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 Adviser podcast.

Brittany Anderson:

Hello, and welcome back to the Ultimate Advisor podcast. This is Brittany Anderson with you once again, and we are rounding out a three-part series with the famous Bill Cates. Bill, how are you today?

Bill Cates:

I'm doing well, and in case anybody was confused, it's not Bill Gates. It's Bill Cates with a C. Here's the deal. Bill Gates may have a lot of money. Bill Cates, I'll help you make a lot of money. How's that sound?

Brittany Anderson:

Heck yeah, that's even better. We wanted the C and not the G. It's good. So we're continuing our discussion today on Radical Relevance, and you had so many great points and underlying themes and things that happened in last week's episode that I want to make sure that... Again, if you're tuning in for the first time, you did not catch the last two weeks' episodes, you need to. Bill had some things in there that he offered, he's giving away for free. You need to make sure that you capitalize on that because it is going to help you make strides in your business point blank. So make sure that you go back and tune into the last couple of weeks, and we're going to just keep that conversation rolling. So Bill, the subtitle of your book, which I thought was interesting, it begins with the phrase, "Sharpen your marketing message." Now, we talk a lot about marketing on this podcast. That's something that we're super passionate about and believe in. So I need to know, from your perspective, is that the same as one's value proposition?

Bill Cates:

Well, not in my mind. So some people, when they say value proposition they immediately think elevator pitch. They immediately think the short way of articulating your value. And look, we do need to have those short, succinct ways to talk about our value. But to me, a value proposition is actually something bigger. To me, the value proposition really is a sum total of all the value that one brings. And I'll give you an exercise you can do with your team in a minute. But from that then comes the short versions, the short ways that talk about what you do, how you do it, why you do it, who you do it for and all that.

 And so here's an exercise I highly recommend. What's beautiful about this exercise is it gets your entire team, if it's a team of two, or if it's a team of 10, it gets everybody on the same page. What I want you to do is sit down, set some time aside, several hours, probably, or a couple of sessions, and just scope out the entire client journey. From the minute you meet someone, a prospect, whether they come to you, you get referred to them, whatever that looks like, becoming a client, onboarding them into your business, staying in touch with them over time, what are all the points of value? What are all the questions you ask? What are all the things you teach? How are the different ways you onboard them and provide responsive service? How do you stay in touch with them? All the points of value, and what happens is a lot of folks that work with you or for you that maybe weren't sure about the value really just wake up. Aha. This is amazing what we do, right? How come we're not getting more referrals? We bring an incredible amount of value.

 And then the next step, and I touched on this last time, rule number two of the rules of radical relevance, or give your clients a seat at the table, go to a few of your clients and say, "Hey, we've been outlining our value proposition. Here are all the things we've thought about." Anything that you'd add or what resonates with you, and if you were going to introduce us to someone, what will you talk about? Get all the different phrases and words that they would say that you might not thought about it, and then you refine that. That's your value proposition. And from that, all the different ways to talk about what you do and with different people in different ways, that becomes your value positioning statement. That becomes what you do, why you do it, how you do it, who you do it for, and we can get into some detail on that. But to me, that's truly the value proposition.

Brittany Anderson:

I love that differentiation, and I haven't heard it explained exactly that way before so I think that's really powerful. So another thing that I want to pull from the book that I think is important for you to touch on is, it's kind of scattered throughout, are the rules of radical relevance. And I think you provide up to like 17 of those. So we could probably have an entire show to go through just that, but I would love for you to just pull maybe the top three or four rules and how our listeners could apply them in their business.

Bill Cates:

Just three or four?

Brittany Anderson:

I'm sorry. We're cutting you off here.

Bill Cates:

It's going to be hard. Well, I've already covered a few in the past episodes, so that's cool.

Brittany Anderson:

Good.

Bill Cates:

All right. So rules of radical relevance number five is only differences that matter matter. And here's what I mean by that. We know that we want to be able to talk about what us a little different from other advisors, other firms, what makes us a little distinct. It's hard to be totally unique, but we can certainly have some differentiation. Now when I do my live presentations, I'll ask the room, "How many of you, when you're talking about your value and what makes you different than other firms, is you talk about how you really get to know your clients and you care about your clients and you customize your solutions to your clients?" And about 70% of the hands go up and the other 30% could have raised their hand. So I go, "Okay, so maybe that's not a differentiator. Maybe that's a price of being in the game," right? So I'm not saying you don't talk about that, the fact that you provide customized solutions, that you care, and you give great service and all that, but it's harder and harder to use that as a differentiator.

