Thank you, Heidi, and welcome everyone to this capstone session on improving the client experience and attracting ideal clients. We have had a couple of great sessions preceding this one where they were more of a webinar format where we had guest experts who were sharing their thoughts and opinions with us, all of us. And in the first few sessions, we had Ellen Rogan who you will see today. She was in February last month where we talked about improving the client experience through service, by doing your best work, by going deeper to create that relatedness that makes that difference where people simply become natural advocates for you. Ellen, of course, is a best-selling author and a coach to advisors. She has a masterclass and she might mention that later. We also had in January another related module, but pretty different in its tone and its informational value. Johnny Swift of Impact Communications was with me on that call, as was Chris Manker from Nexa Insights, Vince Crivello, Buckingham Strategic Partners, Julie Littlechild, Absolute Engagement, Joe Martin of Symmetry, and Charlie Lutz of Intercontinental Wealth Advisors. And in that session, it was all about measuring client satisfaction and gathering feedback to generate referrals or just to improve the client experience and to possibly even collect testimonials. So I, again, am Marie Swift, I'm your host, and I'll be with you for all of these segments this year. And today, our focus is really being with you and hearing from each and every one of you, hopefully, if there's time. We hope that you will raise your hands, that you will actually be on camera, come off mute, engage with us about some of the things that you've been thinking, seeing, feeling, or actually doing based on the information and insights that you had from the last couple of sessions. So as a reminder, there was some suggested homework to be ready for today. So if you think about what we covered in January, all about client feedback, client advisory boards, client survey options, there were some great insights and tools and ways of thinking about that, whether you do it in-house or you outsource it. And Johnny Swift is here today to answer your additional questions and to brainstorm new ideas and solutions with you. Also, suggested homework from the February session where Ellen Rogan was our key speaker, finding your superpowers. There was a worksheet for that and 10 questions to build deeper client prospect relationships. So we hope that you've come prepared to share. We thank all of you for responding to the survey. We know we were late getting it to you. We'll do better next time getting it to you earlier, but hopefully those of you who have been with us for a couple of these are starting to see the method to the madness. It's teach, teach, interact, teach, teach, interact. So with that, I want to get Johnny involved. We're gonna start with that January session and we're gonna look at some of the responses that we got on the survey. And Johnny, you might want to ask those people if they're here today, if they'd like to come off mute, if they'd like to interact with you. And Johnny will do that first portion of the interactive discussion. And then we're gonna turn it over to Ellen to talk about her module and to dialogue with all of you. So Johnny, take it away. Yeah, so I'm just gonna start addressing some of the survey responses that we got and I'll go ahead and call out the individual. If you want to come off mute or turn on your camera, that would be great. And we'll find out if they're here that way. Even if not, maybe I'll just address their question or concern or what they're thinking about since they can always watch the recording and it should provide value for everyone. So the first person is Kenny Bauer. So Kenny, if you're here, come off mute, turn on your camera maybe. But you said that you were- If you're first, you gotta be kidding. We can save you if you like. Nah, that's all right. Yeah, well, that's all right. It's better to go first, I always say. But so you were thinking about creating a client survey where you ask the client on an annual or every other year basis, what they value most with your relationship with them and then potentially what services that you don't provide that they would find helpful if you did provide. So what else can you tell us about what you're thinking about there? Yeah, not a survey so much because you come up with the questions, they could be leading and everything. But when you have that semi-annual quarterly meeting or something, it could be year end or not, or you have one of those less busy where the meeting went well and just, hey, it's been 12 months, it's been a year and a half, it's been two years, three years. Candidly, how's our relationship going? Obviously, a lot of people don't wanna deliver bad news. People could be non-confrontational. So you're not gonna get candid feedback all the time, but on occasion you do. And that's always, you can take that to heart. And the other one is just asking, has there been anything in the last couple of years where you thought about calling us and you didn't? What other services we can provide? And again, most people say, oh, we love you guys, you're great, or they're just, no, everything's good, we're happy. But every now and then you'll get some useful heartfelt interaction with the client. We typically always work two planners with every client. So that makes the relationship more dynamic. Typically, four people in the room and keep it personal. If you're doing personal planning, you want personal responses, unique responses from every client, then don't go with the survey or the email or something. Every now and then, if they're stumped, it's like, hey, we'll talk about this next time, but give it some thought and then we'll remind you in a few months or something. It's not scientific, it certainly doesn't necessarily bring out the bad news with rare exception, but every now and then, if nothing else, you're deepening the relationship. I think it's great to ask them in person like that. But like you said, sometimes people might be hesitant, they wanna avoid conflict. And I feel like a survey online actually allows people to have that veil a little bit. So they might feel like opening up a little bit more and broaching a potential issue or thing that you're potentially not providing that way. So then you could ultimately address it and discuss it in person. But I think surveys are great for things like that. And Nexa Insights, Chris Manker, who was on that first webinar, their Nexa survey is really good. One of the main things that it does is help uncover issues, potential issues in the relationship. It asks questions that make people think about certain things. And then it also has a bunch of questions about, like you said, the services that you're maybe not providing. So it helps you find areas of opportunity to serve your clients deeper and in more meaningful ways. And I didn't address the survey type that's typically gonna be a firm-driven thing. So I've worked for a mid-size firm, maybe 12 planners now, or I work for a larger firm with a couple dozen. So I was just thinking of what I do personally, and that's why I avoided the survey and whatnot. That's, you need all buy-off on a firm, and sometimes that just never happens. So I'd like to get whatever feedback I can as an individual planner on my individual clients to the extent I can. So. Go ahead, Ellen. Yeah, what I love about what you're doing, Kenny, is opening the door for people to tell you if something isn't going well. And that's one of the ways to, as you know, I'm assuming, because it sounds like you've been in business a while and have a successful firm, it's a way to build that loyalty. And then if there's some little thing that's bugging them, you've opened the door for them to feel comfortable telling you that. So it doesn't