The Whole Truth: For Financial Advisors: Recent Episodes
Touchstone Investments
Steve Seid and Kurt Dupuis, Regional Vice Presidents for Touchstone Investments, explore the challenges and opportunities that Financial Professionals face today. With interviews from clients, subject matter experts, and other industry professionals, The Whole Truth strives to be timely, actionable, and concise – with a promise to always leave on a high note.
In this packed episode, we are first joined by Jake Willis, Touchstone Regional VP who discusses Robert Cialdini's “Six Principles of Persuasion” – a notable refresher for everyone in sales. Then, digital marketing guru, Dan Allocca and Partner at Prosek joins us to discuss marketing insights that can help financial professionals navigate for now and for future.
Our guest Stacey Wyatt discusses his transition from real estate agent to business owner, and shares captivating insights about leading a team, versus simply managing a team. Bonus: His reputation for highly creative approaches to marketing was the catalyst for conversation about great ideas for getting in front of people.
No need to reinvent the wheel - our returning guest, Tom Singler joins the episode to dip into our collective hundreds of hours of cumulative experience reflecting on what has worked, as well as common challenges, when it comes to practice management consulting.
With our industry pushing towards “Teaming”, you get Five Important Takeaways from our nationwide Team Structure presentation. Then, hear Tim Kresl of Broadridge discuss some surprising industry trends.
Liz Lenz returns to the podcast to share new insights from her latest venture. After running practice consulting for a broker-dealer, she has now started her own firm, Lenz Insights, LLC. She discusses how she decided to make the change, and what she has learned setting up her business.
Our guest today is Annalee Kruger, President of Care Right, Inc. for this important episode on the myriad reasons it is critical to have an Aging Plan in place. She has concentrated experience doing senior care planning during her 25-year career in the senior care industry. In addition to her company, Care Right where she advises people on end of life planning, she also founded Plan for Life, which is an educational avenue to earn an elder planning specialist designation.
Touchstone colleagues Mindy Burgess and Jason Zawalich take over the podcast to discuss referrals and business development. They embark on a healthy debate – “To Refer or Not to Refer” and share some creative ideas about how to think differently when it comes to the art of getting referrals.
Financial Services industry veteran Richard Weylman has been a coach at all the major wire houses, and has partnered with Touchstone in the past, so we used this opportunity to re-connect. He talks about the tools he uses, including psychological needs of the affluent and 90-day elevation plans. You hear a lot of people talk about practice management ideas, but it is all in the execution -- and Richard can deliver on that.
Dr. Rick Jensen joins the podcast – he is a sports psychologist and author whose clients include more than 50 touring golf pros in the PGA, LPGA and Champions tours. Listen in as he shares how best practices from sports psychology can be applied as rules, suggestions, and strategies for financial professionals.
In this special crossover podcast with Dan Sullivan of Internal Use Only, we reflect on the job of wholesaling. What are some good questions that you should be asking wholesalers with whom you work? We also discuss podcasting and what we are trying to accomplish with our two shows.
On today's episode, Special Ops and Navy SEALS: John Choate, CD and Ant join the show. They draw upon experiences from their history and their SA-720™ Consulting business to discuss how to foster effective teamwork by managing attitude and ego and creating trust through vulnerability. They also delve into SABRE, which borrows from clandestine frameworks taken from their military service and how to apply them to business and practical purposes.
Our guest Daniel Catone is CEO of Golden State Wealth Management. He's fascinating on a number of levels -- he's been nominated for Top 40 Under 40, he runs a variety of different businesses, he collects artifacts, he's a pilot, he's got a master's degree in theology. And before he worked in finance, he was a part of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. We get into his unique story and pick up valuable financial insights along the way.
When hiring a team, it's always best to consider individuals that approach problems in different ways. Kolbe can be a powerful tool used by Managers to assess and understand how members of your team work - it can make things easier, better, and more natural for all involved and can improve employee retention. Jennifer Scaglione, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at The Financial Services Network, joins to share her extensive Kolbe work with the financial professional teams that roll up under The Network.
Industry veteran, Curtis Brown joins to discuss the concept of (and book) "Supernova Teams." You will hear how the financial services industry has changed over his decades in it, why client experience is critically important, and how to effectively team.
In this episode, we are joined by Liz Stiles, who discusses three big topics: people, process, and tech. We get into how she conducts a gap analysis with financial professionals and she explains actionable steps to assist with closing those gaps. Because we all often work with folks that have been doing things a certain way for a long time, her quote: "One of the hardest things to learn is how to unlearn," is especially potent.