 So what does differentiate you? Well, last episode we talked about targeting a niche market, so that could be it, right? The fact that you work with people in a specific type of market, that's a differentiator. Maybe you have a special skill or knowledge or certification. Maybe you work with families that have special needs children, right? That could be it. Maybe you have a special process to discover. Your discovery process is rather unique, and you've given it a name, and you have a TM after it and so only you have it. Right? That's a differentiator. Maybe how you stay in touch with your clients over time. One of my coaching clients, Al Fox, he's got over a billion dollars under management for him and his small team, so he's like a monster in his business. He uses that as a differentiator. This is how we're going to stay in touch. And so that's a differentiator. But all of these matter to the people.

 There was a trend a few years ago where I saw a lot of advisors creating websites where they were emphasizing a personal interest. They thought it was branding. It's not branding. They thought it was branding, the fact I like to fish, so fishing, boats or boating or horses or dogs or cooking or whatever. Now there's nothing wrong with talking about your personal interests and bringing that out in your relationship, but that's not a difference that matters. And so we've got to think about differences that matter. What's the benefit of the difference, right? If you can't attach a benefit, a clear, relevant benefit to the prospect, then it's not differentiation that matters.

 Gosh, what else? Number 11 is know your own client-focused why, and this really goes in with 12 because 12 is know your right fit client or your persona's why. So first of all, when I talk about your client-focused why. It's not why you got in this business in most cases. Most people get in this business because they like finances. They like having flexibility over their schedule. They like making a lot of money. Okay, nothing with any of those things, but that's why you got in this business. That's not the why I'm talking about. I'm talking about why, that aha you had where you realize you really do help people, right? You really do make a difference for people's lives. And there's usually a story there when you had that aha, and that's the why I'm talking about, so we need to know that. But what happens is when we share our why and what motivates us and inspires us, we then get to learn our client's why and what motivates and inspires them and what gets them to take action. And those two, 11 and 12, go together, know your client-focused why, your persona's why, your avatar, you guys use the word avatar. It's similar.

 Gosh, I'm going to give you one more. I could give you several. Number 15, your prospects and clients aren't mind readers, and here's what I mean by this. You should never assume that a prospect or a client can read your mind and take the action that you desire them to take. You have to tell and/or ask them to do it. In marketing they call it a CTA, or a call to action. What is this thing that they should do as a result of reading your email or visiting your website page or reading this guide or listening to your voicemail or whatever it is? There should almost always be a call to action. It should be very clear. It should be fairly simple. And generally you don't want to have more than one call to action on any website page or anything you do. Now sometimes it's hard to avoid that, especially on a homepage, but generally speaking, when you're developing your messaging, when you're delivering a message to prospects, clients, make sure that you know what that call to action is. What do you want them to do as a result of this message? And then ask them or tell them to do that thing.

Brittany Anderson:

You know, Bill, I think you bring up an interesting point because you kind of talked there for a minute about the client's why and your why, and once you're clear, then they're clear. And I think it goes back to the concept of transparency. It's like the more transparent that you're able to be as the advisor, as a business owner, whatever the case is, it really helps your clients open up on a deeper level. And we've gone through this. We go through this exercise with our mastermind members of what's your story? Where did you come from? Why are you here? Who do you serve, and why do you serve who you serve? You talk about kind of that moment of clarity of, gosh, I had this moment in my business where I realized this is why I do what I do. So really being able to put that to paper, right? Being able to share that and be willing to be a little bit vulnerable, I think that's important.

Bill Cates:

Yeah. The word that comes to me is genuine or authentic. And think about it. If you're asking someone to trust you, to allow you to have influence over their current and their future financial lives, they've got to get a sense of who you are. And if you want to become referable, so they have to really have a sense of who you are as a person. What makes you tick? How are you going to treat other people that I might put you in front of? And so all of that client-focused why is a big thing. And you can have more than one that you can apply to different circumstances. I recommend, by the way, this client-focused why, this is something, generally speaking, you want to bring up in your very first appointment with a new prospect.

 And here's the language that you can use. Let's get very tactical. It's something like this. You know, Brittany, that's a little bit about what I do and how I do it. I want to shift gears, if you don't mind, and tell you a little bit about why I do this, kind of what drives me every day, what inspires me every day. And then you tell your why, right? It was this, it was that, it was this. My father died, left me with nothing. Make sure you're not doing therapy with your clients, by the way, in your why.

