July 31, 2024 • 20 mins
In this podcast episode, I welcome Evan Mayer, CEO and founder of Fortuna Wealth Management and host of the "For Advisors by Advisors" podcast.
Evan shares his journey from the bank channel to independent financial advising, and offers insights on podcasting, advisor success, and the value of continuous improvement in the financial services industry.
Evan's Journey: From Bank Channel to Independence
- Career Beginnings: Evan spent 16 years in the bank channel before going independent in 2019.
- Transition to Independence: He discusses the benefits and challenges of moving from an employee model to an independent advisor model.
- Growth and Expansion: Evan's firm has grown from 2-3 people to 12 in the last two years.
The Power of Podcasting for Financial Advisors
- Podcast Origins: Evan started "For Advisors by Advisors" about three years ago, inspired by a chance conversation.
- Content Strategy: Focuses on creating dialogue between advisors rather than just Q&A.
- Value for Listeners: Serves as a platform for advisors considering independence or exploring different options.
Key Takeaways for Financial Advisors
- The Importance of a Process: Evan emphasizes having a defined process as crucial for growth and success.
- Continuous Improvement: Regularly reassessing and improving one's skills and knowledge.
- Client Education: The value of teaching clients something new in every meeting.
- Referral Generation: Focusing on providing excellent service rather than directly asking for referrals.
Evan's Advice for Advisors Considering Independence
- Consider Your Business Model: The best channel depends on your specific business and goals.
- Evaluate Compliance Restrictions: Independent channels often offer more flexibility in marketing and client communication.
- Assess Your Passion: Independence may be worth it for those who view their work as a hobby and passion.
About our Guest: Evan Mayer, CEO and founder of Fortuna Wealth Management and host of "For Advisors by Advisors" podcast.
You can learn more about his work at:
https://www.raymondjames.com/fortunawealth/about-us/bio?_=evan
About Your Host: Paul G. McManus is an accomplished author and expert in helping financial professionals grow their businesses. With over eight years of experience working exclusively with financial professionals, Paul has helped his clients generate tens of millions of dollars in fees and commissions.
Claim your free audiobook copy at: www.theshortbookformula.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to another episode of the Million Dollar
Producer Show.
I am your host, paul G McManus.
Today, my guest is Evan Mayer.
Evan is the CEO and founder ofa wealth management firm called
Fortuna Wealth Management andhe's also the host of a podcast
for advisors by advisors.
(00:25):
I got to know Evan because Iwas recently featured on his
podcast and so of course, I said, hey, you should come on mine
and let's have my audience learnmore about you and your story
and the value that you bring toadvisors.
So welcome, evan, to thepodcast.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate you having me Giveus a high level overview of who
you are and just maybe yourbackground in terms of being an
(00:48):
advisor.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm an awesome person and I consider myself to be a
great golfer sometimes and thena horrible golfer in other times
, and I'm a good dad.
No, I'm an independentfinancial advisor.
I went independent in 2019, soour five-year anniversary is
coming up in about a month, andI was in the bank channel for 16
years prior and we started apodcast, as you mentioned,
(01:11):
called For Advisors by Advisorsa little playoff of FUBU, if you
remember FUBU back in the dayFor Us, by Us, the thought being
for advisors and us mostlytalking to other financial
advisors or people in ourbusiness that can help us get to
become more successful andstarted that as some fun about
two and a half three years agonow, and we've done I don't know
(01:33):
over a hundred episodes whatinitially got you into
podcasting.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I think increasingly it's something that is seen as
popular.
I would also say that I startedmy podcast originally, I want
to say, back in 2018 or so.
It's a lot of work, or it canbe.
What was the impetus to get youto start your podcast and tell
us a bit more about just thevalue that your podcast brings
to its audience?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I guess there's different levels of success for
a financial advisor.
And I always say this there'ssome advisors that they get to
that half a million dollar markof production and they're happy
and they're coasting, and nowit's about the other activities
they have.
Or maybe that's a milliondollars, maybe that's a million
and a half, maybe that's 2million, I don't know what the
number is for me.
I haven't gotten to that numberyet where I just want to stop
(02:16):
going, but I did want to startgiving back and so I actually
went out and got the name andnumber and email address of
every principal in my county.
I live in Palm Beach County,florida, which is a pretty big
county, and I wanted to go anddo financial literacy seminars,
not to get my name out there,not to get my company name out
(02:37):
there, simply to promote thefact that most people coming out
of high school they're taughtalgebra which they're never
going to use, but they're notreally taught how to save money
or how to invest money or whatto do with it.
And, specifically starting asearly as elementary and middle
school, how powerful that wouldhave been for me to be given
that kind of lesson when I wasin school and, funny enough,
(03:00):
every single one of themrejected me, said if you want to
support the students, you candonate.
Bottom line is we don't wantyou in here and, by essence,
they didn't want me in therepromoting a brand.
Fast forward six months a year.
I'm in my pool and my wife ishaving a little bit of a like a
get together sorority sisterparty, like from her old
sorority friends.
