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Mindset Mastery: Overcoming Barriers to Charging Premium Fees · The Perfect RIA

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Jamie Shilanski: Yourself doubt kills off more dreams than
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failure could ever imagine possible. Welcome back to TPR
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nation. This is Jamie Shilanski, in an episode of Worlds to
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Conquer, and today we are going to dive into the professional
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head trash that is holding you back from being able to market
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yourself a financial advisor. And also, let's really be honest
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with one another, justify the fees that we are about to charge
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when you get started in financial advisors. And we think
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there's about three different tracks, if you will, that you
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will be on when you first get out, you get your license, and
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you're so excited, if you are making less than sort of
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$300,000 a year, then you're in your growth stage. That is the
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only thing that you should be focused on, is marketing and
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growth. Now, when I say marketing, people oftentimes
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think that that just means promotional that means branding,
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that means advertising, that means doing seminars, that means
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doing all these different things. And I get asked this a
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lot, Jamie, what should I do for marketing? Whatever you're most
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comfortable with, whatever gets you in front of people, where
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you're on a platform in order to deliver your expertise, go do
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that. Everything in marketing works. You hate social media.
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Don't do social media. You Love Public Speaking. Go do public
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speaking. Everything works. You just have to work it. But
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marketing doesn't stop on just the promotional about casting
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that net and getting in front of as many people as possible,
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because marketing also means to me, delivering exceptional
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client experiences. Now why do I tie that into marketing. Well,
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when I ask a financial advisor, tell me about how you're getting
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your clients, what are they going to tell me? What are they
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going to tell me is their number one source for getting new
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clients gone? Yep, referrals, client referrals. Most of my
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clients come from client referrals. Well, then that means
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that you should be dedicating time and energy and effort to
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doing nothing but perfecting your client meetings and your
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communication skills. I tie that right into it, because if you're
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getting if you are genuinely getting all of your clients from
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referrals, then every single time that you sit down in front
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of a client, you're not only having an opportunity to deliver
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massive value, but you're doing a little bit of marketing inside
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of there too. You're knocking their socks off so much that
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they leave that office and they are just bustling with energy to
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talk to people about all the things that you outlined for
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them to go and do, and that means perfecting your client
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experience with them. So when you're in that growth stage,
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that's really what we want to see you focused on, how do you
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deliver a one page plan? How do you build a one page plan? How
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do we start delivering massive value? How do we incorporate
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value add? Ashley keen associates, our RIA up in
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Anchorage, Alaska, we do four value adds, minimally a year.
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However, if you are just starting out, we strongly
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recommend not going from zero to four. Why? Because you've never
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executed a value add. You might not have all of the information.
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And we just, actually, we worked with a company that was just
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trying to execute their first value add, but they won. They
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didn't really understand the process of the value they didn't
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really get the buy in of delivering it to people, and
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they didn't have any of the systems set up in order to make
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it happen. Now, unfortunately, they gave themselves 17 days to
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execute this. That's a terrible idea. In fact, Micah and I, my
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baby brother, we were just talking about our next value
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add, and I'd really said, you know, I kind of want to get this
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outlined. It's on the property casualty stuff and side tip in
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curation. We haven't run this through our office yet, but I'll
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give you a sneak peek. In 2019 home values were dramatically
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different than what they are in 2020, through 2024, and so if
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you have clients that have escalated home values, how many
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of them reach back out to their property casualty insurers and
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made sure that their insurance was also increasing with the own
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value. So that's a preview of what we're going to do. Now, I
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think I could get this jammed up and I could get the execution of
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it done in the next 30 days, but like I said, You know what? We
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got a lot of information. We got to go enter in there, and we
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can't derail our fall value add. Why don't we either give this up
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for spring? So when we are thinking of our value adds, it's
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not just something that we're giving ourselves 17 days, we
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also have to think about the end result for our team. Do we have
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a lot of this information already in our infinity CRM?
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Infinity. CRM is a custom software that Micah and I built
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so that we can generate all these value adds for clients. It
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is our brain trust. So if you're using gorilla or red tail, or
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Salesforce, or whatever big of CRM is out there, garbage in,
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garbage out, as much information as you're capturing, that's what
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you have to put inside of your CRM to generate these value
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adds. And so as we started looking at this, said, Okay, if
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we want to do this, we need to know, one, did they move houses?
