Driving Growth with Authentic Marketing and AI

• Beacon Strategies, LLC
• LinkedIn: BeaconStrategies
• LinkedIn: Chip Kispert

[00:00:00] RJ Malyk: Welcome to Beacon 1% Better Every Day with Chip Kispert, founder of Beacon Strategies. This podcast is all about challenging the norms of wealth management and empowering professionals to make continuous progress and always be curious. Chip knows firsthand how small consistent improvements can lead to big breakthroughs, and that’s what we’re focused on here, helping you get 1% better every day.

[00:00:30] RJ Malyk: We’ll dive into conversations with industry professionals, share actionable strategies. And explore the mindset needed to overcome industry challenges and create lasting change. Let’s be curious. Push beyond what’s always been done and uncover better ways together. Welcome to the Beacon 1% Better podcast, where we discuss how to get 1% better every day with your host Chip Kispert.

[00:00:58] RJ Malyk: I’m RJ Malyk, [00:01:00] producer of this podcast, Chip, as always, good to see you. So why don’t you give us a preview of this edition of the Beacon 1% Better podcast. And as you go along, why don’t you introduce your guests too?

[00:01:11] Chip Kispert: Absolutely, RJ. Well, I am, first off, I am, uh, super pleased to have Robert Sofia on the show.

[00:01:19] Chip Kispert: Uh, Robert is CEO of Snappy Kraken, uh, Snappy Kraken is a marketing platform for, for wealth firms. The solution supports digital marketing, serving both investor prospecting and client servicing. Robert’s accomplishments are many. But if you include recruiting over 10,000 advisors with more than 2 trillion in assets under administration, creating the industry’s only biannual marketing conference ranked as one of the top three events in the industry.

[00:01:49] Chip Kispert: Jolt building, the industry’s number one ranked based on customer satisfaction. kites.com marketing automation platform. Robert, [00:02:00] welcome to the Beacon 1% Better podcast.

[00:02:03] Robert Sofia: Hey, Chip, I’m happy to be here. And I love the title of the podcast too. That makes me wanna attend and listen. You know, who doesn’t wanna get 1% better every day?

[00:02:11] Robert Sofia: Right?

[00:02:11] Chip Kispert: You know, it’s, it’s our motto and, uh, it’s something that, uh, within our organization we, we believe in and, and try to do make better every day. So, uh, with that, um, Robert, uh, can you share a little background, uh, on yourself and Snappy Kraken for our listeners?

[00:02:29] Robert Sofia: I’m happy to, uh, this is my 20th year in the industry, actually.

[00:02:34] Robert Sofia: Uh, started out as an advisor, worked in an advisory firm, ran all the marketing there, back office, scaled it, uh, to about, uh, seven 50. Uh, under management, seven 50 million, pushing a billion. Uh, then we, uh, we started a marketing company, a consultancy called Platinum Back in the days, uh, that was, that was from 2009 to 2016.

[00:02:56] Robert Sofia: Sold that to, uh, FMG in [00:03:00] 2016 and, uh, and started Snappy Kraken. And here I am, 10 years, it’ll be 10 years at Snappy Kraken in, in June, and we serve about 7,000 advisors, 4,000 firms today. So it’s been, uh, it’s been quite a journey.

[00:03:13] Chip Kispert: Time flies, doesn’t it? It’s unbelievable.

[00:03:15] Robert Sofia: It does. I look in the mirror sometimes.

[00:03:17] Robert Sofia: I see my gray temples and I go, what happened to that young kid? You know?

[00:03:21] Chip Kispert: Well, likewise, I think we’re, we’re tapping out almost 20 years now, and I’m like, how, how did we do this? Where’d it go? Um, so. Right now, Robert, it is, you know, there organic growth is just front and center for a lot of, for a lot of firms.

[00:03:39] Chip Kispert: Um, so I’d love to get your perspective on your thoughts on the state of marketing for wealth firms today.

[00:03:47] Robert Sofia: Yeah. You know, it’s a really interesting time. It’s a challenging time too because it’s super competitive. You’ve got a lot of private equity money flowing into this space, and these big firms are spending millions of dollars [00:04:00] on growth.

[00:04:00] Robert Sofia: They’re buying. They’re buying leads from, you know, all these sources that are investing a massive amount in distribution. And so you’ve got 68% of the leads that these big firms are buying are being worked by multiple advisors. So it’s super competitive. It’s hard to stand out. Uh, you’ve also got a lot of AI slop on the internet.

