Page 25 - Investment Advisor January/February 2022
P. 25
purpose-driven leaders. Business has their firm and know they need to hire some other strategies that really lever-
incredible power to do good things in more people or get more efficient and age your strengths.
the world, to make good change, to give work on the operations side of things —
back to communities, to take care of both systems and processes. You say that advisors should give
our planet. Business is this huge force, But they know they need some help to clients behavioral coaching. How do
which can be used for negative purposes get beyond that plateau. they deal with a client who has the
or for good. attitude, “It’s my money, and I’ll do with
What are advisors’ main problem areas? it what I want”?
Describe the intent of the advisors you A lot of it is practice management and We [suggest that] the advisor find out
coach, please. relationships. We work a lot on business what’s important to the client and then, in
I work with people who say: “I’m going development and marketing too. What every conversation, connect back to that as
to make sure that my business is diverse our coaches don’t get into is financial why they should or shouldn’t do something.
and inclusive and is taking care of the planning or advice. We refer that out
planet. We’re going to make our indus- to specialty coaches if someone needs What is financial advisors’ biggest
try better; we’re going to give back to help there. challenge today?
the community.” Staying relevant and thinking ahead.
The advisors I work with generally In the practice management area, is Things are changing so quickly in our
want to make a positive impact on the there one issue that keeps cropping up industry — client demographics, tech-
industry, on clients, on the world. So we over and over? nology [and so on]. You’ve got to be
work on that in addition to the general Our No. 1 topic is about people — hiring thinking three, four, five steps ahead.
practice-management areas. and managing them. Advisors are really We refer to this as the “adaptability
great at working with clients; they’re quotient” — the advisor’s AQ.
Why is B Corporation certification for the not always great about being a manager
advisors you coach important to you? and leader. What’s driving all that change?
It says that the business is being run the We sometimes refer to them as “an At the end of the day, it’s customer
right way, is transparent about what it’s accidental CEO.” They got in the busi- expectations. Consumers are expecting
doing and is committed to using busi- ness to be an advisor, not a CEO. more out of their professional advisors.
ness as a force for good. They’re so used to technology in all
Tell me about how you help advisors areas of their life that they expect a
Getting back to coaching advisors who with marketing. faster response time from their advisors
are, as you say, “outside the historical We see a lot of really generic marketing than they were used to.
norm,” do you coach many advisors and messaging. So we help advisors be
of color? clear on why they’re in the business, You won a 2021 Investment Advisor
I do. They’re awesome to work with and what they love doing for clients and Group LUMINARIES award in the
are some of my favorites. what their value proposition is. It’s got category of diversity and inclusion. Why
to be something that’s really meaningful do you believe industry recognition
Overall, do you and your team coach and emotional — something that con- programs are important?
many female advisors? nects with clients. They shine a spotlight on the cool things
I would say the [proportion] is right in We help them get clarity on that and that people in our industry are doing
line with the industry, where women are then talk about the marketing and busi- and make them a little bit more visible
a much smaller percentage of advisors. ness development strategies that are to everyone.
Women tend to be more coachable and going to work best for them.
are more open to coaching. Your bio says that off-hours you train in
What types of marketing approaches? muay thai. What’s that?
What do advisors need help with most? Just because there are a ton of different Kickboxing. Most kickboxing is punches
Generally, people come to us when strategies out there doesn’t mean you and kicking. Muay is sometimes called
they’ve been successful to a point and should do them all. If you’re not good “the science of eight limbs” because it
then hit a plateau. at public speaking, for example, and also includes the use of elbows and knees.
Either they’re not growing as fast as you don’t like doing it, then for good- It’s very powerful and great for self-
they want to, or they hit a bottleneck in ness’ sake, don’t do that. We’ll work on defense. It can hurt!
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 23