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Two, are they in their current home? Still? How long have they
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been in that home? And then in Alaska, we publish our
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municipality records, their public information, but not
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every county or state does that. And so we said, Okay, we have to
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kind of divide this out. Do we have that information, or do we
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not have that information? And so it ended up being a much
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bigger project and live that we can't just push on our team and
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give them 17 days to complete. Now this other advisor's office
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are doing something a little bit different, but they still have
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that 17 day timeline, but they had never done that, and they
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didn't have all of the information in order to pull
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this off. And so you also have to think about that. You have
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to, in my mind, start with when you're coming into the value
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add, start with the end result, and then back in, okay, if I
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want to deliver this, then I need to know that. So if I'm
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delivering something on property casualty, guess what? I need to
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know what their values are. I need to know what those they
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start backing into it. Did they move? Do we have current loan
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information? Do we have this, etc, and once we have all that
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compiled, now we can execute on that value add. So when you're
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in that growth state, those are the things that you should
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really be focused on. And if you're in those early stages of
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growth, I would say, don't worry. Start perfecting
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marketing. Start perfecting the client meeting experience and
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setting client expectations. And then as you tiptoe towards the
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latter part of growth and or into freedom, now we can talk
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about delivering those value adds consistently, the freedom
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is when you are sort of pop at that 250 $300,000 range, you've
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got a lot of money to do the things that you want to do, but
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not so much money that you could do nothing. Because with
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escalating income tax brackets also means a lot more
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responsibility, and a lot more is getting outsourced, and you
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have a bigger burden. Things start costing more suddenly.
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You're not buying ground beef. You're buying steak three nights
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a week. Those things have a price tag that come along with
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them. And so when you're in this freedom stage, you're really
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saying, all right, I'm making good money, good money, good
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honest money. And most financial advisors, I know, they're not
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silver spoon people. These are people that bootstrapped
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themselves up. They didn't come from people that made tons and
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tons of money, millions and millions of dollars. These are
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people that, you know what, got into this business to help
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people, and the money's really good, and I really get a
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satisfaction of solving people's problems. And once they hit that
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freedom stage, now what they want to do is they want to take
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a little bit more time out of the office. They want to
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delegate a little bit more things to different people, and
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they need to be able to also increase their revenue while
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doing so. Because as financial advisors, we think that the
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second we stop coming into the office, the revenue stop. It
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comes to a grinding halt. That's one thing. You know. My father,
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Floyd Shilanski started Shilanski and Associates back in
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1981 with my mom, Rosa. And he had a really hard time with that
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for several years, and I would say only the last six years,
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he's come around to the fact that he doesn't have to
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physically be in front of clients to be earning and
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generating money. And that was really hard, because that's how
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he he built the practice was, get him in front of clients,
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he's going to earn money. There was a direct correlation to
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that. So we packed his calendar full products. We packed him
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full clients. And it is true, when you sit him across from
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somebody, find a deal, he is going to make money. In that
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experience, he's just good. I mean, he's a master of his
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craft. And then you get to this enterprise stage, and this
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empire, if you will, that you're building now it's now. It's not
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just delegation. Now you're growing your practice, and
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you're training financial advisors. So this is when you're
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bringing in proteges and leads and senior advisors, and they're
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all under your umbrella, and that you should all be drinking
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the same Kool Aid, doing things the same way. How do you scale
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that without feeling like go back those beginning days and be
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in the office 24/7, and that's really what Empire is about.
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We've built it's weird Empire for us, but this which is the
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language I think I more default to. And we have five different
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financial advisors. We work with clients all across the United
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States. We will do things the same way. Our delivery inside
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the client office, in the meeting room might be a little
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bit different, so I'm jocular. If you are not a person who
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other people have told you that you're funny, you are not funny.
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Don't try to tell a joke. We and Pat Barbas, he was on our
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advisor training one day, and he was talking advisors that too.
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He said, Listen, you're going to hear, you know, Micah myself and
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way, but if you hear them, if you hear a nuance that you don't
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think, that you don't do it. And so Matt was saying, for
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instance, he said, listen, James, come in and she's got to
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make kind of a comment. She got to make kind of a joke lands,
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and it's funny. If you don't have that,
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do not tell the joke. Do not do it. Do not those type of things.
