Advice Line: Personal Brand Or Firm Brand For Marketing Success (Taylor Bell)

Summary

Advisor Marketing Made Simple: Personal Brand or Firm Brand for Marketing Success

Episode: Advice Line: Personal Brand Or Firm Brand For Marketing Success (Taylor Bell)
Release Date: June 11, 2025
Hosts: Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright

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Introduction

In this enlightening episode of Advisor Marketing Made Simple, hosts Taylor Schulte and Kendra Wright delve into a crucial marketing dilemma faced by financial advisors: Should you build a personal brand or focus solely on your firm’s brand? The discussion is centered around the experiences of Taylor Bell from Equitus Financial, a solo firm specializing in LGBTQ-focused financial advisory services based in Los Angeles. With a firm aiming to scale from $15,000 to $500,000 in revenue by serving 100 clients, Taylor seeks guidance on optimizing his marketing strategy to achieve substantial growth.

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Understanding the Dilemma: Personal Brand vs. Firm Brand

Taylor Bell initiates the conversation by highlighting his current challenge: deciding whether to develop a personal brand alongside his firm’s brand. He notes the prevalence of personal brands in social media, citing Kitsis as an example where the personal brand overshadows the firm’s identity.

“[00:54] Taylor Bell: [...] deciding do I put this all on my firm or do I also build a personal brand as well.”

Kendra Wright probes deeper into the reasons behind this dilemma, exploring compliance considerations and the potential benefits of engaging audiences on platforms like Instagram where personal interactions may resonate more effectively.

“[02:37] Taylor Bell: [...] a personal brand, you have a little more leeway into what you can share.”

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Compliance Considerations and Strategic Flexibility

The discussion shifts to the compliance aspects of using personal versus firm branding on social media. Taylor Schulte emphasizes the importance of understanding state-specific regulations, especially in California, and the long-term business vision.

“[03:32] Taylor Schulte: [...] what are your long term goals for this business? [...] building a larger firm with multiple advisors.”

Taylor Bell expresses his vision of expanding Equitus Financial to accommodate more clients and advisors, indicating a preference for a larger firm structure in the future.

“[05:20] Taylor Bell: [...] once I hit maybe you know, the golden number is what about a hundred clients?”

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Simplifying the Marketing Approach

Taylor Schulte advises against juggling both personal and firm brands simultaneously, especially in the growth phase with a limited client base. He suggests leveraging personal branding within business accounts to maintain simplicity and focus.

“[04:19] Taylor Schulte: [...] when you come to your website here, it's got your face on the front. It feels very personal to me.”

This strategy allows for flexibility and future growth without overwhelming the firm with dual branding complexities.

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Focusing on Content Strategy: Emphasis on Video Marketing

The conversation pivots to content creation, where Taylor Bell identifies video as his strongest medium, given his positive feedback from Zoom meetings. He admits to struggling with writing, thereby positioning video as a more effective tool for his marketing efforts.

“[14:34] Taylor Bell: [...] video is, has been kind of at the forefront. Writing, not so much, that's definitely not my strongest suit.”

Kendra Wright and Taylor Schulte concur, advocating for a YouTube-centric approach to build trust and engage the target audience effectively. They stress the importance of producing high-quality, long-form videos to address the specific needs of the LGBTQ community.

“[22:00] Taylor Bell: [...] long form, you know, videos that are, you know, eight to 15 minutes.”

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Building Momentum: Overcoming Perfectionism and Establishing a Content Calendar

A significant hurdle discussed is perfectionism, which hinders the timely release of content. Kendra encourages Taylor Bell to prioritize action over perfection, suggesting the release of initial videos to gain momentum and refine the process based on feedback.

“[30:43] Kendra: [...] make that the enemy. [...] you have to suck before you get good.”

Taylor Bell acknowledges this challenge and resolves to "hit publish", emphasizing the necessity of overcoming initial insecurities to progress.

“[42:32] Kendra: [...] get one to three videos out as quickly as you can just to see.”

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Optimizing the Marketing Funnel: From YouTube to Website

Towards the end of the episode, the focus shifts to leveraging YouTube to drive traffic to the firm's website. Kendra Wright offers practical suggestions for enhancing the website’s messaging to better resonate with the target audience, including refining headlines and incorporating specific questions that address clients' pain points.

“[38:50] Kendra: [...] new website headline could look like this. [Example provided]”

These adjustments aim to create a seamless funnel from engaging video content to actionable website interactions, thereby facilitating client acquisition.

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Actionable Takeaways and Conclusion

By episode’s end, Taylor Bell gains clarity on his marketing strategy:

1. Focus on the Firm’s Brand Initially: Postpone developing a separate personal brand to concentrate on building the firm's presence.
2. Prioritize Video Content: Commit to producing high-quality, long-form YouTube videos to engage and attract the ideal client base.
3. Overcome Perfectionism: Begin publishing content without waiting for perfection, allowing for iterative improvements based on real-world feedback.
4. Optimize Website Messaging: Implement Kendra’s recommendations to fine-tune the website’s messaging, aligning it more closely with the target audience’s needs.

This episode serves as a valuable blueprint for financial advisors grappling with branding decisions, emphasizing the importance of strategic focus, quality content creation, and actionable steps to enhance marketing effectiveness.

