030: Marketing Magic: Tina Beck and the Financial Advisor Success Syndicate (FASS)

In this episode, I welcome Tina Beck back to the show. Tina is the Chief Marketing Officer at Elite Consulting Partners, the president of Elite Marketing Concepts, and a founding member of the Financial Advisor Success Syndicate.

With over 25 years of experience in financial services marketing, Tina has collaborated closely with independent advisors and teams to help them elevate their practices. She brings her passion for marketing and expertise in the industry to assist advisors in effectively communicating their brand and message.

Tina's Passion for Marketing

- From a young age, Tina exhibited a passion for marketing, creating her own newspaper and distributing it on the playground.
- She pursued her interests by studying journalism and marketing at Syracuse University's Newhouse School, witnessing firsthand the evolution of marketing in the digital age.
- Tina firmly believes in harnessing the power of words to authentically convey messages and forge connections with clients.
- In her marketing efforts, she underscores the importance of centering the advisor's core values and brand identity.

The Power of Podcasts and Books

- Tina discusses the importance of podcasts and books as effective marketing tools for financial advisors. 
-She believes that podcasts, whether as a host or a guest, allow advisors to showcase their expertise and build trust with listeners. 
- The conversational format of podcasts creates a personal connection with the audience. 
- Tina also highlights the value of books in establishing credibility and positioning oneself as a thought leader in the industry.

The Role of SEO in Financial Marketing

- Tina shares her insights on search engine optimization (SEO) and its importance in financial marketing. 
- She explains that SEO is the process of optimizing digital content to ensure that the right information reaches the right audience. By integrating keywords into website copy, metadata, and other digital assets, advisors can improve their search engine rankings and attract relevant leads. 
- Tina emphasizes the necessity of customizing SEO strategies based on individual advisor profiles and content.

Reputation Management in Financial Marketing

-Tina addresses the challenges of reputation management in financial marketing, particularly in managing online reviews.
- She advises advisors to proactively respond to reviews and address any fake or inflammatory feedback through official channels.

The Growing Impact of AI in Marketing

- The role of AI in marketing technologies, driving efficiency and reducing costs
- Challenges of AI-generated content in customization and keeping up with industry regulations
- Potential for AI in transforming graphic design, photography, and video production

About Our Guest: Tina Beck
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tina-beck-6835854/
Website: https://eliteconsultingpartners.com/

About Your Host:  Paul G. McManus is an accomplished author and expert in helping financial professionals grow their businesses. With over eight years of experience working exclusively with financial professionals, Paul has helped his clients generate tens of millions of dollars in fees and commissions.

You can get a complimentary copy of Paul's book at: www.theshortbookformula.com

Claim your free audiobook copy at: www.theshortbookformula.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:32

Welcome to another episode of the Million Dollar Producer's Show. I'm your host, Paul G McManus. Today, I'm honored to welcome Tina back to the show. Tina is the Chief Marketing Officer at Elite Consulting Partners. She's the president of Elite Marketing Concepts and she's a founding member of the Financial Advisor Success Syndicate, which we'll be discussing in today's episode. Welcome, Tina, it's great to have you on the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:54

So excited to be here. Paul, Thank you for the invite to join you today.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Let's start Big picture your story. Who is Tina back and what kind of got you to where you are today?

Speaker 2: 1:03

Absolutely. I have been in financial services marketing for over 25 years. I got my start working with primarily wirehouse space advisors in terms of marketing and collaborative efforts, bringing companies together for different marketing events and synergies. Through that developed a number of very deep relationships with advisors that independence began over a decade ago. A lot of my colleagues and clients that I'd worked with in the past sought me out to help them with their marketing as they moved towards independence. So I opened up my own marketing and PR firm and worked quite closely with a number of advisors and teams handling their marketing as they lifted up their own practices and did that for over a decade. During that time I was given a referral from one of my clients to a company called Elite Consulting Partners out of New Jersey. They knew that I had a couple of other clients in the area and they said the CEO of that company, which is a transit Elite Consulting Partners is a transition business services and recruiting firm for financial services. We're now the largest one in the country and at that time it was at the outset. The firm was four people deep. This is over seven years ago.

