Latest / The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners / 182: RESULTS: How this advisor deepened his relationship and impacted clients w/ guest John Scherer

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182: RESULTS: How this advisor deepened his relationship and impacted clients w/ guest John Scherer · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I obviously love sharing ideas with you guys, and sometimes the stuff that exists now that didn't exist when I was running my financial planning business makes me completely jealous almost jealous enough to get back into the business.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I think running a business now would be even easier and more exciting than it was when I was in it, and by easier I don't mean easy.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Easy will never, ever, ever be the operative word for running a financial planning business.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: But for those of you getting started, yes, I had to walk uphill both ways, in the snow, all the things, but I I'm kidding, but I love finding things for you guys and sharing them.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I love to think about how okay, if that would have been a thing, how would I have executed it in my business.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: But what I like even more than just thinking about how I'd execute is sharing with you actual results.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So in today's episode I'm going to introduce you to my new advisor, friend, john, who jumped on the idea of Legacy Letter.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You've heard me talk about this before.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: It's one of the coolest value ads ever and I would have been all over this in my business and he's going to share with us exactly how it all went down for him.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: He's going to tell us what he did, how he did it, how he'd do it differently if he were to do it again, and he shares the feedback that he's received from his clients, and I'm not surprised.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: It's totally awesome.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So if you're looking for a value add this year that will make a huge impact on your business, is relatively easy to execute and not all that expensive.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: I think this might be the solution.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Let's go and look.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I know you're here because you know it's possible to have an abundance of energy left over at the end of the day and at the end of the week for your family and still have your dream business, the business that you are running, instead of it running you.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: And if you're new to the Efficient Advisor, I'm Libby Grywe.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I started, built and sold by 37, a 100% referral-only planning practice that we grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year so that I could be a super present mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter and, let's be honest, I like taking vacations.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Ain't nothing wrong with that but I'm here to walk alongside you and to show you how to do exactly the same and to help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: We are about to transform your practice, so move over exhaustion and advisor ADD.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It is time to take that one right next step to build the business and the life that you love.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: So let's dive into this conversation with my friend, john Okay.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So for those of you that are like what the heck is this girl talking about?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Legacy letter, so Blake Brewer.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I met Blake and he shared his story with me and you can go back to episode number 106 and hear his story in its entirety and it's just get your tissues.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It's moving, it's wonderful.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: But basically Blake lost his dad in a tragic accident and his dad had written him this letter unbeknownst to Blake, and his mom found this letter and gave it to him and his dad had written one to all of the children and Blake just shares this so beautifully.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: So I hate to take any thunder from his story because the story I'm not doing it nearly the justice that it deserves right now, but the story is just so beautiful about how this letter, how Blake really clung to it after his father passed away and it became these words from beyond that he used to really guide him through life and life decisions.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And, um, you know, he turned to this letter for advice when he couldn't turn to his dad for advice and he, you know, made it this mission.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: This letter was so impactful to him that he made it his mission to not only write a letter like this for his children, but to help other initially dads write these letters to their kids, and then it turned into moms and his goal now is to get a million people writing these legacy letters.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: And it's not just like any old letter, right?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: He's got a whole system and process around and has refined really what should be included and how do you do it and really helping people.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So you know how I feel about staring at a blank piece of paper.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: So, instead of staring at a blank piece of paper saying, how do I write this crazy meaningful letter to my children, he's actually got a system in place to help your clients do just that.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: And I'm not doing it justice right now.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Go back and listen to episode number 106.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: But for those of you that don't know what Legacy Letter is, I had Blake on the show and I had just emails pouring in afterwards about what a great episode it was, how impactful it was and how advisors could not wait to do this with their clients.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So I was excited to bring to you kind of a success story or a results-oriented story related specifically to Legacy Letter.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, let's dive into my conversation with John.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: All right, john, I'm so glad you're here to share some of your experiences because I think it's interesting.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: We get on podcasts, we go to different conferences or meetings and we get all of these really what seem like great ideas, right, things that we can implement in our business, and you're like oh, that sounds like a really good idea and it's always interesting to see.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Like, okay, but I'd love to hear like, what are the results?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Like how did things work out for that person?
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: If you tried it, how did it go?
