Financial Advisor Success Podcast Archives

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 436th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Nicole Gopoian Wirick. Nicole is the president of Prosperity Wealth Strategies, an RIA based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, that oversees $70 million in assets under management for 40 client households.

What's unique about Nicole, though, is how she hired a branding consultant soon after going out on her own as an independent advisory firm to help her create a unique brand identity that reflects her approach to financial planning, has helped her attract and connect with clients who fit her ideal client persona, and now serves as the filter for evaluating whether any marketing strategy if even worth her time to pursue.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how the branding consultant encouraged Nicole to first take a step back and explore big picture questions for what she wanted from her firm (such as what an ideal day would look like for her) rather than just starting with the characteristics of her target clientele, how Nicole (based on the results from this exercise) then created her "brand DNA" (which as Nicole puts it is "compassionate conversations coupled with planning tenacity") that serves as the bedrock of both her business plan and her marketing plan including  social media and even speaking engagements (and helps her save time by avoiding marketing tactics that don't fit with her brand identity), and how Nicole incorporates her branding and the language on her website to attract prospects who fit her ideal client persona of those with $2 million to $10 million in investible assets and an interest in going deep on complex financial planning issues (particularly around estate planning, legacy planning, and philanthropy).

We also talk about how Nicole, from the early days of her firm (when she had fewer clients and more time) proactively reached out to centers of influence (such as attorneys and CPAs) and tapped into her own personal network to build connections that have led to client introductions over time (even though most didn't produce immediate results), how Nicole's planning focus on going deep into estate and legacy planning issues has built a high level of trust with her clients that has led to subsequent referrals to other members of the same family, and why despite all the branding and marketing effort, Nicole does not intend for her website to be the first interaction that brings a prospect in to her… but is crucial nonetheless because even referrals still want to validate by checking her out online to affirm that she would be a good fit for them after being introduced.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Nicole shares how she is evolving her branding to be less founder-centric as she seeks to expand her advisory team beyond herself, how Nicole uses executive summaries (presented to clients in PowerPoint) to explain financial planning recommendations (leaving the output of planning software as an appendix for the few clients who do want to dig into the numbers), and how Nicole handled the ups and downs of breaking away from a larger advisory firm to start her own from scratch, including how she found motivation from being active (for example, by successfully onboarding a new client) rather than just tracking her marketing efforts alone.

So, whether you're interested in learning about hiring an external branding consultant to shape an advisory firm's brand, putting a firm's "brand DNA" into practice in marketing, or how going deep into estate and legacy planning can help build a high level of trust with clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Nicole Gopoian Wirick.

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 435th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Gideon Drucker. Gideon is the CEO of Drucker Wealth, a hybrid advisory firm based in New York City, that oversees approximately $1 billion in assets under management for 800 client households.

What's unique about Gideon, though, is how he initiated a "Wealth Builder" offering serving high-income next-generation clients (within a firm that historically had worked primarily with retirees) that in just five years has added 275 high-value client households and has become the primary growth driver for Drucker Wealth.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Gideon shaped his firm's staffing to have a higher ratio of advisors to operations staff to serve clients on the Wealth Builder side (given the often extensive planning needs of mid-career professionals) compared to the firm's retired clients (whose plans often stay relatively stable but who need regular portfolio withdrawals), how Gideon ensured that his firm's Wealth Builder clients would be profitable by instituting a $5,000 minimum fee for new clients (while recognizing that the fast pace that many of these clients add to their assets means they will likely generate significantly higher fees from assets under management over time), and how Gideon linked the announcement of a more gradual fee minimum increase for current firm clients to the value that the firm was now providing them (finding that clients who were already taking full advantage of the firm's services were more likely to stay with the firm's new higher fees than those who were less engaged).

We also talk about how Gideon's early years in the industry cold-calling prospective clients inspired him to pursue a content-based approach to marketing that would be more sustainable in the long term (both for the business and for his own wellbeing), how Gideon produced a blog, book, and newsletter targeted at his ideal target client of high-income working-age professionals to build an audience and awareness of his firm, and how Gideon conducts regular webinars (with many attendees sourced from consumers of his written content) that provide education on both finance-related topics and his firm's planning process (and typically result in 10–15 introductory calls with his firm after each event).

And be certain to the end, where Gideon shares how the growth of his firm's Wealth Builder division (in terms of clients and services offered) led existing clients to make introductions that led to 50 introductory meetings last year (despite him not actively soliciting referrals), the importance Gideon puts on making the best possible hires for new positions (and how he approached the challenge of letting go employees who aren't a good fit for the firm), and how Gideon has thrived in the transition from being a primarily client-facing advisor to taking on leadership and business management roles (seeking to turn over more of the day-to-day client work to his advisor team).

So, whether you're interested in learning about building a sustainable next-gen service offering, effectively setting (and communicating) a minimum fee to ensure profitability, or marketing through content creation, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Gideon Drucker.

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 433rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Cameron Passmore. Cameron is the CEO of PWL Capital, a wealth management firm based in Ottawa, Canada, that oversees just over $5 billion Canadian dollars (or approximately $3.5B U.S. dollars) in assets under management for 2,400 client households.

What's unique about Cameron, though, is how, after 10X'ing the firm's revenue (from $2 million to more than $20 million) over the course of the past decade as an independent, his firm decided that combining with a larger financial conglomerate would provide the best opportunity for the business to achieve its next round of 10X growth in the decade to come.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Cameron's firm experienced significant client and revenue growth by serving the CEO and employees of e-commerce platform Shopify early on in its growth path (eventually leading to massive AUM growth after the company's IPO), how Cameron's firm managed to generate over 1,100 inbound leads resulting in more than 200 new clients in just the past year driven primarily by its thought leadership content (including the Rational Reminder podcast, a YouTube channel, and white papers), and how Cameron's planning focus and passive investing approach has helped his firm stand out amongst the bank- and brokerage-dominated Canadian financial advice market.

We also talk about how Cameron's firm (after achieving its 10X revenue growth) conducted an exercise to envision ways to achieve its next round of 10X growth to be what he calls a “company of consequence” that could help change the landscape for financial advice in Canada, why Cameron turned down acquisition interest from firms that were primarily focused on the financial incentives of M&A but ultimately took a deal that was more focused on the opportunity to grow the impact of his business, and how Cameron's firm ultimately decided to sell to the U.S.-based business and financial services conglomerate OneDigital to provide the financial backing and corporate connections to support PWL Capital in its next growth phase (including through acquisitions of its own with other like-minded firms in Canada).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Cameron shares why his firm invested heavily into internal data management (including investing in an institutional quality “data lake”) not to reduce its technology costs, but rather to create tools that reflect the firm's planning approach and the client experience it wants to create, how Cameron's firm leverages planning teams consisting of a lead advisor, financial planning associate, and operations specialist (with Cameron and other firm leaders available to assist when necessary) that can serve 175 client households and generate approximately $1 to $1.5 million U.S. dollars in revenue, and how Cameron's willingness to just meet and get to know other advisors, businesses, and content creators, without having a specific goal in mind, has led to multiple serendipitous business opportunities throughout his career.

So, whether you're interested in learning about engaging on a new growth path after already achieving significant growth as a firm, investing in internal data management capabilities, or the process of evaluating acquisition offers, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Cameron Passmore.

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