 But I'll give you an example. So Russ Thornton is in Atlanta, and his website is Wealthcare for Women. I love his site. There's a lot of good going on there. And he has his why at the very bottom of his homepage. Why is this guy, why is this gentleman, focusing on professional women and women in transition? And he's got a little why there of what happened with his mom, et cetera. Nothing very sad. It's just there. But it's part of who he is. And he's got a picture with his wife and his dog. And so it just makes him human and authentic about why he's working in this area.

Brittany Anderson:

You brought up a word that made me think of something, going back to something that you've mentioned in your book and your teachings and everything. So when we talk about the concept of relevance, and I think everything you were just saying ties into this, you make a clear distinction between strategic relevance and tactical relevance. So starting with strategic relevance, what are the main strategies that comprise of that? And then maybe follow up with some of the tactical.

Bill Cates:

Sure. Let's just read the whole book here.

Brittany Anderson:

I mean, that's what we're here for, right?

Bill Cates:

All right. So strategic, these are the big decisions that one makes in one's business, their strategy, strategic. So like your target, we talked about that in the last episode of picking your target. It's really about figuring out who you serve, who you want to serve, who you want to attract. That's a strategic decision. But if you're going to have more relevant messaging, you have to start to narrow your focus. Another one of the rules of radical relevance, by the way, I'll slip one in, is resist the urge to expand your market. And what happens is when you start to create messaging and talk about what you do, and you say, "Well, let's not leave these people out. Let's not leave these people out," then what happens is your messaging just gets weaker. So it's all about focusing. It's all about getting tighter and narrower. So the big decisions are the target market. Now the big decision is the persona, the ideal client. I call it right fit client. You guys use avatar. It's all essentially the same thing.

 And then your differentiation, right? What are you going to do? How are you going to mold your business in a way that does separate you from the others? Being different isn't everything. It's a piece of it, right? At the end of the day, your client just wants to know are you right for me? That's all they want to know, and that differentiation can be a factor there, right? Or it might just grab their attention, and that's good, too. But that's kind of the strategic relevance.

 And then the tactical is how do we apply those things? So I'll just start with one very tactical thing around the referral process is make sure when you're getting introduced to someone else, you learn as much as you can about that new prospect. That's how you're going to have a relevant message. Last time we talked about the value discussion and what people found valuable in the relationship. And then here's a great question you want to ask. What's going on in his life, her life, their life that's important to them right now? What's on their life's radar right now? And we know that money intersects all aspects of one's life, so whatever's important to them, kids, retirement, their business, philanthropic activity, whatever it is, then if we tailor the messaging towards that, guess what? We're going to be more relevant. So we do cold research, which is go on their website, go on their LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, whatever. And then we do warm research, which is what that referral source can tell us about those people. And that's the best kind of research, really. So that's a tactical way of using this concept of relevance to make sure we have the right message for the right person.

Brittany Anderson:

I think that's really, really important, number one, is just to make sure that you are communicating in the way that you should be, right, to attract who you need to attract. So I think that component of it is just so, so important. And Bill, I think the overall theme here because, again, we talk a lot about uncovering your why and making sure that you communicate that and making sure that your message is relevant to who you serve. So I really think that everything that you've shared here today and everything kind of like putting a bow on it, basically, is to make sure that you can have the methodologies to stand out, right? You can make sure that you are referable, and it goes back to your core principles there, and then it ties into the radical relevance. So I can see this path and this progression that you've made and how these all relate together.

 And I think the one thing to say, too, is sometimes people get hung up on... They'll do the research as far as this is what my client needs, and this is the process that I know will serve them, and this is how I'm going to be different, and I'm going to put it on my website. I'm going to have it all there, and it's going to be so great. But then what the client experiences is different than what they've been told. So I think that's something that's important to just push that button a little bit real quick of making sure that you have the processes. And I know you talked in one of our previous series here, you talked a little bit about sure that your processes are dialed in, that you have a repeatable process, you have consistency, and I think that applies to everything you talked about with the referability concept, but also to radical relevance. So I'd like you to just push on that button for a minute.

Bill Cates:

Oh gosh. Well, you said a lot there. So what we know is that the average person, it's been estimated, is exposed about 3000 marketing messages a day. That's a lot, and that's just marketing messages. That's not just all the other messages that are coming through in different ways. And so there's a chapter in the book, chapter three, called the Neuroscience of Relevance, so I think this is a good time to bring that in a little bit because it's how the brain works a little bit. Now I'm not a neuroscientist. I don't play one on TV. But I had three neuroscientists that I consulted with and learned from writing the chapter, so everything in there is hopefully accurate.

