Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [04:05] Ryan Ross discusses his background in financial services and marketing
• [07:52] The rise of financial influencers and challenges for licensed advisors
• [11:38] The role of AI tools like ChatGPT in financial marketing and client communication
• [16:26] Balancing professionalism and personal storytelling in financial social media
• [18:54] Understanding the rise of “fin-fluencers” and their social media influence
• [24:12] Ryan shares strategies to attract and engage potential clients in niche financial markets
• [35:28] Practical tips for independent advisors to balance marketing and client work
• [39:42] Why Ryan chose to specialize in financial services marketing and join NAIFA

In this episode…

Many financial advisors struggle to market themselves effectively in an industry crowded with misinformation and unqualified voices. Despite a growing public demand for financial advice, many professionals find it challenging to break through the noise, attract the right clients, and balance marketing with client service. How can advisors build trust, reach their audience, and remain competitive in today’s fast-moving digital world?

Marketing expert Ryan Ross helps financial advisors create impactful digital strategies. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on a niche to improve clarity and outreach. He encourages advisors to use AI tools to streamline content creation and build visibility across emerging answer engines like ChatGPT. Ryan also suggests balancing professionalism with authenticity, using personal stories and everyday moments to foster stronger client connections. He encourages advisors to start with their strengths, whether that’s writing, speaking, or social media, and develop simple, sustainable marketing systems.

In this episode of the Advisor Today podcast, co-hosts Chris Gandy and Carina Hatfield interview financial marketing strategist Ryan Ross about how advisors can grow their digital presence. Ryan shares insights on the power of niche marketing, the role of AI in modern outreach, and how to balance content creation with client service. He also discusses the rise of financial influencers, best practices for answering client questions online, and the benefits of using a consistent, strategic marketing calendar.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Chris Gandy on LinkedIn
• NAIFA
• Carina Hatfield
• Zack Huels on LinkedIn
• Ryan Ross on LinkedIn
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
• National Leadership Conference 2025

Quotable Moments: 

• "It's easy to create the content, but it's harder to know what people are searching for."
• "Start with your strengths because the tools are out there; it just comes down to initiative."
• "The competition is lower when you focus on a niche, and decisions become a lot easier."
• "Answering questions people are asking is the key to creating content that genuinely engages your audience."
• "What you focus on expands, and it's very important to focus on the right market and message."

Action Steps:

1. Develop a clear niche focus: Specializing in a specific market allows financial advisors to create targeted content and build trust.
2. Leverage AI tools for content creation: Save time while helping advisors maintain a consistent and professional online presence.
3. Answer real client questions through content: Creating posts that address common client concerns increases engagement and attracts potential clients organically.
4. Maintain consistent, planned communication: Building a structured content calendar helps advisors stay visible and connected with their audience year-round.
5. Balance personal and professional storytelling: Sharing real-life experiences humanizes advisors and strengthens client relationships in a competitive market.

Sponsor for this episode...

This episode is brought to you by the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, or NAIFA, the #1 association for producers in financial services. 

At NAIFA, we enhance professional skills, promote ethical conduct, and advocate for legislative and regulatory environments.

By joining NAIFA, you gain access to a partnership that elevates your performance while providing greater purpose to your professional work. NAIFA members are happier, make more money, and stay in the business longer.

Get in touch with NAIFA and learn more about how to join NAIFA by visiting NAIFA.org.

EPISODE TRANCRIPT

Intro 00:02

Welcome to NAIFA’s Advisor Today podcast series, where we focus on how financial advisers work, live and give to their local communities and our greater financial services industry. Now let's get started with the show.

Chris Gandy 00:20

Hello and welcome to this new series of Advisor Today, the podcast. We're super excited. I'm your co-host Chris Gandy, and we are super excited to have as our guest co-host for a stint of time, Carina Hatfield. Carina, how are you?

Carina Hatfield 00:39

I'm doing great. How about yourself? Chris?

Chris Gandy 00:42

Good. It's good to see you.

Carina Hatfield 00:44

Great to see you.

Chris Gandy 00:45

Like we haven't seen each other in a long, long, long, long, long time.

Carina Hatfield 00:48

I know it needs to happen more often.

Chris Gandy 00:51

So those who don't know Carina is serving at the national board level. Those of you don't know her, you probably have seen her around. When you see Carina. Make sure you go over and say hi to her. She is a servant leader and we are super excited about having her.

As we've revamped The Advisor Today podcast to include wonderful guest hosts who are helping us round out our new version of the podcast. So thanks for listening. You can find us on all the download systems, places, locations, just Google Advisor Today podcast. With no further ado. Our technician of all technicians, Zack, who's our sponsor for today's podcast.

Zack Huels 01:36

Today we're talking about the LUTCF designation. If you're a new agent or advisor, the LUTCF program is a perfect way to kick start your career. The designation is recognized as the industry benchmark for insurance credentials and is endorsed by the top financial firms and insurance agencies. Graduates of the program report increases in their earnings, client base, and even their job satisfaction after completing their studies. Develop the skills that top insurance agencies demand that agents need to know while advancing your own financial career.

You can find out more at LUTCF. Back to you, Chris.

Chris Gandy 02:12

Thanks, Zack, I appreciate it. We'll let Carina have the honors today. Carina, would you do us the honor of introducing our guest for today's podcast?

Carina Hatfield 02:22

Absolutely. I would like to everyone to give a warm welcome to our guest today, Ryan Ross. Welcome, Ryan. How are you doing today?

