin’s landing page (link available in show notes).

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This episode provided comprehensive insights into focusing marketing efforts for financial advisors, emphasizing the importance of refining client avatars, selecting the right platforms, customizing branding, and repurposing content effectively. Ryan Furlong’s real-world challenges and the hosts’ expert advice offer valuable takeaways for advisors seeking to streamline their marketing strategies and achieve better results.

Transcript

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make advisor marketing simple. All right, welcome to the show. We are excited today to talk with Ryan. If you could just kick us off, give us your name, your firm, your location, and the big question that you would love to dive into with Taylor and I. We'll be excited to get started.

[Ryan]

Absolutely. So, Ryan Furlong, I'm based in St. Louis, Missouri. Name of my firm is Purpose Path Capital. Been in the industry for about 10 years and really working with predominantly young professionals, millennials and Gen X. That is a household bring in about 200,000 or more of income per year. And really just looking for that in depth, planning and setting themselves up for the future.

[Kendra]

I love that. And one of the things that you said when you applied to come on the show is that with your Firm, you're a 1099 advisor for your firm, and that the site doesn't quite align with your approach. I'd love to really just understand what you mean by that. So we can lay the groundwork here for what feels like may the challenge before we get into solving it.

[Ryan]

Yeah, absolutely. So have pretty open lines of communication with the owner. So it's not to say that that can't change over time, but things like service, process what you can expect from the first phone call till the day that we work together, pricing things of that nature. And also find that in the current moment, it is a little bit more general as far as the target client and audience. As much as I would like to be great.

[Kendra]

And then right now you are publishing on Twitter most frequently and you are ramping up on LinkedIn. Can you tell us a little bit about kind of your approach, how you chose those platforms, like what marketing activities you're doing right now and what's working well for you?

[Ryan]

Absolutely. So I have found that I think when I thought about different channels, whether it be video, things of that nature, that I really have enjoyed writing. And it really helps me to better even sharpen my communication to clients and explaining complex topics. So on Twitter primarily has been more of, I don't want to say a testing ground, but to kind of test out concepts and ideas to then replicate into LinkedIn other platforms down the road. My goal there has really just been to be as educational as possible in thinking about what my client avatar is. I think there's been some resemblance of that in the target clients that I'm looking for, but just trying to further refine that because at times it feels a little too general, so to speak, as far as the overall success of it, I think for the most part has been a few prospects outside of my initial network. But it's been really helpful for people that know me and didn't fully realize what I did. They knew kind of what I've been doing for a long time, but now that they're really hitting that point in life where they could use some additional help and support with their finances, they know me well enough as a person to know, oh, like Ryan knows what he's talking about and could potentially point us in the right direction or support us.

[Kendra]

That makes sense. It's something that's really unique about Twitter that a lot of advisors don't know is a bit unique about that social platform is that Twitter does not penalize you. You can test more there and they won't penalize you for bad content, whereas platforms like LinkedIn will. So while I'm a big fan of really kind of choosing that platform you really want to play on, you can test a bit on Twitter. So that's a helpful platform to start with. Taylor, I have a feeling you might dive into some of the ideal client pieces. I know that's something we really talk about from a marketing fund fundamental standpoint. What's coming up for you as Ryan's sharing a few pieces here for us?

[Taylor]

Yeah, I definitely want to hear more about this ideal client. It's obviously really important. It's going to influence a lot of your marketing and will help us better answer some of your questions here. So when you, when you scheduled, you filled out the form for today's episode and you just shared that you are targeting high earning professionals in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are too busy to manage their own wealth and then earning over $200,000 per year as a household. One, you know, can you further drill down and clarif that avatar and what they look like? And then two, it's helpful for me to always hear what are some of the key pain points that you help your ideal client solve for. You kind of mentioned one of them. They're too busy to manage their own. Well, so I can understand. I could argue that like that is a pain point. I'm too busy. I need someone to do it for me. But it's probably not enough of a pain point that like keeps somebody up at night or pushes them to the point where they're willing to, you know, pay an Advisor, you know, five, six, $10,000 per year to help them with it. So maybe just share a little bit more about that niche.