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: So when you reached out and told me that your legacy letter experience was really, really positive, I obviously fired back like, ok, I have a million questions.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I want to know all the things.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Tell me how it went.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So I know there are advisors who've listened to that episode.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: We've had tons of advisors do the legacy letter experience for their clients and I know I've had a lot of advisors email and kind of ask more questions or inquire about it, or they're kind of on the fence.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: So I thought this really might be helpful.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So if you would be so kind as to share, like, what made you want to do the legacy letter experience for your clients, like how did it fit into your overall goals, values, experience that you typically deliver.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: So our mission as a business is helping improve people's lives, right, and so of course it's investments and taxes, insurance and things, but that's sort of global.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: We pride ourselves on being holistic and really addressing all areas.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: And so I had been doing actually or I shouldn't say doing we had been introducing the idea of an ethical will to clients for probably a dozen or more years, and I learned it from a friend of mine, kathleen Real, who was sort of on the forefront of the life planning side of things, you know, years ago, and it was hey, here's this cool thing.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: She had done it.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Real similar story to Blake just from a procedural standpoint.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: A real similar story to Blake just from a procedural standpoint.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: And but it was always sort of this, and so I'd taken things that she was using with her clients you know some forms to help kind of get people started.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: But it was always an add-on to the sort of you know core all right, beneficiaries and estate planning, reading through the wills and trusts and all those sort of things.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It was sort of like, hey, here's this interesting thing, here's some ideas.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: If you, if it resonates with you, cool, here's a way to get started, but it was no sort of system Right and so um.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: So then I was listening, actually, to the perfect RIA podcast when Blake was on there I think it was last summer and as I'm listening to this, I thought, holy man, this is, this is that thing that I've always thought was really cool and I've never really done something with.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: And here's somebody who's got a system right and I'm just smart enough to know that what?
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: I should really do is follow people who are smarter than me right and being successful and get on board with that.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: So that's sort of where it led into.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Where I got the idea was I've always been on the back of my mind with things, and then here's this way to implement it from a professional standpoint anyway, and you know, from a personal standpoint and I think a lot of listeners, of course, know the whole story and like what goes on, as you mentioned at the introduction.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: But one of the things that was sort of personal to me and where it resonated was that my sister died in 2016.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: She was 42 years old and very suddenly, and Lisa had cerebral palsy, she lived on her own in a group home and she was independent, and so I wasn't her guardian, but it was sort of that sort of relationship.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Right, we were very close, but it was something a little bit, you know, somewhere between sibling and parent sort of a deal, and so, anyway, when she passed away, it was something.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: I think about that now, and I mentioned it when we had our call with our clients is hey, if I had a letter from her, right, how powerful would that be?
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Just, you know, saying anything, you know, but for me it was a little bit different in that I thought about it from the other side of things, where when she was gone and it's still emotional to talk about now right, when she was gone, I didn't know that she knew how I felt about her.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Basically, right.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: And so on the one hand, I think about this as if I'm gone, I want the people I care about to know how I felt about them, but if they're gone first, it would really be so powerful for me to know that they knew, if that makes sense, right.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: It makes perfect sense.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: It's one of those that kind of the flip side of the coin on that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: But it really resonated with me that this is more than there's more to it than maybe what's on the face.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get really technical for me, if you will.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: How did you set the event up for your clients?
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Like, how did you describe it, explain it?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Did you target just your best clients?
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Did you do it for everybody?
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Tell me, like the technical aspect, because I know that's what advisors want to know, like okay, well, like how did you get people excited about doing this?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: So we, we sort of decided a little bit late on this it was coming into the fall, we're approaching our fall strategy meetings.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: And so I said, hey, we've learned about this, talked with Blake's team, we're going to do this.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: And what we did was we sent out an email in our pre-meeting email to folks saying please look at this link.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: We had sent his short appearance on the Today Show, right?
