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Advisor Marketing Made Simple
Advice Line: How to Show Your Value to High-Earning Prospects (Aditi Kapadia)
00:40:35
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make Advisor Marketing simple. Today's guest is Aditi from Wealth IQ. She just started her solo practice nine months ago. Her current revenue is tracking at 18,000 for 2025 and she'd love to grow to 300,000 in the next five years. Welcome to Advisor Marketing Made Simple. Aditi, what question do you want to dive into today?
- [00:31]
B
My biggest question today, Kendra, is how do I better articulate my value to my prospects and also my existing clients because I would like to continue to work with them.
- [00:42]
A
All right, tell us a little bit about your ideal client.
- [00:45]
B
I am nine months in, so I am in exploration mode. I'm learning who I enjoy working with and a lot of this is intentionally me trying to build a practice that I, I enjoy the clients that I work with. So my ideal clients, my ideal customer profile is individuals that have pretty complex scattered lives. They're globally minded, so they may have lived in a different country, they're from somewhere else before they decided to make the United States home. I myself personally transitioned from a life in Canada to the United States about 10 years ago. So I love working with fellow Canadians. And yeah, they're scattered enough that they need help really holding their hand because their day jobs keep them pretty busy. So most of the folks I work with right now are either CFOs of large companies or they're founders working on launching a product. And they may have family and kids and working partners and their partners may have businesses. So they're ambitious, they are very achievement oriented, but their lifestyles are so scattered that they haven't taken a step back to really understand how to kind of have their money work for them better as well as one of the things I'm deeply passionate about is people's relationship with money. It's what got me into the business and what encouraged me to start my own firm. So I spend a lot of time understanding people and trying to meet them where they are.
- [02:26]
A
Okay, let's talk a little bit about a few things here. I want to go deeper. When you said individuals who are globally minded, does that mean that they travel between multiple countries often like they live and work in multiple places? Or is it just that they have integrated to a different country? It sounds like most of them are.
- [02:43]
B
The U.S. they're based in the U.S. so they're either American tax residents or American citizens. And they may have lived in a different country prior to moving to the US but it's also possible that they, they maintain their home in the US but travel around and work in different countries.
- [03:02]
A
Because when you say globally minded, I know there can be some, some challenges around, you know, taxes and, and managing different pieces if you go between countries. So I, you know, that's what I'm trying to understand a little bit more is like, have they moved here and now they're stationary in the US or do you think that they will be more nomadic or maybe they have a business in multiple countries? Like, what feels more exciting to you if, if you've seen that kind of pop up in your work?
- [03:27]
B
I think I like the former better because it's a little bit easier in terms of the amount of change that they're navigating. So I think I prefer that. But I'm open. If they decided that they had to take their stuff and move, then I'm so happy to transition them over to somebody else at some point. That is more right for them when they decide to make that move. Okay.
- [03:50]
A
And for someone who has moved from another country, they're now in the US and they're stationary here. What do you think is unique about their financial situation that is, let's say, different from someone like me? I own a marketing agency. There's very specific things about the money challenges I have. What about these globally minded individuals? What is specific to them because of that scenario?
- [04:12]
B
I think it's that they're used to another financial system. They're used to different kinds of tax accounts and the way things are set up, a certain kind of tax system, and then they come to the US So I'll just compare like the few countries that I work with, Canada and Australia, and I've noticed that they have simpler tax codes. The US tax code is pretty complicated and very convoluted. So sometimes you need to break it down for them, educate them, explain to them in their terms how it's related. So I enjoy that process of saying, hey, the 401k fund plan is kind of like your superannuation funds in Australia or like an RRSP in Canada. So I do that work to help educate them according to their previous tax law and then dig in a little bit deeper because like I said, the US tax code is fairly complex and requires a bit more education.
- [05:11]
A
Okay, is there any terms that someone like this would resonate with? Like, so for example, I know the term like expat. Like, would they see themselves an expat? Like what kind of terms? If they saw a piece of content, how would they know it applies to them?