turn into some big thing that they're kind of stewing on or is aggravating them. Another question that is similar to that that might be helpful for some of you is, was there anything that was less than excellent? Because people don't like to tell you criticism, but if you say less than excellent, then maybe that will give them some level of comfort of sharing something that would help you do an even better job. Hmm. I'll jump in on that. When I was getting my sea legs in the business and was working alongside a very accomplished group of advisors, they would, after every meeting, send a quick email or even sometimes a paper letter, because email was just starting to come into existence then. And it would be the old, what should we start doing? What should we stop doing? And what should we continue doing? And so it was kind of free form that way, instead of check the box, rate A through F, or one through 10 on a scale. It was just more, what's top of mind? Is there something that you'd like to encourage us to do more of, to start or stop? So I think that that could be another way to do it either conversationally or just to plant the seed at the end of a meeting and just say, I've always loved hearing from you. If there's anything you wish we would start doing, stop doing, or continue doing, you don't have to answer it right now, but please, shoot me an email or give me a call. If there's anything ever that you would like to address. I see Lindy, do you wanna come off mute? If I can make a quick question, I'll shut up. And then I certainly wanna hear what Lindy said, but on the stop, start, continue, the 10 minutes that are sacrosanct in our meetings are the 10 minutes after the client leaves or the Zoom call ends. And then the two planners just have a debrief on it. And we use stop, start, continue in that planning every single time. Now I'll shut up and can't wait to hear what Lindy says. I was just gonna add that by you asking them if there's something else that you wish that we would have provided as a service, you probably do provide that and they might not know it. So by asking that question, it helps open up all the things that you do that they don't know about. That's all, thanks. Brilliant. Feel free, anyone on the call, if you want to add to the discussion, raise your hand and we'll see that you would like to come off mute. That way we won't be surprised and we won't talk over each other. Johnny, I'm not seeing the screen. Do you see any other hands raised? I'm gonna just keep in the mode that I am with my screen sharing. I assume you can see the console. Yep, no other hands right now. All right, why don't you move on to the next topic unless you feel like there's something more for Kenny. No, thank you, Kenny, for sharing. So next we're gonna move on to Mike Hunsberger. And Mike, you said you're thinking about creating a survey asking about the usefulness of your newsletter. So first of all, I'm curious about the content in your newsletter. Can you tell us a little bit more about it? Sure. So in every other week newsletter, it's related to my niche, which is military focused. So it's typically one time a month is usually something specific to financial planning. Then the other one, I also do some college planning. So a college planning article and maybe more generic kind of using a Carl Richards image, life discussion tied to finances, but less specific on, hey, do this with your money or something like that. So just, I've sent out some one-to-ones asking people, hey, what do you find useful? Do you like it? But considering trying to get more info back on what they find most useful to double down on that versus what they find less useful. That's a good idea. Well, let me just first say that I think having a regular newsletter and email outreach like that is really important just to stay top of mind with clients and prospects. Are you sending this out to your prospect list as well in addition to clients? Yeah, it's, I mean, so I just started about a little over a year ago. So it's a very small client base, but yes, it's mostly to the prospect side is where this is going. Yeah. Well, yeah, it couldn't hurt to also include a link to that survey at the end of these newsletters or just an invitation for them to reach out and respond to the email and say, hey, I'm really enjoying this section. This provides a lot of value to me. Or here's some other elements I wish that I would see in these newsletters that would provide value to me. So I think even including a little feedback option within those newsletters would be really useful. Okay, good, yeah. Let's, anything you think, you know, specifically, I mean, I like the stop, start, continue type of thing, but anything more specific you think I should specifically ask, I guess? Well, I guess you could ask what type of content they prefer, whether that's written content like blog posts or maybe some people would prefer more video content. You could, you know, even repurpose some of the content that you're writing and record short minute, you know, a few minute long videos, things like that. Some people might prefer a longer form webinar. If you want to, you know, deep dive into a topic that a lot of people are asking about, or is, you know, a hot topic in the economy or something like that, the banking issues going on right now, you could do a longer form webinar on that. So you can, you know, ask about specific topics that are really interesting to them and then what their favorite kind of content to digest is. But Ellen, I think you were going to jump in. I was going to add something that isn't exactly what you're asking, Michael, but it might be a way to build some relationships with some of your centers of influence relating to your newsletter or the information you're putting out. And that would be to possibly ask them, like, what are you seeing? What are some of the issues your clients are having and they're asking about? And what that does is engage you with them, like wanting their, authentically wanting their advice and input and wanting to share that, but then also getting a broader idea of what potential clients might be asking their other advisors about. Good point, thank you. I'll also jump in on that. It's a great opportunity to create a collaborative marketing opportunity or an educational opportunity. When I think about marketing, I think education. For fiduciary advisors, marketing is education and education is marketing. So if you've got a strategic partner who says my clients are asking about such and such, you can say, wow, that would be a great idea if we could host a webinar together and maybe an in-person event, a town hall meeting, and maybe we could even expand it to include this other subject matter expert or person who would play nicely in that circle of information and knowledge. Then you can cross-pollinate your marketing activities, get more of that, maybe get in front of some different clients who you could serve and help. Thanks. Awesome. All right, well, I don't see any hands. Anyone else wanted to chime in on this one? So I think we are gonna move on. Thank you for sharing, Michael. Sure, thanks. All right, so next up is Dana Brewer. And you said that you would likely reach out to new clients to ask them about the onboarding experience. So first of all, I'm curious if you've gotten feedback on that already. If you have concerns about the onboarding experience for you to even ask it, there must be some kind of pain point there. Let's see if Dana's here with us today. I don't believe she is. So, Marie, anything we want to address there? Yeah, if you have a concern about it or you're wondering, I think it would be a good thing to ask, to inquire either in a one-question survey, could be as easy as just sending a Google form. Now, how was the client onboarding experience for you? Please leave your comments here. Johnny, you're the master with