Ryan Ross 02:31

Great, I am tremendous. I'm in New Jersey and it's like June in New Jersey, but it's like dreary. But it reminds me of when I was growing up in California. And we go to my grandparents house and it was like dreary in January. So I actually really like this weather.

So it's a great day. Great.

Carina Hatfield 02:52

I'm not far from you and I'm having the same. It was a bit. Yeah, that dreary cold this morning and I'm feeling it warming up. And it's almost like the summer rain is coming, which is one of my favorite like, childhood memories is playing around in the summer rain. So I'm looking forward to I'm looking outside like, all right, let's do it.

Ryan Ross 03:16

It's also some of the best Kareenah and I were talking before we started. It's also some of the best, like running weather or maybe not biking, but we were talking about triathlons and it's some of the best weather for that because the sun's not beaming down on you, but it's still warm. So I'm a big fan.

Carina Hatfield 03:32

Chris, is it like that where you are today? Would you like to go for a run with us — virtual run with us later today?

Chris Gandy 03:37

A virtual run would be perfect. Virtual means you guys run and I'll cheer you on. That is virtual. I would do it right. So super excited, Ryan to have you on.

So let's talk a little bit about you, your, your practice and a little bit about letting the nation know who you are so that they can get at least a broad scope of, of kind of who you are and, and how you, how you join the industry.

Ryan Ross 04:05

Sure. So I kind of grew up in the intersection of financial services and marketing. My dad was an advisor for my whole life. So I kind of understood the industry from, from like the, the entrepreneur's perspective. I started my career at Barron's Magazine doing ad sales at Dow Jones, and then I worked at ft.

The Financial Times as well. That was in New York City. And then I moved to London because my wife got a job there and I'm like, let's do it right. I was working at the FT, but I switched to marketing technology. I worked at a company called Brighttalk, which is like YouTube for business as a webinar platform.

So I learned about content marketing that way. I was also making my own podcast just because I like speaking with people, right? And learning new things. And then when Covid hit, we came back over here for another job opportunity And I started my own shop because I realized after working with. Financial services marketers that some people don't understand how to create their own marketing plans and execute.

And specifically, my dad went independent. He was at Morgan Stanley for 35 years. He went independent. And he's like, I don't know how to market myself because, you know, you have that institutional credibility at Morgan Stanley in general, right? Or anybody that's at a Wirehouse would probably say the same.

When you go independent, you're like, all right, I gotta do everything myself now in most cases. So I'm like, I know what to do. This is what you gotta do. And I said, write a book. And he started writing his book the next day.

Right. So I said I had been working with people across the spectrum of industries, from therapists to tech companies to weed rolling machines that were doing like demos and wanted to do, like demos of their weed rolling machine. That was crazy. They weren't like sampling the product. But anyways, they were sampling the machine to roll it.

But I'm like, I need to focus, right? I need to focus on one industry vertical. And that's what I tell a lot of advisors to do. Now I'm like, focus on a vertical. It makes decisions a lot easier.

You can get a higher resolution of what that audience needs, what your client's needs are. So I started doing that basically in about 2021 with a very select group of people. You got to make sure you're working with the right people. So I say I work at the intersection of financial services and marketing, helping advisors create webinars, create an online presence, try to be the best known advisor in their area or in their market. And that brings us here.

I joined NAIFA as a member in October in New Jersey. So I work closely with the New Jersey team, and they're a great group here. And we're actually — I'm helping them do their marketing as well. Building out that online presence. Try to make sure that members get the most out of their membership and it's a lot of fun.

I'm having a lot of fun doing it.

Chris Gandy 06:59

So you like taking trees that have been rooted for a long period of time and trying to make them grow new branches. Okay, so let's talk about what that looks like. That's what I would call our way of thinking in the insurance industry. Right. Is that it tends to be rooted in old thought.

Right. And so see, Ryan, you caught that, right? You kind of caught it. You got it. You know the leaves.

You know, why is it that financial services is so hard to market, considering if we look at the statistics that 80% of the people out there are actually looking for help or advice in doing work, and 50% of the people out there are looking for insurance but don't know where to start. Or they there's these myths that are out there about insurance and financial services products. So why is it so hard?

Ryan Ross 07:52

Well, I would say it's easy to get the word out there, but it's easy for anybody to get the word out there, right? And what I mean when I say that is let's look back to like the, the, the, the beginning of social media, right. Anybody could create content online. Right. There is a huge need or demand by the population for financial information.

Right? Ever since ERISA started, the need of financial advice has been really prevalent because people have had to manage their own portfolios, or at least their own pension funds. That's where that created financial literacy didn't keep up because the onus of education was on the individual, and financial advisors can create that. But the challenge is that anybody can create content and put financial advice out there. This is especially true with influencers who just don't have the right certifications.

They haven't spent time understanding the nuances of an individual's needs for financial advice. So they're creating content all the time. And there's a lot of noise for financial advisors. It's hard because you have to do multiple jobs at once, right? You need to actually get in front of your clients, right.

You got to market yourself. But then also you have to do the actual work, right. You need to understand the individual's needs. You need to put together the plan. You got to make sure that that client is continually educated on what they are, what their needs are.

And, you know, how do I, you know, if I have a parent that's going into long term care or if I need to create an estate, you got to actually provide the service. But creating the content, that's a whole nother literally platform of understanding that advisors need to do, because most of the time people like using zoom to its fullest extent. I would say probably 20% of the zoom users can use it to its full extent. Right. And this goes there's so many platforms out there that advisors have to choose from to communicate to them to their market.