- [05:25]
B
This is where I'm struggling A bit too, because I don't know how to house them, how to label them. They are. I don't know if they're necessarily new immigrants because that feels like they didn't come from a lot of money and they're like finding their way out. So it's not that because they have come to the US As a professional already or they are in a fairly high position, maybe in an executive position, or they're a founder in the US So maybe it's more people that have moved around, that have experienced other cultures, have experienced different financial systems in their life, and are still trying to figure out how to navigate the U.S. tax system.
- [06:14]
A
Okay, let's talk really quickly about how you enjoy communicating and educating your ideal client. Is there any particular mediums that you have felt drawn to writing, speaking, video, anything like that?
- [06:25]
B
Yeah, I enjoy writing. So I write monthly. Right now. I have a newsletter. I call it the Conscious Prosperity newsletter. It's not very focused on financial content. It's more focused on mindset, thoughts, emotions that people feel when they think about their money and finances. So writing is one avenue. Speaking is something I would like to get into. I would like to use more of YouTube and my decks and my slides that I build for people and showcase more of that work. So that's something I'd like to get into. But so far it's been writing okay.
- [07:01]
A
And if you had to choose between writing or YouTube, which one feels most exciting right now?
- [07:07]
B
Writing okay, awesome.
- [07:09]
A
Other than that, is there any. What are your current marketing activities that you're doing to drive awareness to the firm?
- [07:16]
B
I post on LinkedIn. That's where a lot of my historical network has been. So that's where I write about my firm or I write about. I have this newsletter that's out on LinkedIn too. Yeah, that's been my only marketing channel so far. Uh, and then word of mouth.
- [07:36]
A
Okay, awesome. Taylor, what's coming up for you?
- [07:39]
C
Correct me if I'm wrong here. Uh, I thought I heard you say in the very beginning that you weren't quite sure who you wanted to target. That like you were interested in this cross border thing, but like you're still feeling things out and still trying different things. Is that accurate?
- [07:55]
B
Yeah. Uh, I'll tell you a little bit more. So I'm certain I don't want to work with a lot of clients. I think I want to work with 15 to 20 clients on every year, whether these are repeat clients or they're different clients. I haven't figured that out yet because I haven't been long in business long enough. And these 15 clients, I would like to meet them where they are. I would like to get to know them very personally. I really believe in like, the deep human relationships. And, you know, financial planning to me is a human process as much as it is a technical process. So we, while I can show them all the numbers in the world, there is a certain amount of handholding and follow ups and questions that really have to happen to allow people to execute on these decisions. So I can give them all the great ideas in the world. But I really need to hold them while they make these decisions. So I've decided I don't want to work with a lot of people. It's going to be a small list of people, but we meet twice a month. I meet them as much as they want to meet. And while I have a financial planning process that I would like to take them through, I often find most of them, I need to meet them where they are. If they have three or four big questions like, hey, I just want to understand first, how do I mitigate my tax bill for 20, 25? Then we're just going to spend three months focused on that, finding a solution to that, and then I will take them through the rest of my process to try to meet them where they are.
- [09:30]
C
Okay, that's fair. In the notes that you had sent in ahead of time, you had said that your goal was about $300,000 in revenue. But if you're targeting 15 or 20 clients at it looks like maybe six grand a year, that's not getting you to where you want to be. So maybe share more about the goals of the business and where you want to get to.
- [09:50]
B
Yeah, this year that's my price. Because it's my first year in business. I anticipate that next year and the year after, I want to get to a spot where I can charge for that level of service, where instead of 6,000, I'm charging $10,000 a client. That's where I want to get to.
- [10:12]
C
Okay, I've shared this on the show a couple times. I think that, I always think it's a helpful place to start at the kind of end, the end goal here, you know, if Our goal is $300,000 of revenue and we want to have, you know, let's say 30 clients to make the math simple, you know, we need to charge $10,000 per client. Does your ideal client, can your ideal client pay you $10,000 per year? Like, are they in that financial situation to pay it and are there pain points big enough to justify paying somebody $10,000 a year?
