Seminar Strategies for Scaling Your Financial Business With Frank Maselli

Frank Maselli is an accomplished keynote speaker, coach, and author of three best-selling books. With over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, he has helped thousands of financial professionals grow and achieve success by providing them with contemporary skills well-suited to the demands of today's clients. With his programs based on human psychology, Frank is known for his pioneering ideas, dynamic thinking, and engaging delivery. He is a sought-after presenter, recognized as a top industry speaker.

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

Frank Maselli shares his professional background in the financial services industry
An overview of Frank’s best-selling books
Seminar success strategies for growth-minded advisors
How to host virtual seminars while capturing audience attention
Frank’s involvement with NAIFA
The common mistakes advisors make when hosting seminars
Frank talks about the evolution of the financial services industry
Prevalent trends in the financial services industry

In this episode…

As a financial advisor, it’s critical to generate a robust client pipeline and establish yourself as a trusted authority in your field. Seminars and presentations can help you achieve these goals by enabling you to expand your business and gain new clients. How can you deliver compelling and informative seminars to elevate your position in the industry?

Frank Maselli, a prominent coach and keynote speaker in the financial industry, has created a flourishing and reputable business by delivering presentations and seminars. These platforms help you showcase your knowledge and services and allow you to connect with potential clients to build long-lasting relationships. However, delivering a successful presentation requires more than just knowledge of your subject matter; it also demands exceptional public speaking skills, confidence, authenticity, and a deep understanding of your audience's needs and interests. Frank offers valuable tips and strategies to help financial professionals deliver engaging, informative, and persuasive presentations that captivate audiences and convert them into clients.

In this episode of Advisor Today, Chris Gandy and Suzanne Carawan sit down with Frank Maselli, an accomplished keynote speaker, coach, and author, to discuss how financial advisors can host engaging seminars. Frank shares his professional background in the financial services industry, seminar success strategies for advisors, how to execute them virtually, and the common mistakes advisors make when delivering seminars.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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 Transcript

Intro 0:02

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

Chris Gandy 0:20

Hi everyone this is Chris Gandy, one of your co-hosts for Advisor Today's podcast with my other better half Suzanne Carawan. Suzanne, how are you?

Suzanne Carawan 0:31

I'm doing great, Chris, great to be here.

Chris Gandy 0:33

Suzanne, I'm so thankful that you are our co-host, because now with you leading membership, and you leading all these wonderful things with NAIFA, we are able to really take this to the next level. So before we get going on today's podcast, can you share with us who our sponsor is today?

Suzanne Carawan 0:51

Yeah, so we're really delighted to have Life Happens as our sponsor, maybe you've gotten the message maybe you haven't heard, but Life Happens is now part of NAIFA along with the Society of Financial Service Professionals, where Chris and I are actually both down in Jacksonville, Florida, they come alive at you from that kind of merger. And so Life Happens is the consumer arm now of NAIFA really putting education out to consumers about the value of life insurance, the value of disability income insurance, among others. And if you're not aware, February is insure your love month, we're just a few days away from that. It's also I love NAIFA month. So we're making sure that everybody out there knows that you can get free resources from Life Happens to put in front of your clients and prospective clients to help educate them and create demand for you. And of course that demand for you can be found on both life happens find an advisor as well as NAIFA's, find an advisor, and all of our active members are proudly profiled there. So the consumers can say, gosh, you're right, I should get life insurance, and immediately find an ethical advisor with whom to work. So we're excited to have life happens on board, and celebrate and share your love. And I love NAIFA month in just a few short days.

Chris Gandy 2:04

Thank you, Suzanne. But with no further ado, we're always happy to come together. And you mentioned the fact that we're down at part of FSP who is now part of the NAIFA family. And they do some things a little differently than what we've done. But one of their national meetings and one of their most attended meetings in person is the one we're at, called the FSP Institute, which will be part of NAIFA's ongoing education and opportunity. So those out there pay attention to that the great Summit, and we want to make sure people next year attend this elaborates to this fantastic summit and continue to grow their practices and personally themselves. So with that being said, Suzanne, you want to introduce our guests for today. Would you go ahead introduce our guest today we'll get going.

Suzanne Carawan 3:02

I'm delighted to introduce Frank Maselli. And so I'll tell you the little backstory of Frank and I so I met Frank so we have a wonderful partner named White Glove. If you're not familiar with White Glove, they do seminars and they do webinars, and they do lead generation. I didn't need to do a commercial for them, but I love them so much. I will and Frank you can chime in. I think it creates demand. So it's right to consumers. They do all the marketing advisors paying nothing upfront, it's such a no-brainer. You only pay for the people that actually show up and the leads that you have for people that registered. So it's a no-brainer for associate a firm, excuse me for advisors. So we're working with them in our partner network. So long story short, White Glove is phenomenal. They've got phenomenal people it's founded and started by advisors who are still in production, and our NAIFA members. So they hold something that they have an event each year called Host You that brings in many advisors to talk about how they can do a better job and running seminars in advance to create more wealth for themselves and to get more clients covered. And Frank Maselli was one of the keynote speakers at the event. And I got an opportunity and a guy named Andrew Saxa is at reminder media, another great partner. Gan reminder media does custom magazines for advisors, she can send it out a great way to keep in touch and to do prospecting. NAIFA members get a discount, of course. So Andrew Sachs, that reminder, media takes me by the shirt like he holds on to me, and he drags me into the main room. And he says Frank's about to speak. We have to wait Frank. We can't miss Frank. And I was like, I don't know Frank Maselli. Like that's not a nickname we normally hear in the NAIFA world. So I was spelled out I was like, This guy is great. We got to invite him into the podcast. He was already on my list to call and then lo and behold, Frank Maselli decides on his own to join NAIFA comes into the family in the fold. And now he is actually really helping us with what we call triangles team, which is what are our most engaged members at NAIFA. And so frank is going to do two master classes with them. And he is the best-selling author of multiple books, and a renowned speaker. So with no further ado, Frank, welcome to the program.

Frank Maselli 5:15

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's great to be with you. That's a funny story, by the way, he was the real character.