[00:04:17] Robert Sofia: It makes, you know, authentic quality messaging harder to find. That makes a lot of people tune out. Uh, you’ve got shifting consumer expectations today as, as the wealth transfer happens. I mean, the expectations that younger generations have of advisors is very different from what baby boomers have historically expected from their advisors.

[00:04:37] Robert Sofia: So firms are trying to balance multiple service models. You know, you’ve gotta have a different approach to technology and even planning sometimes for different generations if you wanna stay relevant. The, the pace of technology is really fast, so, uh, that’s changing. The, the marketing methods that work, what used to work doesn’t work.

[00:04:56] Robert Sofia: Uh, the tools that are available are proliferating. It’s hard to know what to [00:05:00] use, and so it’s a, it’s a very challenging time, I think, more than ever in this industry to just figure out how to navigate all that. Yet the firms who really do invest in that, make that part of their, their focus, they’re driving organic growth, they are accelerating, and yet the vast majority of the industry, based on the averages, is stagnating because many firms are not adopting.

[00:05:22] Robert Sofia: So you’re starting to see a bifurcation of, of, uh, growing firms and, uh, those that are not, uh, becoming very clearly distinguished.

[00:05:31] Chip Kispert: So, you know, you mentioned something in your previous comment, you talked about what worked in the past isn’t working now. Um, and I think a lot of that comes to the referral, right.

[00:05:44] Chip Kispert: But I’m, I’m super curious on how you see advisors, you know, the, the best advisors kind of embracing the need to promote themselves to both existing customers. As well as, um, [00:06:00] prospects. How, how you see that changing?

[00:06:03] Robert Sofia: Well, that’s the advisor’s conundrum. Uh, I mean, if you think about why the vast majority of us even got in this industry, it, it was to serve.

[00:06:12] Robert Sofia: And, you know, you love the financial planning. You love helping the clients. Historically, you take good care of them, and then you get out and you do networking. And you get enough referrals and your business grows and the market keeps growing and it, it just was a, a kind of a simple business, uh, for a long time.

[00:06:30] Robert Sofia: And, and yet what’s happening is that the, I think the overall change in the way consumers interact with businesses, uh, the. Uh, just the inability to keep up with, with the growth trends simply on referrals alone. The lack of predictability. Uh, it’s fine for a lot of advisors who still run solo businesses, but if you’re trying to scale, you can’t, you can’t really grow a business and support 5, 10, 50, a hundred advisors with referral strategies, not if you wanna build a growing [00:07:00] enterprise.

[00:07:00] Robert Sofia: So the. The, the conundrum is how much time, energy, financial commitment do you spend on your clients and client service and the, the business model in terms of, you know, all, all of the things that aren’t related to growth, and then how much of the time do you spend on growth strategy, tactics, technology, marketing, content?

[00:07:22] Robert Sofia: And most advisors didn’t get in the business to do that. So what I’m, what I’m seeing is that. The most successful firms are really picking a lane where they are most qualified. Competent and able to drive the best outcomes in the business. And then they are hiring the right people, delegating and outsourcing the functions they’re not great at.

[00:07:43] Robert Sofia: And so you’ve got some advisors that crush it at marketing and pr and, and you see them, they’re very active on social and the conference circuit, and they’re out there. They’re, they’re focused on growth. They’re recruiting, they’re marketing. And, and that’s their lane. And, and then you have others that say, you know, they’re their [00:08:00] head’s down, they’re just focused on their clients and they, they’re delegating that, and they’re outsourcing that.

[00:08:04] Robert Sofia: What, I guess my point is, Chip is, is you said, how do you balance both? It’s, it’s almost impossible to be great at both. It really is. You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta decide what you’re gonna be great at because it’s two different professions, and then you gotta, you gotta get the right people to do the part that you’re not great at.

[00:08:20] Chip Kispert: Yeah. You know, it was interesting. Last week I was at, uh, one of our mutual customers, uh, their breakout. They had a advisory breakout session for some of their young advisors, some of their sales folks, and we had a lot of discussion about, you know, marketing, organic growth, how to, how to promote themselves.

[00:08:40] Chip Kispert: To the customer, to the prospects, um, and how, you know, they’re ha utilizing way different methods than maybe their predecessors, right? Yes, sure. There’s the, there’s the digital mail, there’s, there’s the digital, uh, flow, but they’re also talking, you know, talking about, Hey, you know, I gotta do these [00:09:00] quick social media posts now.

