Building a Diversified Advisory Practice Beyond 401(k)s

[0:00] JD: And now you do funny cool shit like it's getting much better. [0:05] Chad: I'm more like a 51 year old man. [0:08] JD: No, you're. [0:09] Chad: It's gotten better, but it's. Yeah, it's. It's not nowhere where it needs to be. [0:15] JD: I guess the proper term is. Can be pretty. Daddy. Turn the game down a little bit. [0:21] Chad: Don't have the game on you. Hasn't Sarah. Yep. You got mad echo. Just so you know, B. Yeah, I know. All right. Is that better? [0:31] JD: Machine gun like. Chad's comments on LinkedIn are like trying [0:37] Chad: to win CBC's votes over here. That's. Yeah. Just realize it's not started yet, sir. Greg, we might need feedback on. On Keenan Allen's activity before starting the game. I need to know if he stays in tonight or not, so be ready. [0:56] JD: Questions? Hey, do you guys know that they started Pipeline again today? World Surfing League got back on for round three. Kelly Slater won his heat and it's been pretty good. So. Yeah, man, when you say it like [1:08] Chad: that, it sounds really, really interesting. [1:11] JD: I can't talk football, so I just wanted to try to talk sports. [1:15] Chad: Yeah. [1:15] JD: Did you see Tiger woods and his [1:17] Chad: son Brandon's trying to get mics figured out? Yes, B. [1:23] JD: Loud for a second loud. [1:28] Chad: All right. That good enough? Yeah. Yeah. Look at that web saying my LinkedIn is the new must follow. It's so entertaining because I only comment instead of post. It's fantastic. [1:43] JD: I'm not going to comment. Chad's an influencer. [1:52] Chad: All right. [1:53] JD: Watch out, Will. I think Will is like cold stone sober for this show. [1:58] Chad: He's. [1:59] JD: He's gonna be. He's gonna be sharp today. I don't want to. [2:04] Chad: Was it you or Justin that says [2:06] JD: the only reason I put my 805 so you could see them is because Kate put her natural light so you could see it. So I just followed her little trend. [2:14] Kate Clark: Yeah. [2:16] JD: Here we go. We're starting the show. What's up? What's up? What's up, everybody? Thanks for tuning back in. It's the season finale. If we've ever had such a thing as a season. That's not really something we do, but I mean, if it's this, you could call this a season finale because next week is Christmas Eve, so we're not going to have a show then. And then the week after that is New Year's Eve and I'm going to be fucking plastered. So we can't do the show then. [3:10] Chad: Wild. JD that level of plastered right there. [3:13] JD: Yeah, for sure. [3:14] Chad: Perfect. [3:15] JD: So we will be back on January 7th with a phenomenal guest. We've got Dick Darien. I think I'm getting his name right from Wiserino. But this guy's the master of mergers acquisitions. He's behind all the big ones that have happened, so we'll be able to pick his brain on some cool shit. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. It means, hey, who cares about next guest? [3:37] Chad: So let's focus on the one we have here. [3:39] JD: Very good. Very good. I was just kind of talking about how we had two weeks off, but fair enough. Hey, I want to. Not. I want to. We want to give you a warm hug. Imagine our arms around you. Imagine that. It's not Covid. Thank you so much for joining us, Kate. I'm gonna give you a proper intro here in a little bit. To all of you tuning in, I am throwing the same love at you, man. You keep coming back every week. You keep joining this little ruckus, and we appreciate it. I had a thought. We need like a secret handshake or something. So when Covid is done and we go to, like, national conferences and things. Maybe not a handshake. It should be like a shout out because handshakes will not be cool. Yeah, yeah. Some kind of. Or you know how the Goonies said, like. What did the Goonies say? [4:33] Chad: Like, never die. [4:34] JD: Never say die. Here's what I envision. Marcus walking down the convention center hallway. One of you guests are coming, ignoring [4:46] Chad: everybody, just looking at my phone. That's fine because he's still hammered. [4:50] JD: Even better. And then if Will Hackler's on the other side walking the other way and he sees you, he shouts out our version of Goonies say never die or whatever. [5:01] Chad: Fantastic. [5:03] JD: Maybe it's not the best idea, but I like the idea. [5:05] Chad: But we got to know what it's going to be. Yeah, it's got to be way better than that. [5:08] JD: We got to find out what that is. We'll see. Someone can come up with it on the show today. Or Mark's a genius, so we'll come up with something like that. Our guest. We've had a lot of big shots on this show, right? We've had the. We've had the IntelliSense CEOs, and we've had the Chetneys and the Fred Reich's and the fancy pants Nevin Adams. But you know what? I think it's probably better to have someone who's on the front lines, like a legit financial advisor that doesn't have to talk surface level headlines. We could get deep into the weeds She's a cfp, so that's pretty legit. I don't know if she's a fart. I don't see the fart designation on the end. [5:55] Chad: I don't think so. [5:56] JD: So she's not a. [5:57] Chad: She's not a step above cfp. She's got to earn her way there. [6:00] JD: Okay, she's not there yet, but she'll get there eventually. She's the managing partner of Cypress Capital. She kills fish. I've seen via her Instagram that she's not afraid to murder a fish. Her and her husband actually raise cattle. I'm assuming they kill the cattle, too. Unless it's some type of vegan cattle like adoption program. Is that what it is? [6:27] Kate Clark: Yeah, of course. That's how you make rockets. [6:30] JD: Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Kate Clark. Kate Clark. [6:36] Kate Clark: Thanks, guys. [6:38] JD: Can you do this and drink Natty Ice at the same time or Natty Light? I don't know. [6:43] Kate Clark: You apparently have not done a lot of research. I am a former rodeo queen, so I got this wave down path. [6:50] Chad: Look at that. Yeah, I can't go there. [6:57] JD: We don't know. [6:57] Chad: Please go there. What were you gonna say? It's a common type of writing. I was gonna ask if she was riding bareback, but that's a terrible thing to ask somebody. Whoa. [7:05] JD: What the. [7:06] Chad: Don't care. [7:08] JD: Okay, let's move on. [7:09] Chad: Father in law road, technically. [7:12] Kate Clark: So we just wrapped up the Wrangler National Finals RO in bareback riding is an event there. It's a legit event. [7:18] JD: Fair enough. Chad. I apologize. Chad, you have people in Missouri. I know that. I don't know these things. Let's go on to housekeeping. Housekeeping. Housekeeping. Housekeeping. [7:31] Chad: Housekeeping. [7:32] JD: No, thank you. [7:34] Chad: Sleeping. [7:35] JD: Make sure you're in gallery view. Make sure you're in gallery view. That way you can see all of us at the same time. It's up in the top somewhere. Hover over it. Find it. We're going to have a CBC champion, that's for sure. So we're not going to be back for two weeks. I mean, you will be the CBC champion until next year. So this is a big one. I'm going to pay close attention. You do not forget, Kate, you also must give a vote at the end of the show. It could be a make or break vote. So pay attention to who is the best in the chat bar. [8:08] Chad: And jd, do you remember who's raining right now? Who can't? [8:12] JD: I have no idea. Oh, well, Greg won last week, right? [8:15] Chad: Greg won last week. [8:16] Kate Clark: So I won a few weeks ago. [8:20] JD: You did. That's right. You are a past champion. Very well done. Wow. [8:25] Chad: First ever. First ever past champion on the show. Cbc. And guess. [8:30] JD: Is that true? [8:31] Chad: I don't think there's ever been another CBC as a guess. That might be hall of Fame worthy. Justin does keep our statistics for our soon hall of fame nominations. And Mrs. Brandrup is going negative points already. What do you say? I haven't missed much. He always talks about how long it takes us to start this. Here we go. [8:51] JD: A little tip. A little tip of the cap to Greg. But. But no CBC points obviously for that this week. But I. We're gonna go work. We're gonna go prohibitive word. Same as last week, okay? That shit was super cool. It keeps you on your toes. It can bleed into a variety of subjects. So here we go, boys. No acronyms. However, I'm going to claim that my name is not an acronym. [9:15] Chad: I agree. All right. That hurt last week. All right, fine. [9:20] Kate Clark: No. Okay. [9:22] JD: Can I use any acronyms? [9:24] Chad: All in favor [9:27] JD: before we get started or. I should say so let's start, Kate. But why don't you tell the audience a little bit about you and a little bit about Cypress Capital and what's brought you to the point you're at today. [9:39] Kate Clark: Okay. All right. Well, so I graduated from the University of Florida Gators. That's right. Go Gators. I went to ag school there and then went straight into finance like anybody does. So spent three years in 2007, spent three years on operations, marketing, compliance, that side of things. Got licensed, was back office and then decided that after going through the Great Recession and seeing everybody that had been in the business for 30 years, 