- [10:52]
B
I think the answer to that is absolutely yes. Because most folks I work with, their, their average income is a million dollars a year, so they, they can afford it. And then the service, the value that I provide like that is essentially, you know, me just helping them with the right tax strategy could easily like shave that off their bill. And even when I like that, my, even my lower level clients that I, some, some of them, a couple of them that I started with, I always think about if what they're paying me, have they gotten that dollar value back from it and can I put a dollar value on that? And I think about that a lot with all of my clients actually. And the answer is yes, because of the amount of stuff that I put into making sure that they get the value out of what they've signed up for. And I think that me and they didn't need that kind of work then I wouldn't feel comfortable taking them on as clients.
- [11:55]
C
That's great. Yeah. And then did I hear you say it said ideally 15 to 20 clients per year? I think you said something like if they don't want to continue for the next year, that's totally fine. Like I don't need people to commit to long term ongoing relationships.
- [12:10]
B
Yeah, I don't need them to, if they don't need me, then I, I can't, I don't want to force them to stay. It's more if they continue to find the value, then they should stay and if they don't, then that's up to me kind of to figure out how to find new clients that are, that see the value in working with me.
- [12:28]
C
Okay, this is more of a, a business decision on your end. But just while we're on the topic, it might be worth considering a slightly different fee model or positioning your fee model differently, where right now, at least on one of your kind of fee pages here, it says $6,000 plus for a 12 month engagement. It does just like read to me and make me feel like this is a long term ongoing relationship, that at the end of 12 months she's probably going to ask me to continue for another 12 months. And given that you said, look, I want to meet them where they are, I want to help them answer their big questions and then from there if they want more help, then I'll take them through my process. And I almost just wonder if you position this more as a, a one time plan, right? A whatever you want to call it, a one time assessment, a one time financial plan, and then they pay $6,000 one time fee. You should be able to design a service model that takes them through that process in, I don't know, three months. Advisor friend of mine does it for $8,000 and he takes it. It takes him four months to go through it with each client and you answer all their big questions and you give them that kind of one time financial plan, whatever it looks like. And then you got to know them pretty well. Maybe you don't want to work with them and you don't offer any ongoing services, but maybe you do and you're like, hey, by the way, I do have these ongoing services. This is what that process looks like. This is what that cost looks like. Take it or leave it. But it might be a little bit easier to sell and land a little bit better because right now, just still, your service model still reads like this kind of long, longer term ongoing service.
- [14:03]
A
Model to me at least.
- [14:04]
B
I love that idea of a one time assessment that is intense and it's in a small period of time and gives them a roadmap on where to go next.
- [14:17]
C
Yeah, awesome. Yeah. I don't know if assessment's right. Word. I do like road, road map. You could probably play with the wording here. But yeah, package it up, brand it, get your whatever, roadmap. You know, I charge $6,000. It's a four month process. We're going to answer your big questions. We're going to go through these, you know, four, you know, categories of financial planning and you're going to walk away with this deliverable, this thing. So again, more of a business decision, but kind of back to some of your marketing questions here. Maybe my last question here first, before I say anything else, is about $18,000 in annual revenue this year. We want to get to $300,000 in revenue. How quickly do you want to get there? Like how quickly do you need to grow?
- [15:03]
B
I think I've done enough good planning for myself that I'm giving myself in as much time as I need. It's about building the right practice. I'm not running so much with that end revenue goal in mind. It's, it's a good benchmark for me to have. I'll figure it out. I'm not, I'm not worried about the money piece as much as I'm more worried about getting to the right service model, the right kind of clients and the right kind of business.
- [15:27]
C
Okay, so if you woke up three years from now and your revenue was still $20,000 per year. How would you be feeling?
- [15:37]
B
Oh, I Hope it's not $20,000 a year. I won't be 20. But if it's, if it's a hundred, it, it's, it's okay. Okay, so.
- [15:45]
C
So if it, if it is 20, if there's not much growth in the next three years, like, you wouldn't be feeling great. Like, you may have to start to think about a different path for sure.
- [15:54]
B
Yes.
