Tag Archives: Prospects

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Episode #57 Achieving Rapid Business Growth as a Financial Advisor with Emanuel Jones II, MBA

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

For today’s featured guest, rapid business growth began with the belief that it was possible, followed by:

  • Keeping his pipeline full.
  • Avoiding pressure on himself. 
  • Helping prospects feel valued and respected.
  • Accentuating financial literacy.
  • Avoiding rushing prospects into financial decisions.
  • Treating prospects and clients like royalty.

In this episode, Referral Coach Bill Cates interviews Emanuel Jones II, MBA, Founder of Jones & Co Wealth Strategies, about his journey from aspiring doctor to achieving rapid business growth through client acquisition as a financial advisor.

Emanuel shares strategies for providing a high-quality client experience. He also highlights the importance of building trust, emphasizing education, and discusses his unique approach to using social media (compliance approved, of course).

Emanuel & Bill discuss: 

  • How Emanuel went from wanting to be a doctor, to starting several businesses, to finally doing what he was meant to do – helping others make smart financial decisions.

  • The lack of trust that many people have in financial institutions.

  • The important role financial advisors have in educating multicultural communities about the benefits and safety of investing.

  • How Emanuel’s emphasis on providing a unique and high-quality experience for clients leads to high-quality, unsolicited referrals – which, in turn, resulted in rapid business growth.

  • The tangible results Emanuel has experienced from his huge presence on Instagram.

  • …And more!

Resources: 

Connect With Bill Cates:

Connect With Emanuel Jones II:

About Emanuel Jones II:

Emanuel Jones II is the founder of Jones & Co Wealth Strategies, a multi-cultural wealth strategies company based in Atlanta. Emanuel is a champion for financial empowerment and literacy for each personal finance client and the professional organization he serves. Proficient in financial planning, retirement planning, investments, and insurance, his goal is to help them secure the best financial legacy.

Based on the pillars of integrity, humanity, and financial strength, Emanuel was recognized by New York Life, one of the largest life insurance companies in the United States, as GO’s Top in Class and named its New Org Agent of the Year 2022. He is a 2021 AAMU RISE Campaign Platinum Award qualifier as well as a 2020 AAMU Black Excellence Campaign Gold Award winner.

Emanuel is an MBA graduate of Emory’s Goizueta School of Business and Johns Hopkins University. Emanuel is a Fiduciary & holds his FINRA Series 6, 7, 63 & 65 licenses. His specialty is working with small businesses, first-generation high earners, entrepreneurs, & corporate employees.

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Episode #52 Using Curiosity to Ignite Your Prospecting & Client Acquisition with Chris Ridgway

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

While curiosity may have killed the cat, it didn’t hurt this advisor!

How about you?  Have you developed a strong Curiosity Muscle?  Do you exercise it often as you endeavor to bring more ideal clients into your business?

Curiosity will serve you well in this business:

  • You will meet new people.
  • You will serve your clients better by knowing more about them.
  • You will learn about other’s in your clients’ lives who could be candidates for your important work.

Today’s featured guest, Chris Ridgway, has attained rapid success in this business through personal observation, curiosity, and a strong belief in his value.

In this episode, Referral Coach Bill Cates interviews Chris Ridgway, Growth and Development Director & Financial Advisor with Northwestern Mutual. They explore the power of curiosity in the financial advisory industry, emphasizing the importance of being genuinely interested in people and their stories. Additionally, Chris shares his unique approach to client acquisition through observation and connection, finding common interests, and aligning values.

Bill and Chris discuss: 

  • Curiosity as a valuable trait for financial advisors.
  • How Chris implements personal observation in daily interactions.
  • How to obtain the contact information of prospects, and the reason for follow-up after a conversation.
  • Chris’ unique “Pillar of the Community” approach to meeting CEOs and other high-level prospects.
  • How laying out your entire process and philosophy to Centers of Influence can help build trust and referability while creating productive COI relationships. 
  • The power of nesting in a company to turbo-charge prospecting opportunities. 
  • …And more!

Resources: 

Connect With Bill Cates:

Connect With Chris Ridgway:

About Chris Ridgway:

Chris Ridgway is the Growth and Development Director & Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual.

Chris believes the starting point of any financial conversation should be with you — your life, your family, your priorities, and your goals. He will listen to what’s important to you and design a financial plan from multiple strategies specifically designed to help get you where you want to be.

Chris is committed to helping you get closer to your dreams. When you partner with him, you can expect a judgment-free, pressure-free environment with conversations that will be jargon-free. Chris strives to provide you with the best experience possible

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Episode #49 LinkedIn for Financial Advisors: Insider Strategies for Getting Your Posts Seen with Richard Bliss

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m willing to wager that you and your marketing team have no clue how the LinkedIn algorithm works.

