Advice Line: How To Generate Consistent Leads As A New Firm (David Edmisten)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Advisor Marketing Made Simple

Episode: Advice Line: How To Generate Consistent Leads As A New Firm (David Edmonstone)
Release Date: December 11, 2024
Hosts: Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright
Guest: David Edmonstone, Next Phase Financial Planning, Prescott, Arizona

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1. Introduction to the Guest and His Challenges

In this episode, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright welcome David Edmonstone, founder of Next Phase Financial Planning based in Prescott, Arizona. With his firm reaching just 22 months of operation, David seeks guidance on consistently generating leads.

David Edmonstone (00:26):
"I'm really struggling to see how to consistently generate leads from the marketing that I'm doing."

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2. Assessing Current Marketing Efforts

Kendra begins by evaluating David's existing marketing metrics to understand his baseline.

• Website Traffic: Approximately 450 visitors per month.

  David (01:08):
  "It’s about 450 visitors a month."

• Email Subscribers: 67 with high open rates (~60%), though subscriber growth is irregular.

  David (01:20):
  "The open rates on the newsletter shows like 60%, which is fantastic."

• Client Acquisition Sources: Primarily through NAPFA Find an Advisor listings and vague online referrals.

  David (02:15):
  "I'm a NAPFA advisor. So I'm on the Napa Find an Advisor, and this year in particular, I've gotten more leads from the Napa Find an advisor listing than just about any other source."

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3. Identifying Strengths and Preferred Marketing Channels

David highlights his proficiency in content writing and conducting educational events, such as teaching at a local community college.

David (02:44):
"I do a lot of content writing, so I've had a strategy to get published in national media... I also enjoy doing educational events."

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4. Local vs. National Marketing Focus

The discussion pivots to whether David should concentrate on local marketing or maintain a national presence.

• Local SEO Challenges:
  Prescott’s keyword searches (e.g., "financial advisor Prescott, Arizona") yield about 30 searches per month, compared to much higher volume in larger cities like San Diego.

  Taylor (06:21):
  "It looks like financial advisor Prescott Arizona is the most popular keyword for your local market... So 30 is still somewhat decent."

• Potential in Local Presentations:
  Emphasizing in-person presentations at community colleges appears to be a more immediate and effective strategy for lead generation.

  Taylor (06:56):
  "I think one of the key questions... do you want to spend more time on local marketing? Digital or... national marketing?"

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5. Strategies for Enhancing Local Marketing and Presentations

Taylor and Kendra provide actionable advice on optimizing David's local marketing efforts:

• Focus on Local Over National: Redirect efforts from national SEO and media mentions to local in-person presentations to increase lead quality and conversion rates.

  Kendra (09:19):
  "Your main challenge is finding more avenues to do more presentations and hit that quickly."

• Optimize Presentation Logistics: Addressing lead time and venue availability to maximize attendance and engagement.

  David (09:28):
  "For an in-person presentation, it's a minimum four weeks, maybe six to eight weeks leads to promote enough to get enough people to show up."

• Expand Geographic Reach Within the Region: Consider extending presentations to nearby areas like Northern Arizona or Scottsdale to tap into a larger audience without going entirely national.

  Taylor (16:45):
  "If you were to start to optimize some pages for Financial Advisor Scottsdale or Financial Advisor Phoenix, I don't think... someone in Phoenix would be opposed to hiring somebody in Prescott."

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6. Optimizing Conversions from Presentations

Turning attendees into qualified leads is crucial. The hosts suggest refining calls to action (CTAs) and enhancing the value proposition offered during presentations.

• Effective CTAs:
  Moving beyond generic invitations to subscribe to a newsletter by offering custom resources like checklists or flowcharts related to the presentation topics.

  Kendra (22:48):
  "A great lead magnet doesn't need to be big, it needs to be valuable... here's a checklist or a flowchart that relates to the presentation."

• Leveraging Existing Assets:
  Utilize media mentions and publications to build credibility within presentations.

  Taylor (15:21):
  "Having that credibility is still important and helpful. So don't feel like you just wasted time getting these media mentions."

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7. Understanding and Leveraging 'Runway'

A pivotal part of the discussion revolves around David's Runway—the timeframe he has before needing to see significant results from his marketing efforts.

• Immediate vs. Long-Term Strategies:
  Given that David's Runway is shortening, there is a preference for strategies that yield immediate results rather than those requiring years to gain traction.

  Taylor (03:38):
  "How long can you wait for some of these marketing things to work? Is it like, I need this stuff to work now..."

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8. Practical Tactical Advice

Taylor and Kendra delve into specific tactics to enhance David's lead generation:

• Webinars and Online Resources:
  Promote recorded webinars to capture leads from those unable to attend in-person sessions.

  David (15:21):
  "We've got the white paper as a subscriber... I've got a 30-minute, 26-minute webinar of the same exact topics."