40 years, having to start over, I said what better time to actually start? So in 2010, I left the firm that I was with at the time and joined a small broker dealer that's based out of Georgia and decided to be a client facing advisor and then ultimately broke off, helped one of the owners align with the broker dealer I'm with now, LPL Financial, and then spent a couple years under that and then that's it. Oh, come on. You want me to say Lynsgo private ledger? [10:54] JD: Yeah. Yes, we do. [10:55] Chad: I never knew what that stood for. I had no clue. And now I know. I was 8 years old when I figured that out. [11:00] Kate Clark: I feel like that doesn't count as an acronym if Katie's name doesn't count. Like that shouldn't count, but whatever. [11:06] JD: So wrong. So wrong. So wrong. [11:09] Kate Clark: But then in 2018, February of 2018, decided to hang my own shingle and launch Cypress Capital. [11:18] JD: Now, do you really have a shingle, or is that just a metaphor? [11:22] Kate Clark: You know, I mean, I guess that there's the shingle on the roof. [11:26] JD: There's a sign outside. [11:26] Chad: Right? [11:27] JD: There's a sign outside. Very cool. We're going to have some conversations later today in that I would say, in a pretty quick timeframe you've added, and you've got people on your team that are not just you. We're going to touch on that a bit. I also have learned you're very much a nerd when it comes to financial services. And I think that's maybe why you and Chad get along so well. You're a stickler for the details. Chad has spreadsheets for everything. I'm sure he's got a spreadsheet for the Christmas gifts he's purchased this year. [12:00] Chad: We use an app for that. JD [12:05] JD: so let's talk a little bit about the nerd in you and the metrics that you keep as an advisor. I asked you, when we sat together earlier this week, like, do you track things? You mentioned something called wallet share. It's this kind of concept of yours. So talk to me about the metrics you're keeping on your clients, the goals you're setting, and this thing you call wallet share. [12:28] Kate Clark: Yeah. So concept, I think one of the most important guiding principles that was instilled in me in the beginning, in 2010, I had a senior advisor sit me down and said, because I was starting at zero, Right? Everybody starts at zero, essentially. And he said, listen, all you need to do, don't worry about trying to get assets under management. Focus on opening 100 accounts your first year. 100 accounts. And I thought about that, and I was like, okay, I can break that down. That's easy. He goes, that will teach you discipline. That will teach you how to be efficient. And then from there, it'll give you a foundation to grow from. And so that's what I focused on in my first year. I opened over 100 accounts my first year. Now, every account counted. So it didn't matter that it was a $5,000 or a $0 contributory IRA. Every account counted. It was just the principle of going through those motions. So that was really important. And I think that kind of launched me on the right footing. [13:35] JD: It sounds like it would for sure be like a fast track to getting comfortable in what you're doing, you know, which is. Which is pretty valuable. [13:44] Kate Clark: Yeah. And, you know, I'm the kind of person where I need to know the inner workings. I need to know how to open the account before I can really talk about the account. Because I like to sit down with the client and explain to them what to expect. Right. It's all about setting expectations and that's where you gain your greatest success. So if you can't communicate to a client what is actually going to happen within these next couple of weeks when they transition business over to you, then you're leaving yourself open for things to go wrong and then for that client to start losing trust. Right. You only have one time to make that first impression. So for me, it was really important starting out to understand all of the intricacies of how to open an account, how a transfer actually happens, the rules behind every single account. And then from there that gave me the foundation where I could then gain confidence and go out and try and secure some of the larger accounts. [14:44] JD: When did retirement plans become part of the vision and where do you stand today in terms of your book? Like what, what percentage of it is your individual clients versus retirement plans? [14:54] Kate Clark: Yeah. So actually qualified plans was the reason I wanted to be a client facing advisor. That was the sole purpose. In fact, I went to my managing partner at that time and I said, having gone through the Great recession and seen that people were still contributing, those that had jobs were still contributing to their 401k plans, every payroll, and I went, you know what, this is an area of the business that we don't participate in. This particular firm didn't. And so I sat down with them and I said, this is what I want to do. I want to go after qualified plans. And you know, in all fairness. And he was, he was an incredible mentor, in all fairness. He had a marketing machine that just didn't allow for somebody else to go into production. And he said, no, I really love you in the role that you're in and that is where I want to see you grow. And I have always had a problem when somebody like says no or you can't do something. I am like, oh, damn it, I wish you hadn't said that because now I feel like I have to go and prove that I actually can do this. So we parted with. [16:04] Chad: Or that you shouldn't. [16:06] JD: Or that I should. [16:07] Chad: Yeah, we get into Pepsi. That's. [16:10] Kate Clark: I've gotten it. [16:17] JD: Tell me about when, when you, when, when I asked you about if you kept track of a lot of things, you, you made this vision for me that you pay close attention to all of your current clients. [16:30] Kate Clark: Yes. [16:31] JD: And the Different. And the different services that you offer them. And I got the idea that you and your team are like really looking to kind of see which clients you might be able to add certain services to, obviously, when appropriate. So tell me a little bit more how you look at that. [16:46] Kate Clark: Yeah. So when I left that firm and went into, you know, the firm in which I, you know, started my career as an advisor, what I found was really unique is they had one. We had the advantage because we were our own broker dealer. We were very small operation, our own broker dealer and our own ria but we also had a separately licensed insurance agency. And I thought that was really cool because they did individual wealth management, qualified or corporate plans. [17:13] Chad: Right. [17:13] Kate Clark: And then group benefits. And this type of cross selling, diversified revenue was one of it. But also increasing wallet share with a client. Right. Because at the end of the day, very few clients do you have that relationship with in which you are. They have 100% of their assets with you. Right. Even if they tell you that, most of the time, that's not always true. Right. They're always trying to keep something else on the side. So if you can increase wallet share, then your profitability as a firm goes up. Right. Because you, you know, in theory, you don't have to add more personnel to service that. [17:51] JD: So when you say that, you mean you go ahead. [17:53] Chad: Chad, did you explain wallet share yet? [17:56] JD: Well, apparently it means you want to get more share of their wallet. Right. And I think that's an important Y. And I think that's an important. I think that's an important point because there's. We also get in this concept now of like, ooh, you're not. We're not evil people selling things, you know, trying to get more dollars from our clients. We're really looking for services that they need. Yeah. And that you already provide and that maybe even supplement and. Or help the services that you're providing them already. [18:32] Kate Clark: Right, Absolutely. So in. In instances where I do have that relationship where I've taken on that wallet share, all of the wallet or the majority of the wallet, most of the time, I'm actually what's in your wallet. I'm saving the client money because I have a truly in depth look at exactly what's going on with their financial picture, whether it's on their business side and it has to do with their employee benefits, whether it's their corporate 401k plan or any type of qualified plan that they might have and then their personal wealth management. And so that for me is kind of the grand slam of when I have that level of relationship with a business owner because I can truly get into the nitty gritty details to help them. [19:24] Chad: And I will second this for Kate, that comment, Kate, because it was super impressive to me. And I called you after one of our point of sales together where you went down a path of the client. They made a statement, I really want ortho included in the dental benefits for our employees. And you're like, okay, I know what your budget is. So if we include ortho, which is super expensive and you want more than $1,000 of Ortho covered, here's what it's going to cost you. And if we have a budget, then here's where we need to pull from. It was a really