technology. There's probably something better than Google Forms, but it could just be one question. Yeah, Google Forms are great to use, especially if you use a Gmail account or a Google Drive for a lot of your document storage and stuff like that. I mean, everyone has a Google account and it's really easy to use those Google Forms and set up rating scale, free field questions, things like that. So I don't think it could hurt to send out that link to a Google Form or a Survey Monkey to collect those responses and potentially improve the onboarding experience. I actually would love to see Dana asking that question as part of her onboarding experience. Because to me, that feels like part of the experience. Like, how'd we do? Could we have done anything better? Because then you'll get to know a client even deeper. They might say, I was really overwhelmed with this portal you sent me, blah, blah, blah. Okay, then you know that person might need a little bit more support on that or that you've got confirmation that everything's going really well. I think, especially if it's just one question, I think that would be awesome to ask them directly. I'll also add to that. I remember Chris Manker and Vince Crivello on our January call talking about, they called it the CSAT, Client Satisfaction Score, and the difference between that and a Net Promoter Score. And the CSAT is really more for like a one-off experience. Or like, if I go to the ladies' room at the New LaGuardia Airport, I get to pick the happy face, the frowny face. One is green and one is red and one is yellow. And like, tell them how it was. And I've been consistently tapping that green button because it's been fabulous. I love what they've done there and I love what they're doing at the new Kansas City Airport. So that provides more immediate feedback. So I think that immediacy, you don't really have to think about it. Like, how was that for you completing the form or using our new technology? Or what do you think of the newsletter content? Something that you'd like to see. I think that could be more of an immediate thing right after the newsletter goes out or right after the client onboarding experience. I would also mention that the tool that Julie Littlechild talked about in the January session where she had Joe Martin from Symmetry, they have just announced yesterday new technology that brings us to life. It's that collaborative agenda building experience where you send out, I'm not sure how it goes, the process goes, but I'm envisioning to the client, what would you like to collaborate on in our next meeting? So that's another great way to improve the client experience and you can just go to Julie's website, Absolute Engagement, and read about and check out the new tool that they've developed for collaborative meeting creation. All right, well, let's move on to the next one. So George Cow, I think George is here today. And so George, you didn't provide too much info here, but you said you don't have a client feedback tool or client survey set up yet, but you would like to create one. So do you wanna give us some more details on what you're thinking for? George, are you there? Looks like you're in the meeting. I'm going to see if you want to unmute. We'll give you a minute. All right, George is not coming off mute, so I guess he's not ready to share. George, if you come off mute in a minute, feel free to jump in. Let's move on to the next one, which is from David Bernstein. So you said that you are thinking about creating a client feedback tool or survey that's directed more at the client experience and not attracting clients. So my understanding there is improving the client experience with your current clients, not looking to attract new clients or increase referrals. So anything else you want to tell us about what you're thinking there? Looks like David is here. Well, David is not coming off of mute either. Marie, do you want to jump in on that in terms of creating a client survey that is more about increasing the client experience and not increasing referrals? I think that we've been touching on it already. It's how is it for you? How are we doing for you? What more could we be doing for you? I know, Ellen, you're going to touch on this when you help us revisit some of the superpowers. I think that that being in touch with the client experience I think that that being in touch, that empathy, I'm thinking about that video that you showed, Ellen, that was about the difference between sympathy and trying to fix things and having the answers versus just really being there for people. I think that any kind of that kind of inquiry is helpful, whether it's a survey, a one-off, or just verbally. And then thinking about some of what you covered, Ellen, maybe we could have you give a quick refresher on your superpowers and how that comes to play in engaging with clients and really listening at a new level. Even if you're not trying to attract new clients or increase referrals, doing this kind of client feedback tool and client survey can really help with client retention, which I know many of you enjoy working with your current client base and want to retain them and continue to provide a really good client experience. Even just doing something in-house through SurveyMonkey, Formstack, Google Forms can be really useful, really helpful and help you accomplish that initiative. So, Ellen, anything else you want to add? I'm just thinking back to when I had my practice. I think in the last intro, Marie mentioned I sold my practice about four years ago and I always knew what I wasn't doing well. Sometimes I didn't want to honestly send out that survey because it was just going to confirm that. But I think if each of you were being really honest, there's something that you know you could be better at. Stephen Covey had this question in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. What's that one thing that if you did on a consistent basis would make a significant difference in your life and I would ask you into your business? And so perhaps it's working with your team or those clients you have a good relationship with that really explores that. How could you be even better at that thing? And the good thing about the surveys as you're all talking about is if there's a blind spot out there, you don't even realize someone's upset about to bring that to the forefront. And I'm seeing some comments about the Brene Brown video about empathy versus sympathy. You guys didn't get to watch that. You could just go to YouTube and do Brene Brown empathy versus sympathy. And as I mentioned last time for me, that was one of the most impactful videos that I've ever seen because as an optimist and wanting to make things better, I was always, as she called it, silver lining things for people. And sometimes people just need you to be there for them. I'm currently watching, anyone here watching New Amsterdam? I'm watching Netflix now. And the question that the head guy, Max says all the time is how can I help? And I think that's just such a beautiful question instead of assuming we know how to help. And as advisors, it's easy to just wanna step in and advising all the time instead of being as good of a listener as maybe you know you should be and asking how can I help? Yeah. Great advice. I wanna call on Harrison Hens next. We don't know much about your survey, Harrison, but give us some more details. Yeah. Thanks for letting me share. I wanted to come on. It's been something I've been trying to implement for new products. So, after that initial meeting and that initial get to know you, wanting to spend some time making sure we're meeting expectations off of that get-go. So, let me pull it up really quick. Let's see. So, while you're screen sharing, I'm not able to share. I'm going to stop. Okay. Perfect. There you go. Well, then I'll pull it up. So, basically, you know, I included it as a