“[42:32] Kendra: [...] find more of these people. Let YouTube do the work. This niche is amazing and they have so many unique problems that you are perfectly positioned to solve.”

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Final Thoughts

Advisor Marketing Made Simple successfully navigates the intricate balance between personal and firm branding within the financial advisory landscape. Through candid dialogue and expert advice, Taylor Bell gains actionable insights to streamline his marketing efforts, laying a robust foundation for substantial business growth.

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Notable Quotes:

• “[00:54] Taylor Bell: [...] deciding do I put this all on my firm or do I also build a personal brand as well.”
• “[02:37] Taylor Bell: [...] a personal brand, you have a little more leeway into what you can share.”
• “[14:34] Taylor Bell: [...] video is, has been kind of at the forefront. Writing, not so much, that's definitely not my strongest suit.”
• “[22:00] Taylor Bell: [...] long form, you know, videos that are, you know, eight to 15 minutes.”
• “[30:43] Kendra: [...] make that the enemy. [...] you have to suck before you get good.”
• “[42:32] Kendra: [...] find more of these people. Let YouTube do the work. This niche is amazing and they have so many unique problems that you are perfectly positioned to solve.”

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For more insights and actionable strategies, tune into Advisor Marketing Made Simple every Wednesday and transform how you market your financial services.

Transcript

[Kendra]

Hey, it's Kendra and Taylor and we're here to make Advisor Marketing simple. Today on the show, we have Taylor from Aciedas financial. He's got seven years of experience, a solo firm that's almost two years old, and a big goal growing from $15,000 in revenue to $500,000 in revenue by helping 100 clients. Welcome to Advisor Marketing Made Simple. Today we're having a conversation with Taylor. That's right, we got two Taylors today. Double awesome. So, Taylor, before we get started here, can you just introduce everyone and share your name, your firm, and your location?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, my name is Taylor Bell. I run Equitus Financial. We are a LGBTQ focused RIA based out of Los Angeles and helping clients virtually as well.

[Kendra]

What's the big question you want to jump into today?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I think for me, as a. As a new firm just getting started, you know, I think figuring out do I do a personal brand or a firm brand in my marketing and what is the best path forward there. I do plan on doing a lot of video social media and trying to decide do I put this all on my firm or do I also build a personal brand as well?

[Kendra]

Could you give me a little more context on why this question is coming up for you? The need to split the firm brand and personal brand?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, for me, I see in the landscape of social media a lot of personal brands that have developed over the years. One that we all are familiar with is Kitsis, where everyone knows who he is and maybe don't know exactly where he works. So he's developed a really good personal brand that everyone has come to know within the industry. You know, also on the client side, I feel like being trustworthy, showing that you have a presence, whether it be Instagram in particular, for my, for my niche, I feel like is a very important place. A lot of people interact with people rather than businesses in that realm. And so that's where the personal brand, I feel like could be beneficial rather than a business page that exists, but maybe doesn't get the interaction that a human being would get.

[Kendra]

A lot of the advisors I work with have the firm and the content we push out is on their personal profile. So is there any, any reason you would be against something like that? I mean, there might be some compliance reasons, depending on how you're set up, but just any particular reason why you would use the business page versus your personal brand and things like that?

[Taylor Bell]

Sometimes, and this, you know, may be my. My ignorance into compliance. Obviously, the firm pages are monitored quite a bit for Compliance, I feel like a personal brand, you have a little more leeway into what you can share. Specifically being state registered, I feel like there could be some, some leeway in, you know, a financial Persona on Instagram in particular, as well as YouTube as well as you. You know, on the flip side, you have your firm that you know is definitely compliance, heavy regulated, what you say, et cetera. So that's kind of where I see some more freedom in the personal brand versus the firm exclusivity.

[Kendra]

So I've got a few more questions. But Taylor, we just swerved into your lane of expertise, so I'd love to hear what you think about, you know, this direction first.

[Taylor Schulte]

I mean it gets a little tricky with compliance, especially since you're, you're state registered and I mean you're here in California and there is a lot of gray area. So I don't want to go down the compliance rabble. If it's a compliance reason that you're going to go start your personal brand, then go for it. I was just thinking more from a business standpoint, maybe I'll just ask a question before I share a comment and that is what are your long term goals for this business? Is this going to be a solo lifestyle practice or are you looking to build a, a bigger corporate firm brand, hire more advisors, build out this thing and make it bigger, or is it just going to be you and, and maybe you have an assistant at some point, some back office support. But what is the long term vision for this, this company?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, you know, I've envisioned it both ways. I, I've tried to see personally, you know, as a, as a business owner is keeping it solo, you know, what I want. I think that is definitely the simpler track. I do think though, however, what I offer and what the firm offers in its nation planning, I think it is going to expand beyond the capacity of one person. And so I definitely see this growing into a much larger firm with multiple advisors, you know, helping clients kind of really spread out everywhere. So I am leaning more towards that much larger firm with multiple advisors, multiple employees.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay, and at what point would you make that pivot to. I'm going to start to hire additional lead advisors. I can't take on any more clients myself, so I'm going to start to hire more advisors and really build this thing up. Like at what point is that? Maybe let's talk in terms of revenue.