big picture about all of their benefits and you were seeing it all in this conversation. It was super impressive. I get now the wallet share side of things and it really is working out in the client's benefit as it is yours. [20:04] JD: I want to move on a little bit, but even Michael Webb brings up and he goes, you know, I'm kind of getting a little lost here because all my clients are plan sponsors. But he's cool, he's being nice. But so, but this goes back to this thing that we've talked about in all these weeks past, you know, and I love hearing from Kate because she's the perfect example. She's not this big shot national firm that's trying to get their hands on all these different areas of business. She's a small shingle hanging financial advisor with a small staff that understands the importance of offering a variety of services to her clients. And so, Michael, and again, we'll move on because I know Mark will get mad at me here in a second is you can still survive as a 401k only advisor. We've talked about that. And of course there's many ways to skin a cat. Who skins cats? [20:55] Chad: Stop saying that. You need to find another one. JD Another analogy to use that they [21:01] JD: do that on the cattle ranch. They do that on the cattle ranch. You can. But Michael, I think we're trying to say that we think a lot of advisors should consider creating a business model like Kate's and like some of these national firms where they're offering more than just retirement plan services to their clients. And for me to say that now in 2020 for the 2015, JD would hate me. But I really do think that that's where this whole business is. [21:30] Kate Clark: JD I'd add to that, even if you want to just Kind of have a narrow niche in what you do. Then find a partner niche. Find a partner. [21:43] Chad: You don't have to be the jack of all trade you can bring on, [21:47] Kate Clark: but find a partner that's going to work with you. So, you know, I'll give you an example. And where retirement plan advisors really need to be on the watch for is that if you are solely focused on corporate plans, defined contribution, defined benefit, whatever, you need to be aware of the competition out there. These PNC firms that are coming into the market. [22:07] Chad: What did you say? What'd you say? Yes. [22:13] JD: Keep going, Keep going. Keep me. [22:14] Kate Clark: Property casualty firms that are coming into the market. Like a hub. That is not an acronym. [22:20] Chad: It could be. [22:21] Kate Clark: No. Are you sure it's not capitalized? [22:24] Chad: It depends on how you're using it. We'll give you one of these. [22:28] Kate Clark: Okay. All right. [22:29] JD: I don't know about. [22:30] Kate Clark: You can Google that one. But Hub, for instance, and not to pick on hub. They're good at what they do, but they have stepped into the qualified plan market and it's essentially a loss leader for them. It's a way for them to, you know, get their foot in the door to pick up other property and casualty business as well as group benefits. [22:53] JD: Tom. Tom Condren. What does hub stand? Dang it. What does it stand for? [22:58] Chad: Will doesn't even know how to spell. [23:02] Kate Clark: You've got a lowercase U and a lowercase B. And last time I checked, that did [23:06] JD: not mean definition of acronyms. You can't have lowercase in them. [23:14] Chad: Can we talk about web in there? [23:17] JD: No, we can't. [23:17] Chad: Can sponsors see it as a conflict of interest if the. [23:20] JD: Oh, did he say that? [23:21] Chad: Are your clients? Because that's something that I've struggled with in the past and I changed. [23:27] Kate Clark: Wait a second. What is this? [23:29] JD: Okay, so, yeah, it's a common complaint, the fact that we've heard this a lot in the past, that a plan sponsor wants the advisor to only work on the plan, the fiduciary review, helping the participants with general education and not to sell them other things. And I get you. Of course there are clients that feel that way. I would be curious on Kate's thoughts. But there are also clients and plan sponsors that don't feel that way. And they. So, Kate, what are your thoughts on that? [24:00] Kate Clark: So then how do you know if. Whether or not your participant contributions are at the appropriate level if you don't understand what the group benefits side is doing? Because on the group benefit side, a lot of those agents that don't have to act in a fiduciary capacity are pushing products. And so things you've got come back. I'm not going to pick on any companies, but you have products out there that specialize in, you know, accident hospital indemnity programs and employ those, those agents that represent those companies are compensated to sell and push those products. That's where those dollars go to, for [24:44] JD: lack of a better word, is good. You're right. [24:48] Kate Clark: So then all of a sudden, especially when we're talking about people that are maybe making, you know, minimum wage or one step up from minimum wage, all of their money is spent on these insurance products and not contributing to a, a defined contribution plan. [25:06] JD: I think you're just saying that the 401k advisor, I probably shouldn't even call them that is in the best seat to help people with all things if they can have the right setup. And I don't really think that this is an argument that gets one, that gets that there's a victor on one side or the other. I think that Michael Webb could continue to grow his business and he could walk into prospects and say, look, I'm a dedicated 401k person, so don't worry, I'm not going to sell your people other things. Whereas Kate can walk in and say, I don't agree with that. The best way for me to service your participants is to sell them other things. And I think both are going to win. [25:47] Kate Clark: I mean, selling it's not selling. [25:50] Chad: It is for other people. That's not you. But other people are pitching a product, they're in there selling things that maybe the participants don't need. JD What I heard from you, which is what I think the industry needs to transition from, is you can be a 401k only advisor, you can be hired to be the consultant on the 401k or you can be hired as the advisor to call it the company where it is not just conversations around the 401k that you're having. But I think that that needs to be communicated in the sales process, not, hey, I'm here to bid on your 401k. And now while I'm in the middle of a 401k education meeting, I'm talking about, sit with me and we'll discuss life insurance and long term care and these other things like that. That to me is the conflict of interest that plan sponsors don't want. [26:34] JD: You couldn't argue with that. But let's also, let's wrap this and let's be very clear, let's Just remind ourselves this is what's happening at. Is Hub an acronym? God damn it. At Hub at One, Digital. At all these national firms. Obviously, it's what's happening at Cypress, this little firm. I just got news for you all. This is what is happening in the industry on a big way. And again, I don't think the others can exist, but please understand that that is what's going down. And so it might be smart for little shops to create solutions that can help whether they're partnering or not partnering or what have you. [27:13] Kate Clark: I think if you're. At the end of the day, if you're a retirement plan advisor and your goal is retirement readiness for participants, then you have to. You have a responsibility to understand what these employees are purchasing outside of retirement contributions. [27:32] JD: I hear you. I hear you. Those are valid. That's valid points. Shannon Edwards, can you stop planning shit on Thursday nights? [27:41] Chad: Seriously? [27:41] JD: You're getting your nails done. You're at Disney World. Getting Covid. Like, come on. There's a show. It's every Thursday night. You know there's a show. [27:50] Kate Clark: Tony just called me out, so I'm gonna finish this beer and start a new one. [27:54] JD: Stop planning stuff. Let's move on. Let's spin the wheel of ice, bro. Let's. [28:02] Chad: Yeah. Listening World. That's gnarly. That's gnarly. Keep buying those. J.D. what the hell? [28:08] Kate Clark: I was actually scared you were gonna ship me Smirnoff today. [28:12] JD: Oh, no. [28:14] Chad: Mom's gotta explain that one. [28:15] JD: What wheel of Ice? The wheel of [28:23] Chad: their Zach. Com. [28:24] JD: The chat bar is toug to keep up on, man. [28:27] Chad: Yeah. [28:31] JD: By the way, I want you to know before you all. [28:34] Chad: You mean everyone. [28:39] JD: I want you to know that that was legit. Two weeks in a row. I literally went to Brandon. I'm like, should we cheat and make it everyone since it's the last show of the week. And we both agreed that that just wasn't fair, that that's not good ethics. So it came up the right way. I completely randomized that. Shuffled it like 10 times. [28:59] Chad: Let's keep doing there. [29:01] JD: Okay. [29:02] Chad: Are you putting hot sauce in your beer, Jade? You are. You're putting hot sauce in a Natty Light. [29:09] JD: Oh, my God. