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

• [04:17] Grace Staten discusses how mentorship led her into the financial services industry
• [06:58] Why advisors often underutilize their marketing professionals
• [08:55] How marketing professionals help advisors build personal brands
• [12:12] Grace explains the difference between branding, marketing, and advertising
• [16:28] Common reasons advisors resist marketing efforts
• [20:08] Measuring marketing success through metrics like engagement and production
• [26:23] Why narrow target markets are more effective than broad ones
• [29:12] The impact of video and podcast content versus static social media posts
• [36:03] How AI is transforming content creation and campaign strategy
• [42:13] Grace’s top priorities as incoming president, including retention and automation

In this episode…

Many financial advisors rely heavily on referrals and outdated methods for business growth — often avoiding modern marketing out of fear, budget concerns, or a lack of understanding. Without a clear branding strategy, advisors struggle to differentiate themselves and connect meaningfully with target clients. How can advisors effectively build a recognizable presence and grow their business through intentional marketing?

Grace Staten, a seasoned communications and marketing expert in the financial services space, provides clarity on this challenge by breaking down the essentials of branding versus marketing and advertising. She emphasizes starting with foundational branding — understanding mission, values, and client experience — before promoting that identity through campaigns. She offers tactical advice such as developing 12-week marketing plans, leveraging video and podcast content, using AI to simplify content creation, and measuring ROI through specific metrics like engagement and lead quality. Grace also shares a compelling story about an advisor who found unexpected success by narrowing his niche market.

In this episode of the Advisor Today Podcast, Chris Gandy and Kathleen Owings interview Grace Staten, a seasoned marketing executive, about building effective marketing strategies for financial advisors. Grace outlines the importance of personal branding, how to start small and build up marketing efforts, and why embracing imperfect video content can humanize your brand. She discusses AI’s role in marketing, retention strategies for professional organizations, and the value of storytelling in advisor growth.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Chris Gandy on LinkedIn
• NAIFA
• Kathleen Owings on LinkedIn
• Zack Huels on LinkedIn
• Grace Staten on LinkedIn

Quotable Moments: 

• “Branding is who you are, how you want people to feel when they interact with you.”
• “Marketing without measurement is just guessing. So you do have to look at things that drive metrics.”
• “You have to spend money to make money, you can't just always do everything for free.”
• “People want to do business with people that they trust, that they think they know.”
• “It humanizes your brand. Even just your voice, the way you speak, if there's humor.”

Action Steps:

1. Develop a personalized marketing plan: Tailoring your strategy to specific goals and markets keeps efforts focused and measurable.
2. Narrow your target market: Speaking directly to a well-defined niche increases relevance and leads to stronger client connections.
3. Embrace imperfect video content: Authentic, unpolished videos humanize your brand and build trust with your audience.
4. Use metrics to track campaign success: Measuring engagement and lead generation ensures your marketing investment is working effectively.
5. Collaborate with your marketing professional: Involving them regularly turns your vision into actionable branding and outreach.

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 Advisor Today podcast. We're almost through April. So rewind your clock, go back and listen to our last handful of podcasts. We're super excited about where we are and what we're doing. As many of you know, we've relaunched, rebranded The Advisor Today podcast, and you'll see some different people coming around hanging around.

You know, we just recently finished the NFL draft and we took some time to draft. Our first round draft pick was Kathleen Owings. So Kathleen, as the NAIFA 2025 draft pick, we're happy to have you here on our new team advisor. You know, Zack, we need some advisor today. Jerseys.

That would be great.

Kathleen Owings 01:06

I would wear that. That'd be pretty fun.

Chris Gandy 01:08

Like the whole podium. Come on up.

Zack Huels 01:10

I'll order some right now.

Chris Gandy 01:13

We'll see if the budget allows. But, Kathleen, thanks for being here. We're happy to have you as my part co-host today.

Kathleen Owings 01:20

Thanks so much, Chris. It's fun to be here and I'm really looking forward to our conversation today with Grace.

Chris Gandy 01:26

Okay. Wonderful. Before we go to our wonderful guests, our esteemed guests today, let's go ahead and throw it to Zack. Zack, can you tell us a little bit about a sponsor for today's podcast? Thanks, Zack.

We appreciate that. And you know, we can't do this without wonderful sponsorship. So if you know of other sponsors that might want to participate in a podcast and participate in supporting this podcast, please let Zack Huels know at NAIFA. And before we go to that, now back to you, Kathleen. So, Kathleen, would you mind introducing our guest for today's podcast?

Kathleen Owings 02:03

I would love to introduce our guest today, Chris. Thanks so much. So today we have Grace Staten who works with Coastal Wealth. Coastal Wealth is a MassMutual firm, and she is the chief communications officer there. In addition to working with producers like myself and Chris, she has helped them learn how to position their practices in the marketplace, which we all need help with.

I will tell you that. So I'm excited to talk to Grace about how she can help producers and better market themselves. She also directs media relations, branding, advertising all the important things we need to do to get the word on the street about how we're helping our clients. Grace is also really involved in her community. She's been very involved with Girl Scouts, Junior Achievement, Hope, Haven, Childhelp I mean, the list goes on and on.

So Grace is pervasive in her volunteer activities outside of what she does. And she is currently the president-elect for NAIFA Colorado. So we're going to talk about that here in a little bit. And she's been in the industry since 1996 working with Ameriprise started there. She has a master's in business administration and a bachelor's from San Jose State University.

She also has all the number series that we need to get in the industry. She has six, seven, 2463, 66. So Grace is a powerhouse. I'm really excited to have her here today. And thanks so much for being here, Grace.

