THE ULTIMATE ADVISOR PODCAST

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EPISODE 80:

Level Up Your Speaking With Joel Weldon

In this episode of The Ultimate Advisor Podcast, Brittany sits down with hall of fame speaker, Joel Weldon. In today’s episode, we talk about the ways you can take your one on one communication skills with your prospects, clients, and team to an even higher level. We discuss the importance of getting connected with your audience and clearly identifying their needs. We go over implementing a simple, yet powerful speaking system in your practice like Joel’s “Ultimate Speaking System”, that will allow you to clearly summarize and express your message that addresses your ideal clients wants and needs while saving you time, stress, and money. So, push PLAY and join us as we dive into gaining confidence and results by leveling up speaking and ultimately your business!

 

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Joel Weldon

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Read The Transcript Of The Episode:

 

Speaker 1:

This is the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, the podcast for financial advisors who want to create a thriving, successful, and scalable practice. Each week we'll uncover the ways that you can improve your referrals, your team, your marketing, and your business operations. Helping you to level up your advising practice, bring in more assets, and create the advising practice that you've dreamed of. You'll be joined by your hosts, Bryan Sweet, who has more than half a billion dollars in assets under management, Brittany Anderson, the driving force for advisors looking to hire, improve their operations and company culture. And Draye Redfern, who can help you systematize and automate your practice's marketing to effortlessly attract new clients. So, what do you say? Let's jump into another amazing episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Hello, Brittany Anderson, back here with you today with our Ultimate Advisor Podcast. And as you know, if you've been following us on this journey, part of our overall intention for this podcast for you is to help you to grow your business smarter and not harder, which is exactly what speaking can do for you. So, imagine you get a phone call from a center of influence of yours requesting that you speak on a Zoom call tomorrow to an audience of 75 of your ideal prospects. What would you say?

 What about if you had an opportunity to be on a virtual panel tomorrow on retirement planning for a small group of five business owners, what would you say then? Hopefully you would say yes, but would you be prepared? Would you be confident in your results? Joyful about this wonderful opportunity? Hopefully, again, you would say yes to all of those. Using speaking to grow your practice is a wonderful skill to possess and to keep improving.

 I know from my personal experience and from the experience of many, many advisors, how valuable speaking effectively can be for you. As good as you are now, you can always get even better. That's why four years ago, Bryan Sweet and I hired Joel Weldon as our personal speaking skills coach. We've used his Ultimate Speaking system with amazing results. And I can tell you, with full transparency and honesty here, that Joel is one of the sole reasons I have gained confidence on a stage, and gained killer results from the presentations that I've done.

 So I could go on and on about Joel personally, but I can tell you as a testament to his system and his skills, he has made a light-years worth of difference for me personally. Joel is a hall of fame professional speaker with over 3000 paid talks and has personally coached and critiqued 10,000 speakers. You heard me right, 10,000. I asked Joel, "With all that you've accomplished as a professional speaker and speaking skills coach, how old are you?"

 Joel smiled and said, "Brittany, let's put it this way. My social security number is five." Yes, Joel has been around a long time, but he's built his career and his speaking skills coaching on timeless truths that simply don't change, even as the world around us is changing. He's also extremely creative. His business card is a heavy eight-ounce can that says, "Success comes in cans, not in cannots." I actually have one on my desk and on my dresser at home, so that's truth be told.

 My can sits right on my desk, just like the over half a million people that have that can sitting on their desks. Yes, half a million. It's a constant reminder of what I can do. We've asked Joel to discuss with you today, how you can take your one-on-one communication skills with your clients to an even higher level, as well as your speaking skills on video, podcasts, webinars, virtual calls, Lord knows we have enough of those these days, and face-to-face meetings when they return. Joel's tagline is "Speaking made simple: how to be an even better speaker." Joel, welcome.
 