• Evaluation Forms and Follow-Ups:
  Incorporate evaluation forms during presentations with questions prompting attendees to schedule follow-up meetings.

  Taylor (18:25):
  "Reminding them to fill out that form... would like me to follow up with you."

• Focus on High-Impact Activities:
  Prioritize activities that directly contribute to lead generation and conversion over less effective digital tactics.

  Taylor (25:09):
  "You can't just have this, you know, so-so marketing activity and throw ad dollars at it and expect those ad dollars to take your so-so marketing activity to something that's really exceptional."

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9. Final Takeaways and Hosts' Reflections

After the guest segment, Taylor and Kendra share additional insights based on their conversation with David:

• Importance of Assessing Runway:
  Understanding the urgency and timeframe for seeing results is crucial in selecting appropriate marketing strategies.

• Data-Driven Decision Making:
  Utilizing data to assess the local market size and potential ensures marketing efforts are well-targeted.

• Prioritize Time Over Money in Early Stages:
  Investing time in refining and optimizing marketing activities can be more beneficial than allocating significant ad budgets prematurely.

  Kendra (31:44):
  "Once something is working, then let's invest a little bit, you know, test, then invest... spending $300 could be a good use of his time at the stage that he's in."

• Focus on Core Strengths:
  Advising David to lean into his strengths—such as public speaking and content creation—while streamlining his marketing efforts to avoid burnout and inefficiency.

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Conclusion

David Edmonstone’s session with Advisor Marketing Made Simple provided a comprehensive look into the challenges faced by new financial advisory firms in lead generation. The episode underscored the importance of local marketing, targeted presentations, and data-driven strategies, while cautioning against overextending into ineffective channels. Hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright offered actionable advice, helping David—and listeners in similar positions—refine their marketing focus for sustained growth and success.

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Notable Quotes:

• David Edmonstone (00:26):
  "I'm really struggling to see how to consistently generate leads from the marketing that I'm doing."

• Kendra (09:19):
  "Your main challenge is finding more avenues to do more presentations and hit that quickly."

• Taylor (03:38):
  "How long can you wait for some of these marketing things to work? Is it like, I need this stuff to work now..."

• Kendra (22:48):
  "A great lead magnet doesn't need to be big, it needs to be valuable..."

• Taylor (25:09):
  "You can't just have this, you know, so-so marketing activity and throw ad dollars at it and expect those ad dollars to take your so-so marketing activity to something that's really exceptional."

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Resources Mentioned:

• NAPFA Find an Advisor: A platform where David has sourced significant leads.
• KITS Summit: Recommended by Taylor as a resource for enhancing local presentation strategies.
• Ryan Morrissey's Presentations: Cited as an example of effective in-person class strategies.

Listeners are encouraged to explore these resources and consider implementing the discussed strategies to enhance their own financial advisory marketing efforts.

Transcript

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make advisor marketing simple. All right, David, welcome to the show. We are so excited to talk to you today. You have some very real and relatable challenges that I think our listeners are going to love. So to get us started, why don't you share your name, your firm, your location, and that one big question that you would love to dive into with Taylor and I.

[David Edmonstone]

Thank you so much. So I'm David Edmonstone. My firm is Next Phase Financial Planning. We're based in Prescott, Arizona, which is about an hour and a half north of Phoenix. And I think my big marketing question is how to consistently generate leads as a new firm. Our firm is about 22 months old, so just launched a little less than two years ago and I'm really struggling to see how to consistently generate leads from the marketing that I'm doing.

[Kendra]

Awesome. This is an excellent question and so many advisors have it. So before we dive into some tactical pieces, Taylor and I have a couple high level questions that'll really give us a roadmap of where you are and where your opportunities are. So the first question I have for you is right now, what kind of website traffic are you getting on average per month? Just a ballpark number.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, I think it's about 450 visitors a month.

[Kendra]

Okay, awesome. And you know you do have a white paper on your website. Are you getting any opt ins or email signups for that per month?

[David Edmonstone]

So I've got about 67 subscribers on the email list. I'm not seeing a lot of consistent new subscribers. It kind of comes in, you know, batches and waves. So that's one of the questions I have, is just how to generate consistent new subscribers. The open rates on the newsletter shows like 60%, which is fantastic. So it's just a matter of strategy to generate more people into the newsletter.

[Kendra]

Okay, great. And for those subscribers, do they appear like real, you know, decent leads in there?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Kendra]

Perfect. And then for the couple of clients that you've recently had, you know, come to you, work with you that you love and enjoy, how are they finding you?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, so I always ask stuff on my intake form and what I've gotten is I found you on the Internet, which is a little bit nebulous. And so dissecting that down. The other source has been I'm a napfa advisor. So I'm on the Napa Find an Advisor. And this year in particular, I've gotten more leads from the Napa Find an advisor listing than just about any other source.