Grace Staten 03:29

I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Chris Gandy 03:32

Gracious, it's wonderful seeing you and thank you so much for your service as a part of Napa leadership. You know, it goes unsaid. And many times we don't say enough that thank you because without people like yourself, this organization wouldn't be where we are today. And we have a long ways to go. But with that being said, we look forward to continuously seeing you in your face, in leadership roles, as, as you continue to, to grow in your career.

So with that being said, Grace, share with us a little bit about how you got here. I mean, how did you stumble into the insurance and financial services industry? Did it find you or did you find it? Tell us your story.

Grace Staten 04:17

Well. All right. Yes. Again, thank you for having me. So it's an interesting journey I had, and I feel like I owe so much credit to women, women supporters.

Women have helped me throughout the way. So I graduated from San Jose State University in California. And when I was out there, I knew I wanted my major to be in business, but specifically, I wasn't sure. And so there was an advisor that I went to that was a full time financial advisor, and she also worked with the school. And when I spoke with her, she said, you know what?

How about this? If you don't know what you want to do, why don't you work part-time at my office? And her office at the time was called American Express Financial Advisors, which is now, of course, Ameriprise. And so she, you know, got me in there. I worked part-time while I went to college, and I really, really enjoyed it.

I started out as an assistant, and I watched different financial advisors do what they had to do, you know, and helped with the support aspect in along the way. I ended up becoming fully licensed and, you know, becoming more of a paraplanner role. And so my husband's active duty Navy. So we've moved around, you know, quite a bit. And so ultimately, I ended up in Florida.

And when I got here, I was initially working as an advisor, but then the then general agent approached me about going in a marketing role, even though my degree is in finance. And I was like, what in the world? I crunch numbers, I'm good, you know, on the back end. It's just funny how life takes you where it takes you. But I have never looked back.

I love this career. I love this industry. So. But it started all out by a woman that I went to for advice about what to major in, within business and her pointing me toward finance. And it's been my whole career since then.

Kathleen Owings 06:34

So in that pivot Grace from those are two that's kind of left brain. Right brain from finance to marketing. Yeah, it's interesting because you and you are also licensed. I also find that very interesting. So you've been on both sides of the table.

How do you feel that advisors underutilize, maybe their marketing professionals or use them well and can better use them?

Grace Staten 06:58

Yes, I see, I don't think all of the advisors really fully understand how they can properly utilize a marketing professional, because there's so much that one could do with this. I know that we can help, like with branding and development and positioning them as like a subject matter expert. I know oftentimes, you know, advisors don't necessarily have the time, maybe not even the interest to do something like that. This is absolutely something, you know, to help with the personal branding. And when somebody such as myself is, is like all in like with this industry and licensed.

So I understand the compliance part of it. It's really helped having my series 24. But I understand like, you know, what is good and what isn't. The disclosure and also, you know, help them, you know, get their name out there. There's a variety of things.

It's not just about branding, though. You know, one of the key things that I personally do and just did earlier today is help develop a marketing plan. And that's from start to finish, like asking the advisor, helping them with their target markets, the locations they're going to be in, a full, complete marketing plan will have things like who they should market to, will have a source with leads, it will have organizations they can join. And, you know, just altogether like a timeline in there as well of what they can do and break it down into like bite-sized pieces, if you will, because I know that I'm a big believer in the 12-week year plan. And as you know, you can accomplish so much more if you break down all of the activities that you need to do in smaller pieces.

And so we do that within the marketing plan. So we talk about what all they would like to accomplish and how they're going to penetrate these markets and their budget. And how is all that going to be put together. So these things take some time from start to finish, but that's something else that I'm not sure if, you know, all the advisors out there are doing that, but that's extremely helpful to do marketing plans. I mean, of course there's I can talk about events, event planning, promoting those.

That's something else that a marketing professional can help to from the very, very get go of getting everything with the compliance paperwork put together with invitations to promoting it if it is open to the public, or at least, you know, getting in front of the audience that they wanted to, and then then, you know, from there just making sure the whole the, the whole event is, is pretty seamless. That's kind of what we, you know, help with so that the communication and that they make all of the timelines needed with whether it's if it's offered like at a restaurant, you know, make sure that that that is, you know, the RSVP, the invites, you know, all of that is communicated effectively. You know, I know I mentioned branding, I mean, branding isn't not necessarily just social media, but just branding in general. I mean, we create we have hundreds of pieces that we have that we can like starting from, like a client welcome kit that we can create and brand specifically for that particular advisor, even if it's their own DBA and not one that we have, you know, not close to Wells. We are very, very open to helping brand with their own DBAs.

I mean, there's so many different things that we could help with, but we are the content creators and we do try to help a lot, like with thought leadership as well. So there's other things I could go on. But there's just so many things that they should really tap on the shoulder. If they have a marketing person, they really should, you know, ask, ask for help.

Chris Gandy 11:04

So, Grace, let me ask a question as if I am I. I've outsourced all of this. This is not a lot, right? So but can we go from level 5,000 to level 500 on that? Can you explain the difference between branding and actual marketing because or branding and marketing and actual advertising like it is baffling to me.

Well, because I didn't quite understand until I actually hired somebody, a group to actually do it right is, you know, needed to have a whole branding. And what is it? What is the What does it represent and like? So can you just explain in simple terms? I know you could probably do it in very complicated terms.

What is the difference between branding and like just maybe posting on social media and posting like, what is the difference between the two? Because there is a clear difference between the two.