(03:20):
And I'm talking to one of thehusbands in the pool and what do
you do?
What sorority friends?
And I'm talking to one of thehusbands in the pool and what do
you do?
What do you do?
Not that you really care, butyou're out there, you're having
some cocktails and one of themgoes.
I have people create podcastsand I go.
What does that entail?
And he goes.
I go.
Do I need 10 grand to do that?
He goes.
No, you need about 500 bucks to2000.
Just depends on what kind ofequipment you want.
And I help you build that and Isaid that's excellent, I'll
(03:43):
take you up on it.
And he literally sat down withme.
We did a few hours ofconversation and told me about
Buzzsprout and all the littlethings you need to get yourself
out there, and I found out howeasy it was.
It's hard when you don't knowwhat you're doing, but if you're
given somebody that kind ofteaches you, it became somewhat
easy and we started doing it anduntil I got to a point about a
(04:06):
year and a half two years laterI'd interviewed a ton of people
and I was like I don't there'smuch more to talk about, I'll
wait for people to come out andask me if they want to.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
We also use Buzzsprout on my podcast and I
don't know if that was maybepopular, but it sounds like we
both got into it around the sametime, so maybe that was like
the popular thing to do.
Here's my hypothesis.
Tell me what you think For manyadvisors.
Generally, they want a platformto talk about their story and
the value that they bring totheir clients, and in most
(04:34):
podcasts, as the host, your jobis to be the interviewer and
really make it all about theother person, and so it takes a
certain person who's willing todo that, and so I enjoy doing it
, with the right guests andwhatnot.
So I genuinely enjoy doing itbecause I learn things as I go.
But what I find for a lot ofadvisors, what they probably
(04:56):
should be thinking about doing,is not necessarily hosting their
own podcast, although it hasits place but they should be
focused more on guest podcasting, and what I mean by that is
that if they have a specific,maybe niche, audience that they
want to create more awarenessfor, they want to build more
authority, they want to do thosethings you leverage as a guest,
you get to leapfrog into thisgreat relationship that the host
(05:18):
has already established withtheir audience and share the
value that you bring.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your thought process is that's what would get the
advisor more business, and I100% agree with you.
My goal of the podcast wasnever for that.
They're an underlier that Iwant to be a voice for other
financial advisors that maybeare considering going
independent or thinkingdifferent options as a sounding
board.
Yeah, and funny enough, I taketwo to three calls a week from
(05:46):
advisors that called me on thepodcast and said, hey, I was
thinking of going independent.
Or I heard your podcast onRiskalyze, or I heard Paul
McManus talk about this bookidea.
This is a great idea.
What are your actual thoughtson it?
Like little things, I'm a bigfan of Joe Rogan.
I don't know if you ever get tolisten to his podcast, what I
(06:09):
like about his podcasts andsometimes I don't like this
about his podcast because I wantto hear more from the guest but
you get to hear from his pointof view on the subject.
So he'll ask somebody aquestion or they'll start
talking about a topic and thenhe'll go off on a five 10 minute
rant on his opinion on saidtopic, and to me I think
sometimes podcasts are too Q&Aand not more dialogue.
And so even if you look at mylittle graphic for my podcast.
(06:32):
It's the Joe Rogan face.
I basically stole it.
He can sue me, I don't make anymoney on it.
The concept of the show waslike let's just have it be
conversational between twoadvisors, or an advisor and
somebody trying to help advisors.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, I agree with that.
I watched Joe Rogan's podcastnot a lot because it's darn long
, so I need to like be reallyinterested in the guest and the
conversation in order to investthe time.
But once I am three hours later, hey, where'd the time go?
You and I were just chatting,before we went live, about who
listens to a podcast, and soagain, whether it's as a guest,
(07:04):
for the reasons that we talkedabout, or it's being a host and
there's a lot of good reasons tobe a host of a podcast I get
almost all of my informationfrom a combination of books and
podcasts.
I think it really is the driverof a lot of people discovering
new things and gettinginterested in new ideas.
What's your perspective?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I agree with you, but I also think that's our
generation right.
I think Generation X is, and wesaid this earlier.
There are people older than usthat are listening to podcasts
and there are people, I'm sure,that are in their 60s, 70s and
80s listening to podcasts, butmost of them that I know are not
right.
Like most of them that I know,don't like that long format, and
I agree with you three hours isa little long and I think I was
(07:45):
listening to Terrence Howardcompletely talk about how the
chemical charts are completelydifferent than what science has
been teaching us all along and Ifelt like I was on mushrooms
with them during that episode.
But I guess my theory is thatpodcasts to me are the greatest
way to hear from other peopleand uninterrupted and not in
five to seven minute clip.
(08:07):
So having even Bernie Sanderswas on Joe Rogan once and he was
on there for two hours and Idon't agree with 90 percent of
his policies, but I listened tothe whole thing and I found him
interesting.
And then we'll have TulsiGabbard on and you can hear her
policies.
So I think podcasts are thefuture Now, as well as I know,
everybody and their mom has apodcast.