I say it's easy to create content because you can just turn on your phone and put that on Instagram, but it's harder to do this knowing what people are searching for and being able to match that with what you can speak about, and then be able to put that online in a consumable format. So to just quickly summarize this, It's easy to create the content and people can do it. They're often unqualified. The people that are qualified are doing this, but they're focused on providing good advice, not necessarily on using the platforms to provide that advice.

Carina Hatfield 10:56

So I'll ask the next one. So I and how that plays into it. And what we're seeing I know it's helping. It's helping me formulate some email responses and just get some systems in place. But I'm assuming, you know, it's different.

Chris I don't know in what manner you use it. And I'm sure depending on who somebody is, you know, broker dealer is they have restrictions about what they can put in there and all of that stuff. But you know what? What do you think is the favorite thing or the flavor of AI today? And how do you use it and how do you work towards like financial advisors using it as well?

Ryan Ross 11:38

Yeah. So I would say that I okay, it not only changes like how you can create because we can all go into like ChatGPT and say you can ask any question, right? I have this stuff in my fridge. What do I need? What can I make for dinner?

Right. Or my daughter needs to not bring her bunny into school. How do I separate that from her? Right? You can ask her any question.

Ask it any question, and it'll give you an answer. It'll give you a plan for what? What vacations to take this year, this summer. And then it'll be pretty good, right? Because it can just go into the internet and find things out.

So it's really easy to create. It makes it easy to create. It makes it very easy to it supercharges the work that you can do. Right. Just like you're talking about emails.

It can create email cadences. Very easy. So what might have taken you 60 minutes in the past, takes you literally 60 seconds. So it makes it a lot easier. The quality might need to be adjusted, but I would say that it also changes how you're found increasingly people for the last 25 years, I would say we go to Google in order to find things.

And then, you know, SEO helps you be found through Google. I don't think it's enough anymore. You need to be found on these AI engines, right? I mean, it might be Perplexity or ChatGPT or cloud or whatever. Being found using these platforms is really important.

Is kind of this new buzzword the answer engine optimization? I think that the key thing is like just being found and the messaging needs to be consistent across those platforms. There's something called the name, address, phone number. And that's just like where everybody how you can be found across multiple platforms, making sure that message is consistent. But I would say like the tools you can use now.

Yes, ChatGPT they've just launched tasks, which basically is just a string of requests back to back. Right? So I can say, hey, give me on every Monday at 8 a.m., give me a breakdown of the top ten news items for the last week. And it'll do that. And it does a pretty good job.

 And you can ask it for, you know, the resources that it used to do that. So it's launched different use cases that ChatGPT has. Zapier also does it. They call it agents. But I would say the most important thing for the advisory industry is just being found because there's millions of no, no, there's, let's say 300,000 advisors out there and everybody's got the Or they should have a niche, right?

Maybe that's geographic, maybe it's practice based. But being able to be found using these platforms, I think it's going to be a big differentiator because this is where people are going. Like I said 25 years ago, for the last 25 years, people go to Google increasingly, whether they're going to these sort of these answer engines, I call them answer engines. This it's the AI platforms, right? People go there for answers.

And you can just structure your website to be found using instead of like short-form keywords 1 to 3 words. Now it's 3 to 7 keywords because people are asking larger questions and structuring your website to do that makes it a lot easier. Does that make sense?

Carina Hatfield 15:07

Yeah. It's also like it's a lot. And I'm also thinking about I have a couple of friends who are professionals in other spaces, and they're making these like short clips and stuff like that on social media about like their day, like they're trying to become some form of like social media influencer. And to Chris's comment about the tree. I'm so, so I'm a third generation agent and I just think about my dad and like what he would and wouldn't do and how would he be in this market today?

Because there's this professionalism, mind, you know, there's a form of professionalism that needs to be had among financial advisors. I mean, you're talking about someone's retirement and the rest of their life and all their things, right? Or not just their retirement, their every day. And so where do you fit in this media influencer space? Like, are we sharing our day to day or are we only seeing in the office or, you know, in the client's home or whatever like and marketing that like, and I'm guessing probably it's depending on what your niche market is.

Ryan Ross 16:26

Well, I would say if the question is like how do you incorporate all of the different elements of a marketing plan into what you're doing right, based upon each person's proficiency? Right? Some people might be really good at saying, this is what I did during my day. That just might sound terrible to somebody that doesn't know how to work their phone properly, right?

I would say like, start with your strengths, right? Because if somebody is just really they can write very well. There's definitely a place for that. And they can actually you can take if your dad has just a huge amount of knowledge on life insurance products or like legislation, maybe he likes watching the news a lot and he can just bang out a huge blog post a week or something like that, use that strength, and then you can use I actually to translate that into other formats, right? So you can say, hey, based on this blog post we wrote this week, how can we cut this into short form LinkedIn posts?

Right? Or how can we create this into a campaign or, I don't know, a month-long campaign of somebody talking about their day and then also say how that translates to the life insurance industry, etc.. So I would say, like, there are so many ways to be communicating with people in a proactive manner, but making sure it's like it's strategic, saying we're going to be doing this for the next month rather than tactical being like, oh, you know, I feel like doing this today because I had a smoothie and it was great, and I'm going to tell people about it. Right. Maybe you want to do less of that because it's not as relevant unless your audience is like smoothie franchise owners or something like that.

So I would say like make it simple, make it easy for yourself to create something because the tools are out there. It just comes down to the initiative of doing it and making it a strategic plan so that you can create content on a consistent basis and get in front of people because you just got to get your face seen. So whatever makes it easier to do that, I would say that's probably the path of least resistance.