Grace Staten 12:12

Yeah. I mean, I look at it as. Branding is who you are. Branding is like your mission. It's your values. Like who, even your personality, how you want people to feel when they interact with you. Like, who are you?

What do you stand for? How do you want to be remembered? That type of thing, that and to translate that. It's like your logo, any, you know, messaging you want, a tagline you want and the overall like client experience. But marketing is promoting who you are.

And that is like, how will people find out about you? How do you attract and engage in and convert clients, and what channels do you use to spread the message so that into translate that that would be the social media, the email campaigns, the seminars or webinars, advertising, client events, that sort of thing.

Chris Gandy 13:11

So let's go even down to. Level 100. So that's a lot like, so. So where do you even like where you start? Like so if I'm a new advisor in the business or an advisor that's been around for a long period of time, but the only way I actually meet clients is by the old school referral way.

Right? Is that shaking hands and kissing babies? That's what I call right? That's the only way I go about doing it. Like, where do you start?

Because this seems overwhelming. And then at the same time, since you do have a 24, you can speak to this is that the narrative needs to be crafted in a way where it can actually get through the compliance part of it, right? And so like, where do you where do you where do you even start? How do you start? Where do you start?

Grace Staten 14:03

Well, so initially it was difficult because I started in the role. It's transformed over the years. But in the marketing role in 2006 and initially it was a lot of asking the, you know, the leadership like, what do I do? How do I handle this? This is what this person wants.

And then speaking with compliance. So what we ended up developing were templates in the beginning that anybody can use when they come on board. It's like okay, this is generic enough for anybody, but after you get your feet wet and you get all of the basics 86 done from you know, you know, some people like tri fold or bi fold or one pagers or, you know, like some of the basic things that they would want their web pages, things like that. Then once they get their feet wet or if they're come over experienced, then it's about, I guess they like the branding, which is like building the house, the foundation, the design, the feel. We want people to make the marketing more effective.

So marketing then would be like inviting them over to come see what you know has been created. So I would say the branding is initial, that they have to start with that, that they have to take a look at what do they want to look like, how they want the outside world to look at themselves. And then that's where we go back and we look and say, okay, how? This is what your vision is. Let me see if I can help craft that vision so that people will want to come and see it.

Chris Gandy 15:54

So it's like building a house and then people over for a party. It's like, so I don't know if it's that simple, but the concept was, okay, you have to build the house. What is the experience you have? Is it when people walk in, is it x-y-z and then you have to put it out there and invite people over? You have send invitations, right?

Invite people right. And you have to invite them to the house so then they can have that experience. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense.

So why do most advisors not do it?

Grace Staten 16:28

I would say like you were kind of mentioning overwhelmed at first. Some people are just not really believers in it. They just think this isn't applicable to me, I do hear budget. I feel like they don't understand, and it's my job to try to help them understand that you do have to spend money to make money. You do.

You can't just always do everything for free. If you're going to penetrate these markets, these target markets, and we're big believers in people having target markets, you can't just even to be able to see them. You know, sometimes you'll have to sponsor an event or sometimes, you know, even just pay to get in the door to be able to hobnob with some of the people within the target market. So I think that is definitely a reason. But I think some people are just not they don't think it is.

It applies to them, or they just don't want to deal with it and they would rather just work with referrals. I hear that too.

Chris Gandy 17:36

Well, Kathleen, I'm going to turn it over to you for a second.

Grace Staten 17:40

Sure.

Chris Gandy 17:40

But Grace, I. I want to throw it back at you. And I'm going to be the naysayer, the advisor, which a lot of advisors are stuck in their ways. Right? Right.

Our industry is a little older, right? So? So they're kind of stuck in their ways. I'm going to throw it back at you. Is the idea of this nebulous concept that if I spend a bunch of marketing money in marketing, how do I know it worked?

Because I've heard that before. It's like, if I spend this money, how do I know? How do I know it's going to work? Right? And if it doesn't work, I just wasted money.

Right. It's like the catch-22. So what do you say to that? And I'm just asking. You may not have the answer, but you have to spend money to make money.

I would agree, or you have to invest money to expect a return. That's how I like to phrase that. When they say I spend money and you have to invest money, you expect a return. So what do you say to there's no way to measure the success of, say, an email campaign or a campaign that at the time may take six months a year it may take. Blah blah blah blah blah.

It may take a period of time. What do you say to that? Because we don't have the tangible. It's almost like life insurance, like we sell it. But people are like, does this really work?

Well, they don't know because they're not here when they have to use it, right? But they always know somebody that bought a policy that lapsed it or something. Something went crazy and a policy didn't work. So it's kind of this thing. Well, I don't if I don't see it, I don't believe it.

Right. And so marketing and advertising is one of those I find myself in a similar thing where my marketing people and my, my marketing advertising people come to me on a regular basis and they say, here's what we here's the spend, here's what we need to do to sponsor this and this. And my eyes roll back in my head every time and I'm like, how do I work? Right, right, right. But I know that they have good intent.

So I just ask that question kindly is what do you say about people that have never seen that? They say, you know, I've never seen a ghost before either, but I know it exists. Like so how do you know that it's working or it works when you can't tangibly put a finger on it and say, I spent this dollar and that is what I got before it happens, right? You have to do it before it happens.

Grace Staten 20:08

And I appreciate that question, because I know that is that way when it comes to what I do and how I prove that I'm moving the needle. So I hear what you're saying. But, you know, marketing without measurement is just guessing. So you do have to look at things that drive metrics. And so things like and that we do is website traffic, you know, is it increasing.