You got to siphon through allof them and find the ones that
(08:29):
are going to actually add valuefor you.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
The technology is simple.
If someone shows you, it's verysimple and it can be very
inexpensive.
I think where it might get hardfor some people is that when I
started doing it, what I did notlike was a forced schedule
where I need to publish apodcast once a week and now I'm
like looking for guests that I'mnot really interested in just
so I can meet this schedule ofwhat I'm supposed to do, and so
(08:55):
after about 15 episodes, Istopped for a couple of years
just because I didn't like it.
Currently I'm doing podcasts,maybe once or twice a week now,
but it's because I'm genuinelyinterested in the people that
are being introduced to me, andfor me it's like the go-to thing
.
If I'm meeting someone, do Iwant to have a private
conversation, or if I think thatthey have value in my audience
and my clients could benefitfrom it, hey, let's do a podcast
(09:17):
, let's have a publicconversation, and then it's not
only getting to know the personthat much better, and I find
it's a great way to get to knowpeople.
But suddenly I have marketingnow and this is something that I
can put out to the world so Ican attract new people.
It's something I can give to myexisting client base and my
email list, et cetera, sothere's enormous value to it if
you have the right mindset.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
In your business.
If you don't have a podcast,something's wrong with you.
You need a podcast in yourbusiness.
Does every financial advisorshould they have a podcast?
You got enough business thatyou don't need a podcast and
don't want to grow.
No, you don't need no podcast,but for you, I 100% think it's a
humongous thing for you to notonly be out there doing your own
but, as you said, to be a guest, and you, being a guest on mine
(09:58):
and maybe one or two otheradvisors, had this book idea and
have heard of it and now go.
Oh my God, I know the guy thatcan actually do it.
I got to hear from him forabout 30 minutes and him not
give me some spiel, but actuallyget Q and A from somebody that
didn't know anything about him.
I think there's huge value inthat.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
So let me ask you a question.
You have an independent wealthmanagement firm that's
associated or part of RaymondJames Is that correct, it's not
a part of it, it's affiliated,so we're really with it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, yeah, as you probably know, there's employee
channels, there's independentchannels and there's RIA
channels, and the independentchannels normally have to
affiliate with a broker dealer,and so our broker dealer we
affiliate with is Raymond James.
So we're affiliated with them,but we're not W2 through them,
we're 1099.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, and if I understand you correctly, one of
the topics that you discuss andthat you have discussed at some
length in your podcast ispotentially some of the benefits
, or maybe pitfalls, of goingfrom being more in that employee
channel to that moreindependent channel.
What is your take on it?
What are some of the thingsthat you've discovered from
yourself, from the people you'vetalked to for an advisor?
(11:06):
That's what's the best channelfor me to be in.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think at the end of the day, it depends on your
business and your business modeland also what you want to do.
As an example, your servicethat you offer on the
independent side, I can takeadvantage of that.
On the RIA side, I can takeadvantage of that If I'm an
employee side on Wells Fargo.
No way compliance is going to.
Let me get away with 99% of thethings I could do to actually
leverage LinkedIn and leveragewriting a book and getting that
(11:31):
kind of stuff in place.
At the end of the day, I was ata part of my career and, again,
I started in this business 20years ago and really didn't
start picking up my process andmy business until probably 2012,
.
2013 is when I started reallyturning it on and so, as my book
continued to grow, I was in thebank channel and I was having
(11:52):
to deal with compliance callsand a lot of nonsense.
That was just pointless of mytime.
And as my book got big enoughand my book got to a point of
hey, why am I going to be a W-2to a firm?
I want to create my own content.
I want to be able to speak tomy clients directly If I want to
shoot an email out about howthe market looks to me or what
(12:15):
the Fed's doing, or a great ideaor a great strategy.
I could never do that where Iwas.
The compliance regulations wereso tight you weren't able to
send emails out to your clients.
That's crazy talk.
You can only send a sun trustcompliance already approved
piece out or this out.
So I think there are differentchannels for different people.
(12:36):
I don't know why.
So I think there are differentchannels for different people.
I don't know why anybody thatis producing a million dollars
or more in a wire house or in abank setting would want to stay
in there, unless they're gettingmassive amounts of business or
they're comfortable wherethey're at.
I talk about this on my podcast.
I have friends that are at theold firm I was at.
They work 15 hours a week maybe, and then they spend 20 hours a
(12:58):
week doing whatever they wantto do with their time and maybe.
For them, going independent isjust not worth it.
It's not worth the time and thehassle and the stress of making
that move.
For me, I love this.
This is my hobby, this is mypassion.
I get to play golf, like I said, twice a week.
That's great If I have a choiceof where I want to be.
It's normally in my office.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You focus primarily on your own wealth management
firm.
For someone that listens toyour podcast, which is For
Advisors, by Advisors, which isa great podcast, and is
interested or attracted to themessage that you talk about,
what are some of the ways thatthey can potentially either
learn from you or even affiliatewith you?