Speaker 2: 2:16

I went and met with the CEO, Frank LaRosa, after cold calling him. For those of you who follow advisor talk or know Frank in the industry, that is a very hard and ambitious thing for anybody to do, but I cold called and said we can use someone in common and that they had referred me to handling marketing for him. And we met literally the next day after having our phone call and he hired me on the spot and I worked as an external consultant to Elite for four and a half years and the company grew by two X and three X and massive growth to where we were not only the industry leader and transition consulting and business services. We were really becoming at the forefront in the marketing as well, in terms of our podcast advisor talk, in terms of our media placements or social the social media presence that we've developed for Frank's personal brand and the business brand and we grew such that Frank offered me the CMO position in February 2021. And I divested my company and came to work for Elite full time Best decision I ever made professionally. My heart is with that company and we continue to grow, accelerate in such a way that about a year ago in the summer, I was called at the summer speaking circuit where Frank flies around and meeting with clients. A number of our clients started to ask him and they knew me and they know what I do with the company.

Speaker 2: 3:36

Who does Tina use as her ad agency? Because it's so much marketing for the firm I can't possibly pull that off all just herself and he would share. She's developed her own in house marketing team. We have our it's. Basically she runs an in house ad agency. That's how she gets all done and they started to ask if they could hire me.

Speaker 2: 3:56

My team and Frank and I talked about it and we felt we'll do this as a gift to clients. Are good clients, I wonder. And if you've watched some recent episodes of the good, my conversations with him on the podcast, we always joke. This is the first time we've ever missed projection because we thought we're going to have maybe one or two takers, maybe four in the first six months. This little, it'll scale small, won't be too big, and we were way off because we had four in the first 35 to 45 days.

Speaker 2: 4:30

And we have grown. We have now had the division in process for 10 months. We're now managing over 50 billion in AUM marketing wise in the industry for the firms that we work with and the broker dealers and OSJs we work with. We have everything from a one person shop all the way up to teams of hundreds, through OSJs and broker dealers, to enterprise level marketing at the highest level and financial services. So I'm really proud of what the marketing team and I are accomplishing and what we're doing to serve advisors and getting out their marketing message and their brand. About 30 days ago, on the division office its own company so a marketing concept I said that's a new name we're introducing out with everybody to let them know we are now our own division, our own company, and I'm very proud that I am president of that company. So now I have I always joke, I have two fancy job titles I'm CMO of one company and president of the other, but I'm doing what I love, which is marketing for financial advisors.

Speaker 1: 5:30

That's awesome. I want to dig a little bit deeper on what got you. It sounds like you're very passionate about marketing. How did you get into marketing? Why did that become a passion for you originally?

Speaker 2: 5:40

I just wanted to live weird little kids who always knew what you wanted to do. I used to be the one who was on the playground writing her own newspaper of the daily events and handing it out, so everybody knew the news of the day. It has always been something that I had a passion for, but primarily in terms of the use of words to communicate. I'm probably more of a writer at heart than anything. That's what drove me into this business and I love that. No matter what your marketing, if you're true to who you are, you have an authentic reason for what you're communicating and you can put together words in a way that share the essence of that with someone else. It's almost infallible in terms of a marketing plan. I've lived by that my whole career. I'm grateful. I'm a graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School. So I, back in the day and I was I got my journalism and marketing degrees very long time ago, back before there was an internet. The internet had not happened yet. We were still using blue line proofs when I started. But the fact that I've been able to be at a turning point, really, I think, in marketing in general, where it's not just marketing psychology anymore, which is what it used to be, but it's the intersection of marketing psychology and marketing technology. That's really where the industry has been going for over 15 years now, but that I've been able to be in an executive level and not only see it and learn and grow with it, but also participate in what technologies are pushing forward and tools that we can use. It's really just been an exciting career journey to be able to be a part of all of that and then to bring that knowledge now at the place that I'm at in my career to help advisors who are young, advisors who are old, getting a sense of who they are out there. One thing you'll know about me when I talk about that heart space of marketing and get using words to authentically deliver a message.

Speaker 2: 7:38

I am all about that in financial services marketing.

Speaker 2: 7:41

I think one of the huge disconnects in marketing in our industry is that people, when they are marketing for it and in a lot of times it's not financial services, specific marketers but when they market industry, they talk about the products and services and the disclosures and all the normal, simple things that we all know and that 80% of every other advisor does, and where we flip the script in the marketing concepts is we have put the advisor and who they are and the firms and who those firms are and their core values, at the heart and center of the marketing.