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. [29:12] Chad: Hey, now, Natty Hot. [29:14] JD: This is going to take me a little while. [29:17] Chad: So, [29:19] JD: Mark, when I get done with this or while I'm drinking this. And Chad, can you walk Kate through how when she started by herself and how she's added people, how she's grown her team. [29:32] Chad: Well, first off, hold on, time out. I always like to make an awkward comment once in a while. I would like to mention the fact that a part of your team is your husband. Correct. Nepotism at its finest. And he is on the show today. Is he still here? [29:48] Kate Clark: Josh, I have seen the other room, and I think. I don't know if I'll be able to convince him to come in here on camera. [29:55] Chad: Oh, no, no, no. You have to convince him. I'm just saying I'm seeing no activity, no chats, no nothing. But I do give him kudos and I commend him from joining, and that makes me really excited when I see that. So, Josh, Josh, we see. We know you're here. We love you. Thank you. That's a really smart thing to do. [30:15] Kate Clark: He's amazing. We met in college. I know this is not what you want to hear, but I think it's, you know, I think it's cool. We met in college and we were really good friends in college, and then all of a sudden we started dating and then got married. I was 23. We've been together for a long time. [30:29] JD: Oh, true love. [30:31] Kate Clark: It is. It is. [30:32] Chad: So you're 25. It's been two years we've been married. [30:37] Kate Clark: It's wedding bliss. [30:39] Chad: That's good. By the way, there must be some handy talents between you and him, because I saw something about a hurricane hitting the house, destroying the spare bathroom. You guys fixed that thing up. Tell you, it's awesome. That was a good thing in the bathroom, actually. JD looks homeless right now, chugging his shirt. [30:58] JD: It looks so good. [30:59] Kate Clark: Yeah. So fun fact. So Josh is six generation on his family land. Our house is almost 100 years old. A lot of heritage. It's really cool. We raise cattle together. He's a. [31:15] JD: You raise them and you kill them, right? [31:18] Kate Clark: Well, no, we don't typically. We don't typically kill, you know, slaughter our own cattle. It's one not efficient. [31:25] JD: And so why do you go use the word slaughter? [31:28] Kate Clark: Yeah, the appropriate terminology. It's more efficient, more cost effective for us to sell. So we raise a calf crop. We have a cow calf operation where we have mama cows that produce a calf crop. And then we sell our calves and that becomes the steak you eat, jd. [31:50] Chad: JD doesn't eat steak. [31:52] Kate Clark: I know. [31:53] Chad: I wasn't sure if you were aware. [31:54] JD: Not me. [31:55] Chad: Those poor little cows fill us in. When did you go independent? How did you decide to add people? What was it that caused you to add folks? Was it demand? Was it your Knowledge of saying I need to keep growing, give us some down and dirty so buyers can see when they should start doing the same. [32:11] Kate Clark: Yeah, so I've been independent from the get go. I don't know any other way, which is really kind of cool because it's the hard. I feel like it's the hardest route and when you finally do make it, I think it's the most rewarding. So in 2018, launched Cypress Capital, it was just me, but the cool thing, the cool takeaway that I had from the other firm is because I wasn't one of the top advisors in all of the firm. I didn't get my own administrative assistant. So I started thinking outside the box and I was like, well, I'll bring on an intern and then support an intern to get licensed and that will be the compensation. And so I used a similar process when I launched Cypress Capital because I was really worried. I didn't know how all of this would play out from a financial standpoint. So I brought on an intern and that has how I've built the employee side. So, you know, I didn't have the money to come out with fancy salaries or anything like that. So I started small, I paid a respectable wage, then paid for all the training along the way. And then as they got designations or training, then I added in, you know, additional compensation, then I added in benefits and then I went back to training and then I went back to compensation. So I've tried to layer this and stair step it again in bite sized pieces that the last thing I want to do is hire somebody and then all of a sudden go through a recession and then be like, sorry, I got to let you go. So in doing it like this, and I've always had an, you know, very upfront open conversation with the team to say, listen, I am not naive to think that I am going to be. Cypress Capital is going to be where you retire from. We're all a young, young team. So at the very least I want to give you the skillset and the training to go on so that if you do get that better offer, you feel comfortable enough to come to me to say, hey, listen, I, you know, I got this opportunity and we can talk through that and you know, hopefully I can hire somebody on to replace you, you know, eventually and you know, kind of transition slowly. So I think when you set those type of expectations, you have, you know, you have a team that is there because they want to be there, not because they have to. [34:42] Chad: Awesome advice. [34:44] JD: There's two things I like about that one is I think a lot of solo business owners, entrepreneurs are. I can't read what Brandon wrote because my chat bars over it. I think they're intimidated, like you said, to hire people, pay them a salary, pay them benefits, et cetera, et cetera. So it can seem very intimidating. And so I like the concept of dipping your toe and using internships to pull that off. I also love, of course, your respect and your. Your care for them in terms of giving them some type of a ladder to keep moving up and getting more. But also at the same time, let's not forget I wrote in the chat bar that internship is slavery. I don't agree with that at all. When you have someone intern and let's say that they want to work in financial services, it's a phenomenal opportunity for them to learn things, you know, that are real inside a shop that's doing business and gain some real experience. But then they can not only put on their resume, but the next time they're being interviewed. It's not like they just have a college degree and nothing to back that up. They've actually worked somewhere. They actually know shit about the industry. My kids are 22 and 18, my two oldest, and they're on this whole college kind of vibe. And I keep trying to let them know that, look, a college degree is not going to be shit in the end. You're going to need experience of some kind in some way and whatever trade you're going to go into. Therefore, I think internship's a great idea [36:18] Kate Clark: if it's done properly. I've seen a lot of shitty internships. When you take on that responsibility as a presumed leader and all you have them do is file paper and answer phone calls, that's shitty. That's not experience. [36:34] Chad: You're getting cheap. [36:35] Kate Clark: Work is what you're doing and you can't do that. So even when I couldn't afford to pay an intern, I gave them. I coordinated with the university so they could get credit for the program and I gave them a curriculum. They had to put together a full financial plan for a mock client. You know, they had to actually learn how to open accounts. And then I supported them to get licensed. [36:59] JD: Chad. [37:00] Chad: And you gave them steps, which I think. Jd, kudos to you. You've done this for everybody from day one, too. Whether it be sales or admin side has given us opportunities to see growth within the business. [37:11] JD: I also pay well. [37:14] Chad: Not always. I mean, we started at some point. Kate called it a fancy salary. That's not what we Receive. Let me ask Kate one question about the team. Kate, are you the only producer on the team still? [37:31] Kate Clark: So yes and no. So now. So, okay, so breakdown of the team. We have two people that's on that are on the group benefits, insurance side, one being my husband. And then we have, you know, Josh. Poor Josh, he's got to go home to me. He's got to see me during the day. It's terrible. And then we have, you know, somebody who's our client relationship manager that, you know, works with all of our groups on a regular basis. Then on the financial services side, we have two team members, both of which are fully licensed advisors. Neither one of them have production goals. I don't really like the idea of production goals because again, I think that's where this industry goes astray, is that we put so much focus on production. And that's also why we have an aging advisor population. It's not conducive to letting young people who are eager, who could really rock this business and really change how people, you know, do business in this industry. We burn them out and then we thank them for whatever accounts that they brought in in their first couple of years. We make it absolutely impossible for them to succeed. So. So I don't believe in that. [38:48] JD: Chad, I gotta ask you, I gotta ask you though. What do you think that there is a ton of advisors that are just one person shops? Is that still a very predominant thing? [38:56] Kate Clark: 100%. [38:57] Chad: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. And