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You have to have that same ability to deliver in those
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client meetings. And it's really important to understand that,
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because a lot of times when we get to this empire stage, we
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think everyone verbatim has to say the same things. You don't
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have to say the same things exactly, but you have to use a
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common vocabulary, and you also have to have the same point. We
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got to come to the same conclusion. And so when we build
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out financial plans in our empire office. You know, we can
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kid ourselves all day long that every financial plan is custom,
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but really, we're doing very similar tasks with different
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people. There are different nuances, because they're the
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idiosyncrasies that come with families. But for the most part,
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we're following a same strategic plan. What are the five areas of
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financial planning. How do we cash flow management? How much
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insurance do we always recommend? What are we doing on
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the estate planning side? When do we start the investments and
11:08
conversions? When do we transfer funds? We have the same strategy
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in place, and when you're building an empire, that is the
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most important quality, because what you don't want is
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dissension and separation, and that happens when not everyone
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is getting the same training, when not everyone is on the same
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page. And now you have five different advisors, and all of
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them have different assistants, doing different things in their
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own way. That does not work. We have done that before. It does
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not scale. It becomes incredibly it's like being in a chicken
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frickin coop, because then it becomes this hierarchy and this
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pecking order, and it's just, it's a toxic environment, and it
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doesn't lead for good stability in the organization. Now I don't
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like it for those internal reasons, but here's the driving
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reason. I don't like different advisors doing different things.
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Clients talk, clients talk, and you just told me that most of
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your clients come from referrals, if your clients are
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out doing a social event together. In fact, I didn't even
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know three clients knew each other. I knew two of them knew
12:13
each other. I didn't know the third they were all on a trip in
12:16
Ireland together talking about the Roth conversion strategy
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that we had in place for two of the clients, but not the third
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one. Now the third one, that's because the employment was a
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little bit different in that situation. But guess what? The
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next meeting, they said, Hey, by the way, I was out with Bob and
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Sue. And they said, for them, you're doing X, Y and Z. Now,
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why would they ask that? Does everyone know everyone's
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situation is different kind of but we all think we have more
12:43
similarities than we do differences, and birds of a
12:46
feather flock together. So they figured, if it was good for the
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two of them, why wasn't it good for them? Why were we doing
12:53
something a little bit different? And so I want to make
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sure that we're planting seeds and we're talking about the same
12:58
strategies with clients, because they're going to talk. So even
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though that we have an enterprise office, here's our
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format. This is what we do, and this is the common vocabulary
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that we use all of the time. Our delivery might be different. Our
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point is the same. We follow the same process. And you know, we
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got a little flack from a coach that we're no longer affiliated
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with, because he said it was paid by numbers that you could
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just come in here and just be like, Oh, you fit in this box.
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Slide. Here you go, here you go, here you go, and you totally
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miss the value that is delivered in being consistent. I mean, why
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do you think Starbucks sells so much gosh darn coffee. The
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coffee's not good, people, the coffee is not good at Starbucks.
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It is bitter and acidic. But we all go in there because we know
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what we know what to order. We know that we're going to get
13:50
consistent cup of coffee. The paper is going to feel the same
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on the cup. We know what we want. They might have all the
13:55
variations in the world, but for the most part, we are all
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sticking with our normal coffee order all of the time. No matter
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where we are at, there's value in being consistent and also
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value in understanding when the nuances are different, why we're
14:10
doing things differently. All right, so now let's dive into
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that. We have those three stages of your career where you're at
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and here's where I see, most people get stuck. Most people
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get stuck between growth and freedom, and they get stuck
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between growth and freedom because they don't believe that
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they are delivering any value as a financial advisor to justify
14:32
asking somebody to pay a fee. Now, TPR nation, you know, I
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don't give a how you're paid. I do not care if you're fee only,
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if you're AUM only, I don't care. I do not care how money
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comes to you. I care whether or not you're leading the
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conversation with that. The thing that drives me nuts about
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fee only advisors is they blast that everywhere. Instead of
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saying, Hey, how can I help you? Everyone expects you're going to
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charge a price. Everyone expects you're going to charge a price.
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And when you're saying fee only, that's the very first thing that
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they're bringing up to their consumer. Hey, this is about
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money. This is about an exchange of money between the two of us.
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And don't kid yourself about all the transparent conversations.