Speaker 2: 8:16

So it's transformative because then, when a lead comes in from social media or a lead comes in from an event drip campaign that's sent by eBLAST, it's a warmer lead because the person who responded to it feels an emotional connection and feels like they know the advisor or the team that they're contacting and so it drives AUM faster and that's something that we have replicated that process over and over. And it all goes back to the fact that I've always I've loved words and I've loved that we can, whether spoken or written, that we can use it to communicate with each other. Now, with all the technology tools, it just puts in one hyper speed.

Speaker 1: 8:50

I was taking some notes as you were talking and I basically agree with everything that you say and I think the approach that I take is very similar. I've been helping a financial advisor since 2000. And before that I did completely different stuff, but since 2016 I've been more or less exclusively working with financial advisors more in the independent space, I'd say, more in the solar manure small firm space, although now I'm starting to get into a little bit more into the much larger firm space and everything in between. It's interesting to take it from a couple different approaches. But what I like about what you said is that to me and part of what I specialize in currently is twofold. It's one, helping advisors write books, really, for the reasons that you just said is that financial services are more or less a commodity and most people see financial advisors as commodities, and you have to have a different way to build trust not just gain attention but ultimately build trust, because I think I call it the trust barrier. That's the number one block from people growing their practice.

Speaker 1: 9:48

And another thing and I want to maybe touch upon this a little bit more and ask you about is I find that podcasts whether you're a host of a podcast or whether you're a guest on a podcast today is one of the most effective ways to do exactly what you said, which is to get in front of an audience of people, share ideas with them and really have them decide. It's hey, this is someone, topic wise I'm interested in, but more importantly, it's like they self-select oh, this is someone I like. This is someone that I would feel comfortable reaching out to and asking for help, because, at the end of the day, it always comes back to no interest. You and I were joking before we started recording, was that? Even though this is our first time to actually meet, I already feel like I know you because in part of my preparation, I watched a couple of your podcasts. Right?

Speaker 2: 10:32

I listened to yours and you and I were corresponding in a, the school community for financial advisor. Success indicates. I felt the same way. I thought, oh, I know him, it's not. It wasn't a person I didn't know when I met today for the first time.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Exactly. It's a deep dive a little bit on. I call it influence marketing and to me, two of the best tools today of influence marketing, I believe, are books and podcasts. I'm sure there's more, whether it's books or podcasts. Just if you would give us a high level your thought process as to why those specific mediums are effective for advisors. I understand, and I know from listening to one of your podcasts, that you're involved, maybe, in book launches. You help spring have a podcast, you set up podcasts. I love to get your insights into why those things are, what you think about them.

Speaker 2: 11:17

One thing that I personally love about podcasts is that you can cycle back to them the information that comes on as evergreen because of the way the platforms are developed. Now you can consume the content in the way it makes sense for you as a listener, which makes it much more impactful because it's putting the listener in control of the message and the thought leadership they're receiving. It's not just something that's scrolling on a feed, it is something that they're actively choosing to consume, and then they're consuming it the best time for them. I think that's powerful because we all know we learn different ways, right? Some people are more auditory, some people are more visual. Sometimes a day, it's better for each of us as individuals to sit and consume a piece of content where it's going to resonate and it's going to sink into our heads, better than another time of the day. A podcast puts in all of that into play. So it's the ability for a listener to control how they gain information, what information they gain and what mechanism works best for them. And then, because the system is now so cost effective and easy to produce too, it allows anybody really with a computer. At this point we're recording on a computer. Today I'm on my laptop in my office. If you have a computer, you can record leadership and content and put it out for the world to learn from, and there are so many interesting ideas that I find it very groundbreaking in terms of democratizing where we get our information from in financial services.

Speaker 2: 12:53

So it used to be, let's say, with the law many years ago, only the big players, the C-Sweets, that the big firms are the ones where the information came out, and that's the information advisors were consuming. Consumers were consuming. Those of us who are professionals in the industry were consuming. Not anymore. We are now enabled and empowered to get out our thoughts and our perspective and I want to share about podcasts because it's a question I get a lot from clients. I hear questions all the time about the compliance aspect. Can I do a podcast? Is it allowed? Will my firm partner allow me to do it? There are compliance regulations for podcasts. You have to get your content approved. Depending on your affiliation, you might have to get a script approved, you'll have to get the name approved, but it's possible. It's not impossible.

