The Advisor Ruckus

“Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.” Remember that song? In Fiddler on the Roof, the matchmaker is the local broker for arranged marriages...she’s a deal maker, and in her Russian Jewish community, she enjoys privileged status.For good reason, too. The families of eligible girls depended on a good matchmaker, recognizing in her experience and judgment the ability to navigate and negotiate a complex process; the goal being a social contract with significant and long-term implications—survival, to begin with. But not just biological survival. Culture, religion, identity were all at stake.Young people, in other words, weren’t considered good judges for such a momentous decision.We can learn a lot from the culture of arranged marriages.

Reality TV isn’t real.It’s scripted. And edited. The finished product doesn’t happen by accident. It’s all done that way on purpose.But you knew that, right?If you didn’t know that...feel free to turn off this podcast and turn on your favorite fake news channel.The question is, if we know Reality TV is fake, why do we watch it anyway...and not just watch it. Why do we believe it?What does this have to do with being a financial advisor?  A lot, actually. Because believe it or not, Mr. and Ms. Financial Advisor, you are a performer.We’ve talked a lot about stories in this podcast. Stories are essential to success in business. But truly great businesses don’t merely tell great stories.They perform them.

Nobody needs a financial advisor. And nobody wants one, either. Not really. Not want as in desire.The courageous advisor who seeks to make change, who refuses to drown in the riptide of irrelevance, faces a single, daunting challenge.How to become desirable.Think about Peter Parker getting bit by a radioactive spider. Or Bruce Wayne watching his parents get murdered. Or Superman sent to Earth.Origin stories are everywhere. In entertainment, particularly in the superhero genre, an origin story shows how a character came to be who they are. When you know the origin story, you have insights into the hero’s motives, into the hero’s flaws, into the hero’s hopes and fears.And it makes you much more invested in the outcome.Origin stories are effective because they’re powerful; they’re powerful because they’re universal.Do you watch the Super Bowl? The Olympics? Sportscasters are always on the lookout for origin stories, and they know how to use them to hype the contest, to make the audience emotionally engaged in the outcome. The star who overcame adversity. The walk-on. The coach who resurrected his career. The best sports movie ever made, Rudy, is one long origin story.We all have origin stories. We tell ourselves our origin stories without even realizing it. Think back to the last time your family got together. I’m talking about your family of origin. Did you hear stories of your childhood? Did you share stories?The question is...why don’t we use origin stories for our business?

In a financial plan, both goals and recommendations must be SMART—specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound. Good enough.But goals can also be abstractions. Long-term goals, with a lot of variables outside our control, especially around concepts as foreign to ordinary people as money, are highly abstract at best. In a financial plan, all goals are subordinate to the retirement goal, and nothing is more abstract than retirement.The end date of retirement is usually between 30 and 60 years out. That’s an eternity. That’s 2 to 3 generations, a half dozen or more presidents. The one thing you can say with certainty about a retirement goal is it’s never going to look like how you planned it.Taking a more human approach to the discussion of goals delivers more value and differentiates your practice.

Everything you’ve ever been told about social media, branding, and content marketing is a lie.You know this, too. You know why? You’ve never gotten one single lead from anything you’ve ever posted digitally, on your website, your blog, your LinkedIn page.You signed up for your firm’s daily feed of pre-approved articles and market updates. You link to personal finance columns, post pictures and videos from your client appreciation event, announcements about your latest designation, or staff hire, or the conference you attended.You even share heartfelt lessons learned from your seven year old’s ballet recital.Crickets.You’re so ready to ditch the whole thing. Only you can’t. Because you’re scared. What are you scared of? What you’re scared of is this. If you ditch your content marketing...what are you going to do instead?

50 years ago a group of financial professionals met up at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport...and gave birth to the financial planning profession, and the Certified Financial Planner designation, which adopted a six-step process...establish goals, gather and analyze data, determine and implement recommendations, and monitor progress.Call it...the regular kind.50 years later the financial plan remains less like coffee or PBJ...and more like Henry Ford’s Model T—you can have any color you want as long as it’s black.Here’s my question. After 50 years, how is it possible that the regular kind is still...the only kind?

Imagine giving a talk to a room full of advisors...with no PowerPoint, no website, no brochure, not even a business card. In fact, not even a business—no product or service to offer. What would you do?What I did is wear a shirt. Not just any shirt. A Goods of Conscience shirt. In ten minutes I had the entire room sold.This is the story of a priest who's also a fashion designer, and what to do about the growing irrelevance of the financial advisor.Hint: it's not more of your sucky content marketing.

Judgment is the most valuable quality in an advisor...and it's not a byproduct of experience. What makes judgment so powerful and how to harness it intentionally, and turn it into your most powerful marketing tool.

Like the pioneers who settled the West, advisors are rushing to settle the frontier of independence opened up by technology and innovation, social media and the demise of the traditional model of growth.But the tale of the pioneers is cautionary...most of them failed! Advisors doing what every other advisor is doing are in for a surprise.The solution? Swim across the riptide.