(13:38):
Email or call?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
us.
We're here.
We literally about two yearsago there was two or three of us
at our firm and there's 12 now,and so we've grown a lot in the
last year and a half to twoyears and we are looking to help
other financial advisors thatwant to go independent but are
afraid of doing some of thatstuff, or just don't want to do
some of that stuff and just wantto go independent but are
afraid of doing some of thatstuff, or just don't want to do
some of that stuff and just wantto focus on their practice.
(14:01):
They want to walk into aturnkey situation but they want
to own their clients, they wantto own their book, they want to
own their practice and theydon't want to be told what to do
.
We're handling OSJresponsibilities and we're
handling some of the turnkeystuff like rent and phones and
keeping up with an office andassistance support things along
those lines.
If there's advisors out therethat are looking for that or
(14:24):
they want to go independent ontheir own, they don't need any
of that.
They just need some advice fromus.
The whole reason I started mypodcast was to make our
community of advisors better,and if that is talking to
somebody on the phone for 30minutes and 40 minutes and just
sharing some of the ideas on howI got started.
There's multiple advisorsprobably over a hundred that
I've sat down with this year tojust have those quick calls or
(14:46):
those quick conversations with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Do you find that, since you have that affiliation
with Raymond James, that thepeople that have that
conversation with you are thosetypically existing Raymond James
employees, or do you find it'sa cross-section of advisors?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Excellent question For Advisors by Advisors is an
OBA, an outside businessactivity, so it is not
affiliated with Raymond James inany capacity.
So I am purely givingindependent advice based upon
nothing to do with Raymond James.
Now, if an advisor isinterested in Raymond James, I
am a cheerleader to no end.
I think their tools and theirtechnologies and the ability to
(15:23):
affiliate with them has been anamazing experience, but in no
way am I only talking toadvisors about that.
A lot of times, you know, givingan example, in the last month
I've talked to two or threeadvisors that are with Wells
Fargo, that are looking topotentially go independent and
their finite channel with WellsFargo is a really good
(15:43):
opportunity in some casesdependent upon what they're
looking for, to go independentand still stay affiliated with
Wells Fargo, even though thatchannel's gotten a little harder
to get into and I think Wellshad to shut the door because
there was a little bit of a massmigration going that way.
I'm a sounding board and I knowgrowing up in this business
(16:04):
there were advisors that I wouldcall on.
They knew they were helping meor not, I don't know, but I
would call and I would ask themtons of questions and I was
unapologetic about it because Ijust wanted to get better.
And if there's advisors thatnow want to look upon me to
answer some of those questions,I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
A couple of final questions.
So you've established asuccessful practice.
You're a leader in the field.
You're guiding and coaching andmentoring other advisors.
In terms of what you'veaccomplished for yourself, what
do you think are some of thelessons that you've learned
along the way in terms of what'sgotten you to where you are
today?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's such a loaded, open-ended question.
I love it.
I look back, I say this and Isay this truthfully.
I look back at the advisor Iwas every three to four months
and I look back and I go thatadvisor sucked compared to who I
am today.
So I think the way to grow inour business is to constantly
improve, and it can hurt people.
There's always the Tiger Woodsstory of how many career majors
(17:00):
he would have won if he neverchanged his swing.
We sat with guys that couldn'tswing.
I agree with that.
99% of the conversations I havewith other advisors, even that
are more successful than me, Idon't get a lot, but every once
in a while I'll pull that oneidea or that one thought and
I'll go.
That is phenomenal.
(17:21):
Let me include that in mypractice.
I also think it's important foryour clients.
I know many advisors that goEvan, my clients don't want to
see me.
How do you get your clients tocome see you every 90 days?
My clients are just like hey,go, do what you do for me.
My goal for my clients are Iwant to teach them something new
every time they walk in thedoor.
I want them finding value insomething I'm doing every time
(17:45):
they're coming in the door,because the more times they come
to see me, the more times Itouch them, the more times
they're likely to say to theirfriend hey, I just left my
advisor's office, they just toldme about a backdoor Roth
conversion idea I didn't eventhink about.
Oh really, I haven't spoke tomy advisor in a year and a half.
What's your advisor like?
And I think the way.
(18:05):
I think I've gotten thequestion before, like Evan, how
do you get so many referralsfrom your existing clients?
You must be asking them forbusiness.
I don't ask them for business.
I think that's corny as hell.
I think if you're good at whatyou do, you're going to get
business from your existingclients.
They're going to automaticallyrefer if they're talking about
you.
So run your practice, learn,see your clients consistently,
(18:27):
add something new to yourpractice consistently and keep
growing.
Is there any?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
question that I haven't asked you, that you'd
like to touch upon.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
No, but there's always questions of how do you
get better, what do you do andwhat's your process.
And I do agree, if you want tobe a great financial advisor in
our business, you need to have agood team around you.
But more importantly, you needto have a process and a process
that you stick to with yourclientele.
And if you don't have thatprocess or you don't even know
(18:56):
what a process is, there'sadvisors.