[Ryan]

Yeah. So from the niche. It hasn't been too company specific at this point. I think early days enough to where really trying to remain open as to if it's a more specific company or industry from the actual pain points themselves. Time is one component, but there are a lot of folks that are very busy and still manage to handle their finances at a high level. So I think similar to that is people who really value the time that they have outside of their busy working life, especially people with families and children where they don't have a lot of time and they know that they want things done at a very high level. I think secondarily to that is folks who may not have had a financial mentor or someone to guide them early in life and are just looking to make sure they're doing the right things today so that they don't hit a point later on in their life where maybe their parents had delayed retirement or opportunities they wish they would have taken early on that they missed out on as a result of not taking things as seriously. And I guess take Taylor, the last piece I would add there is just that there's one thing that I am getting used to communicating is what those pain points are and how I can best solve them.

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's certainly not easy. The first thing I'd say is I would argue that there are probably more and bigger pain points that your ideal client is experiencing that you haven't yet uncovered or pulled out from them. I do think it's worth some extra time and some extra effort there to uncover what those might be. The listeners of the show are going to hear me talk about pain points over and over and over again. It might sound like a broken record, but I do think it's really important. I also think it takes pressure off advisors trying to figure out what their niche is. You know, if, let's say, you know, a simple pain point is, you know, I pay the IRS X amount of dollars in taxes every year and gosh, I would love to cut that half that, that tax bill in half. Like I really want to lower my taxes. That's a pain point. That pain point could apply to a doctor, could apply to an attorney, it could imply to an employee at Target, Walmart or Home Depot. So it takes pressure off. Like I have to choose, you know, I have to be like my good buddy Adam Shmala who only works with optometrists. So to me, like focusing on those pain points is specific enough to help narrow down who that avatar is without feeling this pressure of like, I gotta, you know, only work with dentists making a certain amount of money. So I would challenge you to dig a little bit deeper. And one way to do that, it could just be interviewing your ideal clients that are not clients yet. So people in your life just, hey, I'd love to sit down and chat and ask you some questions. I'm trying to work on my business or interviewing existing clients, and it might take some time to pull some of those things out. But I think it would be a helpful exercise as you continue kind of moving forward and developing your marketing plan.

[Ryan]

Absolutely. Do you have any just quick questions or particular ways of framing that that you found to be helpful in discovering those pain points?

[Taylor]

Taylor, that's a good question. I don't have like a formula or, you know, a template. I think if it were me going through that exercise, I'd probably keep it pretty open and I'd probably just get really curious. And again, I would approach it as like, hey, I'm working on making some improvements to my business. You know, I'd love to sit down, have coffee. They just ask you questions and take notes, you know, and I would just may have a really curious conversation, hear from them just what their day to day is like, what keeps them up at night. Just those, like, basic questions of trying to understand what, yeah, what is this person going through? What are their big unanswered questions that they have? And again, like, you can do this organically too, just through meetings that you're having. You're having a meeting with a client or a meeting with a prospect and just paying attention to the things that they're saying. For example, I've shared this before, but a prospect that we met with years ago who did not become a client but as a prospect. And it was a great learning opportunity because one of the things this prospect said in our meeting was when we asked them why he had reached out, he said, I have a tsunami of RMDs coming up and I want to be proactive and attack those now to help reduce my taxes. We now use tsunami of RMDs in a lot of our messaging and conversations with people. But I would have never, like, thought about positioning that way or saying it that way. But it really resonates with people. And so just paying attention to conversations that you're just having and taking note of, like how they're saying things can be a really helpful way to go about it too. So, you know, I wish I had, you know, more of a template to provide to you, but I think just really getting curious and Asking questions questions and taking notes and just paying attention to these things throughout, you know, your day, your week. Maybe the last thing is paying attention to other advisors that are targeting a similar niche. And those who are producing content really well, how are they positioning their content, how are they writing their content, you know, what sort of questions are they answering that might help you better start to uncover and narrow down what some of those pain points are.

[Ryan]

Super helpful.

[Kendra]