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: So here's five minutes on the story and most people actually watch that before the meeting.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: For folks that didn't, we said look, we pulled it up in our conference room and the listeners just walk through this and it was an agenda item on our fall meetings.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: So you know our regular things.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: And here's, you know, legacy letter.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: So we introduced it to folks that way, like here's the background.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: And then we did and we told people what's happening.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: We're having this presentation, the webinar is recorded and then you also get enrolled in their workshop to help write the letter.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And we told our clients that we would sign them up for attendance at the webinar so that they would be on the list.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: So it was sort of an opt-out thing, if you will, as opposed to opt-in.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: We introduced it to them.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't a surprise and we didn't ask them.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Hey, go ahead and sign up.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: If you're interested, it's, we're going to sign you up for it and you'll be on the email list and be included in the workshop.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So sort of a negative consent sort of a thing.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it, I think that's smart, and so I'm assuming your clients watched it and were like oh, moved, yes, I want to, obviously, I want to be part of that.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: So tell us about the event itself.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So you said it was recorded, but it was.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: It was a live webinar.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we did it at over a lunchtime, uh, right after Halloween, and uh, a lot of our clients are retired, so they're pretty flexible, of course, but we do have some that aren't, and so we had, uh, we had a mixture of, uh, retired folks and people are still working, and it was a live event with uh, with Blake and his team, and it was, you know, I gave a brief introduction, talked about why we're doing this and turned it over, and Blake had a great presentation about you know his experience and then and some of the action, nitty gritty, like how do you actually do this thing for folks?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And so were your clients gathered in the same space, like so, did you host a lunch and they came to you, or was everybody kind of dialing in from their homes?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was the latter.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: We had thought about doing a great reason to get people together Again, starting a little bit late in our planning.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: It just wasn't feasible to make all the logistics work, so we thought about that, but it was just everybody dialing on Zoom and just have the conversation that way.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, and so how long was the event kind of start to finish?
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: It was about 90 minutes or so.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Yep, yep and so yeah, yeah.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: And so it wrapped up.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So Blake did his thing wrapped up, and then everybody was then enrolled, where then they could log in and kind of follow the steps that they provided to write the letter.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Am I understanding that correctly?
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Yep, exactly.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I love it.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: And how did your clients respond to it?
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know the response and, as you said in the beginning, introducing it to people, right, it's a tearjerker.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Everybody goes, oh this is awesome.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Across the board.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: We had that sort of response During the presentation also.
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: There was some back and forth, there was some participation.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: He did a really good job getting people involved.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: So it's when people sharing stories and talking, it was really.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I remember one of our clients.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Things got done and she said all right time to start writing, like you know, motivated and energized by that.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: So that was the response during the meeting.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Everybody that was there was very positive and we had a lot of people that couldn't make it also, and there was a lot of I don't know buzz or energy around hey, this thing got recorded right, how do I view this?
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And there was.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: It wasn't just the people that were live at the webinar, but there was a lot of positive energy around the whole idea of it.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: So that was valuable, I think.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so do you know, like, did a lot of your clients actually follow through and get their letters written?
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Were they reporting back like yep done, did it?
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Or is that?
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: still kind of yet to be determined.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's sort of yet to be determined.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: So during our spring progress reviews, we've been asking people you know, what was the experience and how did it go?
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: And a lot of folks, a lot of the responses were yeah, that's awesome, and I've got the follow-up emails and it's on my list of things, right, like a lot of things that are on people's list.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: We do add some people that that did complete the the letter, and it's been really interesting, though, as we've talked with clients, as I think about, like, what's the value of this?
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: And of course, I was hoping that everybody would show up and everybody write their letter by the end of the year and it would be all perfect, right, and that's not how life works.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: But we I mean I heard we had a couple of client things that were pretty interesting.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: I thought one was from somebody actually attended the session live and she said, hey, I wrote the letter.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: You know it was really cool.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: But one of the things that she got from Blake's presentation was that that the message to her kids was not about I'm proud of you for, like, what you've done, what you've accomplished, but I'm proud of you for who you are, some of those intrinsic things, and so it was cool that he talked about that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: But then she said that was enlightening to her, which was really neat to hear, and it also made her more aware in the present.
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: She said, yeah, that letter is awesome.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: But then I realized and she shared a story about her daughter, who she says her daughter's 20 or 22 years old and she's the type of person that really includes everybody in a conversation.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: And she used the example.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: You get a big group of people, right, people start talking over each other and she'll go back and say, oh, libby, you were bringing up an idea on this topic, what were you talking about?