I'll talk to them aboutfinancial planning.
They'll go oh, I do financialplanning.
I go tell me what you do and Igo.
There's literally no processand I think most advisors walk
around without that.
So the number one thing thattook me from a guy that was
doing 200,000 in production to500,000 in production, to a
million and a half, to this yearwe're going to be over 2.2
(19:18):
million and our branch alone isgoing to be over 3.3 million is
there's just no stopping yourability to do what you do if you
do have a process.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Finally, where can people find you, reach out to
you or learn more about you?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
For Advisors by Advisors is the podcast.
I do, we're all over the place.
For Advisors by Advisors is thepodcast.
I do, we're all over the place.
And then LinkedIn.
Look for Evan Mayer.
If you type in Evan J Mayer,you're good.
If you type in Evan Mayer,there's no serial killers Named
Evan Mayer, we're good.
So you could find me anywhere.
Evan Mayer Financial Advisor onGoogle.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You'll tend to be able to find me all over the
place.
All right, evan J Mayer.
Thank you.
Welcome to another episode of the Million Dollar
Producer Show.
I am your host, paul G McManus.
Today, my guest is Evan Mayer.
Evan is the CEO and founder ofa wealth management firm called
Fortuna Wealth Management andhe's also the host of a podcast
for advisors by advisors.
(00:25):
I got to know Evan because Iwas recently featured on his
podcast and so of course, I said, hey, you should come on mine
and let's have my audience learnmore about you and your story
and the value that you bring toadvisors.
So welcome, evan, to thepodcast.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate you having me Giveus a high level overview of who
you are and just maybe yourbackground in terms of being an
(00:48):
advisor.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I'm an awesome person and I consider myself to be a
great golfer sometimes and thena horrible golfer in other times
, and I'm a good dad.
No, I'm an independentfinancial advisor.
I went independent in 2019, soour five-year anniversary is
coming up in about a month, andI was in the bank channel for 16
years prior and we started apodcast, as you mentioned,
(01:11):
called For Advisors by Advisorsa little playoff of FUBU, if you
remember FUBU back in the dayFor Us, by Us, the thought being
for advisors and us mostlytalking to other financial
advisors or people in ourbusiness that can help us get to
become more successful andstarted that as some fun about
two and a half three years agonow, and we've done I don't know
(01:33):
over a hundred episodes whatinitially got you into
podcasting.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I think increasingly it's something that is seen as
popular.
I would also say that I startedmy podcast originally, I want
to say, back in 2018 or so.
It's a lot of work, or it canbe.
What was the impetus to get youto start your podcast and tell
us a bit more about just thevalue that your podcast brings
to its audience?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
I guess there's different levels of success for
a financial advisor.
And I always say this there'ssome advisors that they get to
that half a million dollar markof production and they're happy
and they're coasting, and nowit's about the other activities
they have.
Or maybe that's a milliondollars, maybe that's a million
and a half, maybe that's 2million, I don't know what the
number is for me.
I haven't gotten to that numberyet where I just want to stop
(02:16):
going, but I did want to startgiving back and so I actually
went out and got the name andnumber and email address of
every principal in my county.
I live in Palm Beach County,florida, which is a pretty big
county, and I wanted to go anddo financial literacy seminars,
not to get my name out there,not to get my company name out
(02:37):
there, simply to promote thefact that most people coming out
of high school they're taughtalgebra which they're never
going to use, but they're notreally taught how to save money
or how to invest money or whatto do with it.
And, specifically starting asearly as elementary and middle
school, how powerful that wouldhave been for me to be given
that kind of lesson when I wasin school and, funny enough,
(03:00):
every single one of themrejected me, said if you want to
support the students, you candonate.
Bottom line is we don't wantyou in here and, by essence,
they didn't want me in therepromoting a brand.
Fast forward six months a year.
I'm in my pool and my wife ishaving a little bit of a like a
get together sorority sisterparty, like from her old
sorority friends.
(03:20):
And I'm talking to one of thehusbands in the pool and what do
you do?
What sorority friends?
And I'm talking to one of thehusbands in the pool and what do
you do?
What do you do?
Not that you really care, butyou're out there, you're having
some cocktails and one of themgoes.
I have people create podcastsand I go.
What does that entail?
And he goes.
I go.
Do I need 10 grand to do that?
He goes.
No, you need about 500 bucks to2000.
Just depends on what kind ofequipment you want.
And I help you build that and Isaid that's excellent, I'll
(03:43):
take you up on it.
And he literally sat down withme.
We did a few hours ofconversation and told me about
Buzzsprout and all the littlethings you need to get yourself
out there, and I found out howeasy it was.
It's hard when you don't knowwhat you're doing, but if you're
given somebody that kind ofteaches you, it became somewhat
easy and we started doing it anduntil I got to a point about a
(04:06):
year and a half two years laterI'd interviewed a ton of people
and I was like I don't there'smuch more to talk about, I'll
wait for people to come out andask me if they want to.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
We also use Buzzsprout on my podcast and I
don't know if that was maybepopular, but it sounds like we
both got into it around the sametime, so maybe that was like
the popular thing to do.