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We're transparent as a day, as long I am blatantly honest about
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our fees that we charge with clients. I make sure I have that
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conversation so we're both comfortable with what's being
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charged and assessed, and when I think that I am no longer
15:29
providing value for the effort that we're doing, I let the
15:32
client go. We graduate clients and we fire clients, but we call
15:36
it graduation in our office, and the reason we call it graduation
15:39
is we need to move them on to somebody else that's going to be
15:41
able to provide more value. I had this killer relationship
15:44
with a client that I did a bit of fractional CFO work for, and
15:48
I really liked them, and we set up multiple offices. We did
15:51
great things. We turned their less than a million revenue into
15:54
multi million dollar company. It was fantastic. Up until 2020
15:59
when covid hit and when everything got shut down, in
16:02
this particular instance, they did a bunch of PCA, CNA work,
16:06
so, you know, hands on with handicapped individuals and
16:09
communities and senior citizens. But the problem was, is that
16:13
when that happened, you had highly susceptible people, and
16:16
when covid struck, they had to shut down everything and their
16:20
operations, and all sudden, people weren't getting these
16:22
types of services, because you couldn't have any type of
16:25
exposure. It decimated the business plan. Now we were able
16:29
to recover from that thanks to federal programs as well as the
16:33
cash reserves that we had, but man, it has been a claw back up
16:37
to the top to get those systems better operational, because what
16:40
most people don't realize in that particular industry is that
16:43
when it happened and you could not get help for a year and a
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half with your handicap individual, the two people
16:50
working in the household, how to make a decision, do we continue
16:53
to, you know, have to call out of work, or do one of us just
16:56
take off and do this full time? A lot of people chose to take
16:59
off and do it full time, and so then all sudden, you have this
17:01
demand for services go down. So it's not that it's going to go
17:05
down forever, it's it's just where we were at because of the
17:09
acts of God, like stronger than necessary, things that impact
17:12
our business. And so this last year, you know, we were talking
17:16
about it. We were doing different things. We're kind of
17:17
get them on the track. And I said, Hey, listen, I just, I
17:20
don't feel comfortable charging you the fees I'm charging right
17:23
now because we're not able to do any of the things that we had
17:26
talked about. I think you're going to need a couple years of
17:28
recovery, and, you know, I'm going to bow out right now and
17:32
allow you guys to recover from that. And he was like, Jamie, I
17:36
I cannot tell you how thankful I am. I don't want to lose you, I
17:39
believe every single month, but I know we can't do any of the
17:42
things that you're wanting me to until we get out of this, and we
17:45
left in a really good place with one another. And he was like,
17:49
from the bottom of my heart, like my family, everyone, like,
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thank you so much for everything that you have done. You know
17:54
you've been absolutely tremendous. And he's like, I
17:57
will be back. We've just got to recover. Great, fantastic,
18:00
wonderful. See you later. Bye, and, and then that was good for
18:03
me, because I didn't feel right. I didn't feel like I was
18:05
charging them, you know, I was charging them X amount of
18:07
dollars, because I don't work for free. I don't work for free.
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And, and I also know I'm comfortable with what I'm
18:14
charging because I know I'm gonna knock your socks off. I
18:16
know I'm gonna deliver value. I know I'm gonna show up and
18:18
advocate and fight for you. And when I have that in place, it
18:22
works a great in harmony. But the second I feel like, gosh, I
18:25
don't think I'm providing any value here. I have to do one of
18:28
two things. In that particular instance, I needed to graduate
18:31
the client because I knew we couldn't implement any of the
18:34
plan design for that particular business. And so that I was
18:38
like, well, as good as this money is as much as they're
18:40
willing to continue to pay me. This isn't right. I gotta be
18:43
able to sleep at night with both eyes closed. This isn't right.
18:46
We need to have the card conversation and move on.
18:49
Alright, the second thing I need to do when I'm like, Oh my gosh,
18:52
this this top client, this big client that that only wants you
18:56
to talk to me maybe one or two times a year, they talk to the
18:59
staff a little bit more, they're really not needy, because, let's
19:02
face it, are really affluent clients, you know, for the most
19:06
part, like, if you, if you go into like, the super
19:09
millionaires, they might be super needy because you are now
19:11
becoming their concierge to fix everything in their lives for
19:14
them. And that has less to do with financial advice and more
19:17
with like, coordinating private jets and solving those problems,
19:23
hiring people to do interventions for drug problems,
19:26
for grandkids or nieces and nephews or sons or daughters,
19:30
you know. So, so that's a whole other level. But for the most
19:33
part, for the most of you know, the clients that are of 2
19:35
million and up to 10 million, you know, they're not super
19:39
needy, like they got that money because they've been hustling
19:42
and doing their own jobs and focused on their own career, and
19:45
they understand that you're a professional, and they want your
19:47
advice, but they don't. They're not needy of your services,
19:51
where, when people make a little bit less than that, they're
19:53
constantly needy of your services, because they don't
19:55
understand a lot of those complexities, and so they want
19:58
to make sure that they're reaching out and getting their
20:00
money's worth. So it's this weird dynamic that you have to,
20:03
like, gage where your clients are with that. So when I have
20:07
clients and then I feel to myself, like, gosh, we really
20:09
don't like we're making x amount of dollars. It's really good
20:13
money, but man, this client does not need a lot from me. Then we
20:16
have to do it, sit down and do a self assessment. And that self
20:19
assessment is super, super important. So whenever they talk
20:22
about marketing, if you hire a marketing agency or whoever you
20:25
work with, the very first thing they're going to ask you for is
20:28
your unique selling proposition. What makes you different than
20:32
everybody else? When you have to sit down and put that on paper,
20:36
it is really difficult to think of yourself unique to everyone
20:41
else in this entire world. So instead of thinking about the
20:45
unique selling proposition when you're trying to compose that,
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here's what I do. I take a sheet of paper, I fold it in half,
20:50
long wise, I draw a column. On the left hand side, it's one of
20:54
a kind, and on the right hand side, it's one of many. And what
20:58
makes me one of a kind? What makes me one of many, and those
21:01
one of many things aren't bad things. I mean, guys, that's
21:04
that's why we have there's not just one person doing one job.