Joel Weldon:

Well, thank you, Brittany. It's so good to be here with the Ultimate Advisor Podcast.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Oh, we are so excited to have you, Joel. So I know you have a ton of value to offer the audience. So I'm going to get right in and I'm going to ask you your first question. Why is it so important for an advisor to be able to speak in a powerful and succinct way?
 

Joel Weldon:

Oh boy. What a great question. Thank you, Brittany. Well, you said powerful and succinct way. And if you think about that, that's all you do all day long as an advisor. You are constantly communicating. And let me just clear up a misconception. If you were to Google "speech coach", a speech coach is usually somebody who comes from a theatrical background that teaches speakers how to use their body, their voice, gestures, movement to create a better performance. If that's what speech coaching is, that's not anything like what I do.

 It has nothing to do with what I do, and what I can do for you in this podcast. So let me define what really communicating is. It's connecting with your audience in a way that they can understand and talking to them about what they need, not what you need. That's it. And you do that all day long. As an advisor, you're either talking to existing clients about their investments, their future, and their financial needs, or you're talking to team members, or you're talking to potential clients.

 And all of that communications falls into what I've been working with Bryan and Brittany on for these last four years. How do you communicate effectively what is in your thinking to the minds and hearts of those that you're talking to. And you do that all day long. And the same concepts apply, whether you're on a big stage in front of a thousand people or in your office sitting across from a client on an annual review. They are both presentations and they both have to start somewhere and end somewhere.

 So, why is this so important? Because most of the time, successful financial advisors have spent very little time preparing their communication skills and perfecting them and getting them better. So, a couple of basic beliefs about the system. And I love the idea that your the ultimate podcast, because I've created the ultimate speaking system. And the key word is "system". Everything you have in your practice is systematized. If you onboard a new client, there's a system. What you do first, what you do second, what you do third.

 You don't reinvent the wheel every time. Well, that's how I've broken the code on speaking, is breaking down the speaking process into a series of systems that saves you time, stress, energy, and a lot of money in the process. So, once you have a system for expressing your ideas, just like Brittany mentioned in the beginning, if you were asked to speak at these different opportunities that come your way, how would you feel about it? Would you be totally prepared and confident that you'd get the results that you want?

 Or would you be concerned about what to say, how am I going to get everything in that time, will they like what I'm going to say to them? It has nothing to do with you. It has to do with them. But if you have a system, it makes everything so much easier. And if you look at what you have systematized in your financial services practice, how much that saves you in time, effort, energy, and money. And that's what you need for your communication systems. A way to express your ideas to one person, 10 people, 100, or 1,000, makes no difference. It's got to start somewhere and it's got to end somewhere. So does that kind of answer your question why this is so important for an advisor, Brittany?
 

Brittany Anderson:

It definitely does. And, Joel, as you were speaking and talking about speaking really being a system, something popped in my head that sometimes with the high performing advisor, we can be talkers. And we want to get a lot of words out and get our point across and share how smart we are. But you brought up a couple interesting points. Number one, the importance of having a system for collecting your thoughts. But number two, in falling in love, really, with what the audience wants.

 So, can you push on both of those and really how you help people communicate. And I think that goes back to the saying of communicating succinctly. So, following that system and the importance of it to help us not chase squirrels while we're talking, but then also when you look at making sure you position for the audience and not for yourself. Let's push on those a little bit more.
 

Joel Weldon:

All right, well, let's set up the three possibilities for your speaking as an advisor. You have your one-on-one communications with prospects and clients in your office or in a virtual format today on a Zoom call. We call that one-on-one. Then you have small groups, maybe you're inviting some of your clients, and you're doing something on retirement planning or social security or a new tax law. And you want to share that with them. And maybe you have 10 to 20 people on a virtual call, or eventually when we go back to the live meetings, in your office, in your conference room.

 And then we have what we call main stage presentations. This would be an event, either an industry event or something you put on. It could be a webinar that's going out to a lot of people, or a podcast. So, all of those are much larger type of audiences, but the same process applies and how you make sure you are talking about what they need is... The first part of our system is, number one, who is your audience? Clearly identifying that. These are business owners that are thinking exiting their business. Thinking of exiting their business in the next five to 10 years.