And because of that, you are wasting precious resources (time and dollars) on posting content that hardly anyone sees. So, what are the best strategies on LinkedIn for financial advisors to get their posts seen?

LinkedIn has a different business model than most other social media platforms. Therefore, how you use LinkedIn for business growth requires a unique strategic approach. 

In this episode, Bill Cates interviews Richard Bliss, CEO of BlissPoint and Author of DigitalFirst Leadership. They explore 3 big topics around LinkedIn for financial advisors, designed to help you turn the social media platform into an effective business-building tool:

  1. How the LinkedIn algorithm works and how you can use this knowledge to your advantage for better results.
  2. How to expand your reach and enhance your credibility without having to make posts (therefore, saving you the headache of getting compliance to approve your content creation).
  3. A little-known strategy for reaching hard-to-reach prospects.

In this eye-opening session, Bill and Richard discuss: 

  • Why videos and clip art often work against you on LinkedIn while “real photos” of achievements or personal moments generate significantly more engagement.
  • The factors that determine the value of a post – from engagement metrics like Likes and Comments to the ever-important Dwell Time.
  • The power of a “commenting strategy” that engages with others’ content in a way that leads to new connections and meaningful conversations.
  • How to position yourself as a trusted authority on LinkedIn and increase your profile views exponentially.
  • The power of mentioning prospects in your posts and effectively addressing their pain points – leading them to engage with you in a conversation. 
  • The detrimental impact of “posting and ghosting,” and how engaging in conversations within the first hour of posting can boost your impressions by 30%. 
  • The fact that if you get 10 meaningful comments to one of your posts with the first hour, LinkedIn will guarantee 1,000 impressions. 
  • The most effective way to reach out to high-value prospects on LinkedIn for financial advisors to gain their attention, have them connect with you, and start a meaningful conversation.
  • … And so much more!

 

Resources: 

Connect With Bill Cates:

Connect With Richard Bliss:

About our guest:

Richard Bliss is the founder of BlissPoint Consulting, a social media consulting company that helps improve executives’ online communications and sales teams’ social selling behaviors. A LinkedIn Top Voices Influencer, experienced executive communications manager, and social media coach, Richard has helped thousands of people master social media tools and become fluent in social conversations.

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Ep. #33: How This Advisor Built a $1M+ Boutique Financial Practice Taking 248 Days off per Year

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , ,

What if you could net over $1M per year working 30-hour weeks and taking 13 full weeks off every year?   

What would that mean to you?  More time with family and friends?  More time on the golf course, boating, fishing, cooking, traveling, and whatever the heck you feel like doing?

And what if you could build a successful referral-only practice tapping into a goldmine of referrals from certain types of estate planning attorneys?  What would that mean for your business and how would that feel?

Is this achievable?    Well… Yes, it is!

In this episode, Bill Cates interviews Anat Yoder, CFP®, CRPS®, Principal and Wealth Manager at Yoder Wealth Management. Anat explains how she and her business partner (husband Michael Yoder), have been able to significantly reduce the amount of time they spend working so they can have a healthy work-life balance. 

Bill and Anat discuss: 

  • What motivated her (and her husband) to have a healthy work-life balance by working just 30 hours per week and taking 13 weeks off each year
  • Anat’s process for releasing clients into the loving care of another advisor to free up her time to serve wealthier clients. 
  • How she cracked the code for referrals from estate planning attorneys to reach wealthy clients. 
  • Her unique approach to getting to know her client’s children BUT NOT working with them. 
  • ….And more!

Resources: 

Connect With Bill Cates:

Connect With Anat Yoder:

About Our Guest:

Anat N. Yoder began her professional career in structural engineering, earning her PE license and working on several notable projects, including the Bay Bridge. She became a financial advisor in 2004 in order to direct her problem-solving skills toward work that was more personally meaningful for her. She is active in the community and serves on the board of a local non-profit organization. Anat has a BS in civil engineering, as well as an MS in structural engineering, both from UC Berkeley.  She is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP) and a Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist (CRPS).

 

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Ep. #32: 5 Brilliant Steps to an Effective Client Acquisition Process with Sandro Forte, FCII, FPFS, FPSA, CSP

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

Sandro Forte serves as a financial advisor to the Royal Family in the United Kingdom. But that’s not why we interviewed him.

We interviewed Sandro because of the insight and wisdom he brings to the client acquisition process.  

In this episode of The Top Advisor Podcast, Referral Coach Bill Cates sits down with Sandro Forte, CEO of Forte Financial Group, a financial planning firm in the U.K.