You know with lead generation. Are you getting like more qualified prospects in the emails you mentioned email campaign okay. Or are people engaging in your content? I mean, we look at when we send out recruiting newsletters, we look at who opened and probably even more importantly, who clicked. Because we want to see what they're looking at and, you know, if it's effective or not.

You know, the social media, it's you know, not I think the growth is what we look at. We do love the likes, comments and shares, don't get me wrong. You know, and even the direct messages but the growth is what we look at and we measure that all the time. And then event attendance is another thing I can think of. But I would say, you know, ultimately, you know, are you closing more business.

You know that that is a number that we turn to. So after we help with advisors, we will ask, you know, what's improved? We have the ability to look at their you know, what production they have done. And that is very, very key to, to all of leadership to see what we're doing. And it is making a difference.

But, you know, I do think you will also see a stronger like brand recognition, like people will start recognizing your name, I think. I mean, referrals obviously should come in with that and that, that, that your ideal clients are now finding you that that's you know, with the marketing plan, we're pretty thorough with this because once we have like the target markets, we research the locations in which they want to market, whether it's where they live or where they would like to market. So I think that that's very, very, you know, helpful is are they these prospects or are they finding you? But I do think with what you're saying there, I do see like some of the naysayers, but I think what we do marketing, I do think we shorten the whole sales cycle. I think based on we, I think we move things faster than they would need, you know, regularly be because you're more heard of, you know, people know who you are and we'd like to do more business with you since you're penetrating the markets.

Kathleen Owings 23:11

To go hand in hand with that question, because I feel the same way. I share with Grace prior to this conversation when I would hear, let's set up your marketing plan. Oh, my eyes would kind of roll. I just want to talk to clients. I'm a producer.

I want to be in front of my target market. Do you have any stories to share? Where? Because that's how we sell, right? We sell really?

Through storytelling, we can give people numbers, percentages, why they need life insurance, why they need disability. Most people don't, frankly, care, but it's the stories that are most meaningful that usually move that needle. Do you have any stories that you share with producers? What you've seen working with other producers and marketing, where they have worked the plan and then found that success that you may want to share?

Grace Staten 23:56

This was before the plan was written. I we used to administer this this test and I found this very interesting. It's something very similar to Briggs Myers. And we would administer this test to people who had no idea what market they wanted to go into. Now, most advisors do know what they want, but those who just had no idea there was a gentleman that we had an advisor that was in a very like remote area of Georgia.

And so he we had him take this test and it basically gave him the who he would have an affinity to market to. And it ended up one of the top ones was farming, which he had never crossed his mind that he would do. This ended up being such a success story, because we developed a plan around farming as one of his target markets, and I'm telling you, it was so successful. He even though he was from this small town, he started getting in and understanding, like, I guess, the lingo that farmers use. And then he would attend his meetings.

No joke. In cowboy boots and a hat. And he slowly but surely was accepted as one of them. And it was all based on something like, you know, that he didn't even think that he would want to. Market to.

And it was just based on something how he responded to questions and they said, well, you know try you know, and we were just like, try this. And he did. And it is still his, his main target market to this day. And it's, it's just, you know, I would say that that's probably a success story that that came up that sticks out in my mind from years ago.

Kathleen Owings 26:01

So you're saying. I think many times the advisors when we think marketing, you know, we have an idea in our mind what it is, but what I'm hearing you say is to be open-minded and to be open to explore different markets. Maybe he thought he wanted to go into business owners. I don't know, that's a very common one. But who knew he was into farming and he had an open mind on that. So that's really interesting.

Grace Staten 26:23

So Kathleen, yes, yes. So many people want to do just small business owners, but that's just, you know, too, too broad. When we went into farming, we actually delved even further than that. But I sometimes people go too broad. They'll just say doctors and that's just you'll be all over the place if you if you're, you know that that broad of a market.

Kathleen Owings 26:44

Or women. You hear that I market to women. Okay. Great.

Chris Gandy 26:52

That's you know, you guys have gone taking us on a little bit of a journey. I think the way in which most people started in the business that have been in the business for a long period of time, there used to be the advertising part that was newspapers. There used to be large companies putting, doing marketing with like these 4 or 5 advisors are the local advisors for say Prudential or Northwestern. They would put in publications, things like that. We see less of that now in more engagement marketing like LinkedIn and like, you know, podcasts and things like that.

So I want to ask the question. Tell us about podcasts, because obviously that's something that is, you know, we're fortunate enough to be on one. So this is a form of advertising for a wonderful association of NAIFA. And tell us how this is playing into not just the static post. So, so I, I'm two parts of that question.

And I was told by my marketing person a while ago that the static post does not get as much attention and does not get as much traction as a post where it's actually engaging, even if it's just you saying something about something that's already in the public, right? It's just. It's just the nature of the beast. So many times people will say, well, I set up my marketing system and they say, you know, these static posts that go out and they're like, but people don't click them. And in the moment they actually do a, a, a, a live something or whatever it may be, it may just be like a quick video or something like that.

It blows up. So, tell us the role of the distinct, like the what do you tell people the difference like to do between those two. And then the role of like podcast nowadays because they're everywhere and everybody's doing them. How do you integrate those into like a financial service practice if.

Grace Staten 29:12

Sure. So I you know, as long as what you say becomes approved, you're able to do it. You know, where we work. So I mean you're 100% correct. So static posts just don't do it anymore. They're good as filler.

