When Staff Advisors want to Market themselves

Learning from the Greats

I write this as I'm skipping a sponsored lunch here in New Orleans at FPA NexGen Gathering, geared specifically for young advisors in their 20's and 30's.  I grabbed a piece of pecan pie and ran off to write down my thoughts on some unique conversations I've overheard.

For starters, if you're a young advisor trying to find your calling in this community - you need to be here.  This is where the conversations are that you need to be having.

Like any conference, the meat and potatoes are in the “hallway conversations,” but every once in a while, the sessions themselves create a buzz that lives on.

By far the two most popular sessions I attended were led by marketing behemoths, Taylor Schulte and Blair Duquesnay.  They held different sessions on different days, but the same conversations emerged afterwards among young advisors.

After learning from these greats, NexGen advisors are asking:

• Should I be marketing myself separate from my firm?

• Should I be tweeting?  What about?

• Does anyone even care what I have to say?

After Blair's session, it was clear I'm not the only raving fan of what Ritholtz Wealth Management has built online.  It is truly impressive.  Their advisors have figured out how to market themselves well AND be authentic while doing it (re: tweeting about parenting woes and other real stuff).  

But what is it that we truly idolize about these advisors?  Is it their freedom?  Are we all simply wanting to sit at the popular table at lunch? 

Or is there more?

Identity Crisis: Millennials Unsatisfied (again)

Being a NexGen advisor is uncharted territory.  We live in a world of financial advice where firms already have clients and owners might not need us to do business development - they need us to help maintain those the firm's existing clients while they continue to make it rain. 

So congratulations to us, we got what we asked for:  No more cold calls.  Real financial planning that changes real lives.  Hooray!!

But now that we have what we wanted, some of us are suddenly unsatisfied.  Cue the dozens of CNBC articles re: Millennials and/or Avocado Toast.

It's hard to describe the conundrum without sounding unbelievably spoiled (which I definitely am), but it's hard to feel like your individual identity isn't valuable enough to marginally help the firm you work at.  Speaking solely about the numbers here, firms naturally make more money when we're servicing the firm's clients; spending time marketing yourself in a large, well-oiled machine can have little relative ROI.  Taken another way, the feeling that some young advisors feel is that their identity as an individual doesn't matter, just the firm's.

So what we have here is an identity crisis for those who feel like they have something to offer, but no clients to really show for it, no medium to showcase it, and little empathy towards those feelings.  The firm itself is having large success and you should be grateful to have a seat on the rocket ship.

Identify the Natural Marketers

Some people are honestly just built to market themselves though - I call them "natural marketers."  If you follow them on social media, you will know everything about their lives whether you asked or not.

On the flip side, many people hate talking about themselves and are glad to ride the coat tails of a well-marketed firm.

If you're a manager, make sure you know exactly where your people fall on this spectrum.  If they are a marketer at heart, they'll find a way to be seen, either at your firm or not.

Managing the Marketers

Perhaps it's my Middle Child Syndrome, but I'm likely always going to want my name on stuff.  I'm proud of the journey I'm on and think I can help a few people along the way.  And it turns out I'm not the only one.  I've met handfuls of advisors at this very conference who want to be taken serious as their own person, but their firms see any other marketing or attempts at individualism as a waste of time.

For those advisors in large firms with (unnecessarily) strict compliance rules on blogs and twitter, not only can they feel suppressed, but they can feel downright under-valued.  Basically breaking a rule from Management 101 - value your people.

If you won't let them start a blog or tweet about their worldview, find some other way to acknowledge their identity and let them know you value it. It’s the little things that matter, and acknowledging someone’s unique value always goes a long way.

The (Sometimes) Thankless Job of Management

Ice Cream Before Dinner

They say you never realize how much your parents did for you until you have a child of your own. All the late nights, lessons taught, dollars spent, all to be appreciated in a single moment of revelation in the delivery room.