Sandro is all about using the right processes AND the right words to move prospects along to becoming clients.

Bill and Sandro discuss:

  • Why you should schedule meetings with your prospects and clients and not appointments. 
  • The importance of not positioning yourself as subservient with prospects and clients.
  • The 2 most critical rules to follow when approaching prospects in your client acquisition process.
  • His 3-step approach to dealing with objection. 
  • The mindset needed to create sustained success and profitability.
  • How to maximize your productivity and profitability over time.
  • ….And more!

Connect With Bill Cates:

Connect With Sandro Forte:

About Our Guest:

Sandro Forte is a dedicated, passionate and highly qualified personal success coach. As one of the most influential and sought-after speakers in the world, Sandro has built up an extensive network of contacts and proven himself to be a popular hit with people from all walks of life. Having spoken to more than 1 million conference and session attendees across 86 countries, Sandro has been all over the world providing his message of empowerment and self-improvement.

As one of the few speakers to hold the prestigious titles of Certified Speaking Professional Fellow of the Professional Speakers Association, and a Global Speaking Fellow, Sandro is well known for not just being able to motivate and inspire but to create positive outcomes for all the clients he works with. All of his solutions and outcomes are tailored, focusing on the unique needs of the individual to guarantee something actionable.

With such an extensive list of clients and a proven success rate, it’s not surprising that all the speaking work he does is actively endorsed by the clients from his past projects.

Sandro is a man who has come from a challenging background but has used that as a way to thrive. His unending optimism and enthusiasm are some of the things that his clients love about him because even in the face of challenges, he doesn’t give up.



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Ep. #17 – How One Top Advisor Uses His Personal Facebook Page to Win New Clients with Joe De Sena, CFP®

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, , , , , , ,

When I heard how Joe De Sena was using his personal Facebook page to build his business (and have fun in the process) I was skeptical. Boy was I wrong.

In this episode, Bill Cates is joined (for a second time) by Joe De Sena, CFP®, MBA, private wealth advisor at Siena Wealth Advisory Group, to discuss Facebook marketing for financial advisors. Joe discusses his success in using Facebook as a tool for enhanced client engagement, business growth, and lots of fun, without running Facebook Ads.

In this episode, Joe discusses: 

  • The challenges advisors face in using Facebook to market their businesses.
  • Why he decided to open up his personal Facebook page to clients and event prospects.
  • How his variety of fun and uplifting posts have built a “community” of clients, prospects, and allows Joe to be his genuinely social self.
  • The significant results of converting prospects into clients by being omnipresent.
  • Lessons he has learned from his experiences with using social media.

Resources:

Connect With Bill Cates:   

Connect with Joe De Sena

About Our Guest:

Joseph S De Sena: Joe De Sena CFP®, MBA is a private wealth advisor at Siena Wealth Advisory Group. Joe has been a financial advisor for 27 years. Joe is passionate about protecting his clients and their families from the unexpected. Joe loves to travel, read, run marathons and do charity work.

 

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Ep. #7: Build a Successful Business Operating By Referral Only With Diana DeFrate CFP®, CLU® and Katriina Paavola CFP®

Education, Finance, Marketing, Speaking, Uncategorized, , , , , , , ,

Advisors often ask, “Is it possible to build my business that runs by referral only?”

The answer is, yes! 

However, not every advisory team has been able to create a “by referral only” business where the quantity and the quality of clients have been exactly the right fit.

Are you getting enough in-segment clients through referrals and introductions? 

In this episode, Bill Cates speaks with Diana DeFrate CFP®, CLU®, chief executive officer and founder, and Katriina Paavola, CFP®, founder at DeFrate & Paavola, LLC. Diana and Katriina share how their successful business operates by referral only, sharing how they do so WITHOUT asking for referrals.

Diana and Katriina discuss: 

  • How the changes in their target market have affected their business and caused them to make the decision to become “by referral only.”
  • The marketing strategies they tried that didn’t work, but led them to what does work.
  • Why you should have a ‘wow master’ on your business team to build client relationships
  • How they get referrals WITHOUT asking.

Connect With Diana DeFrate and Katriina Paavola:

Connect With Bill Cates:

About Our Guest:

Diana DeFrate: A former financial executive in media, Diana is a Certified Financial Planner certificate (CFP®), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), CPA, and the second in a family legacy of wealth managers and financial planners. An avid wine enthusiast, Diana is a WSET Advanced Certificate holder, director and co-founder of the Geshtin wine club. 

Katriina Paavola: A Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), MBA, and former media professional, Katriina is a strategic director and financial consultant with specialties in retirement planning and investment management. A native of Finland, Katriina studied international business in London before coming to the U.S. as an executive strategic planner. 

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