Speaker 2: 13:41

I think it's great that the industry has migrated in such a way that it is so feasible for advisors to share their knowledge to their benefit, to their client's benefit and to the benefit of their peers on this type of platform. So I am a huge believer in podcasts we developed. The one for Frank AdvisorTalk is five and a half almost six, years old now. I currently am working on two other podcasts for advisor clients of mine, and each one is different.

Speaker 2: 14:09

As I always say, advisors are as different as the thumbprint, and so are their marketing. It's based on regionality. If you want a national audience, do you want just a local audience? What's the theme? What are you going to talk about? But all of them, across the board, are successful and I think it's because the podcast host has something they want to say. So whether it's my client who is doing the Retire in Texas podcast or it's Frank's AdvisorTalk, it's a unique perspective that they truly want to convey helpful information and when you start from that space, it really is an unstoppable and positive tool to include in marketing.

Speaker 1: 14:49

To go a little bit deeper there. To me there's maybe three versions of podcasts, broadly speaking. There's the I'm hosting a podcast, and then from there that branches out to I'm going to do essentially talk by myself about a topic. And then there's what we're doing now, which is a guest interview and you bring on thought leaders and people to have a conversation. So that's, those two are under hosting. Then there's I would call it the guest podcast, where you're going out and finding relevant podcasts that serve the same audience as you, so and you're essentially expanding your reach and visibility, etc. Do you have any thoughts, or just high level thoughts, about those three things?

Speaker 2: 15:30

I fall under the guest podcast right? So I am not. I don't have my own podcast, but I'm frequently the guest on other podcasts. Usually, at this point I'm about two or three a month.

Speaker 2: 15:40

I'm the guest on the podcast and I'm I really enjoy it because the podcast that I'm a guest on and it's a great way to dip your toe in the water, I think, if you're an advisor and see if it's for you and if you're comfortable with the space, I like it because it allows me to affiliate and align with like-minded professionals like yourself. We're both in the same field but complimentary. We love sharing ideas, so there's a lot of value in that. Just talking today, even beyond all the people who I know are out there listening to us, that's an amazing thing and I think it helps not just drive my business forward, but so my professional intelligence and has helps me think of things in a new way. When I am presenting to a podcast host and his or her audience, it's really a good mindset shift for my, for me, professionally. So there's a personal and a professional benefit that I think comes from being guest on podcasts and it allows you to know if it's the right space for you to be marketing in.

Speaker 2: 16:43

In terms of hosts, I think that being able to speak your ideas and be that solo host, or maybe having a sidekick, so to speak, a friend, another colleague who's on with you, I think that's a wonderful way to share topical and timely information. Probably the one that's my favorite to consume is when there's a guest. So, as a listener, I appreciate when there's a guest, because I like where the not knowing exactly where the conversation is going to go and how conversational podcast forums are. You and I were talking about this before we started. There's a list of questions that we're going to the table for today, but we've already hear about that script. It's because we're talking about memory.

Speaker 1: 17:25

I think I asked you one of the 10 questions so far.

Speaker 2: 17:30

It's simply why I like this forum so much where there's a guest and a podcast host, because it's almost like a future on adventure. We don't know where we're going to go with the conversation. We just know that our philosophies are aligned and we respect each other's opinion, and that is a really amazing thing to give. I think it's a gift to listeners that they get to hear those kind of conversations and perspectives that normally used to just be phone calls or in meeting rooms.

Speaker 1: 17:56

I agree with everything Moving beyond podcasts. Just in getting to know you a little bit before this call, and just listen to some of the other podcasts and material that I've seen you do, seo seems to be one of your specialties. Now, myself, I'm not an SEO person per se. I've dabbled in it, but I've never really gone deep, and so I'd love to hear your thoughts on SEO. What is it? Why is it important for a financial advisor to understand the importance of? And, I'm going to guess, probably at some point, outsource it to you, because, I'm telling you, I've dabbled in it. I get like it at a high level, but I'm a marketer, but beyond that, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 18:38