follow-up email in the email saying, hey, thanks for sitting down and meeting with us today. You know, obviously, if you have any questions, reach out. But in the meantime, if you could do me a favor and just answer these quick five questions for me to help better our onboarding or our first meeting with clients. So, I've limited it to five questions. I use Precise FP. Pretty easy to go and create these. But I try to keep it simple and limited to five because there's a ton of questions I would love to ask. But, again, I know how I feel when I'm saying, hey, take five minutes to do this or ten minutes. I'm like, no, thank you. So, really focusing in on, you know, first of all, do we understand what you're looking for? Are you satisfied with, you know, information we provide on our website? Do you understand what the next steps will be? Do you have a clear understanding what the fees will charge? And then, are you satisfied with information we provided in the meeting? So, the thing I'm trying to get better, though, is I don't think the willingness to participate. I still think that there's a gap with saying, hey, can you help me, you know, better our onboarding or better our offerings by taking the survey. How do you get people to be more eager to say willing to take this? Do you set expectations in that meeting? I don't think it would be a bad idea to give people a heads-up. Hey, we're going to send you a five-question survey. It will take you less than a minute to complete. Just, you know, it would be so helpful to us if you would do us a favor to help us help you better. I might add that you might want to use words like, I'd really appreciate your input or insight. Somehow people want to add their insight or input more than they want to help you because they're like, no, you're supposed to be helping me, even though it means the same thing. You might want to try wording it a little bit differently and see if you get any better result. Great. I love that you brought up precise FP. I'd forgotten that that could be a resource for financial planners. Really nice job, though, with that. I think it looks great and functions really well. I might also do on that first question, rather than just doing yes or no, kind of doing a scale like you've done on some of the other questions. Oh, yeah. Just because, what was it again? Just do you feel like we've understood your needs? Yeah, yeah. Do you feel like we have a good understanding of what you're looking for? Maybe like a yes mostly or not quite. I mean, somewhat, you know, something along those lines. Sometimes that's not quite a binary question. Yeah, no, that's great. Thank you. I didn't notice on your survey, Harrison, is there a place for comments if they have any? Yeah, at the very bottom. Yep. Awesome. I remember, I hope some of you remember on the call with Ellen, I shared about one of the disappointing things that occurred for me as a financial planning client where I did not feel heard and I didn't feel like there was collaboration present, that they were dictating my life plan, my financial plan, and slapped down this heavy binder on the table and I just kind of recoiled. And then they proceeded to whip through it and tell me exactly what we were going to do. And there was no conversation. If I had had the opportunity to give them feedback without having to talk personally and feel like I had to confront them, which I ultimately did after I calmed down, it would have been much less threatening for me and they would have known sooner. It would have been less awkward. All right. Well, I think that is it for people that wanted to share ideas or a potential survey. So now's your chance. Raise your hand or throw up a message in the chat section if you do want to come off mute and ask some questions, share some ideas. I'm not seeing anyone, Marie, what would you like to go to next? Well, Ellen, let's have you jump in. Could you set the stage and remind us about the superpowers and the 10 questions and maybe give us some prompts to talk about that a little bit? Yeah, and I think given all that's been happening in the world where people are more anxious about things now, where people are, where all this AI stuff is like heating up every other second, there's more things people can just get online. I think advisors' abilities to be really clear about what they offer that is really unique and isn't about their products or planning process, not that you don't want to articulate that to people, but your clients or prospects, I should say, aren't going to really get the difference. I mean, everything we've talked about with surveys so far is about how do you create a deeper relationship with people? Maybe a little bit of it would be technically, but most of it's about how they feel when they're in your presence. And one of the things I love about advisors identifying their superpower is there's no competition with someone, with another advisor who isn't just like, who isn't like you, who doesn't bring something super special to the table. And I believe that everyone has something that they're uniquely awesome at, maybe better than any other advisor they know or any other advisor in the country. And the more that you can personally understand that, I think it raises your conviction level. And that's something we talked about last time is a way to build client confidence and the wow factor that people have. And it's also a way to talk about what you do with a prospect or even a client to have them know why you're different than any other advisor. So some of the things to think about with your superpower might be, what do you hear over and over from people after they've met with you? So think about that for a minute. What is a common thing that you hear? For me, when I have my practice and I'm still hearing this in the work that I'm doing, either with advisors or I do some work around helping people clear up money blocks now, as I keep hearing, I feel so much better. I lower people's anxiety levels and help them feel better about their money and their success. It's just something. And I assumed that everybody does that. I just assume, well, of course all advisors do that. All people do that. And that's not true. Other people are really good at things that I am not really good at. And so the tricky thing about identifying your superpower is sometimes it's the water we swim in and we're just blind to it because we think everybody's good at it. So what I would love to do, some of the things, let me just raise some of these questions, and then I'd love to open it up to hear from some of you what you think your superpower is and if you're open to it for me to talk through that with you a bit. But what are some of your greatest strengths that you know? What are compliments you're hearing over and over? How do people feel after they've been in your presence? What transforms for them? And how do you help in difficult times or how do you celebrate in good times? So I may have shared this last time, but I had one advisor I worked with who her superpower, she said, is when things are difficult, I'm like walking through the trenches with people and they know someone's got their back and I'm always there for them. That's pretty cool, right? I had another advisor who's in one of my courses just tell me that she doesn't just say, like sometimes, let me, sometimes I'll have advisors say, oh, I help people understand complex concepts. I make them simple. I will tell you that's awesome, but it's not a superpower because I hear it over and over. It's not that unique and you want to be careful not to insult somebody that they don't understand what you're talking about. But what this advisor said was, I am able to widen back, see a complex concept, and it's like all the Tetris pieces are falling together and I find that unique solution that really gets them where they want to be. It's like, oh, that's cool. Who