- [15:55]
C
Okay. Just want to get. I want to, I want to bring that to the surface. Like, there is some urgency here. Like, I understand you have a Runway, you've done a great job saving, and you want to be patient. And I love that. Like, it's never fun to be like, oh my God, I got to hurry up and get clients tomorrow or else. Like, that's never a fun way to approach marketing. So it's nice to know that you have a Runway. But I also think it's, it's important to be honest and clear. Like, no, I do need to grow this practice. Like, I need clients to show up. And I think it's worth setting a goal too. It's like, if maybe a hundred thousand dollars is that target in three years. So what does that mean in terms of the number of new clients that I need every month or every quarter every year in order to get there and reach that goal? To have something measurable to hold you accountable in terms of marketing? Because I know it can be really challenging when you're first starting out and you probably are hesitant to brand your entire firm and website around cross border planning. Canadians moving to the U.S. i'm sure that feels a little scary.
- [16:50]
B
It's not just scary, but I think I can service that market. I'm not sure if that's the only market I want to service because I don't want to hold myself to Canadians in the U.S. or Canadians moving to the U.S. because I only have one client out of seven that is a Canadian that has moved to the U.S. so the others came from other places. They knew me from a prior life when we were corporate executives together. So you're right. It feels scary to pick that and just run with that.
- [17:21]
C
Yeah, that's totally understandable. And I think you do need to do a little bit of experimentation to figure out what really works. What am I really good at, who do I really enjoy serving? Ensure there's enough of those people out there to build your ideal practice. So that's fine. I'll give you a solution here. But the one thing to Know is that on your homepage right now is that nobody, as great of a person as you are and as knowledgeable as you are, nobody wakes up thinking, I want to go hire someone to chart my financial story, right? No one wakes up thinking, like, I want holistic planning. I need investment, man. Like that's not keeping anybody up at night. So I would challenge you to think about three things that you love solving for that are true pain points for somebody. Sometimes these pain points, they don't know they have them. So we have to educate them about this pain point that they don't know about. Hey, you probably don't realize this, Kendra, but you know, if you have a million dollars in your pre tax 401k, that money's never been taxed before. And hey, when that those RMDs collide with other income sources, you're gonna have a giant tax problem. You probably didn't know about that. So it might be a pain point they don't know about, but it might be a pain point that they do know about. And so thinking about positioning your messaging a little bit differently because the messaging that you land on your website is gonna ripple through every other area of your marketing. When you guest on somebody else's podcast or you're writing an article, you're creating a video, it's gonna through all those different things. I think thinking about your messaging on your website's a good place to start. And I think it can be as simple as instead of charting somebody's financial story, I specialize in helping high earners tackle these three things. I don't know what those three things are, but they need to be somewhat painful. They need to be things that keep people up at night. I help people making over $500,000 per year solve these three things. I don't know how like specific you want to get, but even if you kept as like, I help high earning professionals in their 40s and 50s tackle these three things. And then you can have, I think this is the best way to solve for it. You can have three to five case studies directly below that or you know, a panel or two down that one of them is a cross border, you know, Canadian who moved to the United States. And case studying how you help that person could be somebody who's a US citizen working for a tech company making a million dollars a year, like whoever these people are and you can just lay them out in nice simple case studies. You're not going all in on cross border, but it's very clear to me pretty Quickly on your website. I'm a higher earner. Oh, shoot. I'm a Canadian that just moved to the United States. Like that case study is right there in front of me where it's a little buried, really buried on your site. This, this cross border thing. And so I don't think you're going to really be able to give it a fair shot. I found this one little section that says cross border advisory. It was a little tough to find. And then there's that one blog post down there at the bottom. Financial strategies for Canadians. So it's just not very front and center. And as you try to figure out what direction you want to go, we want to give these things a fair shot. And so if we're somewhat broad with our general messaging, our, our hero messaging at the top of the website, I help hiring professionals making over $500,000 do these three things. Here's some example case studies of these people and cross border planning is one of them. Let's say as you continue down your marketing journey, like 70% of every new client you get is a cross border Canadian, you know, living in the United States. And then you decide, you know what, I really like working with those people. I'm going to tighten up my messaging and go deeper, you know, with those types of people. But I think you got to get a little bit more clear in some areas on your website and really give some of these niches a fair shot.
- [20:54]
B
I love that. Case studies. So are you open to sharing examples with me of other firms that do case studies? Well, because I'd love to just be inspired.