21:08
There's not just one doctor out there that we can go see.
21:11
There's not just one mechanic that everyone in the world
21:14
brings their car to. So just because there are tons of people
21:19
in this particular industry. That does not mean that
21:23
somebody's not looking for you. We get into our heads about
21:26
that, we start thinking, oh my gosh, I have to be unique. I
21:29
have to be different. I'm not doing anything that's different
21:32
than the Edward Jones guy down the street or the Ray J guy over
21:35
here, or the Schwab girl over there, and I'm just one of many
21:39
of them out there in the sea. But what you don't understand is
21:42
that not everyone wants to work with those people. There are
21:45
people that are going to want to work with just you, and I see
21:48
this no more true than in our own office with my baby brother,
21:51
Micah Shilanski and myself. And so people that I like to work
21:55
with are good Salts of the Earth people. You know, I often call
21:58
it my wine or beer test. Would I go get a glass of wine or beer
22:02
with this person? And if the answer is yes, cool, then they
22:04
pass my first test. Now, Micah, conversely, he does not want to
22:09
get wine or beer with anyone. He is very technical. He's very
22:12
logical, and he works really well with a certain group of
22:16
people, people that are very analytical, people that
22:20
oftentimes gravitate towards the left wing. They work really well
22:23
with Micah. They like how he talks, they like how he
22:26
operates. They like how they can see the different processes, and
22:30
they like his discipline. And if Micah was meeting with some of
22:33
our clients, would they still like him? Of course, he's my
22:35
baby brother. What's not to like? But they would not like
22:38
the formality of that. They would need somebody that was a
22:41
little bit more we broke it down a little more simply. We drew it
22:44
on crayon, on the P on the piece of paper in the conference room,
22:47
and we had real conversations. We were a little bit more
22:50
familiar with each other, and so those are two unique styles. Now
22:54
we're still going to bring you to the same conclusion. We're
22:57
just going to take two different paths to get there, and that's
23:00
what you need to remember, is that because people out there
23:03
are looking for similar services that you might offer next to
23:06
anyone else, doesn't mean they want them from somebody else.
23:10
How many times do we not switch CPAs, doctors, mechanics, all of
23:14
those different people, carpenters, contractors, because
23:18
we have somebody that we like working with, and they're all
23:21
giving. They're all, we're all, they're hustling the same
23:24
product for the most part. We're all trying to sell you our
23:27
opinion, because that's what this is. It's our opinion on how
23:30
you should manage the money that you're earning and how you
23:34
should do different things when it comes to financial planning,
23:37
and that can be hard to put a price tag on. So when you're
23:39
doing that self assessment, and you're looking at that unique
23:42
selling proposition, one of a kind, one of many. Don't get
23:46
discouraged by what makes you one of many. So sit down there
23:50
and say, okay, when a client hires me, here's what I am going
23:53
to deliver for them. This is what I said I'm going to do for
23:56
these people. And if you ever feel guilty about the money that
24:01
you're charging. Just look at any realtor contract out there,
24:04
and you will probably feel a lot better about yourself, because
24:07
all there's, I'm not even going to start. I will not start. But
24:11
you know, they're making 6% commission on leveraged money.