wouldn't want their advisor to see this complex world of money or at least financial services have made people think it's really complicated and find this great solution for them. Yeah. So, who here would love to share, even if you don't love, would be willing to share what you think your superpower might be or what you know it is? Hey, Ellen, we have a question in the chat. It says, do you see typical links between certain superpowers and certain client segments or ideal clients? Yeah, I hadn't, and that's a really interesting question. I haven't thought about that before. I would say, I was gonna generalize in a way that isn't, I was just thinking about my own situations. I'm like, I had highly anxious people that I was, I'm like, I had highly anxious people that I worked with that they needed coming down, but possibly, you know, if someone's got like this woman, this advisor that said, she's really great at finding these solutions. She said, I love working with super high net worth people with really complicated situations. She's uniquely able to handle that. So that's a really interesting point. And I would say, I think that our superpower can show up in other parts of our lives too. So that that might be interesting to look at, but I don't think that it's necessarily directly tied. Could be. Someone was about, yeah. I'll jump in. So I'm thinking of an advisory firm in Kansas City who has, they're like a magnetic draw for engineers. Engineers just love them. And I think that their superpower started with the founder and just his ability to read them and to understand that they have a high need for a logical information and a process. So Ellen, I don't know if that's a superpower, but I think that that might be kind of putting together that skillset and that natural ability to bring those engineers where they have 800 families and most of them are engineers and their spouses. Anything there that we should think about? Well, I think that's interesting because I don't know if that's exactly how I define a superpower, but it's really, they're clearly offering something that speaks to that audience. And I would imagine that founder, if that's who he was attracting, had something that is or has uniquely able to have those people feel like they're in the right place. And so it may evidence in how they work with them, but I bet it starts with what he personally brings to the table. That makes sense. It does. And that's also something I hadn't thought about before, like how we show our superpower in ways that can show up physically. So our office, it looks different now than when I had clients here. I didn't have a sofa, I had a round table, but we had a water element. I wanted it to feel common here. Like once I realized that, so we had a water element, like at a spa. The colors in our office were very comforting. And so having clarity on that allows you to expand that. The pictures on my website at the time were very Zen-like, right? You wouldn't do that if my superpower was figuring out complex things for engineers. Like that wouldn't be an image that would make sense. I feel like someone was starting to say something before I answered that question. Who would like to jump in and just share what you're thinking your superpower is or what you know it is? I can share. And I'm sure other people will have better things to share than mine. But what I hear a lot from clients is that empathy. And recently what I hear a lot, and I figured out that I really love doing a lot, is the collaboration part with the clients and then give them the nudge. And then they say things like, thank you for reminding me, thank you for prodding me along. And I think that just comes from a place where like I have really busy lives, so I understand they have a busy life. So give them like nonjudgmental nudges for them to really implement the things that they need to do to get them into a better place financially. I think that are some of the things that I've been sharing with me more recently from the clients. Tell me a little bit more about the empathy. Like what, how does that, what do they say to you about that? You know, just thank you for not judging me. Yeah, yeah. And then, and so, you know, I have clients who is, you know, some of them are, not some of them, but one of them is a widow that just got out of, you know, very long marriage and she has never been the quote unquote, you know, non-financial spouse. So she's like, can you please take it slow with me because I really feel so overwhelmed. I don't know what a lot of terms mean and sometimes I feel quite stupid. So I, you know, reassure. And then she shared some other information with me. Honestly, I was like, you're not, you said that you're not really good at all this stuff, but you've been telling me about Roth IRA, you know? So you're clearly know more than you do, more than you let on. Yeah, so, and then I keep giving her like feelers, check-ins, you know, if I say something, you know, talk about stuff that I feel like it's a little technical, I'll take a pause, I'll ask her, how do we feel? You know, do you want me to go deeper? Do you want me to kind of pull it, you know, upwards a little bit? How do you want me to proceed? And she'll say, you know, either like, okay, I'm a little lost or no, this is good, keep going. So, yeah. Yeah, so what I'm hearing, tell me how to pronounce your first name. It's Lei, and sorry, I can't show my video today. It's okay, I see a pretty picture of you, Lei. Thank you. Here's what I'm hearing. This nonjudgmental thing is huge because people feel very self-conscious about their, they're scared about money, or they might feel embarrassed that they don't know more. And so the other part of that is that you're really appreciating where someone's at and seeing their, like with this woman, you saw their strengths, so you're acknowledging her. But I'm also wondering if part of your superpower is really appreciating where someone's at and helping them along their journey in a way that makes sense for them. Like if you were just nudging people, they would say you're a pest, but that's not it. You're helping them get to where they want to go. And so I'm making this up because I've talked to you for what, two minutes? But I could see your superpower being like, I really listen and appreciate where someone's at. I never judge anybody where they're at because everybody's on their journey. And what I'm able to uniquely do is help them get to their goals or follow their things they know they should do in a way that uniquely fits for them. I would want that. If I'm working with someone, everybody's busy. So it might be something around that. Yeah, I really appreciate it. I'm working on branding. So I will probably be able to take some of the words and just put it into practice. Thank you for sharing with us. Who else would like to jump in? Yeah, walking arm in arm. That's cool, Kevin. Yeah. So do you want to read it out loud? Oh, I could do that. I just had the mental image of walking arm in arm with someone instead of nudging them along like a dog herding cattle. Yeah, like walking by their side. It could be someone's superpower. I'm going to be with you by your side, no matter what's going on, to make sure you get where you want to go. We're going to do it in a way that feels good for you, that I'm not pushing you towards a different agenda, but also if you need, not letting you hang out in somewhere where you don't want to be. So, oh, and thank you for mentioning that because I think part of this also could be to be thinking about metaphors for what you do. And it's a super great way to explain things or perhaps a personality. I have one advisor who I work with who said she's been told she's the Ted Lasso of financial advisors. Like, and she totally is, right? So maybe there's a metaphor that explains how you do what you do or what you do. And I think it's very