Suzanne Carawan 5:22

So everybody needs an Andrew. That's right.

Chris Gandy 5:25

So frank, the real question I'm sure all the NAIFA members want to know is how do they get a microphone like that? Where they can basically, I mean, they do look like, a little bit of hairy curious there with a little bit. I'm from Chicago. So, he had the microphone, his name on it, and a one a two. So, no, Frank, we're so happy that you are connected to NAIFA. And that you speak the truth about the industry. And we look forward to having this conversation. So Frank, tell us a little bit about your backstory, how you got started in the industry and how you got started with the idea of kind of marketing, because obviously, you're doing some marketing things that are a little different than what I would say the traditional adviser has been taught to do.

Frank Maselli 6:13

Sure, sure. Well, I started about 40 years ago with a company called Dean Witter, Dean Witter got bought by Sears and they hired a truckload of rookie stockbrokers and stuck us all in Sears stores if you can believe that.

Suzanne Carawan 6:28

I remember that.

Frank Maselli 6:29

Not too many people go back that far.

Suzanne Carawan 6:31

Not to date myself. But yes, I remember that. Yeah.

Frank Maselli 6:36

Okay. So yeah, I started as a as a retail stockbroker and a wirehouse. And built a business became a manager, kind of rose through the ranks and ended up running a mutual fund family in Boston for about 10 years. That was a great experience. So little bit of by side, a little bit of sell side experience. And then I said, I just wanted to do my own thing. And I retired, quote, unquote, retired. And that lasted about three days, until my wife threw me out of the house. So I, I've been doing training and coaching and speaking and writing for the last probably 20 years now. It's been quite a journey, a lot of fun.

Chris Gandy 7:17

Very much, so tell us a little bit about your books.

Frank Maselli 7:23

Sure, sure. First book was called Seminars, The Emotional Dynamic. I build my business on seminars, I found seminars, I was very, very lucky. I found seminars early in my career and did a whole bunch of them. I tallied them up several years ago, and I did over 4000 public seminars, and love doing them absolutely love public speaking. And I think it's a fantastic way to grow a business. People are dying for education. They need help really, really badly. And if you can speak to the public in some intelligent way, not only can you build a gigantic business, but you can have so much fun doing it. It's just such a passion. And it's just a turn on. So that was my first book, then I wrote a book on Referrals, which I think is the second probably best way to grow a business. I think there's a real problem in our industry, when it comes to referrals, the techniques were born 80 years ago, and we're still using these heavy handed sales techniques. So that's out new stuff. So that's great. And then I wrote a book for younger advisors called 40 Tips For The Younger 40 Advisor, because there's so many young people coming into this business and they need to know some things that will help them get off to a good start and avoid some of the incredibly stupid mistakes that we make early in our careers. So hopefully that'll help but yeah, just three books. I'm writing the final edition of the seminar book as we speak. It's on my other screen right here as I'm talking to you, it's going to be the penultimate, the actual Ultimate Edition of the seminar story, so it'll be a lot of fun.

Suzanne Carawan 9:06

So you got into seminars, even when you were like a Dean Witter Sears retail stockbroker.

Frank Maselli 9:12

Absolutely. I used to do them at Sears. Believe it or not. Every Sears store had, and Sears is gone now which is so hard to get your mind around. Every Sears had a training room. And I used to go into the training room and do the employees I used to have all the employees would come in or on their break off out. And that's where I started and then I started doing Lions Club, Moose, Elk, Kiwanis, Rotary, so a lot of free stuff. And then I started doing my own things paying for my own seminars and that's the dinner stuff in the direct mail and all that the Ruth's Chris and yeah, I think Ruth's Chris has a statue of me somewhere in there headquarters.

Suzanne Carawan 9:58

Black card member Chris, you've done that many seminars.

Chris Gandy 10:04

So frank, let's rewind the tape a little bit. So talk to me is 90% of Americans fear of speaking in front of people? Right, let's put the right and they fear saying something wrong. They fear the idea of standing in front of someone and being analyzed. What would you say to someone that their response would be, well, that's probably not for me, because I don't really like talking in front of people.

Frank Maselli 10:35

Well, a couple of things. First of all, I think the financial advisory profession self-selects out of that fear. Generally speaking, financial professionals are very good communicators, we're probably the top communicating profession out there, or at least among them. So I don't think that applies generally to financial advisors. But if you are generally scared of speaking, there's a couple of things you can do. There are ways to overcome that. But frankly, you don't have to, I mean, there's no mandatory reason that you have to do seminars, if it genuinely scares you to speak in public, I think that's worth analyzing. But I also am a very big believer in not doing stuff that causes you pain. So if public speaking causes your pain, then seminars may not be your path. And there are at least 50 Other ways to grow a business and you don't need to cause yourself that anxiety. But I don't think financial professionals in general, suffer from that kind of a fear that the general public has. And that is a very big fear among the general public. But we're kind of a, we're a unique profession. We love to talk, and we're pretty good at it for the most part.

Suzanne Carawan 11:48

We like to educate. Yeah. So I think the people, at least what I see is that the final one, I've kind of surveying financial service professionals don't go the seminar speaking route, because they don't want to do all the rigmarole, right? They just want to show up, which is great. And then that the talent when that makes sense, because, you know, you put that together and somebody else takes care of the rigamarole. And you show up as a talent. Kill it, right? Makes total sense. Right?

Frank Maselli 12:15

Right. Do it. That's actually where White Glove came to my attention. I had an advisor who I had coached before, and he called me up and he said, you got to talk to these White Glove people. I said, what are they doing? It goes, well, the first thing is you don't pay for now. You just pay for the people who show up and I said, well, what if nobody shows up? And he says, well, then you don't pay? I said, no, no, that can't be right. I mean, how many times a Ruth's Chris was I standing in the door, and the rain is coming down, and there's three people in the room and I got 40 steak dinners standing there. So I couldn't believe that. But yeah, they took all that fear away. And that really turned me on to their process, which is exciting.

Chris Gandy 12:54

Frank, are you are you still doing seminars currently now?