[Kendra]

Okay, great. And I do see that work pretty well. I also think if Napa's working for you, considering wealth tender can be a good option. I've seen some good qualified leads come through there for clients of ours. And then one last question here. And then I'm gonna volley over to Taylor. Cause I'm sure he's got some really good ones as which is when it comes to, you know, educating people and the marketing path that you enjoy, do you have a preference in where you feel most comfortable? Whether that's writing video in person, you know, cois, what's where do you really jive?

[David Edmonstone]

Well, yeah, I do a lot of content writing, so I've had a strategy to get published in national media. I've been published in 50 or 60 different articles since I launched, so I enjoy writing. I also enjoy doing educational events. I teach a local community college on saving on taxes and retirement. So I think, you know, presentations and writing would be the two areas that are my strong seeds.

[Kendra]

Awesome. Super helpful, Taylor. What's coming up for you?

[Taylor]

One thing I'd like to understand, David, I know you mentioned in the notes when you scheduled this that you know, you're only a couple of years in. You're not thrilled with where your business is at right now. I remember those days very, very well. I'm curious to know what sort of Runway you have. How long can you wait for some of these marketing things to work? Is it like, I need this stuff to work now or I've got a Runway? If things don't really start working for another year or two or three years, that's okay. I can be patient. Can you share with us a little bit about your.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, it's the first, the Runway was longer. It's two years into it, so it's running shorter. So, yeah, immediate results are definitely focus.

[Taylor]

Okay, I think that's important. We'll circle back to that here in a minute. Another thing I'd like to better understand. You mentioned SEO has been a focus of yours, local SEO. You mentioned 400 people per month showing up to the website. There is a difference between organic visitors showing up to your website. In other words, they googled something on the Internet and it led them to you versus just site visitors in general that might come through social media. They click through a social post and end up on your website or an email blast and they end up on your website. Do you happen to know out of the 400, how much are just purely organic? Typing in Prescott, Arizona financial advisor versus getting there through a different channel.

[David Edmonstone]

Yes. So over the last couple months it's been about 50% organic search, which, you know, four months ago that was all direct and I think Google Ads was coming through like paid search and so forth. So it's flipped to organic is. About half of my traffic is organic search right now.

[Taylor]

Okay, and then you mentioned that you localized your site for SEO. Did you do that on your own? If so, how? Or did you hire someone and if so, who?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, so it was all self directed. So I listened to some of your stuff on the experienced inviteers or marketing podcast as well as I'm part of XYPN and we had one of the numbers that did a, you know, how he got into, you know, top listing is, you know, financial advisor to Nashville and just piggyback on the strategies that he shared with us.

[Taylor]

Okay, cool. So I happen to know a little bit about Prescott. I have some clients in Prescott, Arizona. In the early days of my firm, I would drive, believe it or not, from San Diego to Prescott to visit these clients. They are one of my original clients all the way back from my Morgan Stanley days. They don't necessarily fit into my target market today, but they're some of my exceptions. So I know Prescott, Arizona very well. What I loved there at the end, responding to Kendra, what you said is you said that you're doing local presentations and what I know about Prescott is it's a really small, tight knit local community that could be a good thing or a bad thing. There's not enough of my target market here in Prescott because it's such a small town. Or it could be, it's such a small town, it's pretty easy for me to stand out. It's also easier for me to build relationships with this tight knit community because I live in Prescott, I care about Prescott, I'm involved in Prescott. So part one is understanding is there enough of my demographic here. From what I know about Prescott, I would venture to believe that there is. But it could be worth doing a little bit of digging there. But I think one of the key questions, and maybe I'll start over to you to see how you're thinking about it is do you want to spend more time on local marketing? Digital or you know, boots on the ground or national marketing? Because right now you're doing a little bit of both. So if you had to choose one, which way would you lean?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, I think where my head's at right now is leaning into the local. I started my firm kind of launching everywhere and we moved to Prescott. Two years ago when I launched my firm, we were based in near Atlanta. So I was kind of taking the, let me grab my Atlanta folks, my Florida folks, and kind of do the national thing. I think it's easier to stand out locally. I mean, when I look at the market, there's maybe 20 other advisors in our area. Not all of them are niche. So I kind of look at that as like I just need to be 1 out of 20, not 1 out of the entire nation to get the business that I'd like to have. And so I've been trying to lean more into local marketing this year.