helpful for people because they'll remember that. And I just got the image of what you were just saying, like walking hand in hand instead of like herding you. Yeah, Carl Richards likes to use this metaphor. Advisors think that they are the creators of maps, reliable maps for people's financial life journey. But really, if you think about it, advisors are more like a Sherpa. The client has prepared for the trek. They're with you on the journey. You've got a plan and then a mountain storm comes up. What's reassuring for the client is if the advisor in this metaphor, the Sherpa says, you know, I didn't anticipate this storm, but we prepared for this and I will be with you. And I promise you that I will do everything that I am trained to do to see that we get through this storm. And so the hero in this story is not the advisor. The hero in this story is the client. We hear a lot about this story brand framework and the advisor or the professional is not the hero. The client is the hero and we're there with them. It works for all sorts of professions, helping professions, nurses, doctors, PR professionals, advisors. So Ellen, would you add anything more to that about the Sherpa? Oh, I was gonna add about metaphors. I think that if you just relax into it, you might think of a celebrity that you wanna be the metaphor or someone commonly known or a metaphor like a Sherpa. And I haven't used it directly for this, but I have friends in some of the thought leader communities that I'm in that use chat GPT to help with metaphors. What would be a good metaphor for someone who walks side-by-side to make sure they get their job done or whatever it is that you're trying to say and see what comes up. Yeah, and I used to tell myself I wasn't good at metaphors when I wrote my last book, ''Picture Prosperity'' with Lisa King, who's my co-author. Lisa's great at metaphors. I kept going, oh, Lisa's great at metaphors. I'm not, I'm not. I stopped telling myself I wasn't good at metaphors and guess what? I got better at metaphors, six practice. So if you think you're not, I bet you are, but if you're really think you're not, then go use some AI and I'll help you with that. Other people wanna share their superpower or some of the things you're thinking about with this, metaphors you've used. I'll add something. Just selfishly, I would like to know what you think. I think what my superpower, Ellen, is people tell me that I have a calming presence in the middle of chaos, and that that gives them hope and inspiration that they can stay calm and not lose their cool. So grace under pressure, is that my superpower? Well, I will tell you my experience of you is you also help people be ready and organized. When we did the last webinar, I've never had anybody help me get as ready as you helped me get without nudging me. There was a reminder like, Ellen, your slides are due this day. You had everything set for me. You made it easy for me to get you what you needed and to get things prepared for NAPFA in just such a beautiful way. So it's not dissimilar to that. And you do have a calming presence. I know for today, you're feeling a little bit less than excellent. And last time we had to do our workshop when you were not in your home, in your regular office, and you were fairly unflappable with all that. Like you did what needed to be done. So that all makes sense. Yeah, and thank you about the preparedness. If only all of our guest presenters actually took the prompts and accepted the support, right? So is anybody on the line hearing anything about yourself as we go deeper into this and we think about superpowers and how we can be doing our best work by being our best selves? Well, thank you, Kevin. I'm not gonna read that out loud or I might weep or cry or blush or something. It just went to you. It wasn't a public. Oh, thank you. Oh, that was very kind of you, Kevin. Thank you. I'm gonna treasure that comment. Let me take this kind of pause as someone's thinking if they want to share with the group. Is some of the ways to get more clear on this is to ask people. Because if I hadn't explored this or looked at it in a certain way, I might've thought, oh, I'm optimistic, because I am. And I would've thought that's one of my greatest strengths, but that's not necessarily what ended up having me be my superpower in business. And so ask, ask your team, ask your team what their superpower is or share with them what you see it might be. Ask your friends, ask somebody close to you, ask a good client. Yeah, Lindy. My superpower is wanting to help people and it makes me uncomfortable. I know I'm not the only person in this webinar, so I don't want it to be the Lindy Show. I just wanna encourage everybody to participate. But I have a question about if this is a superpower or not. One of the things that my family and friends joke about is that I help people get stuff done. And another is that I ask really good questions. How would you frame that? Okay, so the first one, people getting done, the difference I heard between those two, which are both helpful for clients, is that one's a little bit more clear, the benefit for the client. Like, how does that help them? But if asking really good questions, okay, I'm your client, Lindy, you ask me good questions. How does that help me? Like, in what way is that something that makes things better for me or our relationship? I guess it helps them discover more about themselves and their goals and next steps for them and their values. And so it's getting to the three questions deep, et cetera, so they have better self-knowing. And I'm not telling them what to do, but we are discovering it together because I'm helping them think about it in a deeper way, or even asking the hard questions that they maybe didn't want to address, putting them in a risky situation in their brain in a safe environment, preventing the risk down the road by thinking about it now. So the first part, the part about this discovery where I'm seeing is, okay, being a planner, you want to create a good plan. And in the CFP, we were taught, like, there's these five areas or whatever, but it's not very bottom-up, it's like top-down. But what I'm hearing you do is that you're able to ask the appropriate questions for the person to help them discover what they really, really want to accomplish. So you get through that layer of like, send my kids to college and make sure I can retire, which are all important, but that's not somebody's real why. Like, why do they care about sending their kids to college? Or what are they going to do when they retire? And like, why is that important? And so I really think there's something, and if people are saying you asked really good questions, so your family says that, how does that help them? Like, why is it have them think more? Does it have them feel better about themselves? Like, what does that do when you ask really good questions for other people too? Yeah, I'll noodle on that, thanks. Yeah, and I think the important thing is you're expressing this to people, potential clients or COIs, it's making sure it's that marketing, like what's in it for them. Like, why would they care? Why would they care you're a good question ask? So that you can get to really the benefit for them and how you're uniquely able to do that. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, Therese commented in the chat, just trying to use this information to create better headlines for my website. So just again, to echo everything that's been said, once you figure out your superpower and can really articulate it, don't be afraid to put it on your website out in marketing materials, work it into your messaging and use it as part of your value proposition. For sure. And as you're meeting with COIs, like why would they refer someone to you versus someone else that helps them identify who that ideal client is for you? And that was the other thing we talked about last time is to be able to create wow experiences is working with the right person. If I had a firm full of engineer clients, I never could have developed a wow experience for them because that was not my ideal client, right? And so the more, and I believe the more you get clear on who your ideal client is, the easier it is to attract them, the easier it is to articulate to COIs. And it's not just how sometimes we think about it, oh, pre-retirees that have a million plus in assets, blah, blah, blah. Maybe that's part of it that you need to do to be efficient in your firm, but like, what are they really like? What do they care about? What's important to them? What do they value? What do they expect from you? Those are the kinds of questions that I think are really helpful in terms of thinking about who is that ideal client. I mean, I imagine each of you has worked with somebody at some point in your career that's less than ideal. Donald, were you going to say something? I saw your hand go up. Or were you just waving at me? I see Donald Senior had his hand up. No. Okay, maybe he's waving to somebody else. I'll wave back. Hi, Don. Good to see you. There's another thing here in the chat. I think everybody can see this, so we should read this. So Kevin says, Therese, I'm not sure whether this was meant for everyone, but I'd love to have you chime in nonetheless. I'd recommend building a story brand by Donald Miller to anyone building a website. I did the exercises at the end of each chapter. They were straight onto my website. That went straight onto my website. And the exercises, I guess, is how I'm reading this. Let's see, another couple of good books on copywriting are How to Write Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards and Copywriting Secrets by Jim Edwards. Finally, the book Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. It's wonderful. I agree. And Ellen, I think you're also a fan of Robert Cialdini and the art of influence and persuasion. Yeah, we talked about it a bit last time, I think. Yes, we did. Yeah, and there's just some beautiful main points in that if we're, I just taught a session about using generosity as a way to build your practice and building a generosity-based marketing plan. And it's slightly off topic here, but since Lindy said she likes to help people, we'll use help as the theme here. And what he talks about is this idea, one of his, I think it's seven things in his things for influence, one of them is the law of reciprocity. And it's kind of old school financial services to say like, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, you help me and I'll help you. But what he's not really saying that directly, but he's saying is when you're out there doing good things for people, you build up what my friend Deborah Poneman calls relationship capital. So if I'm constantly helping Marie, I'm getting her on a podcast, I'm recommending she speaks, I'm referring clients to her because I think she's really great at what she does. I'm not doing it so she helps me. And if I'm constantly doing that because I know she's doing good work, if I had an ask for Marie, don't you think she'd help me? Yeah, yeah. So it's out, it's in, that is one of my favorite marketing strategies is to give what you wanna get. So if all of you want more referrals, my question to you is who are you giving referrals to? And who are you giving referrals to that you don't necessarily expect anything in return? I had a mortgage broker I used to refer a lot of people to, she was great at what she does. She still is. She's great at what she does. She took beautiful care of my clients. She never sent me a good referral back. I didn't care, I didn't care because she did such a good job. And if she didn't send me someone back, all of a sudden I get something from a therapist I hadn't talked to in five years. So I believe what goes around comes around and it's just not necessarily from the same person. And that is a Dr. Cialdini kind of concept. Yeah, that reciprocity and the way you stated it is so beautiful, Ellen, because it's not a, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, but it does come around that law of karma. We attract what we put out into the universe, into the world. Generosity is a big thing. Kindness comes back. I just have to show this because we're talking about it. Generosity precedes prosperity. I just absolutely believe that it goes ahead of it versus as a result of it, so. Well, as the moderator of this wonderful series, I just want to say we do have another 14 minutes. And so one of the things that I appreciate about this today and last time with you, Ellen, particularly is that there's time just to breathe. And we did the exercise at the beginning of last session, which was just a moment to arrive. And so I've been doing that and I feel better. I'm under a lot of stress right now. My mother is going through some issues, you know, I'm in the sandwich generation. And it just feels good to rest and breathe in a community of friends, right? Where we have a safe space to talk about everything from surveys to superpowers. So it's really great that we have everyone here today. And I want to give you another moment to think about, is there anything that you wish you had asked Ellen or Johnny or me today, that when you hang up in 13 minutes that you will regret or you'll say, huh, I wish I'd come off mute or said that or contributed that. Is there something that anyone would like to offer not to drag out the call, but just to give you the opportunity to reflect and to share. And then if not, then maybe Ellen, you could offer anything else, maybe the 10 questions or something there that you want to touch on, but let's just give people a moment. Do we see any hands or any comments? Don't leave this call with regrets. Yeah. I think that- Go ahead. Hi, Mary. Lydia, you were talking about something about your personality and what you're doing with your business. Can you give me a little more reference to that, to what you said? Did she hear me? Can you hear me? Lindy. Is it Lydia? Lindy. Lindy, I'm sorry. I apologize. I'm old school. Go ahead. The question is to what am I doing with my business? Is that what it is? I don't know. Something you said about talking with people and how easy it is or how you- Asking difficult questions. I have quite a few business owners and people who are sort of in transition. And so for them to find, some of them feel like they're sort of an heir and they're trying to figure out where they want to land, whether it's switching jobs or buying a house. And so to ask them questions about, well, how... I live in Minnesota. Do you really want to shovel the snow? Or what do you want that business to look? I don't know. I'm just going deeper and trying to find out from a value statement, from a day-to-day, from a service perspective, what are they wanting to provide or their life to look like? And then too, as people are getting older, to create that understanding of flipping from saving to living off their assets and what are they going to actually do in order to have the best quality of life? And I don't have a rote question. It's just things float to the top. And I used to be afraid to ask questions and I just embraced it. And I just ask them because if I'm thinking it, they probably, it's probably important. Not because I'm so amazing, but because they might be thinking it too and afraid to just address it. But you work with, you say you work with older people or corporate people? I work with a lot. It's all over the place. My niche is creatives, but I have people from 22 to 70 in all stages, which is fun. How long have you been doing this? I've been in the industry since 2002. Okay, so you're just starting. Right. So everything and anything you say right now is very good because you're going to find you're going to be sharper razor later on with what you're