And I've actually got a handful of questions that I use and I can run you through a couple of those really fast. And I did a talk earlier this year at Shift and I talked about messaging and how I actually get these pain points. So exactly what Taylor just said around the tsunami of RMDs. So on the front end, when I think about advisors, people that hire advisors lie in bed and think, man, I can't wait to hire an advisor. That's not what keeps them up, it's their problems. So a very common one is like, man, if something happens to my spouse tomorrow, who would take care of of my significant other, right? So I really try to think in like a problem approach when I write copy. So a couple great things you can do. First is on your prospect form and you may not be able to do this in your current firm or maybe you could talk to them. A couple questions I love to see is what are the top three goals you want to achieve in your finances the next three months? And here's the reason why I asked that question. I want to understand what's the reason they actually picked up the phone? What's important to them right now? So it could be, hey, you know, I'm getting older, I want to make sure my spouse is taken care of. Right. The other question I like to ask is another version of it. But what inspired you to get help with your finances now? The more detailed you can be, the better it's going to help me prepare for our call. The reason why I like to ask that question, the magic in that one is actually the second end of that question. We want them to be detailed because it will help us prepare for them. Like the more and then the more copy they give you, that is three, find the tsunami of RMDs, the way they talk about things. Another couple of places you can look for if you do yearly annual review check ins. A couple questions I love to add is what are the big decisions you're considering in the next 12 months? Big expenses, travel, purchases. Another one is if we could solve just one big concern for you on this call? What would it be? That's like their hot pain point on that yearly call. Start looking at that, start looking for trends in that data. And then here's another one that's really interesting. This is where I think you get a few more pieces of content that wouldn't be obvious, which is what, if anything, has you concerned about your finances, even if it's trivial. So that can really surface up like, oh yeah, I didn't think about that thing over there. You know, I know I need to fix my tsunami of RMDs, but I'm also kind of worried about this thing over here. Right. So that'll surface a couple things for you. The other one I think that is overlooked as well is Reddit threads. The reason why Reddit threads are really interesting, this is super helpful, especially for advisors who might not have enough prospect calls coming in, or advisors who may are exploring a niche and they don't feel like they have enough verbiage from their ideal client is Reddit. Essentially, people are rewarded for being detailed and thorough and helpful. So the responses there are very long, they're very detailed. So for example, if you go to Reddit and you search, you know how to pay for your kids college, a lot of advisors are going to talk about how do you pay for your kids college? But if you read the threads, the questions they ask that are more interesting is like, this is actually a real search I did, should I buy my kids a house instead of paying for college? The average advisor talks about how to pay for your kids college. An awesome advisor talks about buying them a house instead. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, this advisor, they're thinking about money. Totally different than me, right? Another one on that same thread is how do I pay for my kids college without spoiling them? This is a question that people care about, but they might not think about answering. So you can jump into Reddit threads. You can look there. And one last tool here too. If you know an advisor who's really doing a great job targeting your client that you want to work with, particularly if they work on YouTube, there's a tool called YouTube Transcript. So for example, there's a couple advisors that just crush on YouTube. Dave Zoller is a really good example. James Canal. And you can take that YouTube video, plug it into YouTubeTranscript.com it'll give you the full instant transcript and you can go through there and highlight and look for that language and pull that out so you can borrow it from other advisors who've kind of figured that out and I will link to our show notes the deck I used at Shift that has all these questions in a few more on how to just nail messaging and copy and I think it'll really help you understand how to start pulling these pieces of language and verbiage out from your clients and their words. Because that's what we want. We want their words, we want the tsunami of RMDs. That's what we're looking for.

[Taylor]

Ryan, I know a big part of your question here is how am I going to grow? I know part of it was struggling to get more specific with my ideal client, but there's a couple different channels I can choose from. Twitter something you've been active on LinkedIn as well, maybe to start before I share additional thoughts, is there one of those platforms that you find yourself gravitating to more? Is there one that you enjoy publishing on or just feels more authentic to you than the other?

[Ryan]

I think Twitter feels the most authentic. LinkedIn certainly feels the most real. Posting on there was really the first time where you realize, oh, I've been growing this network of people that I've worked with that I actually know here for much longer. And so to put that out in front of CEOs of large companies or other things like that is definitely a true test to how just trusting your writing and that content and process. So Twitter's probably been the most comfortable, but I also have a broader network of people I actually know on LinkedIn, which is why I feel like it's important to not let that slide and be able to repurpose some of the things that I'm sharing on Twitter or the other concept there really was to also find what resonates well with people. Now how can I tell more stories on LinkedIn? Because personally, that's the biggest difference I've seen on LinkedIn is ability to storytell and be more personal. Whereas Twitter, it's sometimes it's more just educational dry in my experience. Is that helpful?