[Taylor Bell]

In terms of revenue, the way that I am, have been starting to monitor this is more in like client capacity. So once I hit maybe you know, the. The golden number is what about a hundred clients? It might be actually a little bit less than that. Might be closer to 75 for me. Would feel like at that point would need to start adding additional advisors to take on additional relationships. We're not at that number yet. Like I said, definitely very early on. But 75 to a hundred, I think is that threshold where I would feel comfortable. And then beyond that, additional support with additional advisors.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay, and about how many clients do you have now?

[Taylor Bell]

We're at a grand total of five clients right now.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay.

[Taylor Bell]

Okay.

[Taylor Schulte]

Kendra's talked about this before, and we did an episode on or I think we answered one of these questions about should I have a personal brand? It introduces a lot of extra complexity, and right now you're in growth Mode. You've got five clients. You want 75 clients. We need to focus on growing this firm. I'm not sure that we want to get distracted, affected by building a personal brand, maintaining that personal brand. There's some compliance stuff to consider through all that. It's just, it becomes a lot to manage these two entities that. You brought up Kitsis as an example. But yes, Kitsis, you know, works for buckingham technically, but Kitsis.com is a business in itself, so it's not even really a personal brand at this point. It's like a little business, one of as many businesses. So not sure if that's the best comparison. There are some personal brands out there that are connected to financial advisory firms, but because it's just you right now, I think you're okay with just keeping your firm brand. You know, when I come to your. Your website here, it's got your face on the front. It feels very personal to me. It doesn't feel like a corporate stuffy brand. And you have that luxury because it is just you right now. So, long story short, I think I would push the personal brand thing to the side. One thing you can do that's kind of like in the middle ground here is on social media, and I did this early on as well. Instead of my Facebook page being facebook.com define financial, it was forward slash, Taylor Schulte. Instagram. Taylor Schulte. YouTube. Taylor Schulte. So it was my personal name. Now in the bio, I was linking back to my firm website, but it's not as if the YouTube page or Facebook page or Instagram page was the firm page, and it was my page as a. As an individual person. It was technically still a business page, but the business was. Was me. It was my name. So you know, compliance would still consider that the firm's social media page, that needs to be archived and monitored, but to the consumer, that's, you know, digesting senior information on Facebook or YouTube or Instagram. Wherever you're posting, it's going to look very much like a personal, you know, a personal page. So I think that's kind of like the middle ground that you can consider if you don't want to manage these two different entities. If that makes sense.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. It was starting to already become a little cumbersome and knowing, you know, the logistics of it all and where, where it should go, where should I share it, things like that. So this helps kind of funnel that into just one spot, at least for starting out, since I'm newer at this.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay. And it gives you some flexibility too, because if you just use your own name that's applicable to any stage of, of your business. So, for example, let's say you had mentioned the notes here that you're interested in maybe a YouTube channel. So let's just run with that. At the moment, let's say you just name your YouTube channel Taylor Bell, CFP. Sorry, are you a CFP or not?

[Taylor Bell]

I'm, I'm studying for the exam.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay. Okay.

[Taylor Bell]

So just, you know, your, your YouTube.

[Taylor Schulte]

Page is just Taylor Bell. And you've got a nice banner there with, you know, showing just know I help people do X, Y and Z. It feels very professional, but it's very personal at the same time. Let's just say in five years from now, you have your 75 clients, you're looking to take on another advisor. So you want to change the firm website a little bit so it's not just like all about you. Well, on your YouTube bio, your YouTube channel name is going to stay the same Taylor Bell. And in the bio, you just might not link to the same firm. Maybe you decide to build a personal brand at that point and now you're going to link to your personal brand. So, so you don't have to like, you know, upend your entire YouTube channel. You just might have to update your bio a little bit. So I think just using your own personal name provides a lot of flexibility in the future where if you go and design and build this whole personal brand, build this whole other entity and never end up really leveraging it in the future. Just spending a lot of time with this extra complexity that maybe wasn't needed.

[Kendra]

And the reason I wanted to address that really quickly, which is like the structure in which we build something can Shift slightly based off of if we are building a personal brand. So just wanted to clear that up. Taylor, any questions there?

[Taylor Schulte]

No, I just. Maybe just to wrap up. I know kind of talking in circles there a little bit. Just like, how does it feel to just continue with the Equitus financial firm brand and then your marketing activities again? We'll just run with YouTube for now, since that was one of your questions. Your YouTube channel is just all branded around Taylor Bell.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I think that can absolutely work. I think it does allow for future flexibility too. Like, to your point, I think I get stuck in my perfectionism and wanting to solve for every potential problem that comes down the road now, rather than when it actually occurs or if it even does occur. So I think that this is a good, a good way to push all that aside and deal with it in the future, but at least get started and have momentum going for the firm.

[Taylor Schulte]

Because I think your hunch is right, like that people connect with people. I don't think you want to go start an Equitus YouTube channel. It's going to have this kind of corporate feel, and I don't think that's what you're going for. So again, like, everything can link back to the firm's website, but the channel is going to very much be centered around you and you're the face of it and it's that personal connection that you're looking for.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I think that. I think that works.