If you're wishing like, you know, Happy holidays or something of that nature. But podcasts, and even if where you're speaking is really where it's at, it is so much more effective. And it builds trust faster. Because I know that when you know people see you as human, you're more relatable and you're definitely more knowledgeable. So, you know, you want to be seen as the go-to person.

Like if you are say, you know, you're you tend to give retirement planning advice, you know, over financial planning. Let's just say you want your podcast to be seen as the go-to person for retirement advice. So I would say, you know, first of all, it expands your reach. There's no question you'll have new audiences if you do, you know, podcasts. But I know with us, with our social media 100%, when we have videos or reels, those will get clicked on, commented and shared more than anything else.

You really you know, when you think about TikTok, for example, I know my kids, I'll ask them to do something and I'll walk in 30 minutes later and they are just, you know, staring at the screen because it's so captivating. And I think that's the same way that even though this might not be the funnest topic of, of, say, insurance and financial services, I do think it I have seen enough people in our industry that do something on camera that they will garner so many more, you know, so much more tension and a bigger audience just because they are on the podcast. People see them and I can't stress that enough that we would much prefer any day of the week as a firm to have to have some kind of video, whether it be podcast or a something that we've done. Like for example, last Friday we did a beach cleanup, the entire firm and a couple of different locations. It was so much more effective to have instead of a post of, you know, just people standing of just a variety, you know, of, of action, you know, going part video, that sort of thing.

So but, you know, I can't stress enough how, how much more of an impact you will make.

Chris Gandy 32:04

And I was told Grace, by the way, she says, don't make it perfect. She goes, you actually become more relatable when it's not perfect. You know, I want to put the suit on and I want to come. Kathleen, I want to put the suit on and show up.

Kathleen Owings 32:17

That's right. You want to have the Pin, the Hair perfect.

Chris Gandy 32:20

And she's like, kill that. And I'm like, what? What is going on here? Right? That's how we were taught that this is supposed to be.

She goes, no, I don't want it perfect. She goes, I want you just to sit down at your desk, put your phone there, turn on the lights, and I want you to just she goes, talk to me about I. And she literally cut it up. It took I mean, it took me like three minutes how she asked the question, do you think I is going to be significant in the financial service field? I didn't talk about insurance.

I didn't talk about investments. I just talked about the role of an advisor and how we work with clients and we deliver death claims. We are there when things are difficult. Like, that's all I did, right? And it's like, yes, like it's she's like, this is great.

This is the best thing you've ever did. I go, this is the least amount of money I've ever spent, right? And so it's just one of those things where I think learning and being open and curious to how this works. I think that's kind of a unique opportunity that learning this, this new process of engaging people in financial services is different than it used to be.

Grace Staten 33:28

100 Humanizes you. It humanizes your brand. I mean, even just your voice, the way you speak, if there's humor, all of that will create a personal connection and a text and advertising, you know that just like a static one just can't match that. It just can't. People want to do business with people that they trust, that they think they know and definitely who they like.

So that helps create the bond.

Chris Gandy 33:58

Kathleen I'm advertising. I mean, I can ask advertising questions all day.

Kathleen Owings 34:05

Well, I think. It is interesting. My business partner, I started doing videos in actually in 2020 because we thought, oh my gosh, we need to be talking to people more and engaging. People are very nervous. They were very scared about what's going on. Well, fast forward to now.

20 2020 2025 still doing those videos. Some days I get up. We do one a week. Some days I get up. I have no idea what I'm going to say.

And those are some of the best ones because I talk about a book or an article I read or something going on in my life. I think to your point, Grace, it humanizes you, makes you feel more real because they do see, you know, the perfect little pictures on about us and our company and all of our companies kind of say the same thing, to be quite honest, at the end of the day. So you want to set yourself apart? Well, the only way you could do that is by sharing yourself and your story and your voice and the video. So we've been doing those and they're actually kind of fun.

I mean, I get I have some clients that are looking every single week replying during Covid my hair got really long. I had some clients say, we want to see how long your hair was. I don't know if they listen to what I said at all. I just want to see how long was Kathleen's hair this week. So it's interesting in the engagement and just the different level of personal touch, I feel like that's done for us.

And I think a lot of advisors hear that and they don't want to do it. Chris, you've been doing the video for a while now. I've done videos and podcasts and people think, oh, I don't want to hear my voice. I don't like the way I look. No one does.

Okay. No one likes their voice. Everyone's hypercritical, but for us, it's been a better touch point with our clients and people seeing me. Or they'll, you know, recognize me, say, oh, I saw your video last week. Sometimes I forget I do them, but it's been interesting to explore that and I'm interested to hear grace.

So videos are key. What other technology or things are you seeing in the future that are helpful for marketing for advisors?

Grace Staten 36:03

Oh wow. I don't even know if we've gotten everything that can happen with AI yet. I know that, I mean, it's here, it's now. It has been so, you know, helpful in so many things that, you know, we do whether it's, you know, helping with the content that we used to just spend like, hours and hours doing. And now it's just a matter of minutes, I mean, that these things can be done.

And just with the, you know, the videos and the editing and it's we don't need to be as dependent on so many people anymore. Things are just becoming more and more convenient. I embrace 100% of this, and I know, I don't know everything that it can do yet. I know that, you know, we do as much as we can with it and of course get it approved. And but it's just it's been just I would say, you know, stay tuned because I don't know everything yet.