Frank Maselli 12:59

For the public very little. I only talk really to advisors. At this point, some advisors will bring me in to do special guest appearance at their seminar, but very little to the public. It's 99% of what I do is only advisor coaching and training now.

Chris Gandy 13:18

So in your pride, let's rewind the tape and your pride, how many seminars were you doing on a monthly basis you think?

Frank Maselli 13:29

40.

Chris Gandy 13:30

40.

Frank Maselli 13:31

Yeah. At my peak, I was doing probably six, seven seminars a week at least. And then at one point, I was a wholesaler I became a wholesaler. And I started and then when I was a manager, I did a lot of seminars. So I was probably doing 40 a month at that point. Yeah.

Chris Gandy 13:54

So 40 a month, though. So let's just, I'm gonna dissect that a little bit, because I'm a volume guy. And I do a lot of volume. And I understand the power of numbers. And Nick Barry's book is great. Right? about numbers. So yes, the numbers are the numbers, right? In numbers win so. But let's dial it back just a little. That means that you have to be a masterful tactician of time management, and your schedule, right? If you're capable of pulling that off on a weekly basis, because there's people that come from the seminars and there's follow up with people that come from the seminars, and then there's actually meetings that come from the seminar. So you're not just going to seminars, there's all the pieces that go along with that. So what would you tell someone about their time management skill if they're going to go this route?

Frank Maselli 14:52

Well, yeah, very good question. And first of all, a lot of the seminars that I did were for other advisors So I didn't have that follow up issue. I was not the one doing the meetings after the seminar, I would be setting the stage for that advisor. So as a wholesaler, they're not opening accounts with me. They'd be opening accounts with you as the advisor. So let's put that in context. My time was, I was busy, but I was busy speaking. I wasn't busy managing money, and I wasn't busy necessarily doing appointments and coaching clients at that point. So, but yeah, you're right, it does take time, it takes a tremendous amount of time follow up is 10 times more difficult than the actual presentation. You really that's where you make or break your business is in the follow up follow up is very difficult.

Suzanne Carawan 15:46

But also, you're saying a really good lead generation model, right? Get the talent, get the senior person in there, just doing the seminar and all the people downline from you. Right, get them really good at doing all the follow up and appointment setting? I think it would work. Yeah.

Frank Maselli 16:02

Yeah, it can work. But think about it the slightly different way the audience bonds to the speaker. And as an advisor, you want to be able to do at least some, if not most of the speaking yourself. Most advisors do it all themselves. So it's kind of a hybrid model is a little unique, but you can really, really have a tremendous business explosion if you get good at seminars, it's just mind boggling. The numbers that I've seen in my career where people can do if they're good, if they're good, if they're not, then they struggle, and they spend a lot of money wasteful.

Suzanne Carawan 16:39

So what are tips to get the audience bonded to the speaker? Do you have some, their little life hacks we can use?

Frank Maselli 16:48

Well, I mean, the subtitle of my book is The Emotional Dynamic, there are nine emotions that you have to hit during a presentation. And if you hit all nine of these emotions, because seminars are an emotional process, we use a lot of logic and statistics and stuff in a presentation, but the audience doesn't connect with any of that. They don't even understand half the stuff that you say to them. What they understand is how they feel and how you make them feel. So the nine emotions, there's an acronym for the nine emotions is kind of a comedy. The acronym is lurch face, you got to get people to like you understand respect, you create confidence. You want to make them happy, lurch, face is fear. And fear is complicated, because you're not there to scare people. Scaring people is old school, and that doesn't work anymore. And it's not ethical, in my opinion, I don't think you need to scare people, or you should be doing that. But you have to understand fear because they're coming in scared. And then action change and enthusiasm. So those are the nine emotions, if you hit all nine of them, your appointment ratio will be well north of 75 80%. You'll set appointments with everybody in that room, they will bond to you more powerfully than you can imagine, because they really do want help. They want help. They want to believe in somebody. So it's kind of exciting.

Chris Gandy 18:12

Lurch face, it's an average...

Suzanne Carawan 18:14

Lurch face. Yeah, right. Hashtag lurch face.

Chris Gandy 18:19

So Frank, what is the name? So is that in the last book, or that's the one that's on the shelf now, that's the one still cooking?

Frank Maselli 18:27

No, no, the one I'm writing is the fifth edition of that book. It's called Seminars, The Emotional Dynamic. It's been out for 20 years. So it's, yeah, we started with that a long time ago. But the latest one will be the last book I write on this subject. It's going to be massive. It'll be a lot of fun.

Suzanne Carawan 18:45

Masterpiece.

Chris Gandy 18:46

So those people who are, let's say they're not great readers, right? Let's say they're like, I want to do this is something that I've always had an interest in doing. I'm gonna give Frank's book. But if Frank's book looks like the Bible, you know, we're gonna scan, I'm gonna skim over it. And I mean, I'm speaking from the advisor out here, okay. So, you know, that are like, we live in a world of immediate gratification, right? And we live in this world where Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the immediate gratification, space, right? They click a button and all of a sudden, you get three solutions, right? Seminar business that a little different than that, because the immediate gratification, is it right there. So what would you say to a new generation advisor, or those people who have said, Frank, I know a lot of advisors, I'll give an example. I know that after COVID, there's 50% of the advisors that say they never want to see a client again, the screen has become the new barrier to success, right. And so what would you say to advisors who say all might be 100% virtual, or I'm gonna be 100% direct mail or whatever it may be digital, or what would you say to that? And what advice would you give someone in that space?