[00:09:02] Chip Kispert: And, and it was inter, it was really fascinating to hear the younger advisors talk about the promotion. Then think back and compare it to, to how we grew up with a business. Right. So it’s very, very different and, and a lot more work, let’s be honest.

[00:09:18] Robert Sofia: Yeah, no doubt about it. And you know, it’s, it’s not that all of the old methods don’t work.

[00:09:23] Robert Sofia: There’s a lot of tried and true, uh, practices that still work in this industry. We’ve got advisors who host client events every single month, and we’ve got advisors who still do seminars. We, we’ve got advisors, believe it or not, who still do cold calling, but those things generally just don’t scale, uh, in enterprise.

[00:09:42] Robert Sofia: And so you’ve got this. It’s almost like a bifurcation between a lifestyle business where the advisor is doing all of that themselves and they’re balancing, they’re trying to do both. And that business can be fine for a solo or maybe a partnership. But once you, once you start to try to [00:10:00] really support other advisors, maybe you, you wanna scale up and, and you wanna build an, enter something with real enterprise value, with a, a growth rate that goes beyond the industry average to something that is gonna be attractive if you try to exit your business eventually, uh, to have something that can run without you so that you can either have the freedom or the ability to sell it and not be tied into it.

[00:10:20] Robert Sofia: And so when your advisors start thinking about succession and future, uh, they, they, they really. Need to have people to help with those things. I mean, the answer is not usually found in, uh, just trying to do it all.

[00:10:33] Chip Kispert: Right. You know, uh, one of the things I always love, I, I love kind of the stories of hearing how advisors, um.

[00:10:42] Chip Kispert: Really have been successful. Um, so I guess my next question, Robert, can you share, uh, you know, a couple different instances where your customers committed and now they’re seeing really that growth vision is becoming a reality? [00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Robert Sofia: You know, we’ve got hundreds and hundreds of, of these types of experiences. Um, I’ll, I love that.

[00:11:06] Robert Sofia: I’ll share a little data, but I’ll also share some, some anecdotes with you. So it’s not uncommon for advisors that come and work with us to start to see 200 to 300% increase in lead conversion rates, and, and that is often because they do a lot of marketing. And so they have leads and contacts in their database and they’re really good at getting the low hanging fruit.

[00:11:30] Robert Sofia: So the people who come in immediately already, uh, come in high trust, you know, their referrals, or they’re the few people from an event that you met that you really clicked with, and they’re getting that business. It’s not hard for advisors to win that business. They don’t need, uh, marketing even to win that kind of business.

[00:11:47] Robert Sofia: But they often have this long tail because typically it takes nine to 12. Engagements for a, especially a digital lead, uh, to really engage. Most advisors aren’t really engaging in a [00:12:00] meaningful or personalized way, nine to 12 times. Um, and then there is the fact that typically, you know, some, somewhere around 95% of the leads that you generate, I think, I think the actual number is 96.

[00:12:11] Robert Sofia: Uh, based on the most recent research I saw, they’re just not ready to work with an advisor today. But if you engage them long enough. When they reengage, when they reengage, the closing rate is almost a hundred percent because at the time they reengage, they already know who you are. They’ve been exposed to your brand a lot.

[00:12:30] Robert Sofia: You’ve built trust over time, and they, they engage because they’re actually ready. So the point is that that’s the data point, and I’m gonna give you an actual example. The data point is when you start nurturing all of your leads in a consistent, personalized way, qualifying them, segmenting them, enriching them, and following up with them.

[00:12:48] Robert Sofia: In that way, you start to see 200 to 300% and conversion rates. So you’re, you’re getting the same amount of leads, but now you’re closing two to three. Times as many because of that compounding value of the, of the [00:13:00] ongoing communication. Now, how does that look in, in the real world? I’ll give you a very, uh, a perfect example.

[00:13:05] Robert Sofia: So we have an advisor came in recently with about a thousand people on a lead list. It was just, you know, old leads from the past that they really hadn’t been doing anything with. We put those leads into systematic nurturing sequences and over six months, 10 of the 10% of those people booked meetings with him.

[00:13:20] Robert Sofia: Really? He got a hundred extra, a hundred extra meetings over six months.

[00:13:23] Chip Kispert: That’s fabulous. Just

[00:13:24] Robert Sofia: from. Activating all those leads in the right way. Wow. And so that’s, that’s an example of where, you know, it’s, it’s just one. And he closed a lot of that business. So there’s, there’s many examples like that.