[Kendra]

Ironically, I find myself coming back to this question over and over and over again that I once heard, which is, what if this were easy, what would it look like? So I think a lot of times we can, we can all complicate our marketing. And so that could be a helpful question to just kind of return to over and over again. Um, what I'd love to jump into next is I really want to start to understand who you love to serve and who you want to attract. So tell me a little bit more about your ideal client. You know, what are a few of those really big pain points that are keeping them up right now?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, so kind of my, my client avatar, kind of perfect client would be, you know, an LGBTQ couple that is, you know, late 20s, early 30s, maybe, you know, kind of that mid, mid career point. From there, they're looking to have children via surrogacy, ivf. You know, some family planning actually is very important within, within our structure. So they're looking to figure out how to pay for that, how to plan for that. Obviously, saving for retirement is, is still in. In the works there, but really an accumulator client that is starting their family, maybe recently married. Looking into the family planning aspect, I'd say is one of the pieces that is most unique to us that we, we try to help solve. And then recently the questions on living abroad is also another piece that is very important to this community is the flexibility to potentially relocate in the near future or in the long term where they end up retiring.

[Kendra]

And what kind of like research have you done on your ideal client so far? Have you, have you worked with this clientele before? You know what, what kind of in depth research have you done?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I feel like I have done quite a bit of research. A lot of it ties back into myself and me and my husband here and what we are thinking we want in our life and where the lack of resources already exist. There is not a lot of that information readily available. Previous firm that I worked at did not go down this path at all in their, in their financial planning. So it's more of a, of a personal gap that we have found that obviously it will apply to the other couples out there that I've enjoyed working with. So far. We have a few clients already starting this process of saving for their family planning goals and have really found that it's just an added benefit. You know, aside from the traditional financial planning that we already do, it's an additional piece that clients are finding very useful.

[Kendra]

Of the five clients you have so far, how have they found you?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, so one was, was a longtime friend. Him and his husband were looking and didn't know at the time that I was a financial planner. We were talking and kind of mentioned it and they said, oh, you know, we're, we're looking for someone. The other ones have actually found me through a, a queer app, so an LGBTQ focused app for other LGBTQ owners. So a lot of them have found me through there, which I've done some paid marketing into to have my, my company kind of highlighted. So that has been a really good, good place to find clients as well.

[Kendra]

Awesome. And then let's talk a little bit about your kind of activities and your marketing channel when we start thinking about your marketing funnel. How do you prefer to educate people? Do you like writing video spe relationships in your community? I know you've mentioned a few things, but like what really do you gravitate towards out of those mediums?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, you know, I, I think I would be really good at video. I get a lot of compliments of my current zoom meetings that I do on a Daily basis for, for my personality and, and the way that I interact with people. Video is, has been kind of at the forefront. Writing, not so much, that's definitely not my strongest suit. But understanding that a lot of people digest information via, you know, the written word, I definitely think that it needs to be in there. But I think if we're focusing on one, video is definitely where I feel the most confident.

[Kendra]

Okay, awesome. And then one quick question here and then, Taylor, I'd love to have you jump in on what's coming up for you as far as marketing activities. What are you currently doing right now to build awareness for the firm?

[Taylor Bell]

Yes, we, we just recently went through the struggle of getting on Google. Um, the Google business for virtual firms is definitely a. Not an easy, easy path. So we finally were able to get on, on Google and from there, you know, we had our website built. I feel like the website is, was very well done. Um, but actually driving people to the website has been a main roadblock. Again, I feel like I'm a perfectionist and if I don't have it figured out, I won't actually follow through. And that's what I'm trying to break through here is let's just get some content out. I have a bunch of ideas, but actually releasing the content and getting it out there has been my roadblock. But now that we've actually had started the firm back in Salt Lake City, recently relocated to. To Los Angeles. So there was a delay in getting registered outside of Utah and in California. Now that we're up and running here, the last six months or so, it's been very static. Not a lot of SEO, not a lot of top of the funnel, if you will, things to get people's attention to it.

[Kendra]

Okay, so with the video angle, typically we're going to be looking at something like YouTube or Instagram, depending on how some people are set up, maybe TikTok, but let's come back to that. Taylor, what's coming up for you?

[Taylor Schulte]

Are you so committed to this niche where if in a non LGBTQ plus couple came to you, you would say I'm not the right fit?

[Taylor Bell]

No, you know, I definitely branded it to be, you know, Equitas is, is Latin for equality and equity. It's where the name was derived from. However, I do think that the niche or, you know, my target clientele, if they had family planning needs, they don't necessarily need to be LGBTQ in order for me to work with them. Obviously, there's some other, you know, values that. Core values that I would want to make sure we align on to, to advance further in the relationship. But I do feel like that target market out there is large enough I could focus specifically in this community.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay. And you've brought up family planning needs a couple of times. Is, is it that they don't have the resources available for, to, to pay for the family planning they want to do. And if so, it sounds like these are not like high earning professionals that have, that are making way too much money. They don't know what to do with all this money. These are more people like we have these needs and we need help budgeting and planning for these things because we can't afford them.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah. So my target demographic, they're likely earning over $200,000 a year household income. So I'd say that they're, they're high earners in that regard. You know, maybe not, you know, million plus is, is the cutoff, but you know, 200K plus is usually the household income just given the, the financial planning fee and what we're working towards to make sure they are able to save, you know, and these goals are usually within the next, you know, if not sooner, three to five years for them to accomplish this, especially for family planning. So they do have to have a high enough income to put aside enough money for this, you know, the path they want to go. So usually 200k is that cut off?