many of them are hanging their licensing with a broker dealer. And they're doing so because they're leveraging that back office and they're thinking, I'm at a point where I can keep as much as I can possibly bring in. [39:13] JD: Right. And so I want to talk about that. So if that is true and there's a lot of these single person advisor firms, I really think that they should start planning to add people. To me, there's no other way to really grow a business and by the way, have some type of work life balance without hiring people to help you get stuff done. Like, I don't, I can't even imagine how someone can get up Monday through Friday and work on everything in their business model without having other people. And so as someone who runs a business who's got all kinds of different people doing different things and different job criteria, I just can't tell you how much pride you get from that and how much growth you get from that and how much easier things get. And to see Kate do it on even a small level. With, you know, for other people. I'll bet you we turn around and we see Kate in 5, 10 years and she's grown at a multiple way higher than those firms that aren't willing to add. Oh, you don't want to do that. [40:23] Kate Clark: No, no, no. I think there's something sexy about saying small and nimble, but big enough to be able to, you know, actually conquer what we want to conquer, which is, you know, kind of this diversified advice market. [40:40] JD: Sure, I think we both agree on that. Like, I don't, I don't want to have 75, 100 employees. You know, like I want to stay at a certain size and so you want to stay at a certain size. I feel like Chad and Mark are just like in the chat bar. Like I look at them, that's just where they are. [40:56] Chad: No, he's just, he. Chad just poured a shot and took it. And I thought he was going to say an acronym and he didn't. I typed an acronym. [41:03] Kate Clark: So I feel like we need another word. Acronym. Isn't that great? [41:06] JD: It's not working that good. [41:08] Chad: You're just good. You're just totally lame. [41:11] Kate Clark: Jd. [41:12] Chad: And by the way, you're not taking shots, you're drinking beer for your acronym usage. Right? [41:17] Kate Clark: I've actually been drinking since 5 o'. [41:19] JD: Clock. [41:19] Kate Clark: My time. So catch up, I think. Welcome to the majors. [41:24] Chad: Oh, it's locked in the box. [41:28] JD: Doesn't matter. [41:28] Chad: I like it. Well, this just got real. [41:31] JD: I think every advisor, every tpa, every company should definitely have like goals in terms of, hey, what size do you actually want to get to? And I agree with you. I think staying in a certain size that's not necessarily massive can be super advantageous. But planning for work life balance, to me, it's crucial that you do it with other people. You can't possibly have work life balance if you're doing it by yourself. [41:55] Kate Clark: This is how we're growing. Okay? And I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, I'm gonna say it anyway because I don't care. Whatever. We're the first firm and I'll just leave acronyms out. We're the first firm. Just say em under our broker dealer. It's taken me a year to fight compliance on this and there's 16,000 advisors under this broker dealer. We're the first firm that's been able to get approval to co brand our separately licensed insurance agency under our DBA for investment and securities business. So now where our growth is going to go is we're gonna I thought [42:39] Chad: I heard one, but then I just. [42:40] Kate Clark: What did I say? [42:42] JD: What? Did she say something? [42:43] Chad: And insurance services. Oh, yeah, there it is. Yes. [42:47] Kate Clark: Oh, shit. [42:48] Chad: Okay, what'd she say? It says right now. Read it. Read the screen. [42:53] JD: Now I got my chat bar on top of that. [42:59] Kate Clark: Now we're going to grow through our advisor audience under Lynsco private ledger, and we're going to do help retirement plan advisors who want to get into the group benefit space but don't want to be an expert, they want to focus on retirement plans. But instead of having that open window where somebody can come in and steal your plan because they're part of a hub and they do still feel like. [43:28] JD: Don't know about that one. [43:30] Chad: The chat bar voted. It is. [43:31] JD: What did they say? Did someone come up with it? [43:33] Chad: Yeah, chat bar voted and said it is an acronym. [43:35] Kate Clark: Okay, I'll keep picking on them. But instead of being that entity that can swoop in and maybe just does the property and casualty line of business or the group medical and traditional group benefits, and then, oh, by the way, since we do all of this, why don't we just do your retirement plan? And therefore, you know, we're not going to charge as much. You have a partner. You have a partner that's not going to steal your client away, and it's going to help you from a servicing philosophy because you might be a solo practitioner. [44:09] JD: Well, I was just trying to get inspirational in saying that. I think if you're a solo practitioner, regardless of that stuff you talked about, Kate, which I think is great, and you should look for partners to help you do things that you're not experienced at doing. But I would just tell you that if you're a solo practitioner and you're intimidated by adding people, I really think you should sit down and be part of your New Year's resolution, man, start down that path of trying to add some people. Kate's a great example of how you can do it without a ton of risk. And thank you, Tom, for saying that I'm right. JD only grows so big if. [44:45] Chad: Yes, Chad, I was just going to add because I feel like most solo practitioners that I speak to, when they think of growing the practice, they immediately go to service, service, service, service, and they depend on themselves to be the only producer. And that's why I asked the question of Kate, because very few are willing to say, let me teach a junior. Let me get them licensed. Let me help them learn this business and allow them to continue to add revenue to what I'm doing. But and this is why I disagreed with you earlier, because I think that advisors getting into this business at a young age have an opportunity for massive growth and production. And I know you said many of them burn out and that's because they're going to the broker dealers to start. And that's the spaghetti on the wall analogy. But if they're willing to take the risk like you did and go independent or sit behind a cape and learn the business, that's when they can have a ultra successful career early, quick. [45:40] JD: I might argue and debate with you, Chad. I might say if I was a solo practitioner advisor, the first logical hire I would want to have is someone to take care of all the work that I don't want to do. The preps for the meetings, the analytics, you know, the emails, that type of stuff. And because I've got the charisma and the sales chops, I would continue to produce. And then maybe it would be more like my second or my third hire is going to be that person I'm going to put into sales. [46:10] Chad: But I can't say I disagree with you there. But in my mind, Kate, saying, bringing on a younger person to get licensed and learn this business, that person can service what you're bringing in and be the producer that starts running out there and selling in years two and three or three and four, what I mean is that someone you hire, if you hire the right person, someone with the charisma as you're describing jd, you don't have to put that person in service, only that person can be a producer. [46:38] JD: Well, let me tell you, I. [46:40] Kate Clark: This is where we do something different. I compensate that associate advisor on that new business that comes in, even if I'm the one who brought it in [46:53] Chad: to service. [46:54] JD: Kate, you watch your. Kate, you watch your tongue in the chat bar. You're talking about how you like the idea of Pepsi in my fucking chat bar. [47:06] Kate Clark: There you go. JD drink. [47:08] Chad: That was his first one. That's a world record for jd. [47:13] JD: I want to give kudos to three gentlemen that I brought on to sell that have had a phenomenal year with COVID in front of them. This headwind of COVID I get emails every day that these three gentlemen here are bringing on new plans. Maybe every day is a bit of a stretch, but every other day and I got a few today, you guys are crushing it. You're bringing on so many plans this year. I'm so very, very proud of you. Don't expect any Christmas bonus or any shit like that, man. [47:49] Chad: Oh, come on. J.D. get this. Justin wrote me today, and Justin, kudos, because I've looked at the same thing. But Justin wrote today and said, hey, we feel good about 2020. You guys realize we're about six new clients behind for breaking our January record, and we're December 17th. I got two more today. So we've almost sold more plans for January of next year than we ever have in the history of pdc. So [48:18] JD: you guys are absolutely crushing it. And I love it. I love it. I think I'm going to buy another car very soon. [48:23] Chad: I know [48:26] JD: what Lambo I'm getting. Brandon put up the Chad Carr