Here's my hypothesis.
Tell me what you think For manyadvisors.
Generally, they want a platformto talk about their story and
the value that they bring totheir clients, and in most
(04:34):
podcasts, as the host, your jobis to be the interviewer and
really make it all about theother person, and so it takes a
certain person who's willing todo that, and so I enjoy doing it
, with the right guests andwhatnot.
So I genuinely enjoy doing itbecause I learn things as I go.
But what I find for a lot ofadvisors, what they probably
(04:56):
should be thinking about doing,is not necessarily hosting their
own podcast, although it hasits place but they should be
focused more on guest podcasting, and what I mean by that is
that if they have a specific,maybe niche, audience that they
want to create more awarenessfor, they want to build more
authority, they want to do thosethings you leverage as a guest,
you get to leapfrog into thisgreat relationship that the host
(05:18):
has already established withtheir audience and share the
value that you bring.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Your thought process is that's what would get the
advisor more business, and I100% agree with you.
My goal of the podcast wasnever for that.
They're an underlier that Iwant to be a voice for other
financial advisors that maybeare considering going
independent or thinkingdifferent options as a sounding
board.
Yeah, and funny enough, I taketwo to three calls a week from
(05:46):
advisors that called me on thepodcast and said, hey, I was
thinking of going independent.
Or I heard your podcast onRiskalyze, or I heard Paul
McManus talk about this bookidea.
This is a great idea.
What are your actual thoughtson it?
Like little things, I'm a bigfan of Joe Rogan.
I don't know if you ever get tolisten to his podcast, what I
(06:09):
like about his podcasts andsometimes I don't like this
about his podcast because I wantto hear more from the guest but
you get to hear from his pointof view on the subject.
So he'll ask somebody aquestion or they'll start
talking about a topic and thenhe'll go off on a five 10 minute
rant on his opinion on saidtopic, and to me I think
sometimes podcasts are too Q&Aand not more dialogue.
And so even if you look at mylittle graphic for my podcast.
(06:32):
It's the Joe Rogan face.
I basically stole it.
He can sue me, I don't make anymoney on it.
The concept of the show waslike let's just have it be
conversational between twoadvisors, or an advisor and
somebody trying to help advisors.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Yeah, I agree with that.
I watched Joe Rogan's podcastnot a lot because it's darn long
, so I need to like be reallyinterested in the guest and the
conversation in order to investthe time.
But once I am three hours later, hey, where'd the time go?
You and I were just chatting,before we went live, about who
listens to a podcast, and soagain, whether it's as a guest,
(07:04):
for the reasons that we talkedabout, or it's being a host and
there's a lot of good reasons tobe a host of a podcast I get
almost all of my informationfrom a combination of books and
podcasts.
I think it really is the driverof a lot of people discovering
new things and gettinginterested in new ideas.
What's your perspective?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I agree with you, but I also think that's our
generation right.
I think Generation X is, and wesaid this earlier.
There are people older than usthat are listening to podcasts
and there are people, I'm sure,that are in their 60s, 70s and
80s listening to podcasts, butmost of them that I know are not
right.
Like most of them that I know,don't like that long format, and
I agree with you three hours isa little long and I think I was
(07:45):
listening to Terrence Howardcompletely talk about how the
chemical charts are completelydifferent than what science has
been teaching us all along and Ifelt like I was on mushrooms
with them during that episode.
But I guess my theory is thatpodcasts to me are the greatest
way to hear from other peopleand uninterrupted and not in
five to seven minute clip.
(08:07):
So having even Bernie Sanderswas on Joe Rogan once and he was
on there for two hours and Idon't agree with 90 percent of
his policies, but I listened tothe whole thing and I found him
interesting.
And then we'll have TulsiGabbard on and you can hear her
policies.
So I think podcasts are thefuture Now, as well as I know,
everybody and their mom has apodcast.
You got to siphon through allof them and find the ones that
(08:29):
are going to actually add valuefor you.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
The technology is simple.
If someone shows you, it's verysimple and it can be very
inexpensive.
I think where it might get hardfor some people is that when I
started doing it, what I did notlike was a forced schedule
where I need to publish apodcast once a week and now I'm
like looking for guests that I'mnot really interested in just
so I can meet this schedule ofwhat I'm supposed to do, and so
(08:55):
after about 15 episodes, Istopped for a couple of years
just because I didn't like it.
Currently I'm doing podcasts,maybe once or twice a week now,
but it's because I'm genuinelyinterested in the people that
are being introduced to me, andfor me it's like the go-to thing
.
If I'm meeting someone, do Iwant to have a private
conversation, or if I think thatthey have value in my audience
and my clients could benefitfrom it, hey, let's do a podcast
(09:17):
, let's have a publicconversation, and then it's not
only getting to know the personthat much better, and I find
it's a great way to get to knowpeople.
But suddenly I have marketingnow and this is something that I
can put out to the world so Ican attract new people.