 Okay. Maybe that's the audience. So, first question to always ask, who is the audience? Second question, what are their NFVs? And this is the second part of the system on how to make sure you're talking about what your audience needs and you do it succinctly. So, what does NFV mean? It's an acronym for needs, fears, victories. That once you know your audience, if you spend some time thinking about what does this audience need to know about exiting their business that they're not doing now?

 What are their fears? Now, fears means worries, concerns. What keeps them up at night? And victories are what are their successes or achievements? Well, the fact that they've had a business that's worth selling, they've been successful in business. They're listening to you because they know they don't have all the answers. They know what they know, and they know what they don't know. That's a victory that needs to go on your list. So, once you have those three things, what your audience needs, what are their fears, what are their victories? Then you can create what I call a golden thread.

 A golden thread is one sentence that summarizes your entire message. So, let's go back to that exiting your business. If that's the theme of your discussion, how to prepare to exit your business by overcoming the five mistakes business owners make when they sell their business. Okay, so that could be the golden thread. The fourth step is what is the call to action? Well, as a financial advisor in your case, if these are your existing clients, then it would be spend more time with you planning this exit. Or if they're prospects, it would be come in and talk to you on a virtual call or in person, and see if this is a right fit and look at their situation.

 In other words, getting a second opinion, or a stress test. But once you know those four things, you can go to step five, which is your message. What are you going to talk about? And this is, Brittany, where so many people go wrong. I have so much, I could talk for days. Now you mentioned how many paid talks I've done, well over 3000, not one time in the last 46 years has anybody who wanted me to come and speak to their group said these words. The fourth step is what is the call to action? Well, as a financial advisor in your case, if these are your existing clients, then it would be spend more time with you planning this exit. Or if they're prospects, it would be come in and talk to you on a virtual call or in person and see if this is a right fit and look at their situation.

 In other words, getting a second opinion, or a stress test. But once you know those four things, you can go to step five, which is your message. What are you going to talk about? And this is, Brittany, where so many people go wrong. I have so much, I could talk for days. Now you mentioned how many paid talks I've done, well over 3000, not one time in the last 46 years has anybody who wanted me to come and speak to their group said these words, "Talk as long as you want." Nobody has ever said that. Nobody will ever say that to you because if you're talking about what you know, you could talk for days about that subject. But a podcast, a video, or a meeting is not going to last for days, it's going to be 30 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour.

 How do you know what to put in there? And that's what those four steps help you do, is to get to step five, which is your content. And here's the system I've developed to know what to talk about. Brittany, so if you're making this presentation, the only thing you can talk about is something that meets a need of your audience. You've made that list. Or something that overcomes a fear that your audience has. Or something that reinforces a victory that your audience has. And using that system, it will save you so much time, effort, and energy by focusing on what the audience needs to hear.

 And then we have a system to organize those ideas so they make sense. And one of our little tag lines is, "Make your message impossible to be misunderstood." Impossible to be misunderstood. That means defining some of your terms. You know what they mean, but does your listener know? And that applies to one-on-one or in a group situation. So does that answer that question, Brittany?
 

Brittany Anderson:

It absolutely does. And Joel, the thing that I want to point out here is that in using your system, Bryan and I both, it's not only when we're speaking. If we do a seminar, like you said, if we're in front of one-on-one. We've consulted with Joel in so many different ways. But I find myself, even when I sit down to write something, if we're writing something to a client, we're creating some sort of content or copy, I joke that I have Joel in the back of my head, is this impossible to be misunderstood? Are we being so clear? Are we actually speaking to the audience's needs?

 So these things can be applied in every single facet of a business, really. So, Joel, one thing that I think is important to really drill into here is, when you think about helping advisors stand out. I think this is more important than it's ever been because there are so many financial advisors out there, and there's really good ones out there. So, your system, how does that really help an advisor to stand out amongst the crowd, because I think I know the answer to this and I know how it's worked for Sweet Financial, but I want you to speak to that.
 