Lee Michael Murphy is doing innovative things in the financial professional space. He started his own podcast and with more than 100 episodes in, of course, as fellow financial services podcasters, we wanted to talk with him about how that's going, to discuss creativity in business and to hear his story of why he got into the financial business.
In this episode we start with a “Just Stop It” segment, then move on to a discussion about how to improve your morning routine.
How emotionally intelligent are you? In this episode, we discuss the concept of EI and how it pertains to leadership.
Alejandra Slatapolsky joins the podcast to discuss how financial professionals can cultivate a holistic experience for clients, from on-boarding to years-long relationships, as well as the value of asking "Why?"
Brian Doe joins the podcast to discuss how to make the most of the Kolbe assessment tool and shares some enlightening insights it can provide.
Our hosts reflect on 2021 and share some takeaways they are still thinking about and implementing from this year's jam-packed vault of priceless insights. Whether you are a new or longtime member of The Whole Truth Community, the guests of Season 2021 served up amazing ideas, tips, philosophies and more – free of charge – that could help with anything from making your day easier to potentially propelling your practice to the next level! And we’ve added a new segment we call “What We're Obsessed About This Week”…we hope you enjoy!
Elyse Archer, a founder of the Brand Builders group, joins the podcast to talk about strategies for personal branding as well as to explain the value of an intentional mindset. She explains the concept so well that even an analytical-minded skeptic can understand and appreciate it. She also describes selling from a point of "scarcity" versus "abundance."
Team planning is difficult to do well. Many firms require some kind of plan, so there can be a "checking the box" element to the process, and it's easy to build a plan that sits on the shelf and doesn't get implemented. But there is a better way. In this episode, after a brief reflection on client service, the hosts discuss how to turn a plan into a livable document that actually drives activity, drives behavior, and ultimately drives outcomes.
A Harvard Business Review article cited that two of the major levers a business leader can pull are strategy and culture, this episode explores how to strategize about culture. Robbie Reese, CEO of LeadAbroad joins this episode, whose company our hosts believe has a fantastically successful culture, which has led to very high retention. Creating a culture for a company is one of the most important -- and often elusive -- aspects of leadership, so here we dig in with tangible steps you can take.
MBA school professor, Dr. Wayne Winston, from Indiana University Kelley School of Business joins to discuss how powerful data can be in solving problems and making decisions. He shares about his work with several NBA basketball teams, is a Jeopardy winner, a published author and an expert at Microsoft Excel. This wide-ranging conversation covers everything from decision making to how you can up your Excel game.
Listen in for two fresh conversations about referrals, client engagement and inspiring success stories. At the 3:00 minute mark Julie Littlechild, CEO of Absolute Engagement shares insights derived from years of research and at minute marker 29:30, financial professional James Schleicher offers how his “Quest for Rejection” led to success.
This episode, opens with some tips on how to make the most of LinkedIn. Then at the 15:45 minute mark we speak with Tom Singler, a member of Touchstone’s investment specialist group, who shares with us his sage (and somewhat surprising) top five lessons he's learned from working with hundreds of advisors.
We kick off today's episode with our colleague John O'Neal, who shares insights about business planning, specifically getting out of the trap of ineffective annual planning. Then, at the 15:35 minute mark, we welcome back Daxs Stadjuhar, partner at The Network. Daxs is involved with practice management, and he's been spending a lot of time talking to his folks about effectively working remotely. Even though things are normalizing now, we know remote working in some form is here to stay.
With a year of episodes under our belt The Whole Truth gets its report card from Jerod Morris (begins at the 26:30 minute mark) and he also shares insights about how to build communities with clients in Segment One. Stick around until the end for some enthusiastic college basketball banter in the Costanza Corner segment.
At the 11:50 minute mark James Pollard, founder of The Advisor Coach, shares how to make the most of digital tools available to financial professionals. He hosts the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast, he writes a daily email newsletter, and he explains why even LinkedIn can be a powerful resource for growing your business.
Today, listen in for some tips on how to make remote working more effective. At the 14-minute mark hear Mary Mock, who returned to discuss her vision, what she has learned working in practice management and what she is working on now.
On today's episode, Penny Phillips joins the show to discuss hiring, firing, managing different personality types, and multigenerational practices. She also explains why she believes you should only ask for referrals from a quarter of your clients.