Chris Gandy 18:33

So Ryan, you mentioned Ben Lewis. Influencer. Influencer. Yeah, that's a real word, right. We'll have to add that to the NAIFA block of words.

So fin-fluencers to give people an idea. What is that? What is that? Is that — are those people — who are those people?

Ryan Ross 18:54

So a fin-fluencer is somebody that's very good at content creation. They're overqualified in content creation, but they don't have and they're talking about financial services topics and they're giving advice on financial services, but they don't have the credentials to actually back up what they're saying with like tactical proof. Right. They might have 10,000-100,000 followers. They might have a Netflix show.

I'm thinking of one specific guy, and he gives great advice. He's written books on these things, but he himself does not have the credentials that you would an individual should seek in their financial advisers, their insurance advisers, things like that. So they are great. They're overcompensating or they're overqualified in content creation, but they're underqualified to actually give advice. You would never want to take advice from them in like a professional context, but they're just really good at creating content.

Chris Gandy 19:49

So the people that are, you know, I can call people out on this because this is our podcast. We can do whatever we want, right? So I'm going to say, like the Suze Orman's of the world and what's his name that yells at the screen all the time.

Ryan Ross 20:02

Oh yeah. On CNN, he's like. You know what? What stocks to buy. Because he says, don't buy these stocks.

Chris Gandy 20:08

Yeah.

Ryan Ross 20:09

Him well I, I, I think, I think on social media. Right.

Chris Gandy 20:14

So on social media instead of Cramer. Yeah. So instead of doing it on TV. Yeah. People that are doing it on social media. Like I’m in a couple of groups where I'm connected to a couple people where I get the one video all the time, where the guy walks up to the kid and he's like, hey! He's like, well, how did you become wealthy? He's like, well, you take $100 and you put it in bonds and you just hold it for 40 years and you have over time, you have $10 million. And I'm thinking to myself, so, you know, I'm curious.

Ryan Ross 20:48

I'm thinking. Okay, so there's this guy, his name is Ramit Sethi, and he wrote a book called I Will Teach You to Be Rich. I read the book. It was an interesting book. Right. But this is like mass market information for people, right, guys?

He's very good at creating content. He's creating courses. What advisors can actually do is to say like, you know, this is they can comment on the videos that these people make and say like that's accurate. That's not accurate. Right.

There's one guy, his name is Gabe. Shailene, I think. And he's an advisor based in California. Does a great job. Highly qualified.

He's been on the Barron's list, and he calls people out on LinkedIn. And he's looking at the videos and saying that's that's that's accurate. This is not accurate. Do not listen to this. Right.

So I like it when people are calling out based upon their credibility. But yeah the influencers it's a free market. They can do what they want. But then I think it's beholden on the advisors to call people out and say that is not accurate unless this is true. Right.

That's what I think.

Chris Gandy 21:58

Right. And so part of that is the fight for the general public rights opinion, right. Because at the end of the day, we see social media move as opinions and ideas move. Right. And so you want to stay on the positive side of that algorithm.

You want to be on that side. but you also want to be part of the topics and conversations. So there's a fine line there, right? Because when people are looking for, you know, I think the challenge in financial services right now, which is the reason why that number is so large, we actually looked at some recent numbers, is that the generation between 20 between 30 and 20. Have the 1 or 3 out of every four have engaged in financial services.

Whereas you take the group right above them, the group right above them, and even the group above them, and that number drops below like 50%. It drops below like 50%. So there's a 75% down to less than 50% like 40%, which is a huge gap. Right? You think about the million people.

So you got to start saying, okay, so it's not just the information, it's the implementation of these concepts, but we're all fighting for the public's opinion. So. So how do we how do question is how do we get it? How do we get the attention of a potential client there who needs our help for them to actually engage in Corina's, process our process and get them out of the algorithm? Swing right, because once you swipe up, I'll give you a concept of infinite banking.

Once you swipe up on infinite banking, you're an infinite banking, you know, portal for forever. Like, you can't even you're like, I can't get out. Even if you put in butterflies and rainbows like you can't get out. It's like butterflies and rainbows and infinite banking. You're like, wait a minute, how did I get here?

Right? So I call it the vortex. Like, so you can't get out of that vortex. How do we stay on the right side of that but still be part of the conversation if we're trying to just change how we're seen by the general public?

Ryan Ross 24:12

Well, I would say that there's kind of two things at play here, right? The first one is you can have all the content that you want to create, right? You think you got some great ideas for blog posts. But then there's this other area of the Venn diagram, the circle of the Venn diagram, which is what people are actually looking for, right? The content you create needs to answer those questions.

So the Venn diagram has to overlap between what you want to create and what the audience wants to see. So you can meet your supply of information with the audience's demand. There are specific ways to do that. There's there's prompts to ask ChatGPT what are ten long tail keywords on infinite banking? And it'll tell you the things people are asking, right?

You can create a calendar of content to answer those questions. So that way when they are answering those questions, they'll find your blog post. If it's optimized well enough, they'll find your blog post and they'll go in and they'll see that you're an authority on infinite banking. But I also think, like the referrals are really important too, because people are much more likely to go to you if they say, hey, you know, my friend also knows this person, right? Or if you've connected with them on LinkedIn and they see your face all the time, then they'll be like, oh, when the time comes that they are within like the scope of purchase or interest, they'll see.