[Taylor]

Okay, I like that. Especially since what I know about Prescott. I think that there is an opportunity there. I think what it does mean though is you might start to spend less time on these national things. Getting national press, I feels good, it's great. But I'm not so sure how much it's really serving you in your marketing. So as you think about, you know, which direction you want to go and really put time and attention into, I would start to think more about local marketing specifically. And then now we can drill into, okay, well how do I actually have success with local marketing? But start to obsess and consume as much as you can around local marketing and maybe start to ignore some of this national stuff that's maybe been more of a distraction. I know you kind of acknowledge that in the notes. So as we think about local marketing now, it's like, well, do I, you know, what sort of digital marketing opportunities are there versus kind of boots on the ground traditional marketing? Through my quick research, it looks like financial advisor Prescott Arizon is the most popular keyword for your local market. What I'm seeing is there's only about 30 people per month typing that into Google. So not totally surprising since Prescott is a pretty small town. The local search terms aren't always that, that large. So 30 is still somewhat decent. San Diego has, you know, about 3 million people here and San Diego financial advisor, San Diego financial planner, keyword gets between like 3 and 500 per month. So you know, the number is more or less aligned. But 30 people per month and then what percentage of that 30 actually fits into your target market? You know, I don't know, maybe a few percent of them. So there may not be as much of an opportunity digitally as you might have led yourself to believe. I could be wrong here. I mean there's more research and work to be done here. I love the local in person presentations. I think it's probably your, your quickest Path to growth. If you put all of your time and attention into that. Some of the kits of summits that we've done in the past, you can go and watch the replays. We've had some people just absolute crushing it with local presentations at their community college. I think that's probably your quickest path to growth. There's probably some other things that you could do that complement that local kind of more traditional strategy. But I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. I know digital marketing is fun, I'm a digital marketing nerd. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on like how, how would, how do you feel about maybe some of that more traditional marketing leaning more into those in person presentations and maybe setting to the side some of this, you know, SEO digital stuff.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, I think that's an interesting point because I've tried to kind of do all of it. And so, you know, my initial strategy was get quoted, get SEO backlinks, you know, try to get my site so that it has a presence with the idea that that would also help more locally because the higher my site ranks and more backlinks, the more it's going to pop to the top of the list. The local presentations is great. I'm teaching two more classes so fall, so winter semesters at the local college, starting to network with centers of influence and find different ways to do presentations, you know, piggyback with a, maybe a Medicare person or a. And I think, you know, the main challenge is just venues and lead time. So I've typically found for an in person presentation it's a minimum four weeks, maybe six to eight weeks leads to promoted enough to get enough people to show up to where you're there. And so some of that, it's just finding more avenues to get out and do more presentations and hit that quickly. And I think the point of, you know, okay, so if I took the hours or minutes I spend writing an article, posting on LinkedIn, the things that are more national reach, if I carve some of that back time and just focus hammered local marketing, I could definitely see some benefit there.

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's highly unlikely, at least here in the early stages that someone's going to go from reading a Facebook post or a LinkedIn post to scheduling a call with you and becoming a client. I mean there's a real low probability. You have to build up a giant audience and really nurture that audience for a long period of time. Also need to button up call to actions on your website and sales funnel like it's not as simple as just like I'm going to write some SEO optimized blog posts or publish on LinkedIn or Facebook every day. There's a lot of other pieces there that are missing in order to boost those conversion rates. So you're probably again, closer to success with these local presentations than you think. Yeah, it is easy to sit behind your computer and maybe write an SEO optimized post, but to turn those visitors into clients is a really challenging puzzle to solve. It's not impossible, but it is challenging. Kendra, I'll stop talking and let you jump in. I've got some other thoughts on like, okay, we're doing local presentations. We want to lean more into that. How do we, you know, take it to the next level and improve our conversions there. But Kendra, where's your mind up?

[Kendra]

Yeah, so one of the things I thought you said was really interesting. You said you're doing presentations at the college, Correct?

[David Edmonstone]

Correct.

[Kendra]

And that audience of the people that are attending, what's their age demo?

[David Edmonstone]

So we're typically retirees, so 60s. Yeah.

[Kendra]

Okay, cool. Perfect. I just wanted to make sure that the audience you're actually chatting with because that, that in person piece can work. Great person, the wrong clientele that can. It can be a great avenue applied in a way that doesn't work for you. So just making sure that those in person presentations are really bringing in those, you know, 50, 60 year old ideal clients there.

[Taylor]

And Kendra, really quick maybe just clarify so nobody's confused. I believe, David, you're teaching them at the community college, but they're not college students. They're just people going to the college to attend your business.

[Kendra]

Okay.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah. This is like the adult community education. So it's an educational. It's not, it's not a sales pitch. It's a how to save on taxes and retirement class. I'm teaching through the community college. Through the adult community ed.