It's a little bit more technical, but I'll try to give like an elevator pitch basic what it is. It's a way to collect and aggregate information in the digital universe and make sure that the right information lands in the inbox or when the search engine page and results page is what I'm talking about, or the right person. Right information to right person is the thrust of what SEO is. When I give speeches about SEO, the one example I always use, I date myself by giving this. But remember the whole card catalogs at the library. You wanted to have information from the library and you went into the library. You pulled out a drawer and I want to find a financial advisor. So you look at the tab Financial Advisor. But I want to find a financial advisor that handles 401k. So you look for the second tab that says 401k. I want them to be based in your in the Bay Area. I want them to be in the Bay Area and you look at the tab that says Bay Area. It's the same with search engine optimization, except you're using it via algorithms and digital tools. Search engine optimization you need to prioritize what keywords you think someone is going to use to find you on Google or any of the search engines and you need to integrate those words into the copy of your website or all of your digital content and tag and place those words in the coding of the search engine optimization section of all of your own assets in the digital space. So a website, every website, has a SEO section, literally labeled SEO, and they ask for meta tag and meta description and meta tags you can put multiple, and the meta description that's the nice little sentence that appears about you under your Google search and everybody should have that filled out. Shockingly, I will say, more than half of the new clients that come to work with us one the elite marketing concepts don't have it filled out at all. Their web developer never filled it out. They didn't even know what it was and then it needed to be filled out and they in the disconnect happens where now your website doesn't let Google know these are the people that are coming. If these people are looking for wealth management, financial advisor, life insurance, annuity whatever the words are and your name, maybe all of those things, if we're not telling them, then it's not tracking it, the algorithm isn't following it and all of a sudden you're on page 10 of a Google search. So just changing those sorts of words and then making sure you use them in the copy.

Speaker 2: 21:12

I think it's just really. People don't understand search engine optimization. Here's the list of words I wanna use and I'm gonna slap the same words onto every single page in my website and I'm gonna use them in every EBLAST that I do and I'm gonna put them behind every Alt-Type and every LinkedIn post I ever did. If it's not in the content, it's not gonna work. It's gonna. The algorithms have gotten so smart that they are tracking.

Speaker 2: 21:35

Does this information show up on this site? If it doesn't, then it's not viewed as a valid optimized term. You've pushed down in the search engine rankings. Or if the word works in such a way that it drives the wrong person and it ups your bounce rate. Let's say you use a word that's more aspirational but not really what you do, a service you want to provide at your practice but you don't have now, and a prospective client comes to your page through a Google search and they look for two seconds and they bounce right off your page. That's a bounce rate. Go to another page, they score that against you and then the next time that term comes up you go further down the page.

Speaker 2: 22:15

So there's a little bit of science, there's a little bit of psychology, a little bit of finesse with it, and it's something you have to look at all the time. It's not a fix it and forget it. Do it once and you never look at it again. All of the content that you're always creating has to have those terms in it, and I lead with search engine optimization in all marketing, because it's how I get the right people to see what I'm doing, because for my clients, because at the end of the day, you create a great marketing piece for a fabulous website, nobody comes and looks at it. What did you accomplish? So search engine optimization builds that gap.

Speaker 1: 22:49

I couldn't agree more. I have stories. I want to go a little bit deeper on the topic and I'll share my own story there. So I know surface level search engine optimization. I don't. I'm probably one of those people that when they come from me to you, one of the first things you find is Paul didn't do this, he forgot this, they forgot that just because that hasn't been my sweet spot. I definitely know that there's a gap there. So I appreciate you sharing that information In terms of, for me, probably the search that is most important and this will sound vain, but it's when I Google myself, right, my extension, when clients Google me because, or prospects because, in today's world, if, even if you're referred to me right, you know, let alone a cold lead, what's the first thing we do?

Speaker 1: 23:31

Okay, before I invest time with this person, I'm going to Google them and I'm going to see who they are and what other people have to say about them. Again, that's why I like podcasts so much, because it's just such an inviting forum where you can make an impression about someone, a positive impression, hopefully, but at the very least, they're going to Google your name and they're going to see some results, and it's going to only be page one, because once you're off of page one it doesn't matter. And I learned a lesson in branding several years ago where when you Google Paul McManus, I came up as a blood thirsty murderer from Ireland I'm apparently I'm in murderpedia, all these things and so I learned a lesson in branding. So I learned to add my middle initial, which is G. So now if you see any of my marketing or branding, it's going to always say Paul G McManus and then if you do that, it's going to be a plethora of LinkedIn, amazon, podcast, all bunch of good stuff. So that's about the extent of how I've thought about search and sandwich.