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's helpful and I think I'll just say it because I run into it and maybe you can resonate with this, that Twitter sometimes we get maybe too connected with other people in our industry on Twitter and it starts to like take away from maybe our prospecting efforts. I know for me personally I don't use social media for prospecting. For my firm, social media is strictly for me to connect with other people in my industry. I know some advisors kind of toe both lines like they're trying to prospect, but they're Also like connecting with their peers. So I think it is something to take into consideration as well where maybe your great content is getting overshadowed. It's not being shown to your ideal client because you're mostly engaging with other advisors. So something there's more to think about there. But at the end of the day, and we might sound like a broken record here as well, choosing one of these platforms and going all in on it is probably, well, it will give you the most success. Trying to tackle both these things at the same time and build audiences at both both places and create content in the most appropriate way for each platform is going to prove to be really challenging. So I would encourage you to master one platform, one social platform before you go and try to add another one. Now if you just want to test on Twitter but you're really focused on LinkedIn, you know that that's fine. But I would highly encourage you to choose one and go all in and master that thing. And once you do, it'll become much easier to maybe consider adding another one. But it's again like my firm is growing significantly. I have zero social media presence in front of my ideal client. So you don't have to have social media, you don't have to have two social media channels in order to have success there. But as you start to get more focused here and try to figure out like where should I be spending my time, I would highly consider like choosing one and really going all in on it.

[Ryan]

Well, that's really helpful too because I'm notorious for starting different projects and it can be very easy to pick different ones up and then realize like now this channel is suffering where I spent so much time building. So at times almost need that permission to just focus on the one and give it some time versus trying to rush ahead like some folks that might be on three, four different platforms.

[Taylor]

And this goes back to why I always lead, lead with who's your ideal client and what are their pain points? Because I don't know, your 50 year old professional who's gearing up for retirement maybe may not be consuming content on LinkedIn, right? They may be consuming content somewhere else. So if you're spending time putting content on LinkedIn and your ideal client doesn't live there and consume content there, then it's a total waste of time. So knowing who we're targeting, where they consume content, what type of content they like to consume, will influence perhaps what social channel you're using or what content medium you're using. So you have to be careful there and that's where if our niche is too broad, if we're trying to talk to everybody, then we're casting a wide net and we don't really have a really targeted platform to reach those people.

[Kendra]

100% agree. And Taylor, you said something that made me think about the fact that your ideal avatar, you said 30, 40s and 50s who are too busy to manage their wealth and those decades of life have completely different pain points. So one way you could could explore narrowing your understanding of your ideal client is think about and literally make a handwritten list, who are your top 10 favorite clients? And write them all out, and then what are the pieces they have that are similar? So, for example, you might make a list of your top 10 clients and you find that they're in their 30s or 40s or seven of them in their 30s, and all of a sudden that doesn't mean that you can't write content that would appeal to someone in their 40s and 50s. But really, just narrowing down to that decade of life can completely shift down stream everything you write about, everything you talk about, all the assets you create, because the problems that people have in their 30s and 40s and 50s are so different. And that'll help you focus. So from an avatar standpoint, you actually probably have a lot more data based off of who you already love to work with. I think getting a clear avatar is a process. People don't wake up with a clear avatar. It's a refinement over time, over time. And Taylor, I'm sure you've had the same thing too, right? Like, you get clearer and clearer over time. So instead of trying to figure out, like, that perfect ideal avatar, ask yourself how can get 10% clearer, 15% more clear. And a simple way to do that is looking at that list of clients you already have, choosing 10 or so, and look at what's their age range, what is their top three pain points, and start to kind of shape that a little bit, and then you look at what platform makes sense. I like to write. So you're looking at essentially either LinkedIn, Twitter, SEO can also be one. But I think in your scenario, you're really looking at LinkedIn or Twitter. But if it's 30s, 40s or 50s, that could completely change which platform you focus. Fun.

[Taylor]

Ryan, let's chat a little bit about this, you know, challenge of yours. Your, your firm's website doesn't necessarily speak to you and your process and your ideal client, because that is a true challenge. And I know it's a relatable Challenge for advisors. And the first thing that I want to acknowledge and say there is, it doesn't really to me, it's not critical that your firm's website directly aligns with your approach and your ideal client. There are other solutions. Now this is going to depend on what they allow you to do. If they liter don't allow you to do anything and they're like, nope, this is our website, deal with it. That's one thing. But if there is some flexibility to allow you to create your own personal brand, there's several different approaches there. And so we'll have to turn to you to hear from you how flexible they are. But one really simple idea is you have your own separate website and your website feeds back to the main website, but your own website is you and your brand speaks to your ideal client, your processes, all that good stuff. If that's not allowed or you don't want to go and build your own website and go through that whole process because it's time consuming and expensive. A really simple way to do this, especially for someone who's active on social media, is just to create one single amazing landing page. And I think Nate Hoskin is a great example of this. Nate presented at the last Kids at Summit and just blew everybody's minds. The success that he's having with video. And he is someone who is attacking multiple channels really, really well. Again, I don't want you to go and do that. But he is attacking multiple channels really, really well and has great process. Is what is really fascinating to me is that every channel, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, every single channel has the same call to action and it leads to this single landing page. Very, very basic landing page that has everything that he would want a prospective client to see and know about him. Everything from you can schedule a call directly. It's got his whole fee schedule there, download, lead magnets, it's all in just one single simple landing page. So if you don't want to go build a whole separate personal brand and maybe your firm doesn't allow it, just having a basic landing page that has everything that's necessary could be that single road that you lead everybody to through that social channel that you're working to master. And by the way, we will link to Nate Hoskins landing page in the show notes for those who want to see it because I think it's just brilliantly done for somebody who's just on social all day, every day.