[Kendra]

Yeah, I was confused. So thank you. Yeah, great. Other thing that is really interesting and I've seen this happen and this might not be happening to you, David, but I also want you to pay attention. You know, some of these advisors that I've worked with, they go after these press links and that's amazing but I found as I go back to some of those articles, they're either deleted or scraped or no longer there. So I think from a press links strategy, I find that to be helpful for educating current clients and social proof or people that are already on your list. I don't see that really convert new traffic, new people. There's A lot more trust building that needs to happen there. And then the other thing, I just wanted to point out that I think Taylor did really well. There is like how we can make that decision. If Prescott has enough traffic that 30 searches a month and then of that 30 searches, what works for you? So that's some really good data there. I love that you shared that, Taylor.

[Taylor]

Yeah. So again, and David, you know, please let us know if you want to take this a different direction. But I do like this idea of local presentations. If you're willing to set some of this other stuff aside and I guess really quick, I don't think the time you spent on the media mention stuff is time wasted. You know, you now are hosting these local presentations and guess what, you say, David, as featured in the Wall Street Journal is teaching this class. Like that builds some credibility. I know you've got it on your website, but you can also use it in your presentation marketing as well. So having that credibility is still important and helpful. So don't feel like you just wasted time getting these media mentions. There is a use case for them. When I think of as local presentations, maybe the hardest part is building the presentations and delivering those presentations. Maybe the other hard part is getting people there. But there's some, you know, outsourced solutions if you're willing to invest some money. Where my mind starts to go is, okay, you've developed a great, valuable presentation. Number one is what's the structure of this presentation? And then what's kind of my call to action there throughout those couple days you're teaching or, or at the end, what's my, you know, ask what's my. How am I going to potentially convert people? And there's a number of different ways that you can go about that. You obviously don't want to be a salesperson, but I know there's some subtle tactics that you can leverage. We can talk about those if you'd like. My mind also goes towards, you've built a great presentation, you're enjoying it. You love delivering these two things. One, can you do them in other places? You're not that far from Phoenix, Scottsdale, high net worth community there. Could you also be teaching these, you know, in Scottsdale from time to time? Again, you've already built it. If you've got a good system to get butts and seats, then you should be able to replicate and duplicate that process in other places. And Scottsdale is not that far from you. So could you do that other places in Prescott, other organizations that you can offer to give this presentation to. And then lastly, since you're giving the presentation already and you've already built it and you know it like the back of your hand, can you record this presentation and either just post it on your website at no cost, just, you know, just you know, watch this presentation or take this class online for free so that those that maybe do end up finding new online or a way for you to share this class with other people in your network so they can watch it and they don't have to like wait for the next class to show up, you know, eight weeks from now. So I'd love to hear from you, like where do you want to take this conversation? What's on your mind right now?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, no, this is great. And I think, you know, I built a webinar which is basically just a video version of the white paper that I offer on my website. So we've got the white paper as a subscriber, you know, get the white paper added to the email subscription list. I've got join the webinar and that also adds you to the email subscription list. So I've got a 30 minute, 26 minute webinar of the same exact topics and five retirement stakes, how to avoid them. So there's a potential to promote that more. I tend to promote a link to the webinar where someone enters their email to get access to the webinar. I haven't just posted it as a like instant access right on the website because I wanted to get that lead capture. There's the potential to promote that locally as well so that hey, if you can't make the class, you know, come check it out online or you know, just an A and B kind of approach to the same presentation. So I like that. The other thing that we may have time for in a smaller community, you know, like I said, we can expand Prescott to Northern Arizona and that opens up a fair amount of other opportunity. Other thing I'm curious about, and this is probably a longer term strategy, is somebody like Benjamin Brandt who is in, you know, if you're familiar with this story, who's in, you know, Bismarck, North Dakota, said I'm not going to find enough clients where I live. So he started a podcast. Now he's built a waiting list, only practice. And so part of my mind says if where I'm at is too small, how do I then branch out? Is it just geographically expanding my time driving time local or is it maybe a longer leg strategy like that?

[Taylor]

Yeah, Ben is one of my great friends in the industries and my mastermind groups. I know Ben's story and practice very well. I'm not totally convinced that Ben couldn't fill up his practice locally. It could be true. But I think that's an exercise that you need to go through. Right. To identify are there enough people here? To my initial point. Also your benefit. I don't know Bismarck, North Dakota that well and like the surrounding areas. But you know, your benefit is you're not far from some other high net worth areas that have giant populations. So for example, if I don't want to push you in this direction necessarily, but if you were to start to optimize some pages for Financial Advisor Scottsdale or Financial Advisor Phoenix, I don't think, you know, somebody in Phoenix would be opposed to hiring somebody in Prescott. Right. That's not that crazy. So you don't have to go like, you know, Ben Brandt or Taylor Schulte national across the country. You could just venture a little bit outside of Prescott and still have plenty of success. And again, if you start to teach some classes in Scottsdale here and there or Northern Arizona, you start to have more of a presence and you've got some digital marketing that's complementing that stuff. Like I think that could work. So going national is really, really, really challenging. I went on that journey with Ben. I went on that journey myself. It does take a lot of time. We now have more clients on the east coast than the west coast, which is absolutely crazy. But it took a long time and a lot of work to get there. And back to my. One of my questions, like how long is your Runway? And it's not very long at the moment. So I'd be, you know, thinking about more near term marketing activities. Advertising could be part of this, but I'm not sure what your financial situation is like. You might need to spend more money than you're comfortable with for that advertising to really work. But anyways, yeah, no, that's really helpful.