- [21:04]
C
I mean, half of the advisor websites I visit these days have case studies. Okay. I've got case studies listed on my homepage about halfway down. I'm not going to say that's the best way to portray case studies, but it's one way to do it. Kendra, I'm not sure if you can think of anybody off the top of your head, but I think if you just started like, there's a lot of like those top advisor website articles out there. So if you like Google top advisor websites, you'll see these articles that list like the 50 best advisor websites. Start to click through those sites and see which ones have case studies. You might even be able to use ChatGPT AI like, hey, give me, you know, 50 advisor websites that have client case studies on them. So this is a great example of anytime somebody's pursuing a marketing activity. It doesn't matter if it's podcasting, YouTube, LinkedIn, email marketing, or Website development. There's a period where you need to do the hard work and do some real kind of boots on the ground research to figure out the best way to do this. We don't want to just like go outsource it to somebody else to figure out. We want this to be, you know, you and your personality to a certain extent. So I would spend the next couple of weeks like doing some research. Not only research on case studies, but research other financial advisors that are cross border planning experts. There's a number of them, other advisors that work with Canadians moving to the US like do some serious research and you can learn a lot from how others are positioning themselves out there in the marketplace. Not steal from them, but you know, use that as inspiration and make it your own.
- [22:31]
B
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that.
- [22:33]
A
And another thing that we've talked about on a few other shows is, you know, if you don't have the number of clients just because it's a newer firm that if you could kind of articulate, you know, hey, I'm looking at serving people with a million dollars or more per year, could you go out and have, you know, five to seven conversations with people who would fit your ideal demographic of a client and really understand like what are the core financial concerns they have within what are the issues that are coming up for them around their finances and just really start to kind of understand that demographic and what those top of mind problems are. Because a big part of articulating your value is understanding who we're speaking to, what are the problems they have and how do you solve for those for them.
- [23:16]
B
Yeah, that's. That is something I have been thinking about a lot is how do I go and Talk to like 20 people that are not currently in my prospect list or even on my radar but fit that ideal customer profile description and what is the fastest way for me to actually talk to them and ask them some questions about their finances. Yeah, I just have to figure out like the nitty gritty on how. But yeah, it's, it's definitely. Thank you for reminding me because that's it definitely on top of my mind or use was as I was pulling all of this stuff together.
- [23:55]
C
You can also fast track it a little bit by thinking about what other professionals work with. People I want to work with. Right. Like cross border CPAs, you know, when is their downtime, when they're not really doing much and you can cold outreach or walk into their office and you know, learn a little bit about how they service their clients and pain points about Their client. Again, you're not, not shopping for business here. Just you're doing research and learning. Other professionals, attorneys, CPAs that work with, you know, cross border, you know, Canadians.
- [24:23]
B
Living in the U.S. yeah, great idea, great idea. Using the other professionals to understand more about the, the niche or the, the icp.
- [24:33]
A
The other thing I would add to that too is when you have those conversations, if you're able to record those conversations with a tool like Jump or Fathom so that you can go back and look at the conversations. I've found it astounding when working with my own clients. They'll say, hey, these are the problems and the questions that my ideal client asks. And then I look at the data and it is really surprising that they're asking about sometimes very different things. And when you're in that kind of listening mode or advising mode, sometimes not only do you miss some of their concerns, but you also miss their language. So a big part of articulating your value is also using the words that your ideal client would use and not our industry jargon. Now you can use jargon if it's their jargon. So for example, if we're working with someone like a tech executive, we can say things like RSUs and ISOs and AMT, because that's their world that communicates. I get you. But we might not say some of the financial planner jargon that, you know, we would talk about behind the scenes because that just confuses them. So that's a big part of articulating value. After we get clear on who we're serving, the problems they have, the transformation that we create, and then describing it using their words.
- [25:45]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's helpful.
- [25:48]
A
So we've thrown quite a few things your way here. You know, is there anything coming up for you? What do you think you might do a little bit differently based off the conversation we've had here?
