I recently had the privilege of interviewing Ron Carson. In case you haven't heard of Ron (learn more on LinkedIn), you should know a couple of important things about him. Not only is he the co-author of The Sustainable Edge — a recently released New York Times bestseller — he's also the founder and CEO of Carson Wealth, a $6 billion wealth management firm.
If that sounds like a big number, that's because it is. Caron Wealth is one of the largest wealth management firms in the U.S. In fact, it is a Top 10 Barron's Independent Wealth Advisor firm.
Naturally, Ron didn't start at the top and, just like everybody else, he started at the bottom, in a dorm room, no less!
So, you might be wondering (as I was): "How in the world do you turn a dorm room startup into a $6 billion wealth management firm?"
Obviously, this question can't be fully answered in a single article like this one, but you're going to learn some extremely valuable information that could catapult your business to the next level and beyond.
Back when Ron was in the early years of his business, he started a series of interviews called "Habits of Top Achievers." Because of these interviews, he had the good fortune of meeting a self-made billionaire and getting a valuable piece of advice from him. During the interview, Ron asked this billionaire what the secret to his success was, to which he responded: "Hire the best people you can and get the hell out of the way!"
Ron took this brilliant advice to heart and applied it in his own business. Obviously, it paid off. Here are four of Ron's best tips for hiring an incredible team and growing your business:
Tip No. 1: How to network with a low budget
Ron didn't have much money early on in his business, so one of the things he would do is look for big events that he could piggyback on. That way, he could reach a large audience that was already being assembled, tie-in his services and get exposure to a much bigger group of people.
The best part was that he didn't have to pay to bring all these people together. Somebody else was already doing that. He simply leveraged the work other people had already done to start growing his own business.
Tip No. 2: Ask for referrals
One of the things that really drove Ron's business in the beginning was asking for referrals.
Here are two shocking facts about referrals: About 50 percent of Ron's new clients come from referrals, but only about 11 percent of financial advisors ask for them. Isn't that crazy?
Ron learned to ask for referrals, but only after he had made many deposits in the "emotional bucket." This made his clients predisposed to want to give back to Ron in the form of quality referrals.