[Kendra]

Do you have any questions around that custom landing page process or how you might set that up or any of the technical pieces, because I know that that can be confusing at times. But I agree 100% with Taylor's approach. I think that's an excellent way to go about solving that concern.

[Ryan]

Yeah, I'd say two high level questions there. One, if there's like a platform or a provider that you tend to recommend or encourage from either of you, but more secondarily like what you would mainly look to accomplish in that landing page, ultimate goal is probably to have someone book an intro call for the best chance at moving that relationship along. But from what it sounded like with Nate's page, you really liked how he gave a variety of options to engage with and just maybe some thoughts around how to do that but not overwhelm people.

[Taylor]

I would think about it very similarly to how you'd structure the homepage of a website. You want to be very, very clear about who your ideal client is. Even though you might be clear on LinkedIn, somebody's going to click that who isn't a good fit. So when they click on go to your. Your single landing page here being clear about who your ideal client is, maybe three or four of the key pain points that you help them solve. One of the other things I always like to include on either my homepage or landing page is if you think that we're potentially a good fit to work together, what does the process look like instead of just like, go schedule a phone call, what does the process look like if you do schedule phone calls? I like to break things up into three step processes. Step one, we schedule an intro call. Step two, we have a meeting to learn a little bit more about you. And, you know, step three, we deliver, you know, a proposal. Just, just making this up. But I think it's helpful to know, okay, I think I'm in the right place. I think Ryan's like potentially a good fit for me. I'm not sure if I want to schedule an intro call yet, but. And then you lay out exactly what I'm going to what, what to expect in a very simple way. And then you got to think about the people that aren't a good fit or they're not ready to take that step with you. And that's why I like, Naep has got a bunch of great lead magnets there. You know, download this thing, download that thing. And now they're on his email list and they've got some more content from him. So I think he's a great place to start. Now the key thing to point out about Nate is he does an amazing job with short form video. And so people really get to know Nate intimately through his content. So by the time they land on this landing page, they know quite a bit about him. They feel that connection already. So he has a little bit of a leg up just because of how great he does on video and how well his videos perform. Don't let that discourage you. But yeah, you want to make sure that the right people are reaching out and scheduling phone calls. But I would really hesitate to go from like LinkedIn to go schedule a phone call with me. That's like too big of a jump there. Which is why if you don't want to go build a full website, a landing page would be ideal in terms of how do you go and do that. It could be as simple as like, you know, go find somebody you know, a consultant, a contractor of some sort, like hey, just build me a one page landing page. It could be something like lead pages, which is a great, great cost effective platform to DIY a simple landing page. There's plenty of options out there. It could be a landing page on your existing firm's website for that matter. So maybe you don't have to overcomplicate it. And you know, you've got forget the name of your firm's name, purposepathcapital.com Ryan and that Ryan goes to this nice landing page. So it's kind of up to you to figure out. But I do like the idea of people from social going to this, this great place with resources, more about you, your process and an option to schedule a call if they see like, feel like it's a good fit.

[Kendra]

And also if you are creating content on something like LinkedIn or Twitter, you know they're going to get to know you and your process and your style and those pieces through that educational process. So then they land on this landing page like they're not going to have to always just jump around all over the other pieces of the website. I think having that simple landing page with the call to action, I think that'll get you really far in the process and you don't have to overcomplicate it and know that it's a work in progress, you can continue to improve it. Just get a basic one up there and really focus on using your clients words and their pain points and how they talk about the challenges that they have. One other thing I wanted to chat about is you mentioned considering adding video to your process and you'll hear Taylor and I talk about this pretty Often if you listen to the episodes that we're a big proponent of choosing your primary platform for attention getting, whether that's something like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, a podcast, podcast. When I was looking at the overall picture for you, I just thought, you know, you could add video, but if you chose something like LinkedIn, you could actually just add video to your LinkedIn strategy and you wouldn't be going off platform to a whole other platform. So that would keep you really focused in narrowed in on LinkedIn as far as that video piece goes.