[David Edmonstone]

And I think the idea of just, you know, making the geographic circle bigger is probably the easiest thing to execute on as well as just you get out there and pound it instead of, you know, trying to build the digital marketing at too broad of a scope to really be noticed.

[Taylor]

Yeah, I mean, the other thing that comes to mind too is, and I know this about Ben, Ben was the first fee only advisor in North Dakota. I don't know, I know again, Prescott pretty well. I know there's a lot of Edward Jones type offices there. How unique is your practice to your competition there? And again, maybe it is more like boots on the ground, grassroots really highlighting your approach and your benefits and how you're different than a lot of the other financial professionals there. And there's a number of ways that you could go about doing that. From literally knocking on doors to networking with some great CPAs and attorneys. Hosting classes is certainly one of them. But you might have a leg up there where, where I sit right here in Del Mar. I've got creative planning this way. I have $6 billion, Dowling and Yonkey down the road there. I mean I have fee only firms all around me. So competition a little bit different here.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, there's two other fee only practices that I'm aware of. Maybe three. I think I'm the only NAPFA advisor in the area, so maybe able to highlight that and just again, you know, highlight some of the differentiators as well.

[Kendra]

Something that came up, you know, as you were speaking here, Taylor, is if you're really good at these in person presentations, you know, do you really, do you feel like your relationship building skills are one of your strengths?

[David Edmonstone]

In all honesty, I think I'm a better speaker and presenter.

[Kendra]

Okay.

[David Edmonstone]

As more than say a relationship rainmaker type personality.

[Kendra]

Okay. That's good to know. The reason why I was asking is because if you felt like you said you done a lot of media work and a lot of times there's a lot of legwork of like just connecting with reporters and things like that, you know, that relationship building element, if that were an area that, that you felt skilled in, the COI approach, there's a killer, you know, summit summit from Kitsis on a COI that was just awesome recently. So that could be something to look into. And one thing I thought about with the presentation because we are giving you that approach, I think of that from a funnel perspective and if you were looking at that and how to get really great at that, there's a couple different areas I would consider optimizing. One is your topic, like what topics are you putting out there? Testing those out. The second is going to be getting butts in seats. So there's going to be a lot of strategies around how you fill the room. And then the third one is going to be converting butts in seats to phone calls. And that's going to come through the content, the calls to action, the offer you make for the calls to action. You know, sometimes I see, you know, webinars and things like that. Some advisors will make a very branded kind of example. You know, Taylor's Website's a good example that they got like the retirement assessment or you can just say, hey, if you'd like to schedule a call and chat, you can test a lot of different things. But when I look at the presentation approach, because we are kind of going heavier there, it's like, how do we turn that into our own little like mentally a marketing funnel. So those are the three pieces I'd look at from a testing, optimizing standpoint on the in person front.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, that's great, kid. A quick question there. So my calls to action and presentations is, you know, if you're ready for a call, like to discuss your situation. Absolutely. Let's have an initial, no pressure call to find out how we can help you. And then second is if you're not quite there, love to send you our monthly newsletter, give you, you know, even more information, the same type of information just to enjoy presentation so that we at least have that drip campaign going. Is that effective? Is there anything that might be in between those two approaches as far as a immediate call to action?

[Kendra]

Yeah. So the one thing, the thing that I would change there is you mentioned a newsletter and I don't think people really care about newsletters. So what I would think about is when you dial in that topic, especially if it's something you're really, you really understand. My ideal client struggles with this and you're getting people to show up. I would actually build like a custom resource and I would just say, hey, you know, this is a checklist. You know, we went through all these things you need to look for and I know this can be really overwhelming. Hey, here's a checklist or a flowchart or something really simple that relates to the presentation. And it's either going to make implementing it faster or easier or clearer. And I want you to remember that a great lead magnet doesn't need to be big, it needs to be valuable. And the shorter you can make it, and the more valuable you can make it, the better. So I would pair your call to action as some kind of template or something that actually relates to the presentation. So, hey, you know, if you want help with this, you know, here's the easy way to schedule. Call me. But if you just need a little more resources on this, here's a template on how you could execute and then that way you get them on the email list.

[David Edmonstone]

Excellent, I appreciate that.