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay. Okay. And then just I guess more out of curiosity so I can better understand this, this target market. What are some of the other unique pain points or big questions that they're coming to you for that you have an expertise in solving that's a little bit more untraditional that the, the average advisor that's just casting this wide net and talking to everybody wouldn't really resonate with, with your target market. Like what are some of those unique pain points that they're up against?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I'd say another one, especially right now is the question of same sex marriage. Whether that is going to be overturned or turned back to the states. And what does your estate planning look like? What kind of legal documents do you actually need that, you know, heterosexual couple may not need? So this goes back to prior to 2015 and the estate planning routes that a lot of same sex couples had to do in order to document, you know, medical directives, other, other issues within estates, family dynamics that don't align in, in the core values, things of that nature. That's also been another one that I have found are big questions for members of the LGBTQ community.

[Taylor Schulte]

Love it. Okay, so family planning, estate planning, same sex marriage, like those three broad topics. I mean you just rattled off like a dozen subtopics that you could talk about, you know, through YouTube or Instagram, whatever we, wherever we land on here. So you have a lot of really good potential content and topics that you can get out there I think would really resonate with the people you're trying to target. So going back, you had mentioned you hate writing and you brought up SEO. Like if you hate writing and are struggling with the website, then just I would push all the SEO stuff to the side. You don't need SEO, you know, to, to have success here. So I think we can push the SEO stuff to the side. I'm also not sure if there are keywords for this target market of yours, like are they actually going to Google and typing in these hyper specific things that pertain to only them? I don't know if the search volume is there. But the good news is, is that you're really well spoken, you present yourself really well, you love video and I think that might be the place that you go all in on. And the nice thing about video is it serves as kind of both that top of funnel and that middle of funnel. Especially if you are playing on YouTube, uh, because discovery is so good. So you don't have to worry about website content, website SEO. You want to have a nice website so that when people land there, you're speaking to them and you've created a good user journey. But you don't have to worry about optimizing it and building out all this content to attract people. You might consider doing that through YouTube or Instagram. Now I say one or the other because I think it's really challenging to tackle both at the same time. So the question to you would be what One, like how does that feel to just push the website content writing SEO stuff to the side and focus just on video. And then two, are you more attracted to short form TikTok style video or are you more interested in doing some longer form video on YouTube? Like if you had to choose one?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I think long, long form, you know, videos that are, you know, eight to 15 minutes. So you know, I'm not doing marathon hour long video, but I do think there's a sweet spot in that 8 to 15 minute range where enough content can be shared, the message gets across, you know, time or attention spans are able to be met. You know, especially in today's day and age. The short form stuff, it's, I think it's Just really hard to get complex ideas across or even breaking down complex ideas into 15, 20 second videos, you know, would take a lot of work. I think up front maybe there could be some, you know, slicing up and using of the long form into to create those. But I do think starting out long form is probably the route to go perfect.

[Taylor Schulte]

So I think we've, we've really narrowed things down here. I, you know, my advice is like, forget about Facebook, forget about Instagram, forget about TikTok, forget about SEO and writing. If there's more you want to do with your website, just to get it into the right place, feel free. But you know, take away this pressure of I need to create content on the website, not necessary. I'm going to go all in on YouTube and I'm going to create a personal brand on YouTube. Again, we're not going to create a whole other entity. It's just going to be Taylor Bell's YouTube channel, have a nice banner that speaks to your target demographic and the things that you specialize in helping people with, and start to create that content calendar and start to hit publish and build, start to build up your YouTube channel. And I think if you do it the right way, you'll have plenty of traction with your target market. I think everything will start to work really nicely. But I think right now there's too many distractions, too many things to choose from. And since you've already said like YouTube longer form video, I think you said it perfectly. Seven to 15 minutes. I don't know that you need to do much more since you're so clear on who you're trying to target. Now the big question is, how are you going to go about taking action and how soon do you want to have success? Because I am venturing into the YouTube space and I've spent the last nine, almost nine months behind the scenes working on it. And I've probably spent, I don't know, maybe close to $50,000 gearing up for launching on YouTube. So you don't have to spend that much time and that much money. But it does take some effort behind the scenes to have some quicker success. If you just go to YouTube and just like start hitting record, you might be disappointed in the results that you're getting. So are you willing and able to maybe make an investment into this YouTube channel to ensure that you have quick success here?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I've actually been in touch with a friend of mine who does video editing. He's a videographer. Um, he's given me a lot of really Good pointers to get started. Of course, understanding that this is a, it's an investment, you know, it's not just a quick, quick live video on, on Instagram. Like, these are, these are, should look professional. The best engagement comes from professional videos. And so that has been also in the background communicating with him, taking courses to better understand how to present yourself in YouTube. So I understand that is something going into this. I definitely understand.