It's something I can give to myexisting client base and my
email list, et cetera, sothere's enormous value to it if
you have the right mindset.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
In your business.
If you don't have a podcast,something's wrong with you.
You need a podcast in yourbusiness.
Does every financial advisorshould they have a podcast?
You got enough business thatyou don't need a podcast and
don't want to grow.
No, you don't need no podcast,but for you, I 100% think it's a
humongous thing for you to notonly be out there doing your own
but, as you said, to be a guest, and you, being a guest on mine
(09:58):
and maybe one or two otheradvisors, had this book idea and
have heard of it and now go.
Oh my God, I know the guy thatcan actually do it.
I got to hear from him forabout 30 minutes and him not
give me some spiel, but actuallyget Q and A from somebody that
didn't know anything about him.
I think there's huge value inthat.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
So let me ask you a question.
You have an independent wealthmanagement firm that's
associated or part of RaymondJames Is that correct, it's not
a part of it, it's affiliated,so we're really with it.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Okay, yeah, as you probably know, there's employee
channels, there's independentchannels and there's RIA
channels, and the independentchannels normally have to
affiliate with a broker dealer,and so our broker dealer we
affiliate with is Raymond James.
So we're affiliated with them,but we're not W2 through them,
we're 1099.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, and if I understand you correctly, one of
the topics that you discuss andthat you have discussed at some
length in your podcast ispotentially some of the benefits
, or maybe pitfalls, of goingfrom being more in that employee
channel to that moreindependent channel.
What is your take on it?
What are some of the thingsthat you've discovered from
yourself, from the people you'vetalked to for an advisor?
(11:06):
That's what's the best channelfor me to be in.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I think at the end of the day, it depends on your
business and your business modeland also what you want to do.
As an example, your servicethat you offer on the
independent side, I can takeadvantage of that.
On the RIA side, I can takeadvantage of that If I'm an
employee side on Wells Fargo.
No way compliance is going to.
Let me get away with 99% of thethings I could do to actually
leverage LinkedIn and leveragewriting a book and getting that
(11:31):
kind of stuff in place.
At the end of the day, I was ata part of my career and, again,
I started in this business 20years ago and really didn't
start picking up my process andmy business until probably 2012,
.
2013 is when I started reallyturning it on and so, as my book
continued to grow, I was in thebank channel and I was having
(11:52):
to deal with compliance callsand a lot of nonsense.
That was just pointless of mytime.
And as my book got big enoughand my book got to a point of
hey, why am I going to be a W-2to a firm?
I want to create my own content.
I want to be able to speak tomy clients directly If I want to
shoot an email out about howthe market looks to me or what
(12:15):
the Fed's doing, or a great ideaor a great strategy.
I could never do that where Iwas.
The compliance regulations wereso tight you weren't able to
send emails out to your clients.
That's crazy talk.
You can only send a sun trustcompliance already approved
piece out or this out.
So I think there are differentchannels for different people.
(12:36):
I don't know why.
So I think there are differentchannels for different people.
I don't know why anybody thatis producing a million dollars
or more in a wire house or in abank setting would want to stay
in there, unless they're gettingmassive amounts of business or
they're comfortable wherethey're at.
I talk about this on my podcast.
I have friends that are at theold firm I was at.
They work 15 hours a week maybe, and then they spend 20 hours a
(12:58):
week doing whatever they wantto do with their time and maybe.
For them, going independent isjust not worth it.
It's not worth the time and thehassle and the stress of making
that move.
For me, I love this.
This is my hobby, this is mypassion.
I get to play golf, like I said, twice a week.
That's great If I have a choiceof where I want to be.
It's normally in my office.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
You focus primarily on your own wealth management
firm.
For someone that listens toyour podcast, which is For
Advisors, by Advisors, which isa great podcast, and is
interested or attracted to themessage that you talk about,
what are some of the ways thatthey can potentially either
learn from you or even affiliatewith you?
(13:38):
Email or call?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
us.
We're here.
We literally about two yearsago there was two or three of us
at our firm and there's 12 now,and so we've grown a lot in the
last year and a half to twoyears and we are looking to help
other financial advisors thatwant to go independent but are
afraid of doing some of thatstuff, or just don't want to do
some of that stuff and just wantto go independent but are
afraid of doing some of thatstuff, or just don't want to do
some of that stuff and just wantto focus on their practice.
(14:01):
They want to walk into aturnkey situation but they want
to own their clients, they wantto own their book, they want to
own their practice and theydon't want to be told what to do
.
We're handling OSJresponsibilities and we're
handling some of the turnkeystuff like rent and phones and
keeping up with an office andassistance support things along
those lines.
If there's advisors out therethat are looking for that or
(14:24):
they want to go independent ontheir own, they don't need any
of that.
They just need some advice fromus.
The whole reason I started mypodcast was to make our
community of advisors better,and if that is talking to
somebody on the phone for 30minutes and 40 minutes and just
sharing some of the ideas on howI got started.