[Taylor]

Yeah, a couple tactical ideas here. One, if you wanted to get really creative and email marketing was really important to you or you wanted to build your email list, along with delivering these presentations. I'm not sure what the process is for people signing up for this class, but if you have control over that process or control over that landing page, there could be in the fine print that by registering for this class you agree to be on my email list type thing. So, you know, kind of get permission that way. That's how a lot of webinar, when you join a webinar in our industry, in the fine print there, you're getting added to an email list. So you know, you could take that approach. Second, one of the we mentioned the KITS summit. Ryan Morrissey is one of the guest presenters from a couple summits ago who's done a fantastic job with local in person classes at the community college. One thing that he said is when they have a break during the class, what Ryan does is, and I think this is a great idea, he has an evaluation form for people that are taking this class and it's obviously really important that they complete that evaluation form during the breaks. He has a thing up on the screen that says like, please, you know, fill out the evaluation form. I'm sure there's some more to it, but basically a reminder to fill out that evaluation form on that form. Of course it's like, how did the class go? And I'm sure there's some key questions, but one of the things on that form is would you like, you know, to schedule a meeting with me to discuss your, you know, financial planning or whatnot? I'm not sure exactly how he asked, but that's what's on the form. So reminding them to fill out the form and then one of those questions is, would you like me to follow up with you? Basically. So if you can encourage people to fill out that form, you know, a certain percentage of them will hopefully tick the S box. Now you have permission to reach out to them and if not, you know, hope you have a way of getting them onto your email list. All of this goes back to something that Kendra and I say over and over again, which is if you're going to take this approach, you got to obsess over it. You have to learn from people like Ryan. There's a hundred, Ryan's out there, there's a hundred books out there on this topic. There are courses on this topic. There are YouTube videos. Like you would spend like the next, you know, few weeks just obsessing with this topic. Like, okay, I'm going to lean into this. How can I do it better? How can I learn from people who are ahead of Me who are already having Success. You're spending $300 on Google Ads. I don't benefit. I guess I do benefit in a way, but like I'm being objective here. Go spend that $300 and buy the kits, a summit replay and watch Ryan's presentation and get all the material and deliverables that he shared for $300 instead of giving it to Google. Yeah, that's where I would spend my time and attention. If you really want to see success from the this, I appreciate that too.

[David Edmonstone]

That's great advice.

[Kendra]

I love that. That's excellent. Do you have any questions that are popping up? I know we've talked about a bunch here. We've talked about how to drill down into local, how to expand local a little bit, how to really take those in person presentations and really use those to convert quality clients. What's coming up for any questions here that we can kind of answer to help you go home with something that feels practical and actionable?

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, it already is. I mean this has been really helpful. I think that the hardest part as a new firm runner is just that like shotgun approach of like let me try to do everything that everybody says that attracts clients, you know, long term, term, local, national. And it gets to be tiresome and it's also gets to be hard to track what's actually delivering results. So this has been really helpful just to narrow my focus and give me a single direction rather than trying to like keep all the plates spinning so that I, I really appreciate the feedback that you guys provided today.

[Kendra]

Yeah. And the really good news is, is that you're doing a lot. So what that tells me is you have hustle. Like you're getting things done, you're trying things, you're open minded, you're willing to test and that mindset for one is just going to serve you. Also we know you can get things done. So I hope that this conversation has helped you like drop your shoulders a little bit. Like, oh my God, I don't have to do it all. What I've found from a lot of the advisors that I've worked with and that I've talked to you behind the scenes is the ones that are really succeeding are actually doing way less. So that's an insider secret. They appear to do it all. They actually do a few things very well. And the other thing I just want to give you a great kudos on is just asking for help coming on here and asking, you know, hey, how can I crack, crack this problem open and solve it? That's A brave move. So that tells me you're willing to put yourself on stage, you're willing to talk about it. You have some really good things working in your favor, and I hope that this renewed focus on an area that feels a little bit more aligned, and it'll help you save a little money on your ads and just reinvest your time and attention and energy into an area that feels like it's already working for you.

[David Edmonstone]

Yeah, that's great. This has been really helpful. I appreciate the offer for the time with you guys.

[Taylor]

Thanks so much, David.

[David Edmonstone]

All right, thanks so much. Be blessed. Have a great week.