Like, I should probably reach out to Chris because he knows about infinite banking, right? So I think the combination of making sure that your face is seen and known and associated with those concepts, and then also having a bank of content that you have that answers those specific questions. That's a good recipe, because at the end of the day, we're trying to meet the demand of information, which is people searching for things. They're getting into the vortex, right. You got to have your stuff in that vortex and having a backup, a backup log of what?

What they might be asking around that infinite banking topic, right? Because that's just the surface. That's like the tip of the iceberg because there's so many other things. It's called PR. People also ask when you type into Google Infinite Banking.

They may ask like five other different things. And those are the long tail. So creating content, answering the questions right. When I say creating content, it really just means answering questions people are asking. Then that way you can dive deeper into what you're saying so that way you're familiar because they've seen you online in different places, and maybe their friends are connected with you.

And then when they are in that scope of interest, you're there and you're there to help know.

Chris Gandy 26:57

Carina, I don't know about you, but I've gotten the most impressions right. And people that stay on our videos from saying things like, here are the five things that our clients are asking us, like just random stuff, like it is the most random thing, you know, like people are like, oh yeah, I want to ask that question. Right? And it's like, oh yeah, I want to know the answer to that. It's like the most random thing.

And then when we actually do videos that are done and professionally done and things like that, it's like 1/100 of that. Right? And so the engagement part of it and you're right, Ryan, our ability to engage and answer questions that they don't even they don't even know they even have, but they know they have. Right? They're just not willing to ask them.

It's like, oh, well, I hadn't thought about that question. Right. I think getting them to think about things like that. Carina, how are you using some of the things that Ryan is saying in your social media?

Carina Hatfield 27:52

Oh, yeah.

Chris Gandy 27:53

Well, while we're looking, while we're talking, let me look at your social media.

Carina Hatfield 27:56

Oh, goodness. I mean, it's better.

Chris Gandy 27:58

Carina.

Carina Hatfield 27:59

Oh, goodness. So we being in it. So Ryan I'm more in the property and casualty space. So my. I being an independent property and casualty agent, we not only are trying to advertise and we were nationwide agents captive nationwide agency for for many many many, many years.

So we have to we not have to we want to market not only with our insurance. My company, we also want to market nationwide because we love them and want to keep that. But then we also have all these other progressive travel, you know, we have all these other carriers, and we want to let people know because of our history that like, we have all of these other carriers because still to this day and it's been five years, like, oh, I didn't know you did more than nationwide. I thought you were wider nationwide like that's where they, you know so we're trying to break that but or stretch it I guess. Right.

Like I don't, I don't want to get rid of that association. But I also need to bring in all the other things. But, Chris, to your point that one of our biggest like commented posts was there was a huge storm in Pennsylvania. Well, there are huge storms in Pennsylvania, but there was a huge one and all the internet and phones were out at my house, but I had internet and phones at my office. So I posted a picture of me and I and my and my girls, and it was, you know, just a selfie.

Me and my girls, hey, my home's not my home's not — doesn't have internet or phones, but my office does. We'll be here to answer any questions for you today. Like and that was one of the biggest like commented and seen viewed posts that we had put on for a while. And it was this, you know, selfie of me and my girls just saying, hey, we're here during the storms.

Ryan Ross 29:58

Yeah, I think it's it. Well, what it does is it kind of it brings some humanity to the situation. Right. Because you could easily think that PNC insurance is like, you know, institutional, right? And you want it to be safe. But I think because you're kind of, you know, saying like, this is this life situation that we are in and we're still here showing people the face, showing people the humanity behind, because that's why people go to one, one, one agent versus another, right?

They want to see the humanity. They want it to mirror them. It makes a lot of sense to me.

Carina Hatfield 30:37

Yeah. I mean, we just posted like, summer hours. We're working virtually so we can best serve you. I mean, you know, we have — we're a small office with young staff and or with staff, with young kids. Summer is crazy.

We're running our kids a camp just like everybody else and doing everything. And we're like, we're here. It could be early in the morning, like, call us. Don't just come in here and think one of us is here. We might be completely closed, but we're working somewhere.

Yeah, we might just be in transition and. And we it's. So we'll get comments on that. Like, I'm so glad you're spending time with your kids, and I'm so glad you have a flexible schedule. And, you know, it's one of the things that I love about this industry is that I can do that.

I can be, you know, working, working mom, business owner and have that flexible schedule and get to be there with my kids. But you know, it does like — our clients love it. I mean, during snowstorms. Why are you answering the phone? You know, why aren't you playing outside with your kids?

Like I'm here. I'm working from home. Yeah, but it's marketing that and. Well. And finding that balance of, again, professionalism and real life.

Ryan Ross 31:47

Yeah, I think what could be hard is if, you know, there aren't any disasters. And that sounds really bad. But like when everything's kind of normal things are you're still in business even when things are normal, right? And that's where this having the communication strategy is really helpful, because then you always know what you're going to be saying, right. Back to this, this influencer thing.

The reason they're so good is that they have a count of what they're going to be doing, and they have systems involved in making these things happen. Agents can absolutely do these things as well. Right. Having the calendar, having the systems involved, saying, we are always going to be doing this because at the beginning when you're starting, you might, you know, you might trip up a little bit and you're like, oh, I don't know how that post went or, you know, whatever things might have, they might not have a smooth execution the first few times. But when, you know, I'm going to be doing this on a consistent basis, creating those things, having a few bumps in the road, getting past them and still creating the content.

So putting your messaging out there and maybe that says, hey, we were nationwide and now we're all these other things as well, right? Having that consistent Communication that fills in the gaps. That's really needed when things are normal, right? When there's not a disaster that you can kind of show the humanity and the empathy behind the business model. It helps you make sure that you're staying consistently in front of people, showing your face and making sure that people understand who you are and what you're about.