[Ryan]

Okay, great. And it just seems like to your guys point what one of the best ways to get to know someone is video. And you know, back to Taylor just explaining how it can be so detrimental to be doing 50 different things on different platforms. My ultimate goal is to be able to take what I'm doing and repurpose it. And whether that's writing long form now explaining that, breaking it down in a video, things like that. But you know, helping to keep that more narrow focus while doing that seems like a really helpful approach to make sure people get to know me better.

[Taylor]

You may find out that like you don't need video at all, right? I mean, and I've, you know, grown my firm significantly with zero video at all. I've long thought Kendra and I were joking offline about this folder that I have full of like YouTube ideas. I've long thought that I would like repurpose some of the podcast content into a video format. But like, it would be fun, I'd have a blast. But like, I don't need to do that. So you might find out by just going all in on this thing and having success with this thing that you reach your goal of 50 clients and your revenue target without video at all. And now you haven't gotten distracted, you haven't spent more time and money and you've just done a great job with this one thing. I know it's really, really, really hard to do. And I'll just share what I'd shared with Kendra offline, which is I've got what I call this just in time folder or list. And so when I see things about a marketing activity that looks interesting or somebody else is having success with, or I read an article about how to optimize a YouTube video, I have this like fear of missing out. Like, oh man, I want to go and do this, but I just take that thing and I put it in the just in time folder. And now when I do have time and interest, I can open up that folder and it's all there. So it kind of takes away that anxiety of like, am I going to find this article again when I really need it? So I would highly encourage you to be careful about getting distracted. And if there's something that's potentially starting to work here, like, you know, go all in on that thing and you may or may not need video and might be something that you know, you can bolt on in the future once your existing marketing activity is having success.

[Ryan]

Left folder is a great idea, especially as advisors. We consume so much to make sure that we're not trying to one over consume, you know, but on top of that, the reminder that some of the people that make content look the best, it looks easy because they've been doing it for so long, they've been serious hours. So if you think you're going to fill your extra couple hours a week to compete with that, it's just a nice, healthy reminder and ego check as to where you're spending your time.

[Taylor]

Yep. Yep. And as I joked with Kendra, I've got this giant just in time folder. And what's really funny is like, I never go in it. I never go and pull ideas from it because everything that I'm focused on is already feeding my goals. Like, I don't need all those distractions. Like, serves two purposes. It's like I have a home and a place for this thing that I thought was really cool and valuable. So now I don't have this, like, fear of missing out. I know where it is. And then the other's like, oh, gosh, I guess I didn't really need to do that thing because things are moving along just fine. So it is a really, really good tool to use and consider. And by the way, maybe just to provide a little idea, a couple different ways you can create that. It could just be a folder on your computer and like dump things into there. That's a little challenging because you might have hyperlinks that you want to add and it gets a little tricky. So mine is a combination of folders, but also Pocket, which is a Chrome plugin. And there's another one, forget the name of it, but I can basically just like clip articles and send them to Pocket and tag them at, you know, YouTube or podcast, whatever it is. And so I have this giant, like Pocket, you know, full of all these articles and ideas that again, I never even go into, but I know they're there if I ever want to.

[Kendra]

Yeah.

[Ryan]

And I found also Notion has a plugin where you just click it and it saves it to your inspiration library. So little things like that, to your point, it's just like, okay, now it's out of my head and I'm not worrying about will I remember or forget it. But in general, it's just a good practice to have to clear your mind and focus on what's most important.

[Kendra]

Definitely. And you know, something that came up for me as we were talking about this idea of repurposing is that a lot of times advisors want to repurpose to other platforms, but very few advisors consider repurposing to platforms they're already on. And let me explain. So if you were to create LinkedIn content and you see a post does well, the first thing I'd be asking myself is, why did it do well? Was it the hook? Was it the content? Like, try of break that down, but also mark that post. There's a couple different tools that, you know you can use. I know there's an app called Shield and you can see all the metrics for your LinkedIn and you can tag those posts. And I would repurpose that post three months later. You know, a lot of times we're creating on these platforms and we think about repurposing to other platforms. I think a better approach is how do I take what's already winning and repurpose it again three months later? And the way you do that is maybe you have like the content, the meat of the post, but you change the hook or the outro, the intro a little bit. Like you swap it up a little bit, but you know, it already works.

[Ryan]

So.