Frank Maselli 20:14

I think you can be successful digitally. And I did you dropped out there for a minute. So I hope I didn't miss a big chunk of your question. But I think you can be successful with virtual workshops. And with virtual communication, I think we proved that to ourselves. As an industry, we pivoted almost overnight to virtual and it saved our industry. So that was a wonderful transition, you cannot make the same connection with a virtual audience that you can with a live audience, that's just a fact, there's no power on earth, that will help you make that same level of personal connection can't be done. If you're going to do virtual, you need to understand a couple of things. First of all, it's 10 times harder than it looks. You think it's really easy to do. And it's absolutely not easy to do. The second thing is you've got to do certain things during the presentation, that keep the audience engaged, because while you're talking to them, they're looking at their other screen, and they're doing stuff like this, they're multitasking. And so you really do have to energize. And with virtual, the flow of energy is all one direction, the speaker gets nothing back from the audience. There's no, I can't tell what people are thinking, or if they're following me or if they're laughing when I make a joke. So it's a tremendous pressure, there are only a very few handful of advisors that I've seen, who are good, virtually. Now, can you communicate with clients one on one? Absolutely. It's a totally viable medium, and virtual makes geography go away. I can work with clients in Indonesia. I did a seminar with 5000 financial Advisors in India. How would that be possible without a virtual world? So you're right, it does work, but it's definitely more difficult than you think.

Chris Gandy 22:12

Wow. 5000 advisors. Yeah. And you're in front of them?

Frank Maselli 22:19

Yep. Just like I am with you right here. 5000.

Chris Gandy 22:23

I'm curious. Frank, what's the first thing you say to them? Because they're all skeptical. Right? When they come to the room? They're coming in like, this guy? Why is he this? They might have heard your speaker, they might have heard the fact that you got a book out. Okay, that's okay. But what are you saying, to captures that audience because I do a lot of public speaking myself. I speak at national for I was medical forums, I'm speaking probably two three times a month in front of large audiences. But I know they say with a lot of the public speaking, pros say in the first 30 seconds, you're the first to two to three minutes, you got to capture their imagination. Right? And so what are you saying to them, and that first nip it of time, so that they're engaged and open to what your message is going to be?

Frank Maselli 23:22

Well, that was a very challenging program, I have to admit, because, you know, there's a gigantic cultural divide. And there's a language divide to a great degree. And obviously, so I did a little homework, and I did a little research. And I think, if I remember correctly, the first thing I said to them was, they are on the cusp of growth. And if you look at the statistics, it's really quite staggering what they're going to go through. They are where our industry was 45 years ago. They are about to experience a growth cycle in their financial services profession that is going to dwarf anything we have ever imagined here in the US. And we've gone through a major growth cycle. And we're going through another one now, but they're doing it on a scale that is unprecedented. And so I think I remember saying something like get ready for the greatest ride of your lives greater than you can ever imagine. And here, my thesis was here's some techniques you can use to make sure that that's a very successful experience for you, but the statistics and the experience they are going through in India is mind boggling. You can't even understand it in American standards. But it's pretty exciting. Their industry is growing like crazy.

Chris Gandy 24:43

All right, Frank, let's pivot. Your odd obviously NAIFA's Advisor Today's podcast so tell me how did you find NAIFA as you find the National Association of insurance and financial services, how'd you find the oldest advocate industry or advocate association that represents insurance and financial services. How did you find us?

Frank Maselli 25:09

I met Suzanne, at the meeting,

Suzanne Carawan 25:13

Frank, did you put me down as your referral? I don't know. I need some credit.

Frank Maselli 25:17

I thought I did. I thought I put that on there. Yeah, I had heard of NAIFA for a long time, but I really didn't know what you guys did. I never paid much attention to it. And then I think the presentation at the White Glove meeting just woke me up. And I'm like, Yeah, okay, we better get involved. I mean, there's a gigantic legislative risk in our profession. You've got these politicians, they're just, I don't know what they're thinking, but they have no clue what's going on in the financial world. They really don't. They think they do, but they don't. And so I think NAIFA as an advocacy organization is helping that process. Let's educate these people. So that don't make bad policy. One, one bad policy can screw 100 million retirees. And we've got to prevent that. So that's why I joined right away, like the next day after the meeting.

Suzanne Carawan 26:16

You did? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds great. Yeah,

Chris Gandy 26:19

Susanna, whoever did the presentation, obviously hit the lurch face, right.

Suzanne Carawan 26:27

Frank, I should have asked you for feedback on my presentation. But we're have to do that in the future. And it's so the lurch face thing. Do you actually almost use that as a scorecard for advisors when you're coaching them? You do you just said like, like, what's your lurch face score?

Frank Maselli 26:40

Yeah. What is your emotional? What's your emotional score? We have an emotional scorecard that we grade I watch videos, I mean, I'll do three video analysis per day. And I do a complete emotionally analysis on people's videos.

Suzanne Carawan 26:57

All right, Chris, we got to send in our stuff.

Chris Gandy 27:00

So Frank, what would you say is one of the biggest challenges that advisors go through as they start to speak in public? Right, because I've met advisors that want to dwarf people with how much they know. But we've all been told, people don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care, right. And so, but I have seen advisors that they note, what I called the intellectual derelicts. They're so smart. They want the person to know that they're so smart, but they forget to connect emotionally, with real stories and real things that people can grasp on taking that complicated concept and making it so it's every day, and they understand it. What is the biggest obstacle that advisors go through with trying to connect the dots, and mistakes that they make that you see regularly, and you're like, there it is, there it is, it's like I play basketball. And in basketball, when you see you shoot a basketball, and you see someone elbow go out like this, they're gonna miss 90% of their shots. And the reason why they're gonna miss 90% of their shots is because this technique here, the ball spins like this, instead of the ball spinning like this. And because the ball spins like this, when it catches the rim, it has a like a reverse angle, and it sticks to the rim. And every time when you see it, you're like, okay, that person is probably not going to make the majority of their shots. And it's, just is what it is. No one having time to shoot doesn't matter. It's just the way the ball bounces. No pun intended. So what are some of the techniques that you see when you analyze video? And I'm sure you watch other speakers too, not just because you're coaching. But, when you're like watching speeches, I would hate for you to be in the crowd, Suzanne, and I'm doing a speech and he's like...

Suzanne Carawan 28:58

Exactly.

Chris Gandy 29:01

Teachers in the audience, right? What are some of the common mistakes you see that advisors make? Let me just sum that up. What are some of the common mistakes you see advisors make over and over and over and over again, that your like, best to it's kind of taboo, they've got to adjust that. What are some of the one that you see numerous ones that are being made?