Since I'm not a father myself, it's safe to say I have no idea how much hard work and tough love my parents drove into me during childhood. Being a child is about living a perfect blend of ignorance and innocence; we want our ice cream now and find it ridiculous that we have to wait until after dinner to have some. Why is that a rule anyways?

Being a young employee is a similar phenomenon when you're hired into an established organization with bosses and procedures. On one hand, the newbie is supposed to come in and learn the firm's dynamics to fit in and help out. On the other, they're expected to shake things up by adding fresh ideas to old mentalities.

If done right, a new hire can spark real change at a firm and make everyone better. If done poorly, associates can feel trapped in a binary system where their only choices are to adapt or walk away. Management ultimately decides the fate of the cogs in that system.

Filling Big Shoes

Now that I'm wearing manager's shoes, my role is the ungraceful mixture of grounds keeping and open-mindedness. Yes there are rules and culture lines not to cross, but if we always do things the old way, we'll turn obsolete in no time.  So which rules are worth keeping and which ones do we change? After all, culture trickles down from above.

The other dynamic I picked up as a newbie manager was how hard it is to develop young talent while also doing my own job. Our clients know me as their “Financial Planner,” but the firm mostly needs me for management and daily operations duties. It turns out all of the above could be full-time jobs of their own.

With an ever-growing list of clients and fresh talent waiting to be manicured, how do you find time to do a good job and make sure new associates do well too without being labeled the dreaded micro-manager?

Sorry for Being Arrogant

When I was the fresh talent myself, the only thing I was focused on was advancing quickly. I had moved across the country for this opportunity and only gave myself one choice - succeed.  I saw some early success and wrongly assumed it was all because of me.

My entire perspective changed when I became a manager myself.

My big moment came a few years ago when our firm decided to hire our first intern. I consider myself a big brother at heart, so managing and mentoring a young person seemed like a breeze.

This was not the case.

A couple of months into gasping for air, the lessons came pouring in and everything my own manager had done for me was finally coming to light. Opening my eyes for the first time, I could see how much had been done for me over the years.

The client I gave advice to and bragged about for days? My early promotion and title change?  The raving reviews from clients where I’d done half of the work but got all the praise? All were opportunities that I would not have had access to without my own manager’s blessing.

I barged into my boss' office and said, "I finally get it. I’m sorry for being difficult all this time." (yes this really happened)

All the well-intentioned, perfectly delivered lessons on Time Management, Managing Up, and Excellence that I basically ignored all surged back to me at once. I came to this firm feeling like an eager, talented person ready to shape the world. To someone who'd been around the block, I was the kid who viewed life through the lens of a not-so-perfect blend of ignorance and innocence.

The (Sometimes) Thankless Job

Being a manager can be thankless, repeatedly. Teaching someone rules, culture, and procedures can sometimes feel like explaining the health benefits of broccoli to a kindergartner. “Thanks for the lecture. Can I go back to work now?”

But a good manager presses on because they know what’s on the other side of the struggle.  

It's amazing how much of life we can take for granted until we have perspective. And now that I’m standing on the other side, it’s my job to make sure the next generation has opportunities of their own to advance quicker than they ever imagined.

Memories & Lessons from Losing the Big Game

The Big Game

Our team was down by 1 point with 30 seconds left.  The ball was passed to me and I knew this was my moment.

I faked left then took an aggressive move to the right.  I didn't make it far though, as the defender reached his leg out and drove his knee into my thigh.  I fell down, buzzing with adrenaline as the referee called the foul. Our star player pulled me to my feet and told me "you got this."

With the pressure on, I walked to the free throw line to take my shot.  We were in "bonus" time, so if I made it I got one more shot, which would put us in the lead to win.

The pressure was even higher for me.  I was a senior on the team, and basketball was my guiding light.  If we won this tournament game, we'd win a trophy and bragging rights for life.  On top of that, my parents had recently announced they were separating from each other, so I poured all of my mixed emotions into this sport.