 So here's a few things about the brain. We know that six times a second, that's pretty fast, the brain is going, "Where am I? Am I safe? Where am I? Am I safe?" So first and foremost, the brain is trying to keep the organism alive. In that keeping the organism alive, it's also trying to conserve energy, conserve calories. It wants to use fewer calories because it wants to keep the organism alive. Now on the other side three times a second, the brain's going, "Is there an opportunity," right? Squirrel. And so the brain is built for actions, built for opportunity, it's looking for ways to expand and learn and grow and do new things, but only when it feels safe.

 And so how does that impact us? Well, when we talk about what we do, when we talk about the value that we bring to clients, when we're working on our website, when we're working on our processes, we need to talk about both things. If we're going to try to attract clients, we need to first display empathy. This is a big word here, empathy. I could have called the book Radical Empathy. Because empathy is not just when someone's going through something that's sad that needs sympathy. It's a knowingness and appreciation for and understanding of. And so when we display that understanding and appreciation for the challenges and when we display appreciation and understanding for their opportunities that they want to pursue in life, then it resonates with them. And when we narrow our focus and we go after a specific type of market, how we talk about the challenges and how we talk about the survival and how we talk about the opportunities will change. The words will be different. The concepts will be different. But that's a key piece in delivering the right message to people.

 One other thing in that, real quick, is this idea of have fewer calories, expending less energy, and that is the concept of clarity. The brain craves clarity. Why? Because a confusing message takes work, and the brain doesn't want the body to have to do that. And so it wants things that are clear. And so we have to be careful about letting our cleverness or creativity get in the way of our clarity. Now it doesn't mean we can't use some cleverness. It doesn't mean we can't be creative in how we talk about our value, but we've got to be careful.

 So I'll give you two examples. One is an advisor I met many, many years ago. He says, "I like to tell people I'm a financial nutritionist." And I think, all right, what does that mean exactly? Well, he's got vitamins and minerals, so he's got like different... Is the bar still open? I don't exactly know what that means, right? And now maybe someone say, "Well, what is that?" Or maybe they won't. Is that building credibility, confusion?

 Now there's a guy in Canada I've been working with. I won't mention his name. And American advisers could not say this, right? I know this. They could not say this, but in Canada things are a little different. So he says, "I help my clients create indestructible wealth." Now those are two words you don't normally hear together, so it's creative. It's clever, right? But it's clear. Indestructible wealth, wow. That's what I want. How do you do that? Now, again, American advisors can't say that, so it's kind of cheating. But nonetheless, that's the difference between having a clear message that maybe is a little creative and sparks some interest, versus a creative message that's muddy and doesn't spark the interest because of that. So I hope that rambling made sense.

Brittany Anderson:

No, it did. And actually I think it's really interesting because I think one of the biggest mistakes that not just advisors, but I think across all industries that I've seen in some of my own coaching, is that people fall in love with their own message, fall in love with their own process. And they're like, "Oh, this is so good. And everybody's going to wonder what it is, and they're going to be just so excited about it." It's like, no, you love it. You're excited about it. They don't care. Like you said, they're wondering when the bar opens.

Bill Cates:

Well, they might care. If you got the right one, they'll care.

Brittany Anderson:

Right, no, and I'm being a little facetious there because they will care. But again, you have to make it so that you're impossible to be misunderstood. That applies to the front end and the backend. That applies to all your messaging that you're putting out. That applies to the referral process. It applies to everything that ties into the radical relevance concept that Bill's shared. And it also ties in with your backend processes. If people come on board and it's super confusing and overwhelming, and that first... That first 90 days literally makes or breaks your relationship. So when you think about all the things that Bill's talked about over the last few weeks, you have to make sure that you have every aspect of it buttoned up in order to create a world class experience. They want to view something that's different. And like Bill said, it's like you can't just have one component of differentiation. It's everything. It's everything that you do and your whole experience that really makes you different and stand out.

 So Bill, I could go on for days, but we have to cut our time. I know. It's so sad. We're definitely going to have you back on though. I've already made that decision. I highly, highly recommend that anybody who wants to grow their business, you need to grab a copy of Bill's new book, Radical Relevance. And honestly, when you look at yourself as a leader in a business and an organization, I would really suggest that you invest in a copy for everyone on your team, anybody that you want to grow. And I would assume that you want everybody on your team to grow, even if that growth means a different thing for each individual. So I highly recommend that. Bill, can you share how our listeners can learn a little bit more about Radical Relevance and maybe obtain one or more copies of the book, or even the audio book, too?