24:15
And just be in the middle man, and you're doing the grunt to
24:17
the work. But guess what, most people sell their houses by
24:21
using a realtor. Now I'm not saying that we should mirror
24:24
that, but I'm saying let's, anytime you feel like you're a
24:28
little bit less or charging a little bit too much money, just
24:31
go compare yourself. Just go price shop next to some other
24:33
people and be like, Oh my gosh, no, my fees are fine. So you sit
24:37
down. You say, Okay, when a client hires me, what am I going
24:40
to deliver? What am I saying that I'm going to do? I'm going
24:42
to do? I'm going to meet with them four times a year. I'm
24:43
going to meet with them three times a year. I'm going to meet
24:45
with them two times a year, one time a year. It doesn't matter
24:47
what what is your practice? What are you going to do? Great when
24:51
I meet with them. What are the areas of financial planning
24:54
we're going to cover? There are five. Sometimes they incorporate
24:57
six, because I think they're now segregating cash flow out. I'm
24:59
not really hip on all the trendy ways they're doing that. But you
25:02
just take those five basic areas of financial planning and say,
25:05
Okay, great. You know what? Every meeting, we're going to
25:08
talk about two of these, and we're going to keep rotating,
25:10
rotating, rotating through the list. And guess what, every year
25:13
you have the same conversations about different topics in
25:15
financial planning. Why? Because our income, our lives, our
25:20
careers, nothing stays stagnant. And so even though you had
25:24
already talked to the client about this, you need to bring it
25:27
up again. That's one of the reasons that we start every
25:30
single client meeting with talk to me about your cash flow. Talk
25:34
to me about your cash flow. It is after we make our
25:37
salutations. How you doing? What you up to this summer? Do you
25:39
guys get a moose this year. How sufficient, etc. Our next
25:43
conversation, when we start the meeting off, when we're getting
25:46
out of salutations and into the meeting, we say, talk to me
25:50
about your cash flow. And then what is the response? Well, it's
25:53
flowing. Great. You guys have any big expenses coming up, and
25:56
all sudden you're going to start seeing with your book of
25:58
business. A lot of similarities. People looking for Windows to
26:01
get replaced. People moving, people needing new roofs, new
26:04
drives, all of these different similarities. And all sudden,
26:07
when you get through client meetings, you're going to start
26:09
getting a Pulse Point like right now, I know how much Windows
26:11
cost in rural and to urban places in Alaska. Why? Because
26:15
we must have had 20 clients replace windows this year. And
26:20
so all sudden, you get to know these different and say, okay,
26:22
you know what, if you're thinking about getting windows
26:24
replaced, it's probably going to be X amount of dollars. And now
26:27
you start getting into them casual and clients love that.
26:31
They love that sometimes, as financial advisors, we think
26:34
that low hanging fruit isn't fulfilling. But for clients, we
26:38
are problem solvers. We have solutions to problems that they
26:44
have that were weighing on their mind, and so think about that
26:48
for a second, right? And I'm just going to use this window
26:50
one as an example. And let's say we have a client. You know, they
26:53
got a 3000 square foot house. The windows are bad. The house
26:56
is about 40 years old. They got to get something in. Okay,
26:59
great. Now, now we know what the windows are going to cost. We're
27:02
going to know who the top people are, who's had good experiences
27:05
and bad we're going to know that renewal by Anderson is going to
27:08
cost them $100,000 so let's go talk to anybody else besides
27:12
them, no matter how beautiful their binder is, when they
27:15
present you with all the different options, they're the
27:17
most costly in the state. Now we've given them a little bit of
27:21
proof of like, Oh, tell me about other people's experiences. So
27:24
we've set the gage of what things might cost. We always set
27:26
it on the high side. Always set on the high side. So that way,
27:29
when they if I say your windows are going to be $100,000 and
27:32
their window person comes in says it's 85 they're like, oh my
27:36
gosh, I saved $15,000 they didn't save any money. But those
27:40
expectations high so that when they come in, they feel better
27:44
about it. Great. You know what? We anticipated this. And here's
27:47
how we're going to allocate money. Your RMDs are coming up
27:49
for both your accounts. We're just going to accelerate it, and
27:52
we're going to kick them out of here, here and here, and then
27:54
we're going to take the rest of the money out of the trust. Now,
27:56
say we have a younger client, they can't afford the 100,000
27:59
Great. Now we know how much banks are charging on those type
28:02
of equity loans. Now we have conversations about going to get
28:05
a HELOC. Now we have conversations about payment
28:08
plans, different options. Can we do all the windows at once? We
28:11
have all of those different things. And for the client,
28:14
they're sitting there stressed about the windows in their house
28:16
and not sure how they're going to afford getting it replaced.
28:19
And you're coming in as that problem solver. You're saying,
28:23
Hey, you're going to have this experience. Most of my clients
28:26
have had this situation happen. Here's how they handled it.