Speaker 1: 24:23

Optimization is to optimize the searches when someone Googles your name For clients. One of the things over the years I've seen as a challenge for some of them is bad reviews, and sometimes I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say, according to them, it's unfair, it's. For example, I have one client that comes to mind and he never set up a or actually two, probably more. They never set up a Yelp account. They don't use Yelp. But someone created a Yelp account, gave a one star review and according to him, they like got a little gang of people together and all gave them bad reviews and that's like impossible to remove from the first page of Google, at least in my experience of this. And so reputation management I tried to help them, but can you push the content down? Can you improve the ratings? I've tried many different things and really didn't know avail when it comes to Yelp specifically. So I love just maybe broadly without as an example just broadly hear your thoughts about reputation management as it relates to search engine optimization.

Speaker 2: 25:24

With reputation management tools, so like a Google Business listing with reviews or Yelp or things like that. One thing in our industry is that it does depend on where the advisor is affiliated whether they're allowed to have those tools at all. So not every broker dealer allows you to have a Google Business listing page or a Yelp page.

Speaker 1: 25:43

Well, it should be clear in this case. They didn't set it up. You can actually go as a consumer and give someone a bad review and the person is almost a victim in the case.

Speaker 2: 25:54

And that's where I'm going with it is that if they didn't set it up, it's actually. It's illegal for somebody else to assume your identity and set it up, particularly because our industry is regulated, and if they're not allowed to have it in the first place, it also violates those regulations. So I always go to the source. In cases where there was something set up that a client might not have known about or a fake review has been posted, I go to Google and Yelp direct. I don't try to just push it down, I go get it taken and scrubbed off. And if you can go to those locations with the proof that you didn't set it up, that you're not allowed to have it up, that it violates the restrictions of your employment, that you didn't set it up, you can't have it up. It's against FINRA and SEC rules and it's fake and it's inflammatory. They'll take it down and I've gotten by doing that.

Speaker 2: 26:48

I've gotten Yelp reviews taken down and Google reviews. When they take them down, they scrub the history and that if you're really trying to get something to go away, that's the only way to do. It is to go right to the source and that's where the review is being housed. Now some firms allow you to have a Google review or other review software and in those cases I think it's very important, if you don't have a marketing person, if you have an admin, that somebody's checking that every single day. But quick response is the best response and it doesn't necessarily mean you're responding to the bad review. It means the review went up and you automatically file a complaint or something to take it down, because if it's been up there for four years or up there for three years, it's infinitely more difficult to get it removed. Then, if it went up on Tuesday and I filed a complaint Tuesday night with Google that this is fake and I want it taken down, it moves through the process much faster.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Interesting. Ok, proactivity is key there. I think for the people that I'm aware of, it's been more of a years and they just hold their hands and didn't know what to do and they've tried different reasons, et cetera. Ok, that's good to know. Can I send people to you if you have this? Absolutely, See to me. That's a super practical use case of SEO where I have not been able to help clients and I've wanted to. So definitely glad to have this conversation.

Speaker 1: 28:13

I don't know how much our audience is relate to this, but I'm just curious because I like to geek out with fellow marketing experts. Since the beginning of the year, I've been really bought into AI and I think they're completely revolutionized everything and I think, marketing and coding or on the front lines of this because it can impact what we do so quickly, whereas other industries are going to probably start feeling the effects gradually over the next months and years In terms of search engine optimization and I don't know if it's had a big impact yet, but I think it has the potential in terms of using, say, being or barred, where you don't get the results back in the traditional way, but you have almost an AI chat bot that you're interacting with, but still sourcing stuff. Have you looked into that much or do you have any thoughts about that?

Speaker 2: 28:57

Yeah, starting in terms of search engine optimization, it's mostly right now AI on any of those tools to drive copy copywriting at this point or photo production, photo and video yeah, that costs down, driving efficiency down. So that's really where I see the biggest impact right now in marketing from a positive level. But then in terms of search engine optimization, the one thing that I'm a believer in and a proponent of is customization for content and customization for search engine optimization, where you have a core set of words but then you're optimizing each page of your website custom. Each social post has something custom. One gap and I'm interested to see how AI will evolve to solve to this, because I'm certain it will solve to it.