Bill Cates:

Yeah, sure. So first of all, I want to let people know that it's more than a book, and here's what I mean by that. I had so much information I wanted to provide, and I didn't want the book to be so large that people wouldn't actually read it and does no one any good if they don't read it. So I had to write a book that was very readable and accessible, but yet I had all this other information. So we created the Radical Relevance Toolkit. So what happens if you get the audio or the Kindle or the paperback from Amazon, then you'll be directed on how to register for the Radical Relevance Toolkit, and in there, you get a lot more information of how to build a radically relevant website, how to build a radically relevant LinkedIn profile, et cetera, et cetera.

 So I think the best thing is just to go to Radical Relevance Book, radicalrelevancebook.com, learn a little bit more, I got a little video there. And then you can go to Amazon and get it. We also have a link there if you want to get an autographed copy of the hard cover book that Amazon doesn't sell. You can click there and you can purchase a copy there for that, and I'll sign it off to you and mail it out. And here's the deal. The day I die with my signature, the book is worth twice as much. So if you want the autographed copy, you can get that. So that's radicalrelevancebook.com.

Brittany Anderson:

Well, I hope you hang with us for a little bit longer at least, Bill.

Bill Cates:

That's my plan.

Brittany Anderson:

Please. All right. Well, to roll out and to really share the few key takeaways... There was a ton of takeaways. There's been so many takeaways in the last three weeks, but again, we like to hand pick some of the top ones that are easily implementable that you can take action on immediately. So the first one, I thought it was really, really valuable, Bill, when you were talking about how an exercise that you can do with your team is to scope out your entire client journey. I think that's a really important reminder. So even you have a great process, I think it's important to look at that from start to finish. So like Bill said, it's what questions are you asking? What are the points of value? What are the moments that really resonate? What maybe isn't resonating? Where are the things that you can improve, and what's happening through that whole entire process? How do you stay in touch with them? Those are things that I encourage each of you to look at and to take Bill's advice there.

 The second thing is, and I think this is really important because it's missed so often, again, not just in the advisory world, but across all industries, is telling your client what action they need to take, because we make this assumption that people are going to read our minds, that they're just going to read whatever we put out, and they're going to just love us so much that they're like, "Yes, I need to do all the things related to this individual company." And it's just not the case. You have to make it simple. Make it simple and make it easy to understand and make it easy for them to engage with you. So telling them exactly what your goal is, that is so important. So like Bill said, in the marketing world, it's called a call to action. It's something where basically they can give you some piece of their information in exchange for something of value. Make it really simple.

 The third is to, I think, find your why. I think that's really important because a lot of this stuff can't be done if you don't figure out what that little tipping point was. That vulnerability and that transparency, which can be hard sometimes for people, especially if you've been in the industry for a while, and you're kind of set in your ways and you're like, "I don't need to do the touchy, feely stuff," it's not about that. It's about connection. And it's about relationship building. And it goes back to what Bill talked about in our previous episode about working on your relationships versus in it. That's a great introductory way. That's a great way to start that transparency.

 And I think the fourth takeaway is to get the darn book, Radical Relevance. Like Bill said, it's radicalrelevancebook.com. Highly recommend it. I've got copies. If you could see me right now, I'm holding up a copy. We have multiple copies in our office, that suite. It's exceptional. It's going to make you, again, rethink kind of how you're going about your business. There's so many tools and resources and just it's jam packed full of knowledge. So Bill, before I close this out, is there anything else that you want to share with our audience before we round out for the day?

Bill Cates:

Yeah, be relevant or be ignored.

Brittany Anderson:

Oh, that's good.

Bill Cates:

Nobody likes to be ignored.

Brittany Anderson:

No, I love that. Well, Bill, thank you for taking the time to be with us over these last few weeks. This has been awesome. I know that our audience, our listeners, just got a ton of value out of it. I got a ton of value out of it. And like I said, we've known you for a long time, so many, many thanks.

Bill Cates:

Thank you.

Brittany Anderson:

All right, well, that rounds us out of our three-part series with the wonderful Bill Cates. Check us out here next week. We're going to be back. We're right back here with you. So that rounds out today's episode of the Ultimate Advisor podcast. Make it a wonderful day.

 Hey there, Brittany Anderson here. If you are loving what you're hearing on our Ultimate Adviser 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 just 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.