28:29
Here's how we're going to handle it for you. And that low hanging
28:33
fruit takes so much burden off of the client, and we
28:37
underestimate it all of the time, all of the time, because
28:41
when they came in that office, that's the number one thing that
28:44
they were worried about. So we say, How is cash flow? And they
28:47
talk to us about the cash flow the second question right out of
28:49
their mouth. And we get, normally, we try to get this
28:52
before the meeting starts. It says, hey, just so that your
28:54
financial advisor is prepared. Are there any specific questions
28:57
you would like them to address during your meeting? And we go
29:00
out two weeks before the meeting happens, and we ask those
29:04
questions. And guess what? Clients respond. If they have
29:07
questions, they put them in here, and if they forget, and
29:10
this is the this is a beautiful consequence. So we started
29:14
asking these questions, getting them from the lines ahead of
29:16
time the advisors for appointment preppy going through
29:19
the list of questions, and now knows what their questions are
29:23
and how to address it. This is so beautiful for our client
29:27
experience, because if we were going to go in there and talk
29:30
about, let's just say their net worth report, let's just say
29:33
that they were coming in and that particular meeting, we were
29:35
going over their net worth report, but in their client
29:39
questions, they started asking about divorce counselors, and if
29:44
we knew anyone that could have an amiable separation or all of
29:47
these different things, guess what? Now our meeting is going
29:51
to be tempo way different. We're going to completely change that
29:55
meeting. And so it's a really great insight for what's bugging
29:58
your client, what's on their mind. Now, the beautiful thing
30:01
that we didn't know was going to be a result of this is that when
30:05
clients did not submit a question and we said, How's your
30:08
cash flow, then the next question that we ask is, hey, do
30:11
you have any questions for me that I can address right now?
30:13
Now we asked this right out of the gate in the meeting, right
30:16
out of the gate. Why? Because if they have a question and you're
30:20
going through your spiel, they're not listening to you.
30:25
They don't care. They are dying to ask you whatever burning
30:28
question is in their mind. Address their question first.
30:32
Problem. Solve for them first. Put your client first. So we ask
30:38
them for those questions, and when they don't have them, they
30:40
say, Hey, listen, I wanted to ask you this, but I forgot to
30:43
submit it ahead of time. So if you don't know the answer, I
30:45
totally understand if you need to get back to me. But and then
30:49
that is beautiful, because they were never caught with our pants
30:52
down. So if they asked us something that we don't have an
30:55
answer, I say, You know what? I needed a little bit read more
30:57
research on that one. But let me get back to you. They say, Oh,
30:59
absolutely, I knew I should ask ahead of time. And so it created
31:02
this cadence of clients and understanding when to submit
31:06
questions and how we were going to answer those questions, and
31:09
if they still had questions that need to come up in the meeting.
31:12
It also set the tone that we'll get back to them, and that's
31:14
okay we get to get back to people. I've never once dealt
31:17
with a professional who answered all of my questions and then I
31:20
asked him some obscurity, and then say, well, you know what?
31:23
Let me get back to you. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, what an idiot.
31:26
I can't believe you didn't know this. I'm out of here. That just
31:29
doesn't happen. That doesn't happen most of the time. People
31:31
afford you the opportunity to respond to them later as needed.
31:35
And so when we have this cadence, and we're going through
31:38
this and this expectations, now we're delivering value to the
31:41
client now. We're addressing and identifying what they needed.
31:44
And then we're moving on to our spiel, whatever it might be for
31:47
that time. So we might be going over buckets. We might be going
31:50
over a cash flow distribution. So net worth report 1099,
31:53
beneficiary reports. You know, we're gonna do this property
31:56
casualty in the spring. We might be doing all of those topics
32:00
towards the latter part of the meeting, after we have addressed
32:04
their most concerns. And so if I'm having head trash about what
32:08
I'm providing to the client and the fees I'm charging, I go
32:12
through that list and I say, okay, great. Did I meet with the
32:15
client when I said I was going to meet with them? Yes, all
32:17
right, when I had that meeting, Did I check in with them on
32:21
their questions and address all of their questions. Yes, all
32:24
right, did I also ask them questions in relation to one of
32:28
the areas of the financial plan? So I'll make my math really
32:30
easy. We'll round it up to this new, trendy six numbers of
32:33
financial planning. And let's say that you meet with a client
32:35
four times a year. Well, the beginning of the year, you're
32:38
going to do two of those topics. I recommend taxes, just so you
32:41
know, because everyone's going to be thinking about be thinking
32:43
about taxes all right? And then in the summer, it will say, the
32:45
next quarter, you're going to meet with them, and you're going
32:47
to go over to other of those topics. The next quarter, you're
32:49
going to go through the next two topics. Then the next year,
32:52
you're going to go through that again. You're a star at the
32:54
beginning of the list. You're going to go and go and go and go
32:56
and repeat that, right? So, 2222,
32:59
and you're going to continue that every single cycle to make
33:03
sure that you are reviewing all areas of their financial plan
33:07
like you said you're going to do. And so if you do those
33:10
things, if you talk to the client about their questions,
33:14
answer their questions, if you meet with them, when you say
33:17
you're going to meet with them, if you're going over different
33:21
aspects. And I strongly, strongly recommend you do not do
33:24
more than two areas of financial planning in one client meeting.