photo. I love that one. Mark, you play a game. Let's play your game. What's the name of your game? Let's play your game, Mark, come on. It's a fun game. Let's do it. [48:37] Chad: Wow. Well, that's a great introduction. Thanks, J.D. appreciate that. [48:43] JD: Kate, have you ever watched our show before? [48:46] Kate Clark: Yes, I was Chat bar channel, you [48:49] Chad: know, halfway through the show. I don't remember what you said in minute four, five. I don't pay attention. I don't really pay that much attention. Well, I don't have my intro song going up yet because I guess Brandon's not gonna do it. [48:59] JD: I'll do it. You don't like it? [49:08] Chad: No, I don't. Things need to be proportional. I don't like it. It doesn't look. It doesn't look as cool. [49:13] JD: Chat bar, chat bar. Tell me who's excited about the lamer game. Game. Because it's coming. [49:17] Chad: Really? It's gonna be really bad. So. [49:19] JD: Last one of the year. [49:20] Chad: Yeah, make it. Make it special. All right. I'm just gonna go right into it because, Kate, you understand the rules and I come to you first on every question, saying, usually it's themed around the time of year we're in, so I know New Year's is coming up. The people who either say or put it in email, see you next year. Why do you look at me when you say I never? Because I have to imagine you do that. No, never. [49:47] Kate Clark: That's so corny. Is that lame or are you game 100% lame? [49:51] Chad: Okay, I'm gonna say lame. I don't think I've ever done it, so I'm gonna start lame. I really don't. Okay. I think that one's lame to me, Justin. I'm surprised here that Chad doesn't do it, but, yeah, it's lame as shit. I'm gonna do it now, though. J.D. [50:10] JD: i'm so game. It's so funny, man. It's like, it's really only. It's really only a week, but you say it's so. It's. It's just funny. [50:20] Chad: Yeah. All right. [50:21] Kate Clark: Dad joke. Jd. [50:23] Chad: Yeah, I'm. Yeah, no, I might end. [50:26] JD: I'm gonna end the show today with it. I know that. [50:30] Chad: Using your middle name as your first name. [50:35] Kate Clark: Okay, okay. So I got a weird thing here. So I'm technically named after my mother, so I had to use my middle name. [50:43] Chad: Hey, we don't need excuses. [50:46] JD: Lamer game. [50:47] Kate Clark: Sort of. So no game. [50:50] Chad: So is. I'm sorry I should have asked this earlier, but obviously I'm just being facetious, but. So, like, Mary's your first name. Catherine is your middle name. Did you ever go by, like, Mary Kate or has it always just been Kate? [51:04] Kate Clark: I went by Mary. I, you know, had a really, like, strong independent streak where I was like, everybody called me Kate from the moment, you know, I was born. And then at one point I was like, I want to go by Mary. And I went for Married by Mary for, like, a year. And then it was so confusing and so difficult. [51:24] Chad: Got it. [51:26] JD: That's. You know what? [51:27] Chad: I'm not going to ask you if it's lame or game. I just want you to say your middle name. [51:31] Kate Clark: Yeah. [51:31] Chad: And then your last name. So what is it? I did that for Greg. My middle name is Kenneth, so my last name is Johansson. So your name would be Kenneth Chad Johansson. No, no, just Kenneth Johansson. I like it. I like it. All right, Justin, your turn. [51:49] Kate Clark: You don't look like a Kenneth. [51:51] Chad: It works, though, by the way, for those that don't. [51:56] JD: Greg Phenomenal and the Sunshine Band. But you can't win this week. [52:00] Chad: I. Justin. Justin Most. No, but I have called Justin JD for years because it's Justin. Daniel and I had to stop calling him that when we hired him at PDC because JD is JD. There you go. And Douglas Carlson. No, Daniel McNeil. Oh, what did you call. What did you say? Douglas. So Daniel McNeil. [52:33] JD: Okay. All right. [52:34] Chad: Anyways, moving on. Getting those mass Happy holidays emails. Oh, shit. That are obviously going to. I don't know, how many did you get today? Yeah, right. [52:48] Kate Clark: I don't think I got any today. [52:49] JD: Okay. [52:51] Chad: Tomorrow. [52:52] JD: I'm always fearful. [52:53] Kate Clark: I don't really care. Like, I feel like, eh, whatever. Most of the time it's, you know, from a wholesaler and it's delete. [53:02] Chad: Ouch. So what, is it a lame or is it game then? [53:07] Kate Clark: I'm indifferent about it. [53:09] Chad: Yeah, I agree. I think it's Horribly lame. I get it. You want a mass send. But if you want a mass and send it yourself, don't let corporate mass send it. Yeah, I've gotten five, and I'll throw them out. Might not be. It might be an acronym. I'm not gonna throw them out. I've gotten five in the last two days from one provider because I'm a. You know, I'm a TPA on some plan. Ah, that's one. Multiple points of contact in their system. So I get the same message from 15 different wholesalers and multiple different contacts within their company. That drives me nuts. Like, be a little personable, please, Justin. Lame. I agree with Greg. Handwritten cards. Much better. First off, I'll mention that we at Plan Design Consultants, we don't send anything or do anything like that. That is not. And I think that's based on our fear. [54:09] Kate Clark: Jd. [54:10] JD: What? What? [54:11] Kate Clark: Jd we had this conversation, and I was talking about how [54:17] Chad: holiday cards. [54:20] Kate Clark: So I was having a conversation with another advisor who, you know, reached out, and he was like, hey, can we, you know, can I pick your brain about what you're doing for 2021 planning? I was like, absolutely. I'm happy. I'm an open book. Whoever wants to talk, happy to. [54:35] JD: Are you going to shift to actual valuable content in the middle of the lamer game? [54:39] Kate Clark: Game, yeah. [54:40] JD: Okay, go for it. [54:41] Kate Clark: That's how I work. [54:41] JD: It's never been done. [54:49] Kate Clark: So he was like, how much money are you spending on clients? I realize, you know, there's regulations and stuff. And I'm like, what do you mean? No, no. And he's like, well, what about, like, going out to eat, taking clients out to lunch, to dinner? And I go, no, no. He goes, what do you mean? It's like, I just. That's not the relationship that I'm trying to set or establish with my clients. And, you know, we talked about it from the standpoint of how often do you. Does your orthopedic surgeon take you out, you know, for entertainment or to dinner or to lunch? How often does your attorney do that unless they're billing you? You know, it doesn't happen. So if we want to raise the scale of. Because there's also this, like, whole issue of, oh, well, why don't advisors have the same cloud and recognition that attorneys and doctors? Well, we kind of bring it on ourselves. If we lead by trying to entertain every single client that comes our way and wow them, if that's how you acquire a client, then guess what? You have the opportunity to lose the client. To the next big wallet that comes in to entertain them. [55:58] JD: That was the most valuable, lamer game response ever. [56:02] Chad: That was interesting. [56:06] JD: No, I want to talk about that when we close. I have some thoughts on that, but I'm going to save them to the end of Mark 10 because Marks gets mad when you step on his toes. [56:15] Kate Clark: I'm sorry, Mark. I had to. I had to. It struck a nerve. [56:19] Chad: I get mad when some people step on my toes. But, Kate, you've raised. Hey, Josh is in here. Josh is in here. [56:28] JD: Don't flirt with his wife. [56:29] Chad: And I'm okay. But before I end this, as I always do, I got two things to say to one of our guests in the chat bar there. And I'm gonna have to drink for this, but I'm gonna say it. Pch. First off, buddy, stop wearing sandals. [56:44] Kate Clark: And stop. [56:45] Chad: Okay, number one rule secondarily, and this is for everybody to see. I challenge you to a one on one basketball game. You're out there driving around in people's homes and scaring them, shooting up hoops. You're on, buddy. And you know what they say. Hope it's not like your softball game there. You know what they say? Oh, Justin's throwing daddy. [57:07] JD: I don't have to swing at anything, dude. Mark, with. With your approval. Could. Could you know what they say be the retireholic slope Goonies slogan? [57:18] Chad: That's brilliant. You know what they say? [57:21] JD: You know, and I want to do it. So you freak people out at the conference. You know, you're like walking down and you're. You know what they say? You know what they say? What? Who are these fuckers? What are they talking about? [57:32] Chad: That's Good. That's it. J.D. [57:35] JD: let's pick up on Kate's little rant in a slightly different way. I love what you're saying about schmoozing and buying client stuff. By the way, as a tpa, Chad and I are very offended because we're going to reserve. Oh, yep, yep, yep. Gotcha. Yeah, we're going to reserve the right to buy advisors stuff and take advisors to golf and buy advisors wine. But it's a little weird when you are doing it to your clients for sure. And so I get that. But let me ask you this. I was talking to you earlier this week and we started the conversation about content marketing or social media, and