At the free throw line, opposing fans booed loudly to break my focus.  I took my shot and I made it. Our fans roared in hysteria as we tied the game in the final seconds.  At 17 years old, I'd never felt more alive. Feeling overconfident, I looked back at the booing fans and did an 'I can't hear you' signal with my hand to my ear.  I felt like the star in my favorite movie.

Before my next shot, our coach called a timeout to go over our plan.  In the huddle, with fans and cheerleaders chanting in anticipation, coach drew up the play.

"Alright, when Bryan makes this next shot, here's what we're going to do..."

I have no idea what play he called.  All I knew was that the entire team knew I was going to lead us to victory.  My teammates had absolute confidence in me.

I lined up to shoot, with the opposing fans booing again and our fans remaining focused.  I took the shot.

I missed.

With the score tied, we went into overtime, where the other team took the lead and we eventually lost.

The bliss I experienced moments before was followed by immense disappointment.  My trophy was gone, along with my pride.

Blind Spots in Perspective

I've replayed the ending of that game tirelessly over the years.  What if I had made the shot? I was devastated and, as a hormone-filled teenager, the lessons I took away were warped by my lack of perspective.  Now over a decade later, I'm finally realizing those traumatic moments are still valuable to me today, but in a completely different fashion.

It's kind of like re-reading a book years later, only to gather completely different takeaways from the author.  We could probably spend our lifetimes re-visiting the same experiences and drawing different conclusions, each more insightful than the last.

After re-visiting my traumatic defeat, here are the lessons I've uncovered with new perspective.

Habits Over Final Moments

The most thankless position in sports is the field-goal kicker on a football team. Most teams run well over 100 plays per game, but when the kicker misses and we lose, we often blame the kicker.  Teams duke it out for over an hour and have countless opportunities to score, but when the end of the game nears, we irrationally focus on the final moments.

I can't tell you what the 33rd play was, but I can tell you about the last few.  

When we look at final moments, we sometimes forget the early ones that led us there.  We forget about the silly fouls where we gave the ball away, but instead focus on the 'game-winning' play.

I'm reading a life-changing book called Atomic Habits (James Clear) where the premise is to focus on tiny actions that slowly compound until great things are achieved.  Too often we see the child prodigy or the tech billionaire who struck gold and think, "must be nice." When in reality, they've be training their entire lives for an undisclosed future.  Inching closer to their vision each day until they reached an inflection point.

The same works in the opposite direction too.  In personal relationships, we say that a couple broke up because one of them 'cheated,' but what were their daily actions in the months leading up to the moment of betrayal?  Poor habits compound and can lead to catastrophe.

Relating the concept to business, I've learned that small wins each day will eventually lead me to becoming a master of my craft.  And while my big moments are now centered in conference rooms instead of basketball courts, I know that daily advancements will keep me paced ahead so I’ll never need to rely on a last-minute effort.

Leadership Identity

In that tournament game, my coach let the team know he trusted me, and everyone followed suit.  From that moment forward, I chose to step into the shoes of a leader. Even though I missed, everyone considered me a leader, so I took the loss with class and encouraged my disappointed teammates to do the same.

If done right, being dubbed a 'leader' can change a young person's life.  It's a lot easier to step up when someone you look up to believes in you. As an employee, my manager has found countless ways to make me a leader in our organization, and now it's my job to do the same for the associates at our firm.

If you're a manager, it's important to help your people train intentionally each day so that, when they're ready, they can lead you to victory.  They'll never have the opportunity to succeed unless you give them the chance to fail.

Learn from Your Own Autobiography

Biographies are fascinating, but if we look at our own memories, there are dozens of gems you can learn from.  No purchase from Amazon necessary.

With new life experiences, comes perspective we can then apply to countless personal memories.  Perspectives change over time and traumatic memories can often be transformed into beautiful lessons.  Sometimes it just takes a decade to see them.