Joel Weldon:

Well, I know you know that's a great question, too, about how do you stand out, differentiate yourself because there's hundreds of thousands of advisors out there. And one of them, I know you know, is part of our same group, Jim Dew, correct?
 

Brittany Anderson:

Yep.
 

Joel Weldon:

All right. Well, Jim just wrote in the chat box when we were having a meeting, "Since hiring Joel, I've made over $500,000 extra. And that happened in just the last two years." And what happened when Jim hired me to help him with his speaking as an advisor, he already knew everything he knows now. He didn't learn anything new, but what he learned was using a system to organize what he was saying so that it was so clear. And then we have a system for adding humor, a system for making your visuals so much more impactful and adding clarity to what you're saying, and not distracting from your message.

 A system of how to make a call to action so clear and simple, and not salesy. And using all of these systems, Jim was able to earn half a million dollars in just a couple of years extra because he used speaking to grow his business, to make his practice even better. It's not learning anything new. It's how do you keep it concise and clear? How do you make it relevant to your audience? And one of the things that I know Brittany and Brian have picked up on is the use of I and you. And as you're listening to this as a successful advisor, and you're here in this podcast, you're an ultimate advisor.

 Use one of the Ultimate Speaking system tools, the "you" factor. Look at an email that you send to a client and count how many times you said "I", and how many times you said "you". Just that simple thing. This would be a typical email, "I'm so excited to send you this email. I was at a session recently and I heard something. And really what was happening is I thought about how this applies to your situation. I've loved working with you over the years, Fred. And one of the things I've learned is how important the right ideas are and that's what I've come up with. So would it be possible we could schedule some time and I could share these ideas with you."

 I just made that up on the spot, Brittany, but if we were to listen to that and then type it all out and count how many I's and how many you's, I think I had two you's and probably eight or 10 I's. Here's the basic premise. Nobody cares about you. They care about themselves. Now, yes, as their advisor, they do care about you. But if you had that mindset, nobody cares about you except what you can do for them.

 So, what if that letter started off with something like this, "You have so many important decisions to make. And when you make decisions, it's important that you have all the right information. There are some new things that have happened that I think would be very valuable for you, especially in the areas of X, Y, and Z. I was recently attending a training session and I heard some of these ideas. And the only thing that came through my mind was how valuable this would be for you and what you're going through in your business right now. When would be a good time that you could sit down and listen to a few of these concepts and see how they could be helpful to you."

 All right. Now, we had a couple of I's, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with saying I, me, or mine, but most people have way more I's than you's. So you is you, your, or you'll. I is me, mine, or my. Count them in your last email and start getting in the habit of replacing an I and making it a you. And this is how you stay connected. And this is what Jim Dew has done so well, too, in his presentations. The audience feels he's talking to them, not just anybody. That makes sense, Brittany?
 

Brittany Anderson:

It does. And I think it's so good because I think about some of the experiences we've had with bringing new clients on board at Sweet Financial. And a lot of times we get the comment of, "You're just different. You felt different." And sometimes it's those little things. They may not be able to know like, "Oh, you put a whole bunch of you's in the email," but like you just said, they feel like they're being spoke to directly. They feel like they're being addressed in a way that people just don't take the time to be conscious about. So, Joel, I know that people are probably wondering at this point listening, they're like, "Okay, Jim made a whole bunch of more money in his business. There's some great tips I'm already implementing." So before we go any further, how can people get a hold of you, Joel?
 

Joel Weldon:

Well, you grab me. No, the easiest way is just send me an email. It's very simple. Joel Weldon, J-O-E-L-W-E-L-D-O-N speaker, S-P-E-A-K-E-R, @gmail.com. Just send me an email and we'll set up a time to talk and see if this could be something that can help you. We have a whole series of tools online, and then we also have one-on-one coaching. And really it's not about performing. It's about being yourself. That's one of the basic premises. Don't model yourself after anybody.