[Taylor Schulte]

Okay, great. Yeah. I don't want the complexity, like, hold you back from taking action here. There's this like simultaneous. I gotta start taking action. I gotta start to publish and put some stuff out there, while simultaneously I'm working on improving some things, improving my backdrop and my lighting and my camera and writing better scripts. So don't want to just spend too much time behind the scenes without taking any action at all. But it does take some work and effort. And I'd hate for you to go to YouTube and you're not getting the results you want. So you decide, well, YouTube's not gonna work. I'm gonna go to the next thing. I'm pretty confident that YouTube would work, but it just needs to be approached the right way. So it may require tapping some experts on the shoulder and investing a little bit of money to ensure you're, you're getting started the right way. And again, the, the, the great thing is you have such a, a clear niche. You've identified the pain points and unique topics that that niche is interested in. You have the expertise to help. So it's really like crafting that content calendar, learning how to write proper scripts for YouTube. Certainly important, but like, you're, you're, you're, you're getting there. Like you're, you're, you're 75% of the way there. So you might need some experts to kind of bring you to the finish line.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I agree.

[Kendra]

This is also why we talk so heavily about choosing your, you know, kind of primary channel that you're going to build your funnel around. Because as you heard Taylor talk through those different needs and how we become good at a marketing channel, it can sound like a lot, but it will be a lot less if you set aside Facebook and SEO and Instagram and then you're becoming obsessed with how do I clearly communicate the problems I solve in a way that is intriguing, interesting and YouTube friendly. That's its whole own little ball of yarn. But it's so much easier to tackle those pieces with that clear focus. So we thought a lot your way. What kind of questions are coming up for us as we walk you through some of these decisions.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, you know, like cadence, I think, you know, in, in posting, we've talked a lot about investing in making sure high quality video. That's absolutely in the, in the world of YouTube, I mean, you look at some of the very large YouTubers spending, you know, six figures on one video, like there's a lot of money that goes into making quality YouTube videos. We're definitely not at that point yet. But I think, like, my question is, as I get started, what kind of cadence of posting, you know, at least at a starting point, would be something to target? Is it once a week, is it twice a week, once a month? Like what, what have we kind of seen be that number?

[Taylor Schulte]

I think if you determine that you are all in on YouTube and if you're not, what I was going to say is maybe you just publish a couple videos, see how it feels, ensure that this is really the path you want to go down. Because it is a heavy lift if you are 100% certain that you want to go all in on YouTube. Every expert that I've talked to says out of the gates, you need to be publishing weekly. You got to build that traction early on. And that's why it requires a lot of behind the scenes work to prepare for that weekly launch. Because you're not going to have the time and capacity and resources to just on, you know, every single week create a new video. We got to build up the bank of videos and have that content calendar and everything scheduled out. So it certainly takes some time. Now I am convinced that once you get some initial traction, you don't necessarily need to post frequently on YouTube. That quality matters more than quantity. There's been some big YouTube creators that have tested this and found that posting one amazing, super high quality video per month is actually producing better results than trying to crank out one video per week. But every expert that I've talked to and, and the consultants I've hired said, look out of the gates, we gotta, we gotta get as many videos out as possible and let's commit to one per week.

[Kendra]

How does that cadence feel for you, Taylor?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, I think, I think once a week is definitely doable, you know, and I also agree getting a bank of 5, 10 videos created before that you get started to give you a, a Runway. I think that that's a really good piece of advice that, you know, at least gets, gets some momentum started. I know that marketing in its entirety, it takes, you know, you need that Runway. It takes several months to really start to Gain traction, if not longer. So at least getting some content out. Again, nixing that perfectionism that I have to just get some content out, get.

[Kendra]

Started, you know, with you adding that extra context. And I know you've explained to us that you're a perfectionist. I would actually test run publishing, you know, one to three videos, and I would try to get them out versus building that bank because I want to see if you really enjoy this process because it is demanding. It can be an amazing medium. I'm a huge fan of YouTube, but it is. It is a lift. So I don't want you to spend the next three to six months building up a whole bunch of videos like we. I would love to see you maybe just test getting one or two, three out there, see if you like it, and then, you know, if you're really enjoying it, then you start to really pick up that cadence. So just an alternative perspective to consider there. Knowing that it's really easy to hide, you know, in. In our computers, but it's can be really scary to press record and suck live, you know, so just something to consider.

[Taylor Bell]

No, that's. That's a good alternative view from it because it is. It is scary to hit record. And everyone's like, oh, does my voice sound. My voice really sound like that? You know, you have those imposter syndrome thoughts that come through. So I definitely appreciate that perspective as well.

[Kendra]

Something too to think about. I know that is. It's really uncomfortable. I try to look at marketing as serving instead of selling. So a lot of advisors, they just. They don't want to be icky. They don't want to come across. And really, you know, when you press record, I want you to think about who's a couple that you would love to clone that you're just like, oh my God, I'm so glad they found me. Like, you know, know that person and be like, I'm making this video for that kind of person. And then I just. I just really kind of think of it as I show up and I try to give away as much information as I possibly can that I genuinely believe will help. And to me, it does help. Cause I know that imposter syndrome can be really debilitating. But also it's. It's just uncomfortable. I mean, it's. It's very uncomfortable to market yourself and put yourself out there. And I know, you know, when we first started this podcast, there. There was a level of discomfort for me publishing this up, these shows. I mean, we recorded 20 episodes before we even knew the name, I mean, so we want to. We want to make sure we're doing the hard work first, which is getting those videos out there. And also because nobody's watching. Use that to your advantage. Hey, nobody's watching. I can suck at this. Like, I have to suck before I get good. You know, publish it and then make it better. Like, you will get better, but you will not get better without hitting record and without publishing. And you're going to look back and you're like, wow, these are. These really sucked. But the only way you get better is by sucking first in public. That's my opinion. So I don't know if that's helpful or not.