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: And she said I recognize that my daughter makes people feel good.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: That's such a special trait of her.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: So it encouraged her to communicate with her daughter, you know, just on a text message or on another.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: And, hey, encourage her to do more of that sort of thing.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: So it's this big, the legacy letter and the permanence of that is so cool.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: But then also it was really neat for me to hear that she's made some daily changes, right, and daily, you know, things that she wanted to do and I'm really in tune with that, I'm aware of it and present in those moments and I think about that, like you know what a cool thing for us to be able to provide for our client and her daughter.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: But then all the people that her daughter interacts with, that her mom's encouraging her to do more of these things like talk about making an impact in the world, right, like that sort of thing, is really cool.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: That's super heartwarming and that's exactly like, I think, what we're aiming for with an experience like this.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: So, obviously to to do this, you had to make an investment and it's always you know, it's always interesting when I'm talking to clients about, or to advisors about you know, how do we impact our clients, how do we raise the value that we provide and how is it tied to what we can actually do for them as advisors and things we can implement and get compensated for, and how do we actually provide value and do things for them that we don't get compensated for, but build a lot of relationship capital.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And it's a balancing act when you only have a budget that's so big or you can only do so many events or put the human capital into executing and doing all of things for a great client experience.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So, as far as the investment that you made in doing it, would you do it all over again?
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Do you think it was worth it?
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I was hoping you weren't going to ask me how much it costs, because I can't remember exactly.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: It wasn't very expensive, but you know it's on the website.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: I know, yeah, Right, right you can find that information, right.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: No, I mean, I look at this and just the story I just described, right, having somebody that made an impact in their life, right, like that's.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: That's really powerful and and you know, as I said, I was hoping everybody's going to show up, everybody's going to do this, but you know you, you make an impact on a on a few people, right, and I think there's more to it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: One of the things I'd really like to do more of and I'm talking with Blake and his team as we speak about how do we do better follow-up, how do we help people to get these things done other than sort of nagging them?
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: There's got to be ways to be more proactive on the follow-up.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: And from that standpoint, libby, it's like, hey, I made this investment in time and money in the fall.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: We did some really cool things, made an impact on some people, but now there's going to be more that comes from that, right, even just having the conversations with people in the spring, sort of reminding them of the cool thing we did in the fall, right, you know, oh, that's right, that's on my list of things, right, so it's a continuing.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: There's benefits from a business standpoint that continue to pay dividends from that.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: You know more than just what it was for those 90 minutes in the fall, and then follow-ups with clients.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: I think there's more to it that we're we're trying to uncover and get into.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: But I'd absolutely do it again.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love that so much.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Is there anything if you did it again?
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that you would do differently?
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: I'll tell you what on the front end of things, I was really glad that we did it the way we did Maybe have a little more lead time given other things, but I think we made the decisions September 15th-ish to do this and six weeks later we had the presentation and it worked well.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: But I wouldn't change anything.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: There's nothing I can identify other than, on the back end, being a little more proactive on following up with people or having a metric.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: You asked a great question.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: You know what.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: What was the impact?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: We've been talking with clients but we didn't really measure that and I uh, if I would have, if I had to do it over again, I would have had a plan for follow-up on all right, how do we?
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: How do we measure other than from you know conversationally, how this went over, what the feedback we didn't really ask clients for.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Give us feedback afterwards?
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Was it really great or was it not so great or whatever.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Those types of things I'd have been a little more proactive on had I, if I were to do it again.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so you would suggest probably a little bit longer lead time if possible, kind of rolling into it with some intention.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Would you do it virtually from like everybody dial in?
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Would you do a bigger like luncheon and offer the option to dial in?
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Or what would you do like from actual like how you executed it standpoint?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it went very well as a fully virtual event, but my preference would have been to again, if I had a little bit more time, to get people together, have a reason to have some lunch and sit and visit with each other and do a hybrid sort of a thing.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: But I don't know that the results necessarily, you know, like people that came or that watched or impact, but that having a reason for folks to get together and connect in our sort of you know, the tribe of our clients would have been beneficial.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think and I'm trying to think about how long the workshop is where you actually walk through the letter I was curious if you think having like a separate follow-up event where maybe everyone watches the follow-up together and actually sits and does their own writing you know their live would be do you think that would improve the outcome of people getting it done?
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Would that add to the experience, or maybe?
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: I'd never thought about that.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I really liked that idea of in the workshop there's a series of six or seven emails and tasks that come out, but when I did it myself it was you know you can do it in a block, right?