- [25:56]
B
I just think I'm gonna think more intentionally about like this question that you said, like, what are the three, the three things I'm solving for for anyone who is in my current ICP and really call that out on my website as well as on other marketing content that I'm putting out, doing a little bit more homework around trying to meet them, where they are by talking to them or other professionals that service these kinds of clients. And yeah, and just continuing to think about how my, like, for example, like my content that I put out right now, like, I just, I tried a series on LinkedIn and this was all part of me except experimenting how, how I wanted to reach more people is I started to do a series on the big beautiful bill. All right. Like, there's a lot of new things that came down this bill. There's also a lot of emotions around, like, some things were not great, some things are great. So I started to break down the aspects of the, the tax bill that would be most beneficial for some of the people I work with. But then I quickly realized I was using some jargon, so I took a pause and I'm in this mode where I'm reevaluating how I want to start. Still put out that same content, but put it out in the context of like, what is this solving for you? Not just in terms of, hey, tax credits, but what does that mean? What does that mean? Okay, great. Like I get tax credits. So what? So I, I, I, that's where I think I need to kind of be more articulate to explain as if I was explaining to somebody that hasn't heard this before. Like, what does this, this means I could send, save a certain percentage of my taxes, certain dollars. Like, what does it mean? And that's kind of what I want to do with a lot of my content, as I put it forward.
- [27:46]
C
I think this, this does come back to knowing your client. If I'm making a million dollars a year, I probably know what tax credits are. Yeah, probably. So it's just something to consider. Like, I do get fairly technical with my content because I know that the people consuming it, my ideal clients, they are, they're fairly savvy. Like, it's not that I assume everybody knows it, but I don't spend a ton of time explaining all the background of a Roth conversion. I might say, as a reminder, it's the process of taking money from a pre tax and moving it to a Roth and just keep it simple. This does come back to like, knowing who your ideal client is because, like, you dumb it down too much. And if you're going after complex million dollar earning families, like, yeah, I know that, like, this is a waste of my time. So just keep that in mind. Don't let this prevent you from taking action. Right. Like, perfect is the enemy of good. You're in the very, you know, messy beginnings here. Like, get stuff out there. Like, the hardest part is just to hit publish. So don't get too hung up on all the details. Start throwing stuff out there, hit publish, monitor feedback, monitor analytics, double down on the things that are working and just try to get better every time. But you know, we can sit on this article for months fearful we might miss something or not explain something perfectly and then it never publishes.
- [29:04]
B
So yeah, I had a question for you guys actually about.
- [29:07]
C
Yeah, please.
- [29:08]
B
Experimentation process. How do I do it more intentionally? Right now it's a bit scrappy trying something one day and like next week I'll, I'll try something else. But in terms of like in that same mindset of setting a goal and you know, kind of moving forward, do you have like a process or a way to experiment a niche down and to get to that, like this, even the exploration, like can I put some structure around it?
- [29:41]
C
I guess what comes to mind, like experimentation. Maybe it's a clarifying question, like experimenting with different marketing activities. Is that what you're referring to? Or experimenting with different.
- [29:49]
B
Yeah, the messaging. Like how do I, how do I test the messaging on what's landing and what's not? Like you see on LinkedIn and on, on newsletters I get impressions are one way for me to evaluate that. But it's so big, it's such a, I'm casting such a wide net when I think about social media marketing that I'm not sure how I should test whether my message is landing or not.