Carina Hatfield 33:23

You know, that's awesome.

Chris Gandy 33:24

That's it's hard, you know, because you know, the you know, Ryan, obviously you've, you've, you've, you've been in the marketing side probably longer than Kareenah. And I think her and I kind of grew up shaking hands kissing babies. Right. And then going, they're not really going door to door, but referrals and building centers of influence and things like that. Yeah.

And, you know, so it's difficult because it's a new thing. Right. It's a new muscle that we've just now developed and having that. So my question goes to Ryan. How do you balance it?

Because you know like my marketing people, it's literally a full time job that I, we we sold it. I'm like, I can't do it, I don't have time to do it. Like when we do videos, we literally do videos for like three hours, four hours. And then they cut it up, slice it up, do whatever they want, and it rolls out over the next, the contents in the can. And we're, we're, we're running.

Right. But I mean they're doing stuff every day, you know, and yeah, it's. Like you don't, you don't see.

Ryan Ross 34:31

What goes on behind the. Scenes. Yeah. Like how do you have time?

Chris Gandy 34:34

How do you have time to do that every day? You know, especially when we're fighting to see clients, we're up against all the changes that are happening with Congress and those types of things. We're people who are concerned about the ever fluctuating markets. And, oh, you know, the world is crashing and interest rates are through the roof. And are we going to go to war?

You know, some of the other things that are at play. How do we balance? How does someone balance who doesn't have the budget?

Fortunate enough that we can we have a pretty reasonable budget, you know, because we've been around a very long time. But for those who don't have the budget to do it to off to delegate it.

Ryan, what do they do?

Ryan Ross 35:28

Well, I would say like where's the primary priorities. Right. If you're an advisor and maybe you're just going independent, I'm speaking with a guy in a few days and he's like, I'm going to make the move, right? He doesn't know if he wants to start his own Ria or just go under somebody else's Ria, but he's like, he's going to go independent and that's what he wants to do. And so I'll tell him, like, okay, you got to figure out what's the layer of work you want to do and what's the strategic move that you want to make.

What are your biggest goals here? Do you have a bank of clients that you're already working with, or are you going to have to build a new book? If you have to, if you have to break away. And maybe that's the truth, right. But say you have, you know, 20, 50 clients that you're working with.

You definitely want to make sure you have the cash flow in order to be sustaining a business at all. Because if, if, if you don't want to pull the wool over your eyes and be like, I'll be fine, I'll just create an Instagram and a LinkedIn account and I'll and I'll post every day and, and then I'll hope for clients to come in. Now I would say like, make sure that you're focusing on the cash flow first, because through that, all other things are possible with the institutional knowledge that you have. But then I would say like, okay, five year or yeah, next, next year. Right.

What are the biggest goals you have? And maybe that is building up an email list or putting together a webinar plan, right? Then it's like, okay, now it's a time management exercise. This is how you balance things, right? There's a great quote.

There's a guy named Ed Mylett and he's maybe a motivational speaker business leader. He's like, I have 14 businesses. I don't balance anything, right? I pull things up as they come up. He's trying to just push things ahead one by one, and he's playing whack a mole.

And that's kind of what business is. Unless you can say this person is going to be doing this on my team, or maybe I'm outsourcing it to that person and I'm going to trust that they're going to do it right. And they should really be proactive about making sure that you're hitting your strategic priorities. But having like one number saying, we're only going to be doing a podcast a month or a webinar a month, and that's the thing to focus on. I think, again, I talked about earlier about having the niche when you have that specific niche that you're going after, if this guy that I'm speaking with on Wednesday, his background is in wine, wine and financial advising.

I'm like, okay, find the niche, identify 100 people that you want to go after and market to those people saying, we're going to be hosting a webinar on tax strategies for wine shop owners, right? That's really niche. Maybe it's going to be 100 people, but those are going to be the right people. And then after the time you have allotted to that thing, work on client. Client work, right?

Don't I would say don't sacrifice the marketing for other clients right now that you could, that you're working with, because they're going to be your next referral source. The main business that advisors get is from referrals, marketing, supplements, that business. So to consolidate my answer, right, focus on the number one thing which is delivering service to clients. And after that it's solved. Then you can allocate time and or resources to figuring out what's the number one goal of your marketing, which is probably to bring in new business, right?

And then feed people back into the funnel. So I said a few things right there. You can't balance it, but you can say, I'm going to only spend this amount of time on marketing or these other initiatives.

Chris Gandy 39:07

So, so, so, Ryan, I heard you say keep the first thing first. Yeah, I like Google's powerful groups of words. Right. So keep the first thing first. Right. So whatever that is, whether it's seeing clients, getting clients, maintaining client relationships, whether it's, you know, whatever that first keep the first thing first, keep the main thing, the main thing.

You know we've heard that. So talk to us a little bit about if you're in marketing. Why'd you join Nathan. Like how did this like that like the NAIFA thing. Like, how did you like. I'll jump. I'll be part of this financial service.

Ryan Ross 39:42

This is exactly what I'm. I eat my own dog food. Right? I tell people, pick a niche. This is the niche. This is my niche.

Advisors write insurance and financial advisors. I was working with a lot of different industries and, you know, psychiatry, psychiatrists. And like I said, we're rolling companies and a battery technology company, they're hosting webinars, but they all have very different markets. They all have very different needs and technological sophistication, although you do see that with advisors sometimes. But I said, hey, I know this market because I, like I said, I grew up in this market.