Frank Maselli 29:22

Great question. And I didn't know that about basketball. My daughter played basketball and she was the worst basketball player in the world. And so it was just fun to watch her. She was fearless. But two biggest mistakes that I think come to mind immediately one is too much information. The seminars that we tend to do. They're just so jammed with data, and statistics and the slides are horrible. They're just really, really hard to see. And the presenter, the advisor thinks they've got to hit on all those points. The audience can only absorb a certain amount of information. And so what I tried to do is I try to get the advisors to understand, look, give me three things, tell me three things that I need to know. If it's taxes, if it's estate planning, if it's a retirement, whatever the subject is, break it down into three pieces that I can digest, and then just drill those again and again. I was an Army officer before becoming an advisor. And so we learned how to give briefings briefly, it was tight, boom, boom, boom, here's the three things, this is the mission, we have to accomplish. The number one mistake is too much information, and not enough focus. The second mistake, and this is a tough one. The second mistake is too much of a commercial. The more you talk about yourself, in a workshop, the less the audience likes you, the less they will bond to you, you need to talk about yourself a little bit. But if you make the whole thing a commercial, if you make every story about how you did something great for a client, and how you're so smart, and all that, they tune out to that. So give them value with no strings attached, do a little bit of a commercial, let the message carry, that they can be successful, with or without you. That's an interesting concept right there. Most people don't understand that. Empower them to be successful, and they will attach the feeling of self-confidence to you, as the advisor, they will bond to you.

Suzanne Carawan 31:35

So you've also put the choice into their hands, right? I love that. They can be successful, whether or not, whatever they do, but if they choose you, it's their choice. Now they're bought in, they've got a stake in the ground.

Frank Maselli 31:48

That's 100% perfectly, perfectly stated, I tell a very quick story. I had a contractor come to my house to do some repair work. He was great. We talked a lot about a project that I wanted to do myself a bookshelf that I wanted to build, I wanted to work with wood, right? He helped me tremendously. He showed me everything I needed to do. He said you can use my tools, here's the word you need to buy. He showed me everything. I hired him to do the workshop. And he said, wait a minute, I just showed you how to do all that stuff. You can do it entirely yourself. I said, no, no, what you showed me is that you're a professional. And I want this done correctly. But now I have confidence in you. You made me feel confident, but that confidence transfers directly to you. So I think that's something that a lot of advisors lack, but not all of them. Some advisors I got to say some of these guys, guys and gals. Okay. Oh, and by the way, not to pander here. But this is the golden age of the female financial advisor. We have entered a phase and it'll be with us for the next 100 years where if you are a woman advisor, now, this is the time to go pedal to the metal. I mean, this is unbelievable. The demographics are staggering. The success curve for female advisors is just absolutely mind boggling. So they need to be out there as active and as assertive as they possibly can right now.

Suzanne Carawan 33:17

We just need more.

Chris Gandy 33:20

Suzanne, it's interesting, he says that, because about four years ago when I looked at our lineup of advisors in our firm, and I compared it to what I call the big three, right, I came from our firm, the big Mutual's I came from there and there were like, spotty, one female here, somebody who's related to someone here, someone here who was a successful attorney that didn't decided to be financial services old trust option, but it was far afield in between. And I looked at my team, and my team was 60% women. And they're like, why? And I said something to them. I said, because they have empathy. We don't have, they can do things that we can't do. And once they're committed, not interested, once they're committed to something, unlike us, our ego breaks pretty easily. They're like, nope, I said, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna stick to it. So it was really interesting to see that. So Frank, you're bringing light to, I think, a need that we talk about when we talk about the inclusion and opportunity space. When we try to grow our practices, the types of people that we recruit to the industry, because there's an opportunity for growth. And so thank you for that because I'm a big proponent of it's better for everyone, when we have unique individuals and individuals with different perspectives on the way money operates. Absolutely. Yeah. So Frank, let's fast forward the tape. What's your days like now? What do you do now? I mean, you've been in industry how long? If you don't mind me? 40 years, you probably started out if you started when they still had read cards, right? And you had to go and you had I don't know if you were in that space, because I hear the stories from John Wheeler. And some of the guys are like, I read cards, current year, and I figured out they wanted $100 are determined. So I had to go, Chris, but how different is the industry now? Let me ask a couple questions. How different is the industry now than it was when you started?

Frank Maselli 35:31

Very different. I didn't start on the insurance side, I am sorry to say that I've know virtually nothing about insurance. I definitely come from the stockbroker world, and that world has changed enormously. So yeah, I mean, it's been a radical shift. We used to be a commission sales business, and we're not a sales business anymore. This is not a sales profession anymore. We are a service profession. We are psychiatrists who happen to talk about money occasionally. That's what I think of the financial world completely. But yeah, it's changed a lot, in some ways, in other ways, not so much. I mean, this is still a people business, this is still a business where, you don't need big muscles, you don't need a PhD, you can succeed tremendously if you've got some people skills, and if you care about people, that I think is the biggest thing is that we really are a profession about caring and taking care of people. And if you have that attitude, I think you'll do very, very well in this profession going forward.

Suzanne Carawan 36:41

And that's what's crazy. I think that is the most, that's exactly right. All the people we know, that are super successful, regardless of whatever side they're coming from insurance side, security side, it doesn't matter. It's the ability to be in that service culture. And yet, so much of financial services, like skips over that into like, you've already made it. Like, they're focusing on the illustrations of the numbers, and the, and I think a lot of people, especially women, probably don't go into the industry because one, they don't know how to get in there. And two, I think the perception is that everything is like boiler room and stockbroker world. And it's like, if they started with the we need empathetic people who love people and want to see people thrive. There'll be a better calling cards to help recruit in.