- [30:16]
C
Well, I think one is one platform at a time. If you're trying to experiment on LinkedIn while also Instagram, while also writing some blog posts, like it's just going to be really hard to keep track of it all. So it's like okay, what's the one? And Kendra asked us earlier, like, you know, is it writing? Is it video? Is a podcast? Like if it's writing, great, and then where are you going to Write? If it's LinkedIn, then great, like we're just going to focus on LinkedIn. So then the question is like, okay, well who am I connected with? If you're connected with a bunch of advisors, maybe it's time to remove all those connections and, and start to connect with your ideal clients, high earning professionals. If you want to narrow it further, go ahead. But like, okay, do I have the right connections on LinkedIn? Great. Now let me start to write some content on LinkedIn that caters to their pain points. And I might try some different styles, I might try some short posts, I might try some longer ones, I might try a short form video, I might try an image and start to monitor how people respond. And it doesn't have to be overly technical. Like I think you're able to quickly know what's working. Of course, like likes and comments. Just those numbers would signal to you that something's working. But also like the feedback that people are leaving as well. Like, you start to hear these recurring themes. I started to hear this recurring theme from my podcast listeners and you see it in the reviews. It's like, I love how short and concise the episodes are. I love how short and concise the episodes are. I love that they're under 20 minutes. I love, like, like, okay, this is working. Like, I like producing 15 to 20 minute episodes and my audience likes it too. Perfect. Like, I'm gonna try to keep my episodes around that time. So you start to hear these recurring themes that you can start to latch onto. But it's. It's hard to hear that stuff when you're doing all these other things. Well, it worked on Instagram. Why isn't it working on LinkedIn? And I wrote this blog post and nobody's reading that, but they liked the podcast episode. It's like, I don't know, it's hard to keep track of it all. So I think just staying focused and you might try LinkedIn for three months and experiment and you might find out it's not the place for me. I don't enjoy it, or I can't reach my ideal client and I'm going to experiment with something else. So, you know, give it a deadline for sure and monitor the progress. But I think you'll know pretty quickly what's starting to get traction and what's not.
- [32:16]
B
Okay, that's helpful.
- [32:18]
A
And I think a good way also to just kind of layer over that is, you know, when I think about marketing activities and I'm working closely with a client, you know, they often say, is, is YouTube or podcast or LinkedIn is like, what's the best channel for me? And it's really the wrong question. It's really just how do you genuinely enjoy educating people? So I use the medium like writing or speaking to narrow the channels. So you said, hey, I really like writing and I like speaking. You know, so that may be something like, you know, YouTube videos. If you enjoy speaking and come from video, that could be a great start for you. You know, if you didn't like speaking, I would definitely say, don't start a podcast or do LinkedIn. You know, some advisors, like, oh, you know, Everybody's doing this LinkedIn thing, but I hate writing or I hate social media. I don't ask what platform is the best for marketing. I ask what. What platform is aligned with your strengths? And then I just set everything else aside. So I think that could also narrow down the different channels and activities because all Marketing is challenging, but if you can align it with where you are naturally drawn and your natural strengths, it will be challenging but achievable. And that's what we're looking for when we're thinking about choosing, you know, a channel or a marketing activity.
- [33:25]
B
Yeah, you said something, Kendra, about like, starting there, like, thinking of writing as my. I. I still. I felt like you layered it. Can you repeat that point?
- [33:35]
A
Yeah. So the way I like to look at channel selection is I like to think of the medium first and use the medium to narrow the channels. So what that means, for example, if you love writing, then I started to think about what channels really plug into writing. So LinkedIn long form content could be really good. SEO blog posts could be really good. You know, Twitter threads could be really good. You know, if you like speaking, you could do potentially YouTube videos, long form, you could do a podcast, you could do in person events. You could do things that really cater to that. If you like relationships, you, you know, your firm is new, so it'd be a little bit more challenging from a client referral perspective. But if you like relationships, you could work with COIs. You know, you could network in your community. I just like to think of, like, okay, with video or writing, what channels map to that? And I choose the medium first and the channel second. So a lot of times advisors are saying, should I do a podcast or should I do LinkedIn content? I'm like, well, do you like to write? Do you like to speak? Like, let's start there first. And I think that kind of creates a bit of a forcing function to limit what channels you might choose. So let's find something that's just like, aligned with your strength first. There's a little bit of nuance because certain clients, you know, for example, Pre retirees on LinkedIn can be a little bit more challenging because LinkedIn is really easy to target by job title and job type. Right. So there's a bit of nuance, but I think in 90% of scenarios, we can use the medium to narrow the channel.
- [35:02]
B
Yeah, super helpful. I think, just organizing it that way. Yeah, maybe. Another thing I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna think about my medium and channels and just write them down. Cause I'm trying them, but they're not organized right now. So this actually kind of answers my question that I started with very well, is this is my experimentation. I just think I need to structure the, you know, I just need to structure it this way and then think about what's landing and what's not.