[Taylor Bell]

It is. It's kind of just that initial stage fright. You're right. That once you get over it, it becomes easier as time goes on. So that there's a lot of things resonating in my mind of, you know, prior things that I'd done in my life where that once you get past that initial hump, it seems easier. Not necessarily that it is easier, but it seems easier. There's less nerves. There's less unknown.

[Taylor Schulte]

Yeah. And it is a big reason why I've hired some consultants to help. Now, I've been running the. The retirement podcast for a long time, so I. I know how to create content. I like creating content. So it's going to segue really nicely into YouTube. It's not a question to me of like, do I want to do this or not? Am I going to like it or not? It's more about taking action. And one of the primary reasons I hired some consultants to help was really to hold me accountable to actually taking action. Because if I don't have them in my corner, kind of forcing me one step at a time to move this thing forward and hit publish, I may not ever do it. So sometimes hiring consultants is just a way to get. Build some accountability to the thing you're trying to accomplish.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, that accountability piece is hard. As a solo firm, you're kind of wearing all the hats. Right. And so knowing where you need to be pushed, you may be really good at certain things in the firm, but lack in others. Marketing for me is one of those. So the accountability piece would be super helpful.

[Taylor Schulte]

Well, we've talked about a lot today. What other questions do you have on your end? Anything else that we can help you with?

[Taylor Bell]

You know, I. I think the last piece is going from YouTube and. And directing that funnel right into the website. I think the website is in a pretty good spot there might like you Said be some things to clean up. But what are some things that I could, you know, there's a lot of, like, free checklists. I've written a small ebook, like some things that I could give away to entice people to get to the website from YouTube. I think that's the kind of last connecting piece that I'm trying to figure out. But any guidance on that would be super helpful.

[Taylor Schulte]

Yeah, my, my short answer is it's already going to be a lot of work to get up and running on YouTube and it's going to take some time to build some trust with the audience that you don't necessarily need to be prepared with this amazing ebook called Action Funnel immediately. Now, it also depends on how quickly you need to grow too. You're like, well, look, if I don't, if I don't get new clients in the next six months, I gotta, you know, shut down my firm and, you know, find a new job. But if you do have a Runway, if you do have some time here, I think the right way to approach it is let's start to build some trust with the YouTube audience. And once I start to build that trust and get some traction now, I can introduce that next layer of the funnel.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, no, that's, that's helpful. I do have some time. I do have other income coming in, so it's not a matter of running out. It's more of the time, the time commitment. So this has been helpful to focus in on one. One area rather than a lot because of the time limit. But no, that's, that's helpful information there.

[Taylor Schulte]

Yeah. And be clear, not that it's not important to think about the other layers of the funnel. And it really depends on where you're at financially and the goals of the firm. But I don't want to. Creating and perfecting the other areas of the funnel and writing this ebook and writing your email sequences to prevent you from taking action on YouTube again. It's going to take some time on YouTube to get going to build that traction. So let's just focus on providing value to our audience and showing our expertise and building trust and getting some traction. And once we start to get that traction, then we can start to think about the next layer of that funnel. How do I start to move some of this audience further down into my funnel to take action with me?

[Kendra]

Me. We had another advisor. We had a conversation with Jason Co recently who took this path. His ideal client was Asian Americans close to and entering retirement. And because his niche was similar to yours, Pretty dialed in. And it was very specific. He was able to create YouTube videos hyper targeted towards that niche, and a really good chunk of them went straight to his website without like a ton of strong calls to action and, and booked calls. So we're not saying the middle of the funnel doesn't matter, but YouTube specifically, I think you can, you can have a little more flexibility there because the way that platform specifically works. So I like that word cutting away essentially anything and everything we can to prevent you from just pressing publish on a video. That's really important. And because you also mentioned it, I want to give you a couple of just fast, practical tips on copy for the website. I think the website overall looks really good, speaks to your ideal client. But before we jumped on here, I jotted down two things that I think could help you just dial this in slightly. First, for your website header right now it says, live your most authentic life with as a subheader, LGBTQ financial planning through holistic financial and life planning. Now I think that's decent. I mean, we're calling out who you serve, but if we wanted to get a little bit more clear, a new website headline could look like this. This for you for LGBTQ professionals who want kids options and a financial plan outside the box. And then your subheader could look something like this. We help queer couples create flexible, protective financial plans so you can grow your wealth, raise a family, and feel safe no matter where life takes you. So we're kind of speaking to some of those pain points. I think it could still be, you know, a little bit more specific, but that starts to speak to some of those pain points, pain points you told us about, which is they want to have kids. They need to plan for these family planning pieces that are outstandingly more expensive. They might want to live abroad, right, anywhere life takes them and also like being protected. You know, if this same sex law is overturned. Now, the other thing that I think you could do to make a huge impact on the website. One of my favorite things to do is just use questions. So below your header would be something just like this. You know, we help queer couples answer these big financial questions and all it is is all the questions you answer. So I'll give you three examples. How do we plan financially for ivf, surrogacy or adoption? Number two, how can we plan ahead for gender affirming care even if we don't know what's covered or what it will cost? And number three, if something happens to us, will the other person be okay legally and financially? Can you see how these questions are exactly who you serve? They're specific to their pain points and we're using their language, not yours. That's a really simple way to tighten up the messaging so it speaks to, attracts and attracts the clients that, that you really want to serve. A dialed in tweaked headline a little bit. And then just here's the big questions we help queer couples answer with their finances.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, those are fantastic questions. I mean you hit it on the head. I think those are like the main questions that I get out of the gate, letting potential prospects know. Like these are questions that will be answered. Like in itself is a funnel to booking a call just by showing those questions that we help answer.