 Your fingerprints make you unique. Your eye implant, whatever they look in the retina of an eye is unlike any other eye in the world. And that's how you should speak, because you were saying about differentiating yourself. What Jim did to differentiate himself was become a better Jim Dew. Not acting, not performing, not trying to be somebody you're not. Being congruent. When you are congruent, you're relaxed. You're not thinking of you, you're thinking of your audience. So, send me an email.

 And by the way, this coaching is so different. It's about helping you with your emails. It's about writing your introductions. It's improving your slides. It's adding humor. All of those are systems, that once you get them, you've got them. And over these four years with Brittany and Bryan, I know they have picked up on them. And then we just check periodically to see if we're doing them correctly. But there's a system on how to open. There's a system on how to close. There's a system on how to write your introduction.

 And by the way, your introduction is never your bio. Your opening should never be, "I'm so glad to be here." And your closing should never be, "Thanks for listening." That's completely the opposite of what this system is about. It's how to connect with your audience so that your message is impossible to be misunderstood. And they get it, and they feel it, they see it, and they understand it. So just send me an email, JoelWeldonSpeaker@Gmail. And if this makes sense, we'll talk about it.
 

Brittany Anderson:

And I highly recommend just taking advantage of what Joel just offered. And I can personally say Joel is a big part of the reason... I can honestly attest in the initial stages, is the sole reason that I was able to get on some of the stages that I've been on. That I've been able to help craft presentations for our advisors, and help them really speak to the audience and actually get results from the seminars that we host.

 So, just having that consult and talking about the system, because like Joel said, it applies to every aspect. We're talking here about growing your business smarter. Here is a way to do it. Just making sure that you are impossible to be misunderstood. So, Joel, I want to ask you a couple more questions. One being, you've listed already a couple mistakes that you see people make when they're giving presentations. Drill into maybe a couple more for our audience, that you see happen time and time again. And it just makes you go, "Oh, there was such great opportunity there."
 

Joel Weldon:

All right, let me give you an example. Let me tell you what happened to me as a kid. When I was a kid growing up, I never really could speak to anybody. What I just did is I started to tell a story. So, one of the biggest mistakes I see speakers make, especially financial advisors, is they tell a story, but they don't tell the point of the story to open with. And as you're listening to this, answer this question, how many times in your career have you sat at a meeting listening to somebody telling a story or speaking, and going through your mind is this thought, "What is this all about? Where is this going? What does this have to do with me?"

 And that will never happen if you use the system on how to tell a story. And the best way to tell a story is to always open with the point of a story. I'm going to share a personal story. And the point of this story is really twofold. Number one, that speaking effectively is a learned skill. And point number two, be yourself. Don't attempt to become someone else. Now, the story begins back in... Okay, now you start the story.

 And why do you do that? Because today our attention span is so short, and if you're going to tell a story about selling a business, then set it up. I'm going to share a story about a business owner who sold their business. And the point of the story is, in retrospect, they realized they made five mistakes, that if they had corrected those mistakes, they would have put another $2.6 million in their pocket. That's the point of the story. So the story begins with... Oh, okay. Now I understand what the story is about."

 So that's one of the biggest mistakes I see speakers make, is not setting up a story, an analogy, or a metaphor so there's a point clearly in mind. And the other mistake that's so, so common is they make it about themselves. "I really love this idea. This is one of my favorite concepts." Who cares? Instead of saying that, you should say, "Here's a concept you're going to fall in love with. Here's an idea you're going to feel that's so helpful for you." Make it about them, not about you. And make the point of the story clear before you tell it. So those are just two little things that come up all the time, Brittany.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Those are both so good. And, Joel, you've used the word system so many times throughout our conversation today and I just think that's so interesting. And I think it speaks to why so many advisors align so well with what you do and how you serve, because the top performing advisors, the high achieving advisors know the importance of systems. And, Joel, I can remember back when I was doing one of my initial consults with you on one of my presentations for Joe Polish's Genius Network, I was so nervous. And I remember you going through some of the talk I had prepared and you're like, "Brittany, would you speak like that? Is that how you would talk?"