[Kendra]

So instead of just spraying and playing everywhere else, let's Double down on LinkedIn, let's repurpose what's already winning, let's change it up a little bit. And then all of a sudden you're still in that container of focus and you are able to repurpose. So that's a way that I think repurposing makes a lot of sense.

[Ryan]

I think you're right on that. Because sometimes when you go back and look at old things you've written, podcasts you've done, did I put this out? I can't believe what you learn in such a short period of time. A great point of viewers, Kendra, to not waste that energy because now you've learned, how can I redo this and make it more effective, especially as we see more and more platforms add video options, post options, things of that nature. So just, you know, general and really helpful takeaway from today is to not get caught in the trap of Trying to be complex and overcomplicate it and to really focus on and refining that message, number one, and learning those pain points. But number two, really making sure that you're going all in on the platforms that you're doing and starting there first and foremost.

[Kendra]

Agreed. Totally. As we wrap up here, is there anything else lingering or any questions we can answer for you to help you move forward on refining your messaging and figuring out how to build out your process and platforms going forward?

[Ryan]

No, this has been particularly helpful. You know, I think another piece and takeaway just without directly saying it, was hearing from each of you to go in on what you're also comfortable with and what you feel like is really resonates with your style. Because I think early on I came in wondering, well, if you guys would redo it, would you do it any differently? And I would think for Taylor, what I gathered from today is probably not just may have a better way of refining my message or things like that, that. But mostly just wanted to thank you both for the time and constructive feedback because it is more helpful than, you know, and oftentimes a reminder again of just stop over complicating, simplify, and just do those little things each and every day.

[Taylor]

Yeah. And you're right about your assumption. You know, it's okay to experiment a little bit to figure out what does feel good and what does feel authentic. You just want to avoid the trap of experimenting too much to the point that, like, you're not reaching your goals anymore because you got all these things going on. And so, you know, I think it's okay to experiment early on. You know, I did try a little bit of video. I did try doing some writing, and it was really hard for me. And it, like, didn't come naturally to me. It wasn't authentic. It was hard to, like, get things to the finish line. And then I was like, well, try podcasting. And like, that seemed much easier, more authentic and more fun for me. It doesn't mean I'm never going to write or never going to do video. But, like, at the time, after experimenting, that's what, you know, worked really well for me. So. So hopefully you've got that permission to experiment a little bit. Just don't go too deep down those rabbit holes.

[Ryan]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

And also, I think, Ryan, one thing I really appreciate about having you on with us today is that it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there and jump on a show like this and ask these questions. It already tells us you're headed in the right direction. Because a big part of successful marketing is putting yourself out there and it is vulnerable. And even to this day, I still. It's scary every time I push publish on everything. For me, that feeling hasn't gone away. I think it's just proof that you put heart and soul and care into it. So the fact that you're willing to jump on here with us tells me you're already moving in the right direction. So I think you got a lot of good things going for you. I think if you just continue to refine your avatar a little bit, build up that landing page, she's a platform that feels good to you and just go to town, I think you're going to be well on your way.

[Ryan]

Awesome. Well, this has been great. You know, there are folks pay thousands of dollars for advice and feedback like this. So for the two of you to carve that time out and even offer the ability to help, I couldn't say no to that, even if I was a little bit nervous, if I'm being honest. But I also think I'd rather learn from people like yourselves who have been there, done that, and are ahead of me to know, hey, similar to how I want to help clients, I've been there. Here's what I would do differently or think about. I'll save you a lot of time and pain. So thank you for all of that candid feedback and just being and supportive to the community as a whole.

[Taylor]

Absolutely. Thanks so much, Ryan. Really appreciate it.

[Ryan]

Thank you, guys.

[Taylor]

See you, bud.

[Kendra]

We had an amazing conversation with Ryan. I'm really excited about a couple of things that we chatted about today, Taylor, because these are such relatable problems we see advisors really struggle with often. And when it comes to marketing, I think a lot of times people want to ask what's next or what's changing or what's coming new. And a better question to ask is what won't change? Because you can build your marketing and your firm off of that. And one of the things that I see coming up over and over again in these conversations, and I'm sure it will continue to happen, is the marketing fundamentals. And one of those is knowing who you love to serve. And so we dove into that a little bit more on this call. I'm sure we'll talk about it more in upcoming episodes. But just, you know, before you ask, where should I put my work out there to connect with people, getting as clear as you can about about who you serve the top biggest three pain points and where are they more likely to Hang out on the Internet, is there a platform they may gravitate towards? Because different decades of life can really influence where they hang out. So that's the first thing that really kind of came up for me is we're coming back again and again to these marketing fundamentals, such as know who you love to serve with as much clarity as possible. And the other thing too is that a lot of times, you know, from the outside looking in, the advisors who are doing an amazing job leveraging digital and their firm, you know, it looks like there's a lot going on. But when I look in the back end of these firms, they've really just dialed in a couple key things. They've chosen a primary platform like podcasting or YouTube or LinkedIn, and they have gone deep on that. And then they've really thought about, how do I take someone from this platform and gracefully move them through the sales process? And so again, this, you know, it feels really complex. But a better question, you know, maybe to ask yourself is, if I were making this simple, what would my next steps be? So those are a couple of things that kind of came up for me today in a conversation with Ryan. How about you?