My dad is an advisor. So I understand the mindset, I understand the regulations I have to jump through. I get the mindset. You need to be an advisor. And then I said, okay, I can do this here because I've, you know, worked with my dad.

And so now I have other clients in New Jersey and around the country. But I, like I tell this to clients to find the niche, because then you are going to be the only person there. That, or maybe one of the very few that are doing this for your niche. The guy who was speaking with about the wine, he's going to be the only advisor at this wine conference, guaranteed or very few, right? It becomes a blue ocean rather than a red lake.

I guess that's the phrase, right? There's there's. The competition is lower. Not that I don't like competition, I love competition. I do triathlons.

But I think it increases the resolution of the problems that I'm solving when I can understand really deeply what issues my market is dealing with. Right? I went to a congressional conference in last month, in May, and I'm like, in the room with advisors and I'm hearing what their stories are, what, what challenges they're dealing with. And I just want to support that and say, like, these are really important careers because so many people don't understand, like financial services at all. And these are the people that are helping them do that.

And I help advisors help those people. So it's about focusing on the niche.

Chris Gandy 41:53

So, Ryan, I have to ask, are you coming to the NLC National Leadership Conference? Because the part of this conference is to teach the locals how to. Build, grow and develop their states and their affiliates.

Ryan Ross 42:16

Yeah.

Chris Gandy 42:19

Through marketing, through recruiting, through membership, through a bunch of different things. Right.

Ryan Ross 42:26

So it sounds like I need to be there.

Chris Gandy 42:27

Yeah. So I would tell you, NLC. A great. Zack. Shameless plug. I mean, come on. So you should come to NLC.

Yeah. I know some people that know some people. And perhaps we could. We could get you in front of some others to talk about the importance of collective marketing, because I see Nyfa as an algorithm on its own. Right.

 If we do it right, right. Our ability to market because Carina is successful becomes easier in Illinois just because she's successful, right? If I'm using the same hashtag words, if I'm using the same, like I was having a conversation with, with our group and I was talking, I said, so what are your hashtag words for your state? And they're like, well, it's this. Then I went to the next group.

 I said, what are they for your state? They're like this. And I'm like, well, what are they for? National? They're like, where?

 I'm like, wait a minute. Like, you guys understand that? Like, the more we use the same words, the more the bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger it gets. Like, so, like, what are the things that we're going to agree that, you know, everybody uses. Obviously you have your own unique ones.

But yeah, we all use the same ones. But that's part of our ability to grow through marketing, through influence. Right. That actually be able to grow.

Ryan Ross 43:57

That's how you do this. Is more of an action versus a words based strategy. But there's something called LinkedIn pods. I don't know if you guys have heard of this, but there's four different metrics that the algorithms use to make something more visible to the entire audience. And like, we could set up a NAIFA pod or like NAIFA state-based pod, where I am re-sharing Carina's words with some quotes. Right?

And you're also doing it too, because a reshare for LinkedIn that has a higher value of algorithmic virality. And it means like, oh, this is a really good post right. So that's it's kind of a very similar thing to what you're saying about with the hashtags, just in a different way. But it's really — your point is taken, right? We can all use our collective power on these platforms and elsewhere to amplify each other's voices.

Chris Gandy 44:59

We are strong. As our coach used to say, if you take five hands and try to knock it through a wall, you hit the wall and you hurt your hand, right? But if you take those same five fingers and you go like this, you can knock a hole through the wall almost every time it's the same. It's just how they're formed, right? So?

So it's not mine. It's just borrowed and repurposed. Right. So you can borrow it now. You can repurpose it yourself, Carina.

You can repurpose that. Right? The five fingers. It's kind of a cool concept. Whatever.

But we've got, you know, we need to have you back. We'd love to see it. NLC.

Ryan Ross 45:31

When is that? Give me the details on it.

Chris Gandy 45:34

Zack can provide those in the. For those who are looking for advice on NLC. NLC is coming up here. We're about, I want to say 90 days, 60 days away. Carina, October dates.

Carina Hatfield 45:46

October in DC, is that right?

Zack Huels: 45:48

Yes. So it is October 14th at the UVA Darden Sands Family Grounds in Arlington, Virginia.

Chris Gandy 45:57

It's a day and a half of unification leadership opportunity for our association celebration, celebration, all the awards. So all the super people, the superstars who have performed and given so much to Nepa, we will celebrate them and we'll have a good time and and we will. The new transition of leadership comes into play and gets sworn in. So Ryan, you're you will be amongst the table of.

Ryan Ross 46:34

That sounds good I like that.

Chris Gandy 46:35

So, come. We'd love to have you. But we gotta move to the speed round because unfortunately.

Carina Hatfield 46:42

Oh my goodness.

Chris Gandy 46:43

Yeah, we're out of time. We've been talking about marketing and it's really engaging. We'll have to have you back. So Zack we got to have him back. I'm sure people want to hear part two from Ryan.

So Ryan the speed round is like this is basically you're on the hot seat now. Really on a hot seat. We're not going to ask you questions that you wouldn't answer in front of your mom or dad. We're just going to ask you of course, or political affiliates. We're not going to ask you that.

What did you do when you were in grade school and actually you were looking at somebody else? When I ask you this, we're going to ask you stuff along the lines of, just so people get to know you when they see you, they can identify you. They understand things about you of things that are important to you. So I'll start it off and then we'll go to Carina and we'll kind of go back and forth for a couple, and then we'll wrap it up. Okay.