I know that I am on every single course or webinar that you can think of just to see what's out there and, and all the apps that are available and what makes my life easier with, you know, even, you know, with NAIFA and our, you know, reaching our membership that that's another thing is we, you know, have absolutely found Cheryl has kicked this off this year. I'm going to keep doing it is when we promote for the on the Hill for example, people will look when you when you put it out there and you speak to it, you have some testimonials of people who have done it, all of this that that makes so much more of an impact in, you know, our newsletters and what we push out. So I, I, I can't wait to see everything that it can do.

Chris Gandy 37:55

You know, I will say something I heard is that it's transformative and it'll change the way we go about doing business if we embrace it. And so that is really telling the fact on all you're on all the things. And so I'm not sure we all we even can comprehend, right, to the extent in which it can. I mean, it's thinking as fast as they said, that somewhere between 75 to 100 years of technology is going through in like a day. Like what?

Like. So just think about how fast this is moving. Five years from now, we'll look back and say, oh, that was like dos prompt, right? That was that that was that was that was easy. Yes.

And so I think it's transformative in a way where you everyone should be embracing it at some level in their practice and advertising and marketing, branding, creating a unique brand and a brand experience. The reason why people go to Starbucks is not for the coffee. People say the best coffee is not at Starbucks is because what they call the Starbucks experience. So if you've never heard of that, you can Google that. What's the Starbucks experience?

Right? And someone even said that back in the day they used to pump the one in Seattle. They used to pump the whole smell of coffee through the through the vents to make you feel like you were surrounded by just different scents of coffee. And it was, it hit all the senses and I'm like, wow. Right.

The whole experience is that you could walk in one way, but you had to figure out how to get out. Like the whole like, Starbucks experience. So I think we have to create a unique experience for our clients because there's a lot of changes happening and a lot of opportunity for them to choose a bunch of different places. But what makes them choose you? Is great.

So, Grace, let's shift towards MFA in your involvement. How did you find MFA or MFA found you? If you don't mind.

Grace Staten 40:02

So I sure. So what? When I was working, gosh, this was in the 90s. Like, oh no, let me think about this. I had heard about MFA from the beginning and didn't think it was applicable to somebody like me.

I was in the industry, but I thought you had to be only a financial advisor to go. And I remember the first time I was invited to go to a meeting, actually, at the time, my managing partner was the incoming president. And I'll never forget going and just being like, whoa! First of all, I just walked into the room. How many people were in there and just kind of blown away by that.

And then as far as, like leadership goes, just was asked. That's all it took was just asked. And my husband was — he actually just recently retired, but he was active-duty Navy. And so I've been on a couple different boards in California and now in Florida. And it's been such a great experience.

I did want to mention, though, this is kind of interesting, and I don't know if other state chapters are like this, but we are going to have four back to back female presidents. Our immediate past president, our current president, me, you know, I'm president elect and who will be slated after me will be another female president. Just interesting to note. You know, I don't know if it's world domination, you know, with women, but it's kind of interesting how you know this. When I walked into that room I was telling you about with, you know, hundreds, it was primarily men.

So I find this very interesting things that are turning this way.

Kathleen Owings 41:49

That is interesting. Grace to I mean, it's great to see because we talk about that where we need to have, you know, more diversity, more women in the business. So it's encouraging to hear that as president-elect, what are some initiatives that you're excited about in Florida? What are some you talked about one that you're going to continue that Cheryl Panzanella, friend of the podcast has been on. But what are some things you're excited about?

Grace Staten 42:13

So I think that right now, my two initiatives, obviously marketing will be one of them. And, you know, continuing on some of the things that Sheryl is doing, I'm going to automate some of the things that she is doing. Again, this is, you know, I embrace it with people that come on board as well as I definitely want to get people when they're new and happy and exciting. Grab them while you can. Don't you know, overdo it.

But get them excited about you know, why they're there and get them talking about why they are there. I think that that goes a long way. But I think also another initiative I'd like to do is retention. And I do think it is less expensive to keep who you have than it is to recruit. And that that is, is big to me, because I think that there's some people that, you know, that they feel forgotten.

And I certainly don't want anybody to feel forgotten. So particularly some of the older members, you know, kind of, you know, dust things off and, you know, go and find where they are, who they are, talk to them, see, you know, what can be done for them, make sure that they're okay. And they're, you know, they're still feeling strongly about their membership. I think, you know, because that goes a long way, too. There are people that are in my local area that once you say somebody that's been like, you know, in the industry for years and everybody knows if you say that you know him, everybody's like, okay, I don't need any more, you know, further introductions.

This person is everything. So, you know, if you, you know, pull them in and get their support. I feel like, you know, they will continue to rally behind FFA and they will also, you know, make referrals to I think the recruiting will come if the retention is there. And that's really what I would like to focus on. You know marketing who knows.

The sky's the limit with all of this. NAIFA National does such a good job. But I think that with me I would like to focus where they can't focus, which is on specifically our members, and get that to them to tell their stories or testimonials that sort of, sort of thing.

Chris Gandy 44:44

Yeah. I think getting someone like yourself who has a different because you're an advisor, okay.

Grace Staten 44:52

I'm licensed to be an advisor. I'm fully licensed and but I just happen to have a staff role.

Chris Gandy 44:59

Yeah, but for all practical purposes, you could turn on the spigot tomorrow and sell an insurance and investment products. So. Yes. Just you're not in that you're not wearing that jersey as we speak today. Right.

So I think it's important. Because I sit on the other side of that fence, and many times I'm listening to people talk about specifically from corporate offices. Right. The big corporate offices, let's call it the towers, where they hire a third-party consulting group like, that's never done. It is done all the time, right?