For many financial professionals, the subject of Social Security can be complex and intimidating. The process can be complicated, and some people even worry the program may shut down before they become eligible. Luckily, our guest Brian Doherty has written a book on the subject, and he is happy to share his boundless enthusiasm and extensive knowledge, adding much-welcomed clarity on the topic.
How has the pandemic changed your business? We share results of a survey to see how financial professionals have coped and thrived through a difficult time. Then, Ben Alge returns to discuss behavioral finance.
Tune in for our ever popular "Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down" approach, as we put Bill Diehl to the test pitching the hosts business development ideas and they turn up the heat with some of their own.
In this special episode, we revisit some of the highlights from past guests of the show and whether you're a new or longtime listener, the wisdom from these guests is worth paying attention to and important to growing your practice in the future.
Steve and Kurt discuss how to use technology to your advantage without letting it take control of your life. They talk about some best practices from the Center for Humane Technology and what they learned from watching the documentary The Social Dilemma.
Today Steve and Kurt bring on Regional Sales Specialists Chris Fangmann and Jason Zawalich, to hear them pitch their best ideas for how to attract and hold on to clients.
On this episode, Steve and Kurt answer questions from The Whole Truth Community on a wide range of subjects, including when it's time to find someone to hire, what to do when time blocking isn’t working, and much more.
Today we start things off on a fun note, sharing some of the music we listened to as kids. Then our guest Daxs Stadjuhar joins us from the LPL world to talk about his organization The Network.
Today we'll discuss with our colleague Ben Alge why The Challenger Sale is considered one of the most consequential academic studies on sales that has come out in a long time. Then Ben sticks around as we dive into questions from the mailbag.
Today our guest is Dr. Maribeth Kuzmeski, the founder and president of Red Zone Marketing. She tells how she helped one client grow their practice from 10 million to 200 million in under five years using low cost niche marketing strategies. We also discuss Red Zone Marketing, the "don'ts" of marketing, why specificity is better than generalities, and why and how second opinion marketing is actually working right now.
Our guest Paul Seid, a successful entrepreneur and venture capitalist shares valuable lessons learned from decades of running multiple businesses in various countries. Also included in this episode: What's your niche? We explore on an article on the subject featured and give you our take and we finish with a much needed Costanza Corner.
What can you do with that notepad full of great ideas that has been sitting in a drawer ever since you got home from your last conference? On today's episode, Steve and Kurt give specific guidance for how to execute on the ideas that have been collecting dust, so your business can move forward. Then it's time for questions from the mailbag.
On this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of behavioral finance and how you can apply its lessons to your business. Our guest is Dr. Daniel Crosby. He's a PhD in clinical psychology and a behavioral finance expert with Brinker Capital. Kurt and Steve ask him about his numerous books and TED talks and how behavioral finance is shaping how we think about investing and client relationships.
Our guest is Mary Mock, Divisional Vice President at Touchstone Investments. Prior to this she was one of the most successful wholesalers at Touchstone Investments. Mary discusses the concept of Supernova, how it came about, the foundations of the concept, and how financial advisors can apply it to grow their practice.
Mark Fujiwara joins us on this episode to discuss ways that financial professionals can market their practices in the current digital landscape. Steve and Kurt ask him about podcasting, LinkedIn, and other strategies that can differentiate businesses in a crowded marketplace. They also reach into the mailbag and respond to questions submitted by listeners.
In this episode, Steve and Kurt dive into the world of PAR, or Practice Analysis Review. This review anchors a lot of what they do around practice management, so today they're going to tell you what it is, where it comes from, what are the crucial pillars of their analysis and what they do with the data.
Our guest today is Jerod Morris, an expert in the world of podcasting and digital marketing. Steve and Kurt's goal for this show is to build a community, and Jerod was an inspiration to them when they were first talking about starting a podcast. In addition to the discussion around building The Whole Truth, Jerod details several marketing concepts that financial advisors can put into practice right away.
After you’ve segmented your clients and built a service matrix, how do you take action? Steve and Kurt map out the processes needed to execute on your plan, and discuss client contact ideas for real-world application.
Building on client segmentation from the last episode, Kurt and Steve introduce the idea of a service matrix - how you can service segments of clients differently. They talk about different types of client touches, including formal review, digital communication, client events, and more.
What is client segmentation, and how can it work for your practice? Steve and Kurt dive into specifics and discuss several ways to segment clients.
Steve and Kurt give an overview of the podcast and an introduction to themselves. They discuss the upcoming series on client service and why it matters now.