We got a couple minutes left. Okay. With that being said, Ryan, what's your favorite food?

Ryan Ross 47:30

Well, you know, I'd say cake, but I eat a lot of bagels, so bagels.

Chris Gandy 47:34

Bagels. Okay, Carina.

Carina Hatfield 47:36

Favorite movie?

Ryan Ross 47:38

Ocean's 11, 12, and 13.

Chris Gandy 47:41

Ocean's 11, 12, and 13. Great answer.

Ryan Ross 47:46

Probably 12 because everybody doesn't like 12. But Ocean’s 11 is the best movie.

Chris Gandy 47:52

All right, next question. Your proudest moment in the industry that you're in so far?

Ryan Ross 47:59

I went to Congressional Congress in May, and it was really, really cool to just this was when they were trying to sign this bill. Right. And so the president was going to the, the, the, the state state building and the security was hot. It was very cool to be in those rooms where these things were happening. It was awesome.

Chris Gandy 48:19

Okay, Carina.

Carina Hatfield 48:21

Favorite thing to do outside of work?

Ryan Ross 48:25

Well, I can't say triathlons. I have young kids, so just hanging out with my kids, they're very cute and giggly and It's awesome.

Chris Gandy 48:34

Okay, Ryan, if you could go back and tell your 20-year-old self some words of advice, what would you tell yourself?

Ryan Ross 48:46

Slow down. Focus, focus. Slow down. It'll be okay. Take a breath.

Chris Gandy 48:54

You know, that's. It's a learning lesson, right? When you get a chance to reflect. Carina, do you have one more? If not, I have one final one.

That's always good. You know.

Carina Hatfield 49:02

I know, I know, I was going to ask it, but I do have a I was going to take it and. But I want you to deliver. No, no. Something you would like to accomplish yet in 2025.

Ryan Ross 49:14

What do I want to accomplish in 2025? Well, I'm hosting a pickleball event in Saint Louis in a few weeks, and I really want to get a lot of people to that. But yeah, professionally, I would say that I just like making things work well.

Chris Gandy 49:33

Ryan, you're officially off the team for. You said pickleball out loud. Like you're officially off the team now. Like, you know, I'm.

Ryan Ross 49:42

I've never played pickleball, but I'm helping somebody put on this event.

Chris Gandy 49:49

You got your points back. No pickleball people listening to this. But it's interesting because I work out with some guys and they're like, you know, pickleball is just like playing professional sports. And I look at them like, are you kidding? Like it is a yeah.

It's okay. Got it. Well, you could be physical. It's a whole nother thing. But last question for you is if you can go back in time and have dinner with anyone, whether they're here they passed on or in today's times, who would it be and why?

Ryan Ross 50:23

Probably my dad's dad. I think I could have learned a lot from him. I think I was like four when he passed away. But it's always my dad who is a very specific character, and I wasn't old enough to know the person that shaped him enough. So I would like to have dinner with them.

I think that would be a lot of fun, just because, you know, to show them where I've been or to show him where I've gone. I think that'd be really cool. I'm getting, like, emotional here, man.

Chris Gandy 51:01

I was gonna say we got to keep it dry. You know. I got a question that's a zinger, and we've had everything. If you go back and look at the podcast, we've had some. That question gets us to think about significant versus success, because it allows for us to go back and think about the impact which we're having in people's lives, and also the people that observe us and we lead. Right. So I appreciate you being open and honest.

Carina, we love you. We love having you here. As a. Part of the. Podcast, Ryan Nathan Nation is listening. Do you have anything else you would like to share? We again, Selfless Plug. We'd love to see you at at NLC.

Ryan Ross 51:47

I would say get if you're an NAIFA member, purely because I'm on the membership committee in New Jersey, and I know people don't understand how many benefits there are to being a member. Like figure out everything you can get about using your membership, and also think about what your niche is and find the association that's based with your niche, because you cannot imagine how important it is to focus, because what you focus on expands and it's very important. So benefits and focus. That's what I would say.

Chris Gandy 52:17

Ryan, thank you so much. Carina. Do you have anything before I close this out?

Carina Hatfield 52:22

No. I'm good. I mean, just I, I've taken notes on this. I'm, like motivated for another triathlon from our conversation. We had a little bit before the podcast started and I got some work to do.

Mine is July 13th. The one I'm doing but so I'm like ready to go out and go for a run and also then get on LinkedIn and like look up all kinds of stuff. So thank you so much Ryan. This was such a great conversation today.

Ryan Ross 52:53

Yeah, this is great.

Carina Hatfield 52:55

2.0 Ryan I need another one.

Chris Gandy 52:57

2.0. We got it. We gotta bring him back. Zack. So listen, talk to our talent scout.

You know, he's the guy over in the other room that's making things happen. Zack can get you back on. We'd love to have you. So NAIFA Nation, if you didn't take notes, you can rewind it and listen to it again. Keep the main thing, the main thing, the first thing, the first thing.

As you enter your business with humanity and empathy, you tend to be more. Not reliable, but more human, human, human. And what you're doing and that will make a huge difference. We appreciate you tuning in to Advisor Today, the podcast where we are hearing from the top influencers or influencers like Ryan, who's helping us navigate the waters of the time so that we can show up as the best version for ourselves so we can help our clients make the decisions to live a greater life for themselves. So we appreciate you being here.

Thank you all and we look forward to seeing you again on the Next Advisor Today podcast.

Outro 54:08

Thanks for joining us for Advisor Today Podcast series. Make sure to subscribe to get future episodes. And if you're interested in coming on the show, let us know.