Speaker 2: 29:42

But the data that the technologies are pulling from now are a couple months old, always in terms of the copy that they're writing and the system generates and then the terms that it's using, to be blanket for anybody who goes in and asks for something similar. So if you're an advisor and let's say you want to use chatGPT to write an event flyer no-transcript and then you're going to put that event flyer on your website and you want to optimize it, what you say to chat GPT, I'm hosting a dinner six o'clock on Thursday, I'm going to be talking about wealth management for retirees, and these are the top issues. And you outline it and it spits out copy. It's spitting out copy based on being asked similar or previous questions that are in the same ballpark. Let's say, another advisor in your region is going to host an event in the same vein and says something they're going to get an event flyer similar to yours in terms of copy. Then it's not solving search engine optimization, because it's giving spitting out everything the same to everybody else, so it's efficient. But taking that as it's 80% of the way there when you use it, and then customizing it, that manual addition right now will solve the gap, but I think that the technology is going to catch up where it's going to be, have a little bit more customization to it, which will make it more powerful from an SEO standpoint, where, right now, I actually caution people who use it. Oh, whatever you get, you better go in and customize it. You should make your own set of core terms and to describe this so that it works and isn't just the same as anybody else who put something similar into the system.

Speaker 2: 31:21

One last thing, with AI, though and this is something that all financial advisors can benefit from this bit of information, because it's pulling off of date, a little bit of dated information in terms of the technology systems. So it's always running several months, if not longer, behind. If they're just to how your designations have to appear or changes to certain specialty bits of information in our particular industry, the technology may not have caught up quite yet. For instance, if you have your SIPA, what does that look like? How does it reference it in the copy? You've got to double check it Because sometimes it actually pulls in the old way that you had to reference it, not the most current FINRA and SEC regulations.

Speaker 2: 32:09

So right now there's a little bit of a gap, but I'm a huge proponent of it in terms of the efficiencies. I love it for graphic design and for photography. It's enabled it where I can have a client anywhere in the country and create a corporate headshot for them, dynamic video content for them, without ever traveling, without having to do a production day on site, not even having their full voice recording. You can get snippets of people's voices now and have them replicated and give the system the script and it'll replicate the voice. There's a lot from the actual full reels and memes and everything else we all need to consume on social media that I am an absolute fan of AI for.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the day where I can fully turn myself into an AI and I'll just be at the beach and then my AI version of my appall will be out there doing all the heavy lifting. I want to switch gears and get into the financial advisor success syndicate. What is the financial advisor success syndicate? What is your role and who's it for?

Speaker 2: 33:09

The financial advisor success syndicate was the brainchild of John Cutton. All of us who are founding members are long-term business colleagues, friends of his, who he brought together really to be of service to financial advisors in terms of an abundance mentality, growing their practices in an authentic and meaningful way and having access to resources and tools that really hadn't been aggregated into a platform as of yet. I met John through the CEO of the link consulting partners, frank LaVrosa. The two of them are very good friends, had actually had many conversations about. Wouldn't it be great to have a mastermind group where we could share all these things that we always talk about the podcast, we're watching the books, we're reading ideas and brainstorming that many of us enjoy at a certain level. But if you're an advisor who's growing, don't you want access to that too? Other minds, other colleagues at different practices who you can learn from and who you can also share your knowledge with. I would say, goodness that we're probably looking at about eight or eight months ago now. John puts together kind of his A team and each has a different discipline. So my discipline is marketing, obviously, and I was invited to join as the founding member overseeing marketing. We such an amazing group of people as part of it, not just John, but there's John Randall from Extraordinary Advisors, who's just the most dynamic mindset and motivation and practical coach to advisor systems and processes. Ray Kelly, who has transformative ideas on leadership that I personally enjoy listening to his content in the school community, right along as a founding member with everybody else. And then I think LaRosa, who I mentioned, who is in charge of kind of the transition and recruiting aspect of thought leadership for the financial advisor success syndicate. His just a massive experience in helping advisors next level their practice. Anton Anderson from Elite Resource Team, who has really driven how CPAs and advisors interact with each other in the US for financial services. He's the mastermind behind all of that. And then David Grau who, with succession planning and his personal notoriety, is just an amazing public speaker very soft during our industry.

Speaker 2: 35:36

It's the seven of us who've come together and we teach live trainings, we answer questions that advisors might have, we share what we're learning and where we're traveling and the experiences that we're having in the industry, all in the effort to give back and help advisors learn as much as possible so that they can grow and the community is free On top of all of it. It's as simple as filling out an application and if you meet the criteria, you're accepted in. All of these resources, from our recorded content to our live trainings are free for you to learn and grow from, and I'm getting a lot of. I just am finding it really professionally rewarding. Even in conversations I'm having now where I'll go into a meeting or I'm in a speaking engagement, it's getting referenced.