They'll say, well, we're working on a national marketing campaign, and this is how it's going to unfold in your city or in your location. The pushback I've always had is that we are the best story you could ever invest in. And part of that is people want to work with people that they feel comfortable with, right? People in their community, people they like, people they respect, people they care about, people that will be there when they need them the most. Right.

And so I'm challenged by that, that I understand the national brand and the commercials at the Super Bowl and, you know, the NCAA having the floor and all those, you know, for brand awareness. But those brands just don't sell themselves. It's the conversations of Kathleen, myself sitting down at the table and or possibly having dinner or, or even just them coming to our office and them breaking down their lives and saying why they feel like they messed it up financially and why they feel like they need some help. They need someone to hold their hand through the process. And I think I'll say that for as an organization, we have to do a better job.

And that's a call on all FFA members. Can you imagine if we had a day where every day for a member got on, did a 22nd post on or 22nd 10s and then did a ten second. On why? Why NAIFA is the bomb dot com. It's the best place.

You can't miss it. It's got to be right. Everybody did that one day. Just one day, right? Do you know how crazy that would go in our social media space?

Just simply because it would, like, tap every algorithm on the planet because it's coming from so many different places and it's saying so many different things. It we may break the internet if it happens, but it would just be a unique way for us to market how cool knife is. And I think people like yourself thinking outside the box, like, yeah, that would be kind of I see, I see, I see like the things going up. You're like, oh, that would be kind of cool. Yeah.

Grace Staten 47:58

I love it.

Chris Gandy 47:59

See, Kathleen, I'm kind of creative a little bit.

Kathleen Owings 48:02

Take that idea. I like it.

Chris Gandy 48:04

A little bit Viral.

Chris Gandy 48:06

And I think that inviting people in for that experience and seeing people like yourself who are willing to step up and to lead, will inspire other people to do the same. So one, thanks for finding you and you finding NAIFA. So I have to ask a real question. What scares you the most about being the press? You're going to be the president in a minute.

Like you got to what are you going to do? Right? What? What are you either afraid of or what are you looking forward to? Both.

Grace Staten 48:43

You know, I actually don't know if I'm afraid of anything, but I have already. And I don't even take the helm until January 1st. But I've already built out a business plan and a marketing plan for this. I'm excited more than just about anything about what I would like to do and how. And some of it takes pre-planning.

But for example, this cruise that we're having coming up in July. And, you know, I need to like, if we're doing it a second time, it needs to be booked pretty quickly here. So there's things that I have, you know in mind that I, I just need to put together now and have like a game plan ready. So I hit the ground running and I would say just more excited than just about anything. I think I've just been around many of the people long enough that if I was once scared about, you know, speaking to somebody or, or, you know, what things would look like, I don't think I do anymore.

So I guess that's a good thing.

Chris Gandy 49:50

All right. Well, let's speed to the speed round. Kathleen, I'm going to let you kind of run the speed run the speed round if you don't mind I don't. And what this is, Miss Grace, is that this is an opportunity for people at NAIFA to get to know you and get to know when they see you. They typically always remember some of these things because we actually have this podcast and it's on many different platforms and all the ones you can think of Spotify, Apple Music, it's on all, all of the good ones.

Right. And so YouTube. And so we ask you questions. And the key to this is it's called a lightning round. The key to this is whatever comes top of mind.

That's what it is right. This is not deep thought conversation. It's just quick.

Grace Staten 50:41

It's a quick okay.

Chris Gandy 50:43

It's 4 or 5 questions and then we'll open it up for an affirmation. If you have something you want to address, speak about say the name Foundation. We'll open it up to that and then I'll close it down. So are you ready?

Grace Staten 50:56

Okay I'm Ready.

Chris Gandy 50:58

Kathleen, take it away.

Kathleen Owings 50:59

Okay, I'll Kick it off. Maybe, maybe hopefully a little bit of a softball question, but what? One of your favorite books. Grace. What's a favorite book that you have that you recommend to folks?

Grace Staten 51:07

I mean, one that shook me up is Lean In. Sheryl Sandberg just because I you know, it was eye opening to see what how much women aren't doing it and how I actually believe more should.

Kathleen Owings 51:27

Okay, thanks. I like that one too.

Chris Gandy 51:33

Favorite movie?

Grace Staten 51:35

This is tough, but I am all about something that is inspirational. But I. I guess this is all about women. I'm sorry about this, but it's about breaking barriers. And the first one that comes to mind because I did Lilly is Hidden Figures.

Chris Gandy 51:57

Okay, this is a good movie.

Kathleen Owings 51:58

That is a very good one.

Chris Gandy 51:59

Yeah, definitely.

Kathleen Owings 52:00

And also a book. Describe if you had perfect day, what would your perfect day look like?

Grace Staten 52:07

Ooh. I would start off running. I love to run. And so that gets me going for the whole day. I, I just love that. But if it's a week day, then I mean, it would just be accomplishing as much as possible during the day.

I don't like leaving things outstanding, and I know it happens more often than I'd like, but I really like seeing the to-do list going down, down, down and same thing with the emails or whatever is outstanding. But I think what really gets me going is, is, is just the exercise running in particular. I just very much enjoy it.

Chris Gandy 52:47

Your favorite food?

Grace Staten 52:50

Anything with salmon.

Chris Gandy 52:52

Anything with salmon.

Grace Staten 52:54

I love salmon. That's my last meal, I hope.

Chris Gandy 52:57

All right. My last question. There may be one more for you, but my last question is if you could can go back and have dinner with anybody in history, whether they're alive today or they're no longer with us, who would? They can be famous. They could be family. It doesn't matter.