There's multiple advisorsprobably over a hundred that
I've sat down with this year tojust have those quick calls or
(14:46):
those quick conversations with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Do you find that, since you have that affiliation
with Raymond James, that thepeople that have that
conversation with you are thosetypically existing Raymond James
employees, or do you find it'sa cross-section of advisors?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Excellent question For Advisors by Advisors is an
OBA, an outside businessactivity, so it is not
affiliated with Raymond James inany capacity.
So I am purely givingindependent advice based upon
nothing to do with Raymond James.
Now, if an advisor isinterested in Raymond James, I
am a cheerleader to no end.
I think their tools and theirtechnologies and the ability to
(15:23):
affiliate with them has been anamazing experience, but in no
way am I only talking toadvisors about that.
A lot of times, you know, givingan example, in the last month
I've talked to two or threeadvisors that are with Wells
Fargo, that are looking topotentially go independent and
their finite channel with WellsFargo is a really good
(15:43):
opportunity in some casesdependent upon what they're
looking for, to go independentand still stay affiliated with
Wells Fargo, even though thatchannel's gotten a little harder
to get into and I think Wellshad to shut the door because
there was a little bit of a massmigration going that way.
I'm a sounding board and I knowgrowing up in this business
(16:04):
there were advisors that I wouldcall on.
They knew they were helping meor not, I don't know, but I
would call and I would ask themtons of questions and I was
unapologetic about it because Ijust wanted to get better.
And if there's advisors thatnow want to look upon me to
answer some of those questions,I'm happy to do that.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
A couple of final questions.
So you've established asuccessful practice.
You're a leader in the field.
You're guiding and coaching andmentoring other advisors.
In terms of what you'veaccomplished for yourself, what
do you think are some of thelessons that you've learned
along the way in terms of what'sgotten you to where you are
today?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's such a loaded, open-ended question.
I love it.
I look back, I say this and Isay this truthfully.
I look back at the advisor Iwas every three to four months
and I look back and I go thatadvisor sucked compared to who I
am today.
So I think the way to grow inour business is to constantly
improve, and it can hurt people.
There's always the Tiger Woodsstory of how many career majors
(17:00):
he would have won if he neverchanged his swing.
We sat with guys that couldn'tswing.
I agree with that.
99% of the conversations I havewith other advisors, even that
are more successful than me, Idon't get a lot, but every once
in a while I'll pull that oneidea or that one thought and
I'll go.
That is phenomenal.
(17:21):
Let me include that in mypractice.
I also think it's important foryour clients.
I know many advisors that goEvan, my clients don't want to
see me.
How do you get your clients tocome see you every 90 days?
My clients are just like hey,go, do what you do for me.
My goal for my clients are Iwant to teach them something new
every time they walk in thedoor.
I want them finding value insomething I'm doing every time
(17:45):
they're coming in the door,because the more times they come
to see me, the more times Itouch them, the more times
they're likely to say to theirfriend hey, I just left my
advisor's office, they just toldme about a backdoor Roth
conversion idea I didn't eventhink about.
Oh really, I haven't spoke tomy advisor in a year and a half.
What's your advisor like?
And I think the way.
(18:05):
I think I've gotten thequestion before, like Evan, how
do you get so many referralsfrom your existing clients?
You must be asking them forbusiness.
I don't ask them for business.
I think that's corny as hell.
I think if you're good at whatyou do, you're going to get
business from your existingclients.
They're going to automaticallyrefer if they're talking about
you.
So run your practice, learn,see your clients consistently,
(18:27):
add something new to yourpractice consistently and keep
growing.
Is there any?
Speaker 1 (18:31):
question that I haven't asked you, that you'd
like to touch upon.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
No, but there's always questions of how do you
get better, what do you do andwhat's your process.
And I do agree, if you want tobe a great financial advisor in
our business, you need to have agood team around you.
But more importantly, you needto have a process and a process
that you stick to with yourclientele.
And if you don't have thatprocess or you don't even know
(18:56):
what a process is, there'sadvisors.
I'll talk to them aboutfinancial planning.
They'll go oh, I do financialplanning.
I go tell me what you do and Igo.
There's literally no processand I think most advisors walk
around without that.
So the number one thing thattook me from a guy that was
doing 200,000 in production to500,000 in production, to a
million and a half, to this yearwe're going to be over 2.2
(19:18):
million and our branch alone isgoing to be over 3.3 million is
there's just no stopping yourability to do what you do if you
do have a process.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Finally, where can people find you, reach out to
you or learn more about you?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
For Advisors by Advisors is the podcast.
I do, we're all over the place.
For Advisors by Advisors is thepodcast.
I do, we're all over the place.
And then LinkedIn.
Look for Evan Mayer.
If you type in Evan J Mayer,you're good.
If you type in Evan Mayer,there's no serial killers Named
Evan Mayer, we're good.
So you could find me anywhere.
Evan Mayer Financial Advisor onGoogle.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
You'll tend to be able to find me all over the
place.
All right, evan J Mayer.
Thank you.
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