Speaker 2: 36:27

Oh, you're one of the founding members of the financial advisor success syndicate. Although my notoriety, I am the only woman in it, so it makes me a little easier to recognize from what the founding members. I'm very blessed to count them as dear friends and mentors myself. I've learned from them over the years and it's just great to have the curtain peeled back and let other advisors learn from all the things that have helped all of us as well.

Speaker 1: 36:52

Yeah, one of the things I like about it is there's the saying you become the five people you spend the most time with, and everyone the founding members are all leaders in what they do, and they'll, and you all, have unique and different disciplines. I've had the privilege of spending a lot of time with John Cutten this past year. I'm helping him write Technically. I'm helping him write five books. We're on book number two right now and, just as he's one of the most successful advisors in the country Barron's Hall of Fame Advisor, $8 billion assets under management I meet with him oftentimes, once a week to work on books.

Speaker 1: 37:30

It's just interesting to have that bird's eye view and to really be able to observe and learn from people, and so I think the financial advisor success syndicate does that for a lot of people that wouldn't necessarily have access to such thought leaders. And what I really like about it is, as you said, just the abundance mentality. I'm not a financial advisor by trade. I've worked with financial advisors for, as I said, since 2016. And one of the things I've noticed is that oftentimes it's a little bit closed off, meaning that I don't want you to take my idea, I'm going to keep it over here and whatnot, and so it's nice to see the abundance mentality that you all guys share.

Speaker 2: 38:06

And one thing I just want to share to wrap up is to anybody who's listening, who's an advisor and you're considering how to market yourself, your practice or your brand, don't be scared to tell people who you are. Often it's called who you are is how you market. Some of the content is on the financial advisor success syndicate, so if you're a member there, you can always check it out. But I am a big believer in letting people know your intelligence, your values, a little bit of your personal life, your family, what motivates you, what gets you up in the morning and it has you excited to be an advisor.

Speaker 2: 38:41

I've asked this question when I've given speeches. I have, and I actually can recall a very specific story. I was on a stage and I was guiding people through the who you are is how you market exercise. And I said what is your? Why? Why do you get up in the morning and go to work and work as a financial advisor? And people should build in the room? And I said oh, look at that. All you lie into me and lie into yourself because you're all thinking you get up and do it because of the money. Everybody laughs harder and I said but that's not the answer? The answer if it were money isn't enough.

Speaker 2: 39:14

Because when the markets are up and down, the average advisor, most advisors, work in their community and they're managing the money for the people that cost in the grocery store, the people who they worship with and at their places of worship possibly friends and family members, other business leaders they respect and when the markets go up for the markets go down at the end of the day you're the one calling them, telling them that news and how you're going to manage to that. And the money is what gets you up. And how do you do that every single day? I don't care who you are. There's another reason, and getting honest with yourself about what that reason is and using that as the core value in your marketing changes practices, changes lives and drives the AU in in such an amazing and powerful way, in a way that feels good for the client and good for the advisor and overall, is good for the industry, because it puts heart space first, and I'm I am all about that.

Speaker 2: 40:12

So I just want to leave with that challenge. I tell that story often and it's in a lot of times when I'm the guest on a podcast, but I do it repetitively, because it really is what I believe in and where I think marketing needs to be in the industry. I want to shout that far and wide. So thank you for giving me call the forum to do that, and anybody who wants to reach me. It's very easy. They can email me at Tina at elite consulting partnerscom, or you can give me a call. I give out my phone number freely. I welcome the chance to talk to any advisor or practice that's interested in exploring marketing further and my cell phone number is 570-620-5897.

Speaker 1: 40:50

For the financial advisors success and they get work and they find out more information about that.

Speaker 2: 40:55

Join fascom and on that page you'll see bios and information and quotes from all of us who are founding members. There's also the application to join. We would love to have as many listeners I know I personally would love to have as many of you Join in for my next live training, which, ironically, I know that this is coming out later. I look forward to seeing everybody there.

Speaker 1: 41:17

Thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 2: 41:19

I thought we're going to have to do a part two because we can talk about. There's so many more things we can talk about.

Speaker 1: 41:26

Yeah, I always find it fun to hang out and have these conversations with fellow marketers. It's really enjoyable for me. Hopefully it was enjoyable for you as well. Thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 41:36

You're welcome. Thank you, Paul.