Who would you choose and why?

Grace Staten 53:17

I mean, the first person that comes to mind, I guess, would be Jesus. I guess I don't know if any specific questions right now, but I would have been I mean, I guess I just don't know how life on earth was when he was here. And so I think I would just want to talk. I mean, I don't know if any kind of specific questions, but it's just everything that's done. And I am a religious person, so I guess I'd be the first person that comes to my mind.

Chris Gandy 53:57

All right, Kathleen, do you have one more?

Kathleen Owings 54:00

I do have one more. Grace. what do you have? Like, maybe a mantra or something that kind of guides you, or some advice that someone gave you that sticks in your mind and gets you going every day?

Grace Staten 54:11

Yeah, there is one. And it's I mean, there was actually more than one, but I know it has to do with, you know, is success. Let me think about this for a second. It's the one that's Winston Churchill. Let me see if I can find it really quick.

Sorry, I just.

Kathleen Owings 54:37

I might have stumped you on that one. That's okay. Take your time.

Grace Staten 54:40

It's okay. Oh, here it is. Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.

That's it. And I completely agree with this. I. And having children, you have to, you know, watch them fail. Basically.

You can't always be the saving person. And the same thing with myself. There's been so many things I've had along the way where I didn't look at it at the time, as you know, as this is a learning lesson, but it absolutely was, and I'm glad. I mean, everything does happen for a reason, and it happens in the time that it's supposed to happen. So I think, you know, failure is not necessarily, you know, a fail.

And it definitely isn't fatal. So, you know, picking yourself up and moving on is really what counts.

Kathleen Owings 55:32

That's great. Yeah, so do I. Thanks, Grace.

Chris Gandy 55:35

So Grace, would you please grace play on words, right? Would you grace me with some words before we close?

Grace Staten 55:46

Well, let's see, I'm extremely honored that you asked me to be a part of this podcast. And I can't tell you, I mean, how much I believe in NAIFA and I cannot wait for, you know, stepping into the role. I think that this is one of the greatest organizations that you could be a part of. For so many, for so many reasons, because of what they do for our industry. When we go all come together on, you know, Washington DC and what we do on day in the Hill and the networking and maybe even like one of the more important things is the friendships I have made.

I mean, some of the people I have made friends with, I know they would do anything, you know, for me, and I would do anything for them. It is. It's just been so impactful for myself and my career and I, I mean, I will always be a part of this group. I just think the world of it and what keeps me, you know, going is, you know, while I am fully licensed, I don't have to be a financial advisor, you know, and go up the ranks. I mean, I have so much passion for this, you know, this whole organization.

And they believe in me too. And I don't get that in so many other places. I go to volunteer my time. They believe in me as much as I believe in them. And that just means everything.

Chris Gandy 57:24

So we're fortunate for you to be here. We're definitely fortunate for you to be stepping into the role of leading from the front. And we look forward to seeing all the wonderful things. And we might be tapping you for just ideas quick, like quick hitters like, are we like, are we what should we be doing something quickly. Like what should we be doing?

I think that the idea of just something unique, right. Even at congressional conference, right. If you're there just like, hey, just like, hey, let's, let's, let's get alive for, like, 10s. Hey, what did you think of. Hey, why are you here?

You know, just kind of something cool. I think it's always cool to always good and great to do something that's unique, a unique experience for people.

Grace Staten 58:11

You just made me think of something is I'm actually bringing my almost 14 year old daughter. She will go with me to some of the meetings. This is how much I believe in this organization, and she's very excited about it too. So I mean, her goal is to go to one of the service academies, probably Naval Academy. So she is so like, you know, excited about coming.

So that's how much I believe. And if not if she doesn't then I hope she falls in line and becomes a financial advisor someday.

Kathleen Owings 58:47

I think that's very cool, Grace. Although I do have to say one thing and that's go Army beat Navy.

Grace Staten 58:53

Yeah. My husband, I both went to West Point. I will tell you very quick story. I was 14 when I decided West Point was the school that I wanted to go to. The only school, the only school I applied to. So I think that's great that she has her set sight on that, because it was for me, it was one of the best things I ever did.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. And I think that's really neat that you're bringing her along for this experience as well.

Grace Staten 59:21

Yes, I can't wait.

Chris Gandy 59:22

Kathleen, do you have anything else for the greater good?

Kathleen Owings 59:26

You know, I just want to say listen to what Grace had to say. Marketing. We might Pooh Pooh it, not think it's important, and we just want to be in front of clients. But there is a lot to be said for paying attention to your marketing plan, digging into your branding. And there's professionals out there like Grace who can help you.

So I hope you got some nuggets from Grace today. I know I did and really dig into it. And then Grace, I want to thank you for your dedication to NAIFA and now stepping up as president-elect for Florida. Thanks for all that you do.

Grace Staten 59:57

Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.

Chris Gandy 1:00:00

All right. With that being said, I'll close this out. Thanks for tuning in to Advisor Today podcast, where we bring the voice of the advisor back to you. Our collective contingency. So next week, same time, same place, we're right on the cusp of congressional conference.

If you're not booked, then make sure you get booked to go. Don't miss this opportunity to show up. And we show out and we make sure that our voice is heard in DC. So see you around. Thanks, Kathleen for being here with me and helping.

Thanks, Grace. We appreciate you and thanks, NAIFA Nation. We'll see you on the other side.

Kathleen Owings 1:00:36

Thank you Chris. Thanks, Grace.

Outro 1:00:41

Thanks for joining us for NAIFA's 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.