Chris Gandy 37:26

Yeah, Frank, let me just go back to that, though. So I want to go back to that just for a second. So I love the idea, you didn't come from the insurance world. So you haven't been tainted. Okay. So, you didn't come from that space? That's a good thing. But my point is that when someone was a stockbroker before, you knew what they did, right? They were a stockbroker, right? They didn't do insurance, they didn't do investments. They didn't do investment fee based planning. They didn't do banking, they didn't do and now the world is hard for a consumer to understand the differences between Frank, who was a stockbroker, Chris Gandy, who's a financial advisor, and the insurance advisor, who does sometimes investments, and then a walk into a bank, and the bank says, you know what, at the end of the day, I understand, we're your banking business, we have this channel over here, if you have more than $50,000, we'd love to give you advice. And now you've got coming into our space, the robo advisor, right? The advisor that just basically is going off on algorithms, saying, a were cheaper than actually having someone who helps you. So from where you came from, and now you look at this crowded elevator of space, giving people financial advice, share with me your perspective, because I'm very interested in your perspective of that, and I'm sure NAIFA's nation is too, you've got the years of I mean, do we say yesterday, Suzanne, how many members across the nation that either have are with NAIFA or have been with NAIFA, you've got the years and we are one of the voice and channels and outlets of NAIFA. But I'd love to get your perspective on kind of where we are, because it's convoluted. It's hard for I've heard this from numerous people, even clients or prospective. It's hard to understand who to trust who to go to because there's so much information, and everybody offers the same thing. It's like kind of the space but I'd love to get your perspective. So I know that's a long gated question, but it just kind of wanted to set that up. So you had perspective and narrative and where I was coming from?

Frank Maselli 38:28

Yeah, no, I think you're 100% correct. This has become a very, very confusing world for the average consumer quote unquote, or client. They don't really know who they can rely upon and that's a little scary. I think the days of the stockbroker are probably over those days are gone. Now you're talking about people who will manage money for a fee. So the buying and the selling and the transactions, those transactions are gone. I don't think anybody needs to fear transactional business anymore. Okay, so that's a good thing. There's no more churning, there's no more slamming them into stocks and all that nonsense, that's gone. And that's made our industry a lot better. But you have entire subsets of the industry, for example, look at the wirehouses. These are gigantic firms with trillions and trillions of dollars of assets. Yet very few of them do insurance, for example. And one of the biggest needs that people have is for insurance. Okay, so now your client, you're a person, you're a human, a civilian, we'll call you and now who do you go to? What do you need. So on one hand, you need a separate person for insurance or two, you can your financial advisor, do insurance, you're not sure where to go? Long story short, in the midst of all this confusion, it's gotten a lot better for clients, because they can find people who can solve multiple problems for them. There are many advisors out there who can do a lot of things together. And to be a holistic financial professional, I think that's the future. I don't think we can be as compartmentalized. And as siloed, as we used to be. Because clients don't want six or seven different advisors, they kind of want one person they can trust or one team they can trust. And that's another big trend is teams. Teams are a big thing. So you might have four or five people or more on a team. And so I've got an insurance expert, I've got an annuity expert, I've got an estate planning attorney as part of my team. And now we can solve all your problems for you. And that's a very, I think, a positive trend for the industry. So, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to trust a trusting relationship with somebody who you believe has your best interests at heart, and who has the expertise to solve multiple problems for you. And I think our industry has gotten a lot better at that.

Chris Gandy 42:21

So Frank, what I heard you say, and I just want to make sure, NAIFA nation heard that is we have to be nimble enough and skilled enough to understand that we have to be able to know multiple things at some sort of depth. You mentioned the three things that hey, tell me the three things. Tell me the three things tell me the three things. It's funny, because I always tell people when they are interviewing me, and I'm interviewing them to see if they want to become a client. So they say, so what do you do? I said, I really do three things. One, I help people make smarter decisions with money than I do, I help them protect the things they care about the most. Three, I make sure longevity wise, they can leave the world a little bit and they found it. That's what legacy comes from what I do, and I shut up. And that's it. And people are like, I won't be a part of that. That's right. And they're like, well, but I'll make it because every schedule, if you think about it, isn't everything we do, by the way, NAIFA nation, don't use my stuff. I'm just kidding. It's good stuff. It's just steal. But it's true. Everything we talk about at the end of the day, or we may help him to make wiser, more educated decisions with the money that they have, right? Or the money they inherit, or the money in which they are repurposing or whatever it may be. Right. And so I've dialed it down to that, to make sure I can do a 3o second commercial or a 60 second commercial at the end of the day, they heard those three things. Okay, yes, I need someone to help me make decisions two I want to make sure that everything's taken care of don't have to worry. And three, I could do it with some efficiency and leave a little somebody to be with the world. But yeah, I want to do that. Because no one's helped me think through that, it's just kind of just simplistic stuff. Because we were all molded into the soldiers with the red lever over the Red Letter language, they gave it to us and said, memorize this, and everybody would say the same thing. And then you would basically I was like, there's no differences between us all, so I'm gonna be a little different. So I kind of learned that along the way. And you're saying a lot of the same thing is the ability to connect early and be able to connect emotionally and once you're able to do that they'll trust you with everything. I've always said if people can trust you, if they trust you, they'll trust you with their kids, but they trust you. If they don't trust you, then you can have the greatest product in the world. They're never going to do business. Your ability to build that so Frank, share with us a little bit are you doing podcasts now or are you doing just the books, you mentioned the fact that yes, your code Gene if I wanted to get coached by the Frank Maselli. Is that something that NAIFA advisors have an opportunity to do? Or? I mean? Or is or I have to find you on internet? I mean, share with us a little bit about kind of how we how do we find and connect with you?

Frank Maselli 45:18

Sure. I've tried to make it as easy as possible. I mean, I'm a one man shop. So I coach, I charge an hourly fee, there are no contracts, I am not a fan of coaching contracts. And I know, I don't want to trash any coaches out there. But it's extremely lucrative to be a coach, when you have somebody on the couch for two or three years, okay? I have no interest in doing that. If I can't help you in two or three phone conversations, that I'm not the guy for you. Okay, I'm a very action oriented coach, you call me it's an hourly fee. And it's basically customized around the advisor after 40 years in this business. I've seen so many ways to succeed, that there is no Maselli way, there's no more Sally program that you've got to sign up for. There's 1000 different ways to succeed, I'm going to help you find your way to succeed and make you the best you can possibly be. And then we move on some people in the beginning of a relationship, maybe we talk weekly, and then it slows down and then it goes away. And that's perfect. That's what I want. I want you to go away. I'm happy, successful. And then we talk once a year, and that's great. So yeah, I'm easy, though. It's very easy. It's very customized to do a lot of seminar coaching. I watch videos every day, people send me their videos. And then I do a lot of writing. And that's about it. It's a lot of fun.