[00:13:36] Robert Sofia: Another one I just saw, I actually showcased this yesterday in a webinar. Uh, there’s an advisor that has a wealth and wellness brand. He does like wellness seminars every month. And the, the financial components of things is, is one aspect of how he does this. And so clients come, they talk about overall wellness, including financial wellness.

[00:13:52] Robert Sofia: They bring their friends. So he, he brought in about 70 million in new assets last year from referrals from clients, [00:14:00] great. But when he activated all of the digital marketing strategies began amplifying these with online advertising, social posts, nurturing all of the people who registered for these events, but never showed up.

[00:14:12] Robert Sofia: He generated an extra 60 million in new assets from digital channels. So he went from, he had 70 million in referrals, which a lot of advisors would say that’s success in itself. That’s, I mean, net new assets in a year, 70 million. But he also got 60 million from digital. So instead of being at, you know, a 70 million number, now he’s 130 million in net new assets.

[00:14:34] Robert Sofia: And, and so the. These are just a couple of examples of of the many that we have where advisors just ad hoking this thing like, Hey, I send a few emails from MailChimp. Hey, I posted social media occasionally. Hey, I follow up with my leads a few times. If they’re ready, great. If they’re not fine. That’s, that’s how most advisors do it.

[00:14:52] Robert Sofia: But when you actually have a system for moving people from stranger to client [00:15:00] and that system never stops. You get more business, you get more growth. It’s just, it’s, it’s really table stakes in today’s, you know, uh, digital world.

[00:15:10] Chip Kispert: It is fascinating. And I, I, you know, we watch what you guys do. We watch, you know, there, there’s some firms that it’s unbelievable what they’re doing in the sophistication of their digital strategies.

[00:15:22] Chip Kispert: You know, really, you talk to nine to 12 times of really engaging and it’s, it’s fascinating. How does social, so. Question, and this is my curiosity. How do you see social aspect fitting in? Right? A lot of advisors are kind of scared of, of, of social, right? It, it, it’s scary. Um, how do you see that fitting into the mix for an advisor practice?

[00:15:48] Robert Sofia: I mean, it depends on the practice. Uh, it depends on the, the ICP, you know, the ideal client profile that they’re going after. Social media is a channel. [00:16:00] And actually it’s several different channels. I mean, you know, for some, their channel of choice may be LinkedIn. For others, it may be TikTok. And, and social media plays a part in a lot of aspects of marketing.

[00:16:12] Robert Sofia: For example, if somebody Googles you, uh, social media channels will come up very quickly. Social profiles will come up very quickly, and it’s one of the best ways for prospects to, for lack of a better word, stalk you online and see what you’re all about. Uh, and so there’s a, there’s a place for that, but. A lot of advisors think that social media is a, a prospecting tool, and they, they hear, you know, thought leaders talk about it.

[00:16:35] Robert Sofia: And, and you see these advisors who are really skilled at some specific channel. Maybe they’re just incredible with video and they’ve amassed a lot of YouTube followers and, and so a lot of advisors come in, they’re like, yeah, I know I can grow on social media. And, and you can absolutely, you can, but take a look at who’s doing it.

[00:16:53] Robert Sofia: Who, who’s really growing on social media. They’re not just auto posting, random AI [00:17:00] curated content from a, an app. That’s not what they’re doing. Like, you know, they, they, they’re not, uh, they’re not just swiping their credit card and then letting an algorithm pick what to post for them. And, and, and whatever AI slop is out there that does not get results, they’re also not occasionally haphazardly doing it.

[00:17:17] Robert Sofia: They, they are committed. And if you see, it’s not just what their company provides. It’s not this, it’s not all lead gen content. It’s not all focused on that. It’s real engagement. There’s real authenticity. And they know their client. They know their client is on that channel, and they are speaking to them in their voice on that channel.

[00:17:39] Robert Sofia: In other words, they’re meeting people where they are and that’s why they’re having success. So the point is, social media is a powerful tool like everything else. But when people ask me, what about social media? I would say, well, what about mail? What about podcasting? What about television? What about online advertising?

[00:17:54] Robert Sofia: What about radio? What about, what about, I mean, everything, uh, has its place for the right [00:18:00] advisor, uh, who wants to attract the clients that are there? So. All that being said, Chip, that’s my, I think, important disclaimer that advisors need to understand, right? When it comes to social media, it’s not just, it’s not, there’s no easy button.

[00:18:15] Robert Sofia: That being said, if you have a strategy for posting consistently across channels, and your content is high quality. It