doing. Don't worry for everything around you. It's going on with other people. It's you, the person that needs to sign, feel good about yourself and being with the right people. Yeah. And I think that by asking these questions, my clients know that their opinion and their values matter and they feel listened to. And it's, I leave meetings usually invigorated because they've had a good experience and they feel they know that they are valuable and that we are building something just for them. Well, I think working with Marie is a good group. She knows me. I'm not going to go in about myself, but working with her is a good leader for you to pick up more for yourself. So you can build, feel more, how would you say, not incredible, but just more courageable so that you can do things. There's such a word. Courageable. I like that. Yeah, I like that word. I like that word, Marie. Courageable. Courageable because you're going to, thanks. You're good. It just takes time. It just takes time. Wendy, does Wendy want to come into the conversation? Jump in, Wendy. Or is it Wend? Oh no, it's Wendy. Yeah, thank you so much. And Lindy, I thought those were great comments and I can tell that you really, you connect with people in a really human way, I think, which is fantastic. So, and Vida, I don't know if that's how I say your name, but I love your logo there with the M, with the S, the dollar sign. That's great. But my question was for Ellen actually, and it was just around superpowers and we're about to launch a 360 feedback process at my firm. And I was going, you gave me the idea of putting, what is this person's superpower in the survey? And I'm just wondering if you've ever seen anyone do that kind of thing with that tool? Because I think it'd be so fantastic to have people weighing in from all different levels on each other's superpowers. But I wondered if you had any experience with that. No, it's a great idea. And you may not need to, or you may want to just give a little explanation of superpower. Like what's something about them that is unique, that's different than what's one of a kind or something. So some of the questions that I've asked, let me just briefly go through these in the five question inventory that we sent out is, what three words would you use to describe me? What do you think I'm really good at that's not typical or rare to find? That might be a superpower question. After we've had a conversation, how do you feel? In what ways have I made a positive difference in your life? And if you were to tell someone else about me, what would you say is one of a kind? So they might get right away with superpower, but maybe you want to add a little bit more color around it. I think it's a really beautiful way to get more input on that, Wendy. Thank you for that reminder about how to ask those questions in a way that really makes sense. Thank you. And I feel like on some other webinar I've given you this feedback, but you always have, like, it's weird on a Zoom because you're not in the same room, but you're like that person in the front row of a speech that's shaking their head and smiling. You have such a, like, it's so nice to have you on these calls. And I feel like I gave you that feedback once before. If I didn't, it feels familiar. You did, it was nice. Thank you so much. It's consistent then. It wasn't just a one-off. So thank you for that. Good to see you again. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Last call for anyone who wants to interact with any of us, say something for the record, leave something for posterity. Otherwise, I'll give a few housekeeping notes. I'll give you a minute to think about what you might want to add. Just raise your hand. And while they're thinking about that, Marie, can I just mention one thing really quickly? For some of you that are enjoying this kind of conversation, I'm running a masterclass that starts May 9th and it's called the Extraordinary Advisor Masterclass. It's seven sessions. And it's really for people that want to increase their impact, their influence, and their income. We go deep into some of the things we've talked about and there's all sorts of cool advisors that you're going to get to meet. And if that's something you're interested in, you could go to, I can show, let me flip this slide really quickly, hopefully. Okay, this is not going to be smooth with my Zoom sharing here. Hold on. Sorry, I'm going through these quickly so I can get to the right slide. Okay. You can just open that QR code or go to ellenrogan.com forward slash masterclass 2023 or just link with me on LinkedIn. Take a snapshot with your phone. If you've got to get that QR code, if this is appealing to you. Yeah, I would love to have you there if it's the right thing. It's not for everyone, but the people it's there for have had extraordinary results. Probably my sixth time I'm doing it and people are having more fun and making more money and a bigger impact. So. Well, Ellen, I'm going to ask you to stop sharing so that I can put back up my slides here. Hopefully you see these. All right. So you should be seeing my interactive discussion slide. Just a couple of reminders as we look towards the summer. This is March. You have a slight break because we know a lot of you are going to be involved in the Spring NAFA Conference. So we wanted to give you the ability to take a breath after this first segment in the spring about building trust and that client rapport and creating that authentic brand advocacy in your community. So in the summer, you see we've got June 1 and June 29, and then also July 27. So that was the best we could do to kind of bunch up the dates. Everything is still at 3 p.m. Eastern. You can see that the next segment is about earning credibility, building trust in a digital world. And I think it really is a nice springboard for what we've been talking about here in the January, February, March period. So we have some advisors who will be joining us. Johnny and I will be anchoring, but we've invited several advisors that we know who are doing a really good job on magnetic marketing and niche marketing and building ideal client personas and being hyper relevant. So you can see in that June 1 session, we have Sam Brownell from Stratus Wealth Partners and James Bogart from Bogart Wealth. And then at the end of June on the 29th, we're gonna be thinking more about going even deeper with niche marketing and specific niching and how that can multiply results. We have Steve Weinberger from HCR Wealth and Matt Mondew from Blue Chip Partners. And then we will have a capstone much like this where we will ask you to think about something or to do a little homework and then to come back and dialogue with us. And then looking towards the fall, everybody knows and loves Bob Veres and he will be with me for the three sessions where we're talking about the art of influence. So we're gonna revisit some of these key messages from Robert Cialdini and what I call conversational selling skills where sell is not a four letter word. It can actually be a part of who you are that doesn't feel slimy or sleazy. So Bob will be with me for all three of these sessions, September 28th, the art of conversation and client conversion, October 26th, presence, charisma, gravitas, and then our capstone where we'll have interactive coaching on November 20th. With that, we are two minutes ahead of time. So I believe we could just say goodbye for now. Wish you well. Thank you, Ellen. Thank you, Johnny. Thank you everyone for contributing. We appreciate you. We look forward to seeing you in the spring series and have a great spring conference. All of you are going to, I believe it's San Diego for NAFTA spring conference. Take care, be well.

Ellen Rogan

financial advisor

superpower

client feedback

empathy

building relationships

competitive advantage

self-awareness

branding

tailoring services

masterclass