[Taylor]

Yeah, I really like that question. If I could really simplify this, what would it look like? That's interesting. One thing that we haven't hit on yet, we've talked a lot about, like identifying your pain points and your niche and your avatar. One other like, angle to think about this and why it's so important is we don't, we don't want to end up building this chaotic practice. I've been there before. Ten years, 12 years into my career, like I had a chaotic practice. I was working with anybody and everybody, and it makes growing really, really challenging. So part of identifying these things and getting really clear is to avoid building a chaotic practice. If Ryan starts to add a bunch of clients in their 30s and a bunch of clients in their 50s might feel good in the moment to have some success, but all of a sudden, like 10 years from now, those 50 year olds are now in their 60s and now they're aiming for retirement and they have Medicare questions and healthcare questions and, and Roth conversion questions. And then his clients in their 30s are now in their 40s and maybe they're getting laid off work and he's dealing with that, or they're having like major windfalls from their company and they're working through. There's like two entirely different groups of people with different problems. And now Ryan's head is going to be Spinning, trying to figure out like, where to put his time and attention. And I don't know anything about Medicare, Irma. So now I got to go like, understand that. And I'm still trying to figure out like stock options over here. So, you know, it makes marketing easier but it also prevents you from building this chaotic practice. So, you know, keep that in mind as well. I just hear a lot of like, I'll figure that out later.

[Kendra]

Right.

[Taylor]

I just need to like grow and make money and I'll figure all that out later. The other thing too, and this is deserves a longer conversation, is I know there's a lot of advisors like Ryan who kind of feel a little bit stuck with their marketing because they work or operate under a larger firm. And that larger firm's messaging is maybe really broad or doesn't align with, you know, their approach. Again, there's a lot of different ways you can go about that. There's not a knock on these firms. I think it can be a great thing to be aligned with a large firm that serves multiple demographics. So to think about how you're going to carve out your little niche under that umbrella and how you're going to market that niche. And we talked about some ideas today, whether it be creating your own personal brand that kind of feeds back to that, that company through landing pages or an amazing YouTube channel about how to help 30 year olds that are having windfalls like that could be your platform. It doesn't mean you can't send people to your home base. So I just think it's like a really relatable thing that again, deserves a longer conversation. Conversation. But I know there's a lot of advisors out there like Ryan who are in that position. Like, I don't know, like my firm's messaging doesn't align with mine. What do I do? So, but really good conversation. And Kendra, I think you hit the nail on the head like for Ryan and all of our guests to feel comfortable enough to come and talk through like, it's a hard conversation. It takes vulnerability. And to me it's a sign that Ryan's going to be successful if he's willing to put himself out there, have this conversation, get some of these hard truths about his, his growth and his marketing. To me it's a sign that he's very likely to take action and be successful.

[Kendra]

Absolutely 100% agree. I think marketing is a really vulnerable experience. And putting yourself out there. Even now, I still find it challenging in my own ways. And I've been publishing content online for 10 plus years. So it's also proof that you care about the work that you're putting out. And I think Ryan is well on his way. The fact that he's willing to jump on here with us and any other advisors who do want to jump on here with us to have this call. And, and that reminds me, you know, if anybody is listening to this episode and they would love to jump on with Taylor and I, we would love to have you. We'll put a link in the show notes where you can jump on, sign up to the landing page and essentially the next time we have a slot of openings, you can sign up for one of those and you can come on here just like Ryan did today and we'll, we'll help you troubleshoot one of your biggest problems. So with that said, I think we're good to go today. If you know an advisor that is struggling with being under a bigger firm and they might relate to this episode, please just go ahead and forward it on to them so they can take a listen and hopefully we can all be learning together. So thanks so much and we'll talk to y'all soon. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. To get the resources shared or sign up to join us as a guest on one of our advice line episodes, check out the links in the show notes. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.