 So, helping me lean into and be my authentic self while getting the point across I was trying to get the point. Those two things came together so well that now I go to frame a prospect conversation, a client conversation, and it's so simple because of your system. So I just wanted to drive that home. I know you've said that several times, but it's so applicable, especially in our industry. I think that's why you've had the success you've had, with financial advisors in particular. So all of that being said, Joel, if you could give one piece of masterful advice to a successful wealth advisor looking to grow their business smarter, not harder, what would it be?
 

Joel Weldon:

Oh, well let me go back. That's a great way to wrap up my part, but let me go back to that system. It's really an acronym. And I know you've heard this before, but listen to what those letters represent in the word system. Saves you stress, time, energy, and money.
 

Brittany Anderson:

Ah, beautiful.
 

Joel Weldon:

Saves you stress, time, energy, and money. And that's why I've created systems for everything. And they're transferable to other people. In the hundreds of advisors that I coach one-on-one, it's such a simple thing. Speaking is simple when you have a system. So, what would I say in wrapping it up? Well, let me summarize 46 years of speaking, studying speakers, and figuring out systems and put it into one sentence. Would that be a good way to end my portion of this meeting?
 

Brittany Anderson:

I think that sounds wonderful.
 

Joel Weldon:

And there's only 22 words I'm going to give you. So, as a member of this wonderful podcast, the Ultimate Advisor Podcast, as a financial advisor, think about this; speak to your audience about what they need, in an organized way they can follow, and get yourself out of the way. Make it a great day.
 

Brittany Anderson:

That, my friend, was wonderful. Joel, thank you for being here. We sincerely appreciate you and all of your genius. That wraps up this episode of the Ultimate Advisor Podcast. We will catch you right back here next week. Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our Ultimate Advisor Podcast, don't keep us a secret. Share us with other advisors that you think would benefit from the messages that you are hearing. The easiest way to do that is to simply send them to UltimateAdvisorPodcast.com. And if you want to learn a few other ways that we could potentially serve you as an advisor, go check out UltimateAdvisorMastermind.com. As always, we are so happy to have you here with us as part of the Ultimate Advisor community. And we look forward to a continued relationship.

ABOUT THE

PODCAST

The Ultimate Advisor Podcast was specifically created to help financial advisors unlock their ultimate potential by providing invaluable information and resources to improve your income, and the management, marketing and operations of your financial advising practice

The Ultimate Advisor podcast is a business podcast for financial advisors who are looking to grow their advising practices with greater ease and effectiveness. Ultimate Advisor was developed to help financial advisors master their marketing, sell their services with greater authority, generate repeat clients, and additional revenue in their business.

 

Each week, your hosts Draye Redfern, Bryan Sweet, and Brittany Anderson will share some of the closest guarded secrets from successful financial advising practices across the U.S.  

YOUR HOSTS:

DRAYE REDFERN

Draye is the founder of Redfern Media, a direct response marketing agency that helps professionals to improve their marketing, attract new clients, generate more referrals and consistently "WOW" their clients. 

BRYAN SWEET

Founder of Sweet Financial, CEO, Wealth Advisor, RJFS,  Creator of The Dream Architect™

Co-founder of Dare to Dream Enterprises

Creator of Elite Wealth Advisor Symposium

Author of 3 books – Dare to Dream: Design the Retirement You Can’t Wait to Wake Up To, Imagine. Act. Inspire. A Daily Journal and Give & Grow: Proven Strategies for Starting an Running and Effective Study Group

BRITTANY ANDERSON

Director of Operations at Sweet Financial, Office Manager, RJFS,  Co-founder of Dare to Dream Enterprises Author of two books – Imagine. Act. Inspire. A Daily Journal & Dare to Dream: Design the Retirement You Can’t Wait to Wake Up To

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Ultimate Advisor is NOT a financial advising firm and does not provide financial services.

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