- [35:34]
A
You know, a lot of advisors think they have a platform problem when they've actually got a focus problem. Because I could throw a Twinkie from here and hit an advisor who's made it work on any platform. Like, it's so. Like, it is just crazy to me. Like, the things that people get to work are just. I'm like, that's bonkers. Like, I can't believe you got paid traffic to work like that. Or we just had a conversation with another advisor whose podcast funnel is converting very well. They all work. So once we understand who we're talking to, how you like to educate them, then we choose a channel, and then we build a funnel. And this is why we spend so much time really trying to understand who do you love to serve? Because, for example, you mentioned, hey, I love working with people who make a million dollars per year. But you also mentioned, you know, tax cuts. Do they care about tax cuts? If they're making a million dollars a year, they might need tax planning, but maybe a, you know, a tax credit is just not as relevant. So who you serve is a tiny hinge that swings a massive door in all your marketing. And it's often one of the biggest reasons we see advisor funnels don't work. So the good news is you're thoughtful about how many clients you want to serve. You've got an idea of your income and your flexibility. You got a Runway, You've got some patience, and you're willing to take some time to understand who you want to serve and create some parameters around your experimentation, which is incredibly important. Then once you line a few of those pieces up, then we start looking at channels. Great. You like to write. You know, you mentioned writing on LinkedIn. We can build a really successful funnel on LinkedIn that really leverages your strength of writing. Once we know who we're talking to and who you want to build this practice with.
- [37:12]
B
Yeah.
- [37:13]
A
Taylor, any parting thoughts?
- [37:15]
C
I don't think so. I mean, it's always fun to talk to people in the early days of the journey. I know it can be just really overwhelming. There's so many things that you could do, and you have all this freedom and flexibility and maybe time. I know it can be a really frustrating place to be, but it's also a very fun place to be. So, you know, enjoy the journey, enjoy the process, while holding yourself accountable to reaching these goals that you want to reach. Because it is easy to say, look, I've got a Runway. I can be patient, you know, and all of a sudden, wake up one day and your practice isn't where you want it to be. So, you know, be honest with yourself and find ways to hold yourself accountable. But enjoy it. It's a lot of fun.
- [37:49]
A
Thank you.
- [37:49]
B
I really appreciate this.
- [37:51]
A
Absolutely. All right, Aditi, we have put together a handful of action items for you to help you get more clarity around how to articulate your value to the people that you want to serve. So a couple different things that have come up in our conversation here. One is just taking a look at your fees and how you position those given how you want to serve people, maybe take a look and see if it makes sense to do a one time fee and then graduate people who are a great fit into an ongoing service. And when you do that, make a kind of measurable outline on your revenue goals so you can get very clear on how you want to move towards more profit in the firm. Then when it comes to thinking about your ideal client, sometimes we say icp, ideal client profile. Let's just start to narrow the spectrum slightly. For example, you know, hey, I help people solve these three things or I help high earners solve these three things. Spend a little time, you know, researching either your other advisors who are serving the audience that you're considering, or maybe even interviewing a few of your ideal clients or COIs to really understand this is the kind of person I'm thinking about helping. What are the, you know, the really urgent problems they'd love to solve in their finances and does that align with the problems I'm excited to solve? So there's a big part of just kind of getting clearer around who you might want to work with. And then you can work on putting together a few case studies on your website and then after that, you know, thinking about what medium you would like to create content in, whether that's writing or speaking. And I would use those to narrow the channels that you're looking at potentially creating content for. And then once you know that, you can build a funnel around that. But I think you've got some really good foundational pieces to really start to build out first and some boundaries for experimentation that I hope will keep you focused but help you really hit that goal of articulating your value.
- [39:39]
B
Yeah, thank you for like summarizing that so nicely because I really appreciate that. Super helpful.
- [39:46]
A
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for just being open and coachable. And like Taylor said, enjoy the journey. This is such an amazing field. People are doing incredible work. And I can tell by your focus on really wanting to meet people where they are, that you, your heart and your soul is going to fit so perfectly in this industry. And it's an amazing place to be.
- [40:06]
B
Well, thank you. Appreciate it.
- [40:08]
A
All right.
- [40:08]
B
Appreciate it.
- [40:08]
A
Thanks so much. 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.
- [40:23]
C
RA.