33:28
I was talking to this awesome advisor, her and I were chit
33:32
chatting one time, and we just got one of those long
33:35
conversations at a conference and going through like client
33:39
experiences. And I said, Well, how long is your appointments?
33:42
So our appointments at Shilanski and Associates are one hour time
33:46
blocked. But we came and said at 15 minutes for each
33:50
conversation, because around 45 minutes your clients are gonna
33:53
have glass guide. And she goes, Oh, I carve out two hours for
33:57
every client meeting. And I was like, Oh, my God, two hours.
34:01
What are you doing in those two hours? And there was a whole
34:04
whiteboard, there was a presentation of a binder, and
34:08
every single client meeting, they went over all areas of
34:11
their financial planning. And I was like, how does that go with
34:15
your clients? And she's like, Oh, some clients find it really
34:19
useful. They really like how thorough it is. I was like,
34:22
okay, that's some clients. What about most of your clients? And
34:26
she goes, you know, if I'm being honest, I think I lose them
34:30
about the first hour in. And I was like, Yeah, we don't. We
34:33
don't have the bandwidth for that. And if somebody has hired
34:37
a financial advisor, they also don't have the joy for going
34:41
through all of those things. And so I really recommend that you
34:44
don't take on any more than two areas of financial planning and
34:48
go through those in the meeting and then move on to the others.
34:52
Now, can clients spontaneously bring up other areas? Yes, of
34:56
course. They can do whatever the heck they want. They're the
34:59
client. But that doesn't mean that you are going, Oh, let me
35:03
do all five areas. Let me do all of these, or six, whatever you
35:07
subscribe to. So make sure you're keeping that in mind. And
35:11
if you're doing those things, then you have to be comfortable
35:14
knowing that there is going to be an exchange of value, and
35:18
that exchange of value is that you're taking care of things for
35:22
them. And as my father always said, don't get your checkbook.
35:25
Don't get in their checkbook. Don't look at them and say you
35:29
can or can't afford. Me. Your price is what your price is. Set
35:33
it out there. These are the services that you're going to
35:36
deliver. And then deliver those services. Nobody stands in line
35:40
at the grocery store and says, Hey, that person looks poor.
35:44
Let's discount the meat. That just doesn't happen. But with
35:47
financial advisors, because we are selling our opinions, we
35:51
discount it constantly, constantly. We discount it for
35:54
people, and I don't, I don't ever see other professions do
35:58
that. I don't see lawyers do it, and they're selling opinions.
36:02
Sure, it's about the law, but ours is about finance. There's
36:05
still rules and regulations with ours, but when you hire an
36:09
attorney, it's all for their opinion. And then, second of
36:12
all, when you hire a therapist, I don't see them discounting
36:16
their rates because they just got a lot of head trash about
36:20
charging you. They're charging you to be their therapist, to
36:23
listen and go through these things. So we need to go back.
36:27
If you struggle with with really delivery value, if you struggle
36:31
with the head trash that comes into knowing if you're worth
36:34
what you're charging. Write it down. Write it down and make
36:38
yourself a checklist and then say, You know what, Bob and Sue?
36:42
Did I meet with them when I said I was going to Yes? Did I ask
36:46
them if they had questions? Yes, did I review and then break it
36:50
down five areas of those financial planning and say, Did
36:53
I review this with them? Yes, this is the date. Did I review
36:57
this with them? Yes, this is the date. And go through that and
37:00
give yourself a checklist that you can look back on and say,
37:04
Yes, I did what I said I was going to do for this client. And
37:08
if you're doing you said you're going to do, then you should
37:11
have no problem charging what you said you're going to charge,
37:15
because it was their choice to hire you. They understood what
37:19
they were getting, and you are now delivering on what you said
37:23
you are going to do. TPR Nation, this is Jamie Shilanski, in an
37:27
episode of Worlds to Conquer. Go find people who share your
37:30
values and change the world.