[Kendra]

And I really feel advisors are under leveraging the transformation they create in people's lives. Like this completely just frazzles my brain. The impact, you know, you're helping people afford, start and sustain a family. That's incredible. Like people will pay real money to amazing advisors to solve that problem. Because not only is it complex from just a legal paperwork, but how the heck do we pay for this stuff? Right? It's incredible. And also like gender affirming care. Oh my God, where do we even start? They might know what the process looks like, but paying for it whole nother yarn ball. So I think this niche is incredible. I personally love this niche and there's so many niche specific problems that you can serve and communicate with your copy. So we've talked about a lot today. I think what I really enjoyed about our conversation is that you struggle with what we all struggle with. Focus. Right. We have so many things we want to do. So I think today what we did was cut away just so many things. So here's what your new funnel looks like. Are you ready for it?

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah.

[Kendra]

Okay, so you're going to be targeting LGBTQ couples earning $200,000 or more per year. Now how you're going to find them from a top of funnel perspective is you're going to use YouTube in creating long form videos for the middle of funnel. We're just going to press pause. We're not going to stress over about that because the way that platform works is it can soft function as your middle of funnel and your niche is so specific, your bottom of funnel is just going to be your sales process. Now the action items along with this funnel, first we're going to set this idea of a personal brand aside and we're just going to use your personal account for marketing from a, you know, medium perspective. You're Going all in on video, particularly YouTube, which also means we're going to press pause on Instagram, Facebook and see you later. SEO, that are all great, they can work, but we just can't do them all at once. You got more to do than market your firm. Right. And then also just to get you going as quickly as possible and get past your perfectionism, let's get one to three videos out as quickly as you can just to see. Do you like this process? If you do, then let's get a stronger content calendar, a stronger cadence and really start to ramp up that marketing channel and build that funnel. Now for a couple of just simple website tweaks just to firm that up and dial it in slightly. You just need. These are literally 10 minute changes with the developer. Let's update that headline and let's add a couple of those big questions in your prospect's language, the words they use that you solve using the power of financial planning. And after that just get out there and find more of these people. Let YouTube do the work. This niche is amazing and they, and they have so many unique problems that you are perfectly positioned to solve.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, sign me up for all that. Let's, let's get that done now. Those are, you know, it's, it's more takeaways than I expected getting and I even feel better about moving forward after this conversation. Obviously that was the goal, but I definitely do feel that all of these action items are exactly what I needed to just hear and now I can implement them and really take off. Hitting publish is like at the very top of the list. So just let's just get started.

[Kendra]

Well, we've thrown a lot your way. I'd love to know what are the couple maybe big takeaways for you like what was any aha's or maybe anything you'll do differently going forward after our conversation.

[Taylor Bell]

Yeah, the first one is definitely going to be, you know, push the personal brand aside, you know, with time that may just kind of self develop. You know, I would like to as like as a personal goal be a thought leader in this space, in this particular community with, with what we've talked about today, just focusing now on building the firm I think is step one for it to potentially grow into. That does not necessarily have to come at the same time but I think given repetition and practice in, in this niche that will just develop over time. And point two, I think I just needed to be told hit publish. Stop. You know, trying to be a perfectionist. It's the self debilitating thoughts that that get in the way, just go hit publish and tweak from there. Quit being a perfectionist I and one day I will be a recovering perfectionist. That that's the goal. But I think and I that day does not need to be in the future. It can be today. So I think those two points of just getting out there and doing it is what I needed to hear.

[Kendra]

And honestly, this segment of people needs your help now more than ever and the advisors listening as well. We have to get great, you know, content and helpful content out there. If it, if it sits on your hard drive, it cannot help anyone. So make that the enemy. You can look bad and you're willing to look bad in the effort of helping the people that you care about. So, Taylor, anything else from your side?

[Taylor Schulte]

No, I think we covered everything. I'm really glad that this was helpful to you and inspiring and ready to go take action. I think that's what's most important. So really appreciate you joining us today and for your vulnerability and coming on. As always, if you have additional questions, things you're stuck on, please don't hesitate to reach out.

[Taylor Bell]

Thanks, Taylor. Thanks, Kendra. Appreciate it.

[Kendra]

For everyone listening, if you enjoyed this episode, we'd love for you to just jump into your favorite podcast app and give us a review. Let us know what you're loving, let us know what you'd love to see more of because that is really helpful for the show to let other advisors know when they land on it that, hey, around here we do actionable, we do practical, and most of all we help you focus so that you can help and find the people that you are made to serve. So thanks for listening and we'll see you next week. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. To get the resources she 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.