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: You can spend a couple hours and make some progress, and maybe that would be a really cool follow-up is here's the event, and then let's have a get together, a less formal right.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Bring your notebook and computer and we'll sit and have a reason to go together and it's a touch point for people, right, and there's other people around doing the same thing.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: You know there's some energy around that.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: That's a really cool idea.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think of it kind of like and not that everyone has to share what their personal like, what they're writing or their personal stories.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: But there is that idea for me.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I always know our clients seem to enjoy when there was some kind of community aspect or they were able to just engage with other people or share or kind of build.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: You know, build community, whether it was me and my team with them, or them with other people, or all of it together.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So so if there's an advisor out there who's like I'm kind of thinking about doing it, I don't know, maybe, maybe not what would be kind of your recommendation or what would you suggest to an advisor who's on the fence?
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I guess, just based on what I described in my experience, like I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat, going going forward again, right, I mean some of these stories, these connections that I've, you know I just described one of the things that we made these connections with clients that impact, you know, and for for many of us that's, you know, if you, if you help one client feel really good about you and they make a referral right, or they stay, and they stay as a longer term client, you solidify that relationship and multiply that by your whole book of business.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: It is really a low bar when you take a look at the investment of time and effort that goes into it versus the payoff that you get from that.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I can't imagine, libby, that somebody, a client, would attend this and not have a really, really positive feeling.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: I mean, the feedback we've gotten just across the board has been, even for people that didn't maybe haven't even watched it, like oh yeah, that sounds like such a cool idea and that you're doing and the implication is like, hey, we're doing this for our clients, right, that kind of you know there's, there aren't many things I think that you can spend money on, or time and resources that have that kind of impact.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm also thinking of it, you know, from like a team standpoint, and I don't know how big your office is or your team, but having it be something that your team can participate in together, or maybe even having you know, because I think a lot about client experience but I also think a lot about like employee experience, or how do we build culture, but I also think a lot about like employee experience or how do we build culture.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: One of the questions I get a lot from advisors is how do we build culture within our office and within our team and how do I build, you know, loyalty and affinity and help people you know develop personally and professionally?
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And I keep thinking like, wow, this might be a really impactful thing to do together as a team on like a team retreat or just like watching the video together or even having like a writing session where everybody kind of put some pen to paper to try to move it forward.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, and we've got a very small office here.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: But I'll tell you, having this sort of thing for clients, that the messaging that I think internally for us was that it's not just about the dollars and cents Of course that's really important, but it's about the people that we're trying to improve their life.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Like that mess.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: That idea of we're trying to help folks, I think is really important.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: And you just made me think.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Libby, my wife, works in the office here with us, and when I first brought this idea up and said, hey, I think we want to do this for folks, her first reaction she listened to the podcast where Blake was on.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: And she said she listened to the podcast where Blake was on and she said you should do this for spouses, not just for kids.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: And so that was kind of one of the focuses of our conversations with clients about you know, do it for your kids, but then do it for your spouse as well.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: And I actually did that for her for our anniversary.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: That was my present to her.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: It was a really cool experience, wow.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love that and I think, like you know, I, when I think of something like this, like I know, when Blake was on was on my podcast, like I had heard his story before, right, and I still sobbed when he shared it like the second time.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: And then I watched him on the today show and I still sobbed to get right, like it's just, it's so incredibly moving and I think about just like the fingers that come out from this and how it can trickle over and so this idea of doing it for your spouse or even for your closest of friends and and really it can have such a big impact and I just, I just, I don't know, I just, you know, I wish something like this would have existed when I was running my practice, cause I think it would be a really amazing value add.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: That's so what I loved about the concept was that it's just, it's not related to business, it's nothing to do with their dollars or their cents or what we as an office can do or can't do, for that it's literally just how do we improve your experience as a whole?