you were like, screw it. I don't do any of that. I think it's a waste of time. And I think what my clients see me doing, I think they think it's a Waste of time. Tell me a little bit more about that. [58:29] Kate Clark: Man. I'm going to get so much hate on this. Like I love this that I'm like throwing shade everywhere. I'm not. I'm not. So kudos to those that are out there killing it on social media. [58:41] JD: Be a kiss ass first. Just tell your. Give us your real. Give us your real deal. [58:47] Kate Clark: No, I just. So I think 2020 was a prime example. When Covid hit and it was all hands on deck. It was, roll up your sleeves, let's make this happen. And we're going to turn to servicing our clients right at the end of the day. That's who pays us. I'm not going to go out there trying to promote to get existing or new clients during this time. I'm going to do what my clients paid me to do and that's service the hell out of them in times where things are stressful and tough and the market has fallen off a cliff. So I'm going to communicate the hell out of it. I'm going to talk to them, I'm going to call them, I'm going to email them, I'm going to let them know that I'm paying attention to them because that's what they hired me for. I'm not going to go out there and promote social media to try and get new clients during this time. I'm sorry, I don't. The grass. [59:41] JD: I like what you said. We were kind of in this world where all of a sudden every advisor was doubling down on like, make a video, make an infographic, do content marketing. And Kate was like, oh, that's a bunch of crap. And then you know what I said to her? I said, okay, well, do you not do that at any point in time, like coronavirus aside? Because Will or someone says C O V I D is a acronym, dude. [1:00:07] Chad: You can't spell it to get around that. [1:00:11] Kate Clark: No, because I'm not terrible at that. I'm equally as dorky in real life as I am in this business. So in my husband can like totally attest to this. So my only social media game is my Instagram where, you know, because of our extracurricular activities, we have like random cool shit that happens and every now and then I catch a picture or catch a video of it and post that. And that's about it. [1:00:40] JD: PETA doesn't think killing fish is cool. [1:00:44] Chad: Sorry. [1:00:45] Kate Clark: Ah, shit. That was worth it. That was worth it to say Pita sucks. I'll drink to that all day. [1:00:51] JD: You made a great point. [1:00:52] Chad: I Would too, if I was drinking Natty Light cheese. [1:00:55] JD: You made a great point. Because I'm huge in that other side of that argument. Right. Like, I feel like there's so much that can be on the PETA argument. No, well, that too. But on the social media. She'll just drink for that all night on the social media side and the content marketing side. And we can touch on that a little bit. We're running out of time. But I immediately came back to you and was like, okay, so are you going to tell me that you get all your clients through referrals? And you came back and said 100%, 98%, and I was drinking some of your Kool Aid because I was like, I get it. Your marketing is to service the hell out of your existing client base. I even went so far to ask you if you had responsible ways of motivating your clients to give you referrals. And you said, no, I'm going to let it happen naturally. [1:01:46] Kate Clark: Oh, my God, I hate this. I hate this whole whoever is out there pitching on LinkedIn. This drives me nuts because I get these inbox messages all the freaking time. [1:01:57] Chad: Hey, automated inbox. It's the same thing to everybody. [1:02:00] Kate Clark: Yes. Well, not just that, but hey, I want to talk to you about, you know, gaining more clients. This is when you have to ask for referrals. Your service is shit. Your service should speak for itself. In which a client goes, you know what? That's the company I want to refer to. [1:02:20] JD: Right. They're so excited about what you're doing for them. And I think that that's true. [1:02:24] Kate Clark: Raving fan. That is the best return on investment that you could ever make. I don't care how much money you spend towards marketing. When you. That's a raving. The best dollars ever. [1:02:36] Chad: Just let me ask on this topic and then we can wrap up the social for FAs and kind of what we're going through right now. Those. He's watching the Raider game over here. When I see an advisor who's posting a video, as you mentioned, every single day, and it's a four or five minute, it looks edited. I start to question whether or not they are servicing their clients. And I've been, I will be honest, I've been asked that numerous times by advisors with what we're doing with retireaholics. And it's easy for me to answer because you and Brandon do everything. We show up and we enjoy ourselves and we chat about business and industry stuff. We drink. Sure. Yeah. That's what we do, but for an advisor who is a solo practitioner or has one or two people and they are sending out comments on LinkedIn all day, every day with edited videos that you can tell. Take time. Do we really think that that's positive in the eyes of a client? [1:03:35] Kate Clark: Yes and no. I think it depends on the context. [1:03:38] JD: Can I answer this? And then we'll wrap to CBC and then we'll go to. [1:03:42] Chad: That counts. That counts. [1:03:44] JD: We'll go to a small after show. [1:03:46] Kate Clark: There's some really cool. I'm going to step in while you're drinking. There's some really cool. [1:03:52] Chad: Okay. I want to step in while you're drinking. Go. [1:03:55] JD: You're the guest. [1:03:56] Kate Clark: Slow. There's some really cool advisors that put out valuable content that is important for their clients. And I see this more so in the retirement plan space. The 401k lady is a prime example of this. I think it's amazing the content she puts out. [1:04:12] Chad: Dude. Kate of 8, though, like, that's Chad. [1:04:16] JD: Chad, let me. Hold on. [1:04:18] Chad: Kate, do you realize that the 401k lady, she sponsors me and my robe. I don't have a sponsorship from you yet. Of all people, Kate, that's impressive. JD hates you so much, I think. [1:04:37] JD: Josh, I just want to respond. I just want to respond. [1:04:43] Chad: Cypress Capital. [1:04:45] JD: I just want to respond to Chad. Okay, I know, Tom, I know. I've lost control. [1:04:51] Chad: It. [1:04:51] JD: It happens once in a while. Okay, listen. Ch. Let me give you an analogy about this advisor wasting their time, the client being upset that this sole practitioner is on social. Okay, you've heard me say this before. If it was the 80s and you looked at Paul Carlson running a company, Paul Carlson would spend a significant amount of time writing an old school newsletter to send out to CPAs and advisors. Okay, Okay, I will keep him up. For me, My. My father would also. He'd sit down, he'd stuff those, put those in envelopes, stamp them, mail them out. He'd set up seminars to where he. [1:05:33] Chad: And I would wonder what the fuck your father was doing in terms of growing the business and servicing clients. But they would never say that. [1:05:41] JD: So here's. Wait, let me finish this fucking point. Let me. Let me finish this point because this is what my daddy taught me. And I want to make this clear. If that is how you succeed in business, if you do not keep your foot down on the pedal of marketing and fill your pipeline, no one understands that people that run their own business don't get that. And Kate, you're doing it your own way. I'm okay with that. But what you need to understand the people that are antisocial is that the very same activities and hours and effort that my dad spent on the 90s on a hard letter newsletter and doing events at a local hotel and going to his Rotary Club to bump shoulders with people and have a drink, you would never say that he was a bad business person. You would say he was a kick ass business person for spending shit tons of hours. Well, guess what? Guess what the modern day version of that shit is social media. It's more efficient, it's more effective, it's more strategic. You get better ROI on it. You can do so many things with it. I'll drink. All right. Cbc, vote Kate. I got three. I think I got three. Kate, who do you want to be CBC champ? Oh, that's four. [1:06:59] Kate Clark: Oh, no. [1:07:03] JD: Paperback or Kindle? What does that mean? [1:07:06] Kate Clark: Oh, wait, somebody said Seminoles versus Gators. I hope they meant Go Gators. I'm gonna go with Greg because it's sec. He went safety on that. So. Okay, that counts. [1:07:16] Chad: Yeah, that does count. And Greg, you were the one saying you have to drink for chat bar, so that's two for you as well. [1:07:22] JD: Can Greg win again? Fuck. [1:07:25] Chad: All right. [1:07:27] Kate Clark: Oh, Will. I don't know. Okay, Will apparently did his research and. He did. Yeah. I do have a certificate from fsu, you know, I mean, it is research. [1:07:36] JD: That's stalker status right there. [1:07:38] Kate Clark: I appreciate a good stalker. [1:07:40] JD: All right. [1:07:41] Kate Clark: I think it's a compliment. [1:07:42] JD: So who's your vote? Greg or Will? [1:07:44] Chad: Oh. [1:07:45] Kate Clark: Oh, man. [1:07:46] JD: I'm