Chris Gandy 46:56

So, prior to doing this seminar, are you coaching them? Or they walk in through the seminar with you say, Frank, let me give you I'm gonna take my seminar. No audience, tell me what you think. And then they're going to I played sports, and one of the things we used to do is we used to watch film. Yeah. Right. And the best thing about film is it's real life, it happens in the moment where you have to perform. The worst thing about film is, it's happening at the moment in which you have to perform. You can capture that moment forever. You can't hide, right? So the things you're not good at. And yeah, and the mistakes, they show up. They show up wildly, and they show up live right. And so are you coaching them that way? Or are they going out doing the seminar, and they're just sending you videos of them actually doing that seminar?

Frank Maselli 47:52

Yeah, that's a great point. I mean, the best thing that somebody could do is work with me before they go live. Because that would save them a whole bunch of trouble. I would say most people don't do that. Most people, they do a seminar, they'll do a workshop, they get very bad results. And then they go, ah, I need help. Before I spent enough a $10,000 on this stuff. So then they come to me and we tweak it and we make changes. But the best thing that could happen if somebody thinks they want to do this, let's talk before you go live, you know, before you hit Broadway, let's play in Poughkeepsie. And let's see how you doing, basically, that's what it comes down to, it's like a scrimmage. I mean, Chris, you notice, we let's scrimmage first and then we'll go live,

Suzanne Carawan 48:38

You're gonna have the dress rehearsal. They've already had the performance, right.

Frank Maselli 48:43

But the problem is ego most advisors think they're really, really good. And interestingly, many of them are. I mean, many advisors are naturally gifted speakers and so can I shave five strokes off your game? No, no, but it can I take one stroke off your game. Yeah. And when you're really good one stroke.

Suzanne Carawan 49:02

It's deferent right.

Frank Maselli 49:03

I can make a big difference. So.

Chris Gandy 49:06

Yep. All right. So Frank, White Glove has taken a different, I'm just gonna ask this last question. White Glove has taken a different approach to doing seminars. Why do you think White Glove is so unique in that fashion? I mean, I've talked to White Glove probably two three times and I've engaged with them. And we've actually got some tough stuff some things on the books now. And I think, because they're doing it differently that makes them unique, but they're doing things in the advisor space that is really, really, really dynamic. Because you pay for a good seat, right? You pay for people to show up and now you're paying you're betting on yourself, because you're betting on your ability and your ability to perform on command, right? And so you're betting on that. And so why do you think there's the White Glove is like, at the forefront of the candidate industry right now?

Frank Maselli 50:12

I think it's for a couple of reasons. First, I think they kind of invented the digital marketing model. And I don't pretend to understand how to do digital. I mean, I struggle with Facebook and LinkedIn and all that stuff. But they've kind of mastered digital marketing. And so they know how to get people into the room, they will steal the room. And my, my philosophy is, if you put me in front of 30, or 40, people, I am going to do business with 20 of them. So I don't care how much it costs me, I really don't. I mean, the anything they do is going to be cheap. If you can close 50% I mean that's the trick. My coaching starts with a 50% appointment ratio, if you're not at a 50% appointment ratio consistently, then you're doing something wrong, you need help, because those people want help. And you should be much more successful than that. But White Glove, I think their model was the first to really say, we're not going to charge you for now, we're going to charge you for success. Again, butts in the seats, or you don't pay, which struck me is like mind boggling. I kept thinking God, if that was around, when I was doing seminars, I wouldn't be here talking to you. So that was the first thing then the second thing is they help they really do, they've got coaches like me, I'm not the only coach they've got, they've got some really good people who will help you. And we want you to be successful. I mean, White Glove wants advisors to succeed with this, not just because they want repeat business, which is obvious, but because we're teaching 200 million Americans how to survive, right? I mean, when you think of seminars, financial advisors have a job here that is so big, and so important, that without us as an industry, and as a profession, 240 million Americans will not make it financially. There's 240 million people out there, including some of the baby boomers, because they're still dealing with baby boomers. But now you got Gen X, you got Gen Y, you got the Millennials, they're all coming. Okay. And they all need financial help. Without financial advisors, they're all going to die financially. I mean, let's not be too dramatic about it. But I mean, the point is, they need us, we are the most necessary profession for the next 100 years. It's the greatest place to be in the world.

Suzanne Carawan 52:37

That's great. But yeah, that's awesome.

Chris Gandy 52:39

Well, Suzanne, that's Frank said it best. I'm not sure I could he should have closed today.

Suzanne Carawan 52:50

We should probably move our lightning round. Right?

Chris Gandy 52:53

Well, let's move to the lightning round. I'm looking at the time. Right? Do you have anything else to say before we go to the lightning round? Thank you so much for the work you're doing coaching individuals and helping them become better versions of themselves, so they can be better for their clients. We appreciate you for the work you're doing with White Glove and also your coaching, offering your services and offering your skill set and your years of knowledge to advisors. And that's something that is worth hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of dollars. Because, we don't know how long we have that information. So thank you for memorializing it in some books and manuals, where we can go back and read it for the future. And our younger advisors will say to you in the future, so.

Frank Maselli 53:41

Cool. Well, thank you, I appreciate what you guys are doing. Because I think our profession is a really, really great profession. And we need advocacy, we need somebody speaking for us and helping us to prevent some stupidity coming out of our elected leadership here. So I'm very, very happy about what you're doing. And I'm happy to be a part of it. I'll help in any way I can any NAIFA people want to work. You just reach out to me you get some special treatment.

Chris Gandy 54:12

All right, perfect. All right. So Frank, here's what we do. The final round is we fire off some questions to you. In a Google you and say, okay, I know Frank is but this is a way for them to really get to know you as a person, okay? And whatever the answer is, that is the answer. And you don't have to overthink it. So it's not something we're gonna ask you arithmetic problem that they taught you. And we're not gonna do that. So we'll start off with questions that we know you know the answer to. So, tell us what's your favorite food Frank?