[Kendra]

Thank you so much for joining us. All right, Taylor, we went into some offline mode there. I feel like we were off roading a little bit. Usually we hang out in the digital marketing realm, but you know what? We drove off, we ran through a couple of bushes, and now we're back. So let's talk a little bit about a few thoughts we have post chatting with our friend David. So one of the questions that I hope our listeners heard and really let sink in. A brilliant question you asked is, what's your Runway? So many advisors don't really think about this when they're choosing strategy or a platform. And it's. It's such a brilliant question to ask because depending on the Runway you have could really totally just chop the strategy up and go a lot of different directions there. So, for example, you know, we've talked a little bit about SEO, which can be a very effective strategy for advisors, but it can take, you know, one to three years to really see some solid traction there. It's a challenging strategy, which doesn't mean it's bad. You know, there could be a lot less competition for some of those strategies. But I just loved that you asked about the Runway, and when do we need this thing to really start producing revenue? The other thing that came up for me is, you know, you said, hey, go fill your practice first. Let's get. Let's make sure you got the income coming in, and then we can look at other strategies. And also, how in your practice can you make a decision based on data? So when we talk about the local piece, you know, advisors, you can get someone to run a simple report for you and look at how many people in your area are searching for, you know, financial advisor Prescott. And then you can look at, is that going to be enough? You know, there's. There's some ways to make these big, scary, hard decisions using data. And I would look at that there. There's Some ways to do that. So I love that you brought in the Runway piece. I love that you just pulled up the traffic data on Prescott. And I love that we are willing to just go in a bit of a different direction with that advisor.

[Taylor]

Yeah. On the Runway thing. It's just obviously an important thing to know. But I also think it can lead to some not so authentic marketing activities or even destructive marketing activities. If I need money tomorrow and I don't have time to be patient and thoughtful about my marketing, I can end up doing some things that could cross ethical lines or again, be destructive long term. For example, I just start taking on anyone and everyone because any better revenue is helpful. And all of a sudden, you know, at the end of a couple years, I have this chaotic, messy practice. I still don't have, you know, clear, systematized firm. And now I've got a new problem to solve. So understand that Runway is really important. I don't want to encourage anybody to do this, but I think there is this in our. We hesitate to take a lot of risks and spend money in this business. Sometimes when you look at a lot of other entrepreneurs and industries, they'll borrow a lot of money to start their business. Right. And it's rare that you hear an advisor say, I went and, like, borrowed money to go and start my business. I'm not encouraging somebody to do this because there's a whole financial conversation to have. But borrowing money, if you have a clear vision and a clear, you know, strategy, if what's needed to give you some Runway is to borrow money, I'm not convinced, like, that's a bad idea. Like, that could be a solution so that you don't go down this bad path and this destructive path or, you know, get too short minded. So. So anyways, enough on that. But the other thing that really jumped out to me, or I think I want to highlight, is really understanding your target market and where you are. There are plenty of data sources out there. You can identify who's in your target market, how many people are really there. But in a small town like Prescott, where we talked about, you know, Ben in North Dakota, it's really important to understand what your local market looks like. And if there is enough of your ideal client that that lives there, that will certainly influence how you approach your marketing. And then the last comment I want to make, and this is going to kind of contradict my comments about, like, borrowing money to grow your practice, is to be careful spending money in the early stages. And this is more related to him spending $300 on Google Ads. I'm not sure we heard the frequency of that if it's weekly or monthly. But nonetheless, he's throwing money at Google Ads. And in the early stages of your firm or in the early stages of a marketing activity, I think that your time spent is probably more, not more valuable, maybe moves the needle more than dollars spent. I would use your time first to create this awesome marketing activity, get some traction, and then the ad dollars you may spend are used to amplify the success that you're already having. You can't just have this, you know, so so marketing activity and throw ad dollars at it and expect those ad dollars to take your so so market activity at to, you know, something that's really exceptional. So I would, you know, get it to a good place first and then use those ad dollars to pour gas on it.

[Kendra]

You gave a great idea too with his Google Ad spend. And I love this idea of hey, once something is working, then let's invest a little bit, you know, test, then invest. So with the Google Ads thing, you said, hey, instead of spending that on Google Ads, there's a presentation of someone who's doing exactly what you want to do and you could just go jump over here, grab jump on a link, grab that kids presentation summit. We'll link to that in the show notes. Wonderful way to look about. When does it make sense to invest in marketing. So I love that you pointed that out. I love that you brought that up and gave him a really tangible way that spending $300 could be a good use of his time at the stage that he's in. So I think we had a great conversation here. I love that we were able to find something that felt authentic to him. And as always, I love that we were able to kind of peel away a few things that could have been distracting him or not be the best use of his time. Hopefully he got some really good takeaways and our listeners did too. So if you're listening to this show and you're like, hey, you know what, Taylor and Kendra, they won't beat me up too bad. They'll give me some good help. You want to? Well, I don't know Taylor, sometimes I'm just kidding. Don't worry, I could be bad cop to but if you want to jump on with us, we would love to have you. So the easiest way to do that, jump into our show notes. We're going to put a link in there and every time we do these connections with advisors and we talk to them about their business, we send it out on the email list. That's the number one way to get first access to that. You can come on with us. You don't have to prep. You don't have to have it all together. In fact, you're even better if you don't have it all together. That's what we're here to help with. So jump in the show notes. We'll help you out there. And again, we're excited you're listening and let us know what you think. Chat with you 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.