going to say Greg's eligible. Fuck it. [1:07:50] Kate Clark: All right. [1:07:56] JD: Will's begging. [1:07:58] Chad: Play the Jeopardy sound. [1:08:00] Kate Clark: All right, I'm going to go with Will. I'm going to go with Will. Will said he did some research on me. He proved it. He caught my eye with the whole whole. You technically went to both, I guess in a technicality. I did. Okay. [1:08:13] JD: All right, Justin, your vote. [1:08:15] Chad: I'm going with Hackler. Man, he was on it. [1:08:18] JD: Let's do a show with Kate and Amanda. I think that would be all right. Two votes. Will. Chad, your vote. [1:08:29] Chad: Dame. Will's got the points tonight. [1:08:32] JD: I knew you guys were gonna. [1:08:33] Kate Clark: No, you and I are great together. [1:08:36] Chad: Many my. My votes count as triple, by the way. Okay, obviously sometimes it's not what is said, but what is not said. My vote. My vote goes to Josh. Don't say Josh. The silent assassin. [1:08:55] JD: He said nothing, but I knew what [1:08:57] Chad: he was saying the whole time. [1:08:59] Kate Clark: Yeah, he's probably rolling his eyes the whole time like, oh, Damn. Shut up, Kate. [1:09:03] Chad: Probably in there killing fish and murdering animals left and right. And that's why I love them. Josh, you, my friend, win. All right, keep going. [1:09:14] JD: All right. If I had to be honest, my. My vote should go to Will. He did the best. He wins. I just feel bad. I feel like Greg and Will are like the tight the titans of cbc. So I think in the off season everyone needs to keep up in their game. Michael, you're too conservative, man. You're too button up. You got to start kicking over some chairs, knocking over some shit. Do you want to win cbc? Kate, thank you so much. Like I said, we appreciate getting your insights and I think if people are paying attention, stuff they can walk away with for sure. Good shit, as Chad says. Justin, thanks for manning that chap, our champion, that whole chat bar and helping and responding to everybody. Chad, thanks for all your intelligent comments. Brandon, your production, nicest thing he's ever said to me. It's been phenomenal. [1:10:07] Kate Clark: Is there an after the show show or are we losing? [1:10:10] JD: Not for Mark. They're gonna bail and watch the Raiders. I'll stick around. [1:10:13] Chad: He's got it on right here. [1:10:16] JD: Mark already knew my joke. I was just gonna move past and not say anything about it. [1:10:19] Chad: I know you were. [1:10:20] JD: That's why I was. [1:10:21] Chad: Yeah. Thanks, Katie. I appreciate it. [1:10:23] JD: Thank you to everyone. [1:10:25] Chad: Next year. [1:10:28] JD: We will see you all next year. And yeah, thanks for tuning in. January 7th, everybody will be the next show. Have a great Christmas, have a phenomenal New year's and hopefully 2021 turns out a little better than then this year. And Brandon, play some music and we'll hang out a little bit after. [1:10:52] Chad: Whoever wants to see you, What does Brandon listen to? Normally you cannot tell by his picks. Wow, Brandon, I do want to know the answer. So let me set the scene. [1:11:25] JD: It's two in the afternoon at 34 degrees the Queensland harsh summer heat. I'm me sweating buckets up and down my street. Cause there I spied the bloke perched [1:11:36] Chad: the top of his moose great throne. [1:11:39] JD: He eyed me off as I approached Then he said I'm on Smoko so leave me alone I'm on Smoko so leave me alone I'm on Smoko so leave me alone I'm on Smoko so leave me alone. I'm on Psycho so leave me alone I'm on Psycho so leave me alone I'm on Snow Cone Leave me alone, I'm on Snow Cone. Leave me alone. So it's Tuesday morning and my centrelink hasn't come through so I pick up the phone Because I've got some abusing to do but all I get is [1:12:40] Chad: elevator music Waiting on the lion on hold all the time All I get [1:12:45] JD: is elevator music Waiting on the line Till I get a reply I'm on smoko so leave me alone. Josh. Nailed that little Australian conch. My 18 year old daughter turned me on to that band. [1:13:11] Kate Clark: Nice hair, jd. I like it. [1:13:14] Chad: Thanks. It's nice. [1:13:18] JD: All right. [1:13:18] Chad: How's my robot? [1:13:21] JD: It's good. And I can hear his voice a little better than usual. [1:13:25] Chad: How the hell? Josh is on here. [1:13:28] Kate Clark: Man of the hour, not time. [1:13:34] JD: Wow. Josh. Josh. You could have let me know that Kate was gonna take over 75% of the show before it happened. [1:13:41] Chad: I didn't know she chose to talk over people sometimes. [1:13:47] JD: It's all good. Oh, Chad. [1:13:49] Chad: Oh, my gosh. [1:13:52] Kate Clark: Oh, my gosh. Who is that? [1:13:54] Chad: Can't hear you guys. [1:13:56] Kate Clark: Who is that? [1:13:58] Chad: Yeah, you're on mute. Yeah, yeah, we know. Apparently he muted us. I did not. This is our newest little addition. We got her on Friday after six months of searching for a pup for the kitties. Her name is Riley, which is spelled R, Y, L, E, I, G, H, which is the street we live on. We live on Lee, L, E, I, G, H. Somebody brings up a point. You should have named her Rona or something like that, [1:14:25] JD: Mark. [1:14:25] Chad: Your wife just dropped her in the house, by the way. Which is why [1:14:30] JD: if I had another kid or a dog, I would name it like Elon Musk names his children. [1:14:36] Chad: Joking, right? [1:14:38] JD: No, apparently the dog's got diarrhea shitting all over Chad's house. [1:14:45] Chad: She's getting outside now, but yeah, she's got. I want to call it dysentery, because that's what everybody died from. An Oregon Trail when I was a kid, but she's got. [1:14:54] JD: You were on the Oregon Trail? [1:14:57] Chad: Oh, B, I like that. I didn't realize that was actually you. [1:15:01] Kate Clark: Does she have her vaccination? [1:15:03] Chad: She's eight weeks. I mean, she's eight weeks, so she's super young. She got it apparently from the kennel that she was originally in. [1:15:11] Kate Clark: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So hold on one second. Has she had her Parvo vaccination? [1:15:16] JD: She. [1:15:17] Chad: I don't know if Parvo is a single. I think it's a one plus booster, but yeah, she's had her eight weeks vaccination. [1:15:23] Kate Clark: Okay. [1:15:24] Chad: And then the nine week one when I took her in on Monday. They said we won't give it to her until we get her diarrhea in. Check. [1:15:34] JD: Kate Kate, he's not going to grow her and then eat her. They're going to. [1:15:39] Kate Clark: No, I'm just making sure she's not gonna die tomorrow. [1:15:42] Chad: No, Kate, they already did the test. She has a. Fuck. I'm blanking on the name. But essentially it's a little parasite that you get from being in a chemical giardia. That's what it is. Tony's on the top of a hot dog. Right, Tony? Tony. [1:16:00] JD: You could win Chat bar champion with that shit. You always save it for the after show. Chad, he goes, Chad, when's the branding? When are you branding it? [1:16:08] Chad: Oh my God, you have like pigtails right now. Fantastic. [1:16:13] Kate Clark: That's the brand right there. [1:16:15] JD: Earlier, [1:16:18] Chad: cars leaving. [1:16:22] JD: I'm going to think of you and Josh when I watch season four of Yellowstone now. Even though you're in Florida. Yeah. Love that show. Are you kidding me? [1:16:32] Chad: So I've heard fantastic things. But here's the issue. When I searched it on Apple tv, apparently by the Paramount app. [1:16:40] JD: Yeah. [1:16:41] Chad: They wanted to charge us on Paramount though. Now if you're saying you can watch. Yeah. So if you log in in your subscription, like for your TV through your. What do you guys have? Whatever. Yeah, yeah, you log in through that and you can watch it. [1:16:55] JD: If someone told me right now that I had never seen that show and I could start from the beginning fresh, I would pay $1,000 for four seasons. It's. That is the sickest show ever. [1:17:06] Chad: Dang. How hard is that? I've never seen what's his name, Kevin Costner play kind of a bad role. Bad, you know, bad guy. And he floats between that role left and right. [1:17:19] JD: Have you guys watching? Are you watching Peaky Blinders at all? I know, it's been around for a long time. I'm in season three or no, the first episode of season four. I love that shit. How hot is that dude, bruh. That guy is sexy. Yeah. [1:17:36] Kate Clark: So pretty much anything that involves like [1:17:38] JD: pigtails have made me feel different. [1:17:41] Kate Clark: We're into. We go to bed every night watching investigative discovery like Forensic Files. [1:17:48] JD: Let's talk about your guys romantic life. [1:17:50] Chad: Yeah. So what you're saying is the two of you could get away with murder with one another if you needed to. [1:17:58] Kate Clark: Honey, if you need to hide a body, we're your go to people feed [1:18:02] JD: it to the cattle. [1:18:03] Chad: Same thing my father in law told me when I sent you a DM. He said, Chad, I've got 390 acres on this property and I don't mind living in Mexico. [1:18:13] JD: That's exactly right, Brad. Brad. The CPA had a question earlier in the show. I don't know if he's still here. I should look. [1:18:20] Chad: Are we still on prohibited word or is that passed? Hell, no.