Frank Maselli 54:49

Pizza.

Chris Gandy 54:49

Pizza, pizza. Where are you from? Where are you from?

Frank Maselli 54:57

Staten Island, New York.

Chris Gandy 55:01

Suzanne, these New Yorkers all right Frank so now see Frank you knew the answer to that you didn't have to think about it right. So Frank, your favorite movie?

Frank Maselli 55:11

Oh god Glengarry Glen Ross.

Chris Gandy 55:15

That's always a classic. You can't go wrong with that, because coffee's for closers. It's funny someone said, it's funny someone said to me one day they go, I've been in sales my entire career and I said, I said to him at the end of the interview, I said, you know what coffee's for closers. He goes, I've never heard that before I go, you are not a sales. Oh, sorry. One of the oldest slides ever. No. All right. Your proudest moment in the business?

Frank Maselli 55:49

Oh, God, Branch Manager for one of the largest branches a major wirehouse. I was a manager for a company called Paine Webber. To say absolutely the number one branch in the country for pain. We're very, very proud of those folks.

Chris Gandy 56:07

If I was started in the industry right now, today, what are the three things that you would tell me to focus on?

Frank Maselli 56:17

Marketing, Psychology, that's part of my background as well and partnerships, strategic partnerships.

Chris Gandy 56:34

That's good. That's good. You're from New York. So I got to ask the question. The Yankees or the Mets?

Frank Maselli 56:43

Neither, not a baseball fan at all, not a Giants fan. Not a football fan. I am very fickle when it comes to sports. I was a major Patriots fan. Running a fun family in Boston, we hired Bill Belichick to come speak to our company. And so I was a pats fan for a long, long time. But I'm very fickle. I'm a Patrick mahomes. Devo T right now. So I'm looking forward to Kansas City in the supper bowl.

Chris Gandy 57:11

Well, that was our last question. This is one of our pre Super Bowl extravaganza. So we're going to ask the question, who's gonna win the Super Bowl? The Chiefs? Or the 40 niners?

Frank Maselli 57:29

Great question. Two fantastic teams, but I don't think we've ever seen anyone like a mahomes. And even a Tom Brady, as great as he was. And mahomes has a little long way to go there. Because it's longevity, not just just immediate success. I don't think we've ever seen a phenomenon like this kid, Patrick mahomes, I think the chiefs will win. And I think they know how to win. I think they've got the attitude of a winner. And I think his spirit, his positive energy. And if you know this kid, he's a kid for God's sake. He's so young. He's an extremely positive force. And I think that's, why they won yesterday. And that's why they will win in the Superbowl. I could be wrong, but I think they deserve to win.

Suzanne Carawan 58:16

Yeah, I think Kelsey, Taylor Swift have a little luck.

Frank Maselli 58:18

Well, having Taylor Swift as your girlfriend is never a bad strategy for success. So there's some positive motivation on that end, as well. But yeah, no, I did. They're a great team, there's gonna be a good game. I think both teams are pretty good. I'm excited for both of them.

Suzanne Carawan 58:34

And I'll tell you quickly, as a mother who had to raise two sons who both played football, I really actually hope that the Taylor Swift piece of it actually brings football into many other mothers lives. And they actually don't try to get rid of it, because there's always a threat to try to get rid of contact sports. And I hope that they can embrace that. And we understand that one of America's great treasures is American style football. So I'll just put that little plug in there because both my kids learned a ton from it. And it's a great sport.

Chris Gandy 59:04

Yeah. Frank, last question for you, your favorite quote?

Frank Maselli 59:11

Oh, gosh, it's a poem called Invictus. It's not really a quote, per se. I could recite the entire thing for you from memory, but it's a poem that speaks to the character of human endurance. I don't think there's anything that human beings can't accomplish if we have the right attitude. So I'm a big believer in attitude and approach to life. But it's not a simple quote, if you don't if you know the poem endurance objectives. Did I say no? Yeah, it's really all inspiring as far as I can tell.

Chris Gandy 59:51

So Suzanne, you do know. Frank, thank you so much. So Suzanne, you do know that that is the last thing you learn and Lily, literally the leadership and life which is a NAIFA and exclusive NAIFA leadership and life course. And it's offered through your local NAIFA's channel those who out there are and Lily members but you can learn leadership in life and they go through specific they tie it to movies, they tie it to books and read and one of the last things is the character of man and Invictus. And so thanks Frank. We could ask you for a better Lily plug?

Frank Maselli 1:00:37

I am NAIFA natural. I really am, I belong.

Suzanne Carawan 1:00:41

NAIFA natural. You are a NAIFA natural, you found your family.

Frank Maselli 1:00:45

Thank you guys. Thank you.

Chris Gandy 1:00:48

All right, Frank, any parting words before I close this out?

Frank Maselli 1:00:52

No, no, keep doing what you're doing. Thanks for the opportunity. And if you need anything else, just reach out to me anytime I'm here and I live in North Carolina. It's nice and warm and happy to help in any way I can.

Chris Gandy 1:01:04

Thanks, Frank. Suzanne, anything else before we close out?

Suzanne Carawan 1:01:12

Excuse me? No, I'm caught up in emotion from Frank here. Now I just I love the NAIFA natural. I'm gonna just keep on that. We have so many people that we find them and they're like, Yeah, you're a people and they find us and they're, they're happy to come on home. So thank you for belonging, Frank.

Chris Gandy 1:01:27

And thank all of you as I close this out today thank all of you for participating and listening to Advisors Today's podcast, our pre Super Bowl edition with Frank Maselli. And you have an interest in working with White Glove and or being coached by Frank you got the information here. And thank all of you for tuning in today. Again, NAIFA's Advisor Today's podcast is for the uplift of the education, uplifting and empowerment of all of us collectively as a whole and making us all better advisors for tomorrow. We'll see you next time on Advisor Today's podcast. See you

Outro 1:02:05

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.

47 min read