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, and you could parlay it into estate planning and some other stuff, like as you, you know, as they really kind of connect to their, to their purpose and to their children and to their spouses.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: But I just love that the ROI was just joy and impact.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: You know, one of the things you made me think of, as you were just talking about, like just doing good in the world, right, I mean, of course it's for your client, but it's just a cool thing.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: One of the things that we did was also we invited our prospects to come to it and some other friends and family and uh, and it was a really it was a soft way for us to sort of, you know for, for we've got some friends that maybe you should be clients or family sort of thing.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to go on, you know, uh, solicit their business type of thing, right, but here's this, here's this way, and again, these are people.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: I want to have great lives and do good things.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: And we did get.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: We actually just recently got a note from a friend that said thank you so much for introducing this.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: It kind of sat my desk all winter.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: I'm just I'm just about finished with my letter and this has been.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: I think she said it's been such a gift, thanks for including me, like how cool is that?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: And at some point, if those folks that are looking for somebody to talk about, is it a good investment At some point, when they say, hey, geez, I think I need some financial help with my retirement or whatever it is, who are they going to think of?
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: Right, you know the advertisement they see or this experience, right?
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: So you think about it from that.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: That was not the reason I did it at all.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Right, I just wanted to do good things.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: But you think about that stuff from a business standpoint, you go that just makes sense, right?
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, a lot of advice.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: You know it's interesting whenever, you know, I'm kind of talking with advisors and I'll go.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Well, why'd you get into this, Like, especially advisors who have kind of lost maybe some of that.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: They've been maybe become a little disenchanted with their business, right, they got everything that they prayed for and now they're like, okay, I'm disconnected, I'm bored, Like what do I into this?
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: You know, of course that's right.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: We're not running charities or hobbies but what a beautiful way to actually live that out and truly help people in a way that's not directly tried to like the profitability and I think I don't know.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I just think it's such a cool.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I know I wrote mine and it was just a very impactful experience and I know I couldn't help but tell everybody about it, right when I did it right.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Like oh my gosh.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I did this thing you should do, like listen to this.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: It's really cool.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: You know I loved sharing it because it was so unique and different and I'm just so grateful.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for just taking your precious commodity of time and sharing how Legacy Letter really actually panned out for you in practice.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: I think that's just kind of a fun thing to circle back on for people who listen and are like okay, but like how?
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: right so.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that you took the time to share some of that.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: Well, thanks, so happy to be able to do it.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: This has really been a lot of fun.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: Have an amazing rest of your day.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: All right you too.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I am so grateful that John just volunteered his time to share that information with you guys and I was so touched.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I get emails all the time from advisors saying, oh, I did this thing you recommended and it was so great, or oh, that was such a good idea.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: And I keep getting feedback on Legacy Letter.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So, finally, when John emailed me and said something, I was like you know what?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Would you be willing to jump on a call and just share your experience for 20 or 30 minutes?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: And as a podcaster, I think like, oh, that's no big deal, but I kind of sometimes forget that people haven't done this before, right, and that it could be nerve wracking or they feel like they need to prepare or be whatever.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And he just he did an amazing job and I'm just so grateful for people who just can set aside any nerves or whatever associated with it for absolutely no reason.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: Right, like he has no incentive to share this information other than the fact that he did it and it was great, and he wants other advisors to do it because it was so impactful.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: And I just think there are just so many amazing people wandering around in this world that are so willing to share and do for others.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I just think it's absolutely lovely.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Now, if you are on the fence and you are no longer on the fence I have got the link for legacy letter in the show notes.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: You can also go out to the efficientadvisorcom, and under the resources tab on my website is the link that Blake has given me for you guys for special pricing through the Efficient Advisor.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: So, if you want to execute a legacy letter, oh and I have it linked in there too I've got kind of the process that I would use mapped out for you guys.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: You can also learn more about legacy letter by going back to the episode that I did on that.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Let me look that up.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's episode number 106, called the Ultimate Value Add for 2023 Low Difficulty, high Impact, with Blake Brewer.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: So, episode number 106, and I'm just saying, get your tissues ready, because Blake's story will move you and don't sleep on this.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: You guys, while Blake is still doing these live and doing all of the things, I would highly, highly encourage you to consider adding this to your value ads for this year.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: The results that John shared with us are pretty much uniform to every advisor that I've heard has done this.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, hope this was helpful for you guys.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I'd love to hang out with you over in the Efficient Advisor community over on Facebook and, if you've done Legacy Letter, I'd love, love, love for you to post in there about what some of your takeaways were, perhaps what you might do differently, so that you could turn around, stick your hand out and help that advisor who's like five minutes behind you with this idea.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, or as always, you can DM me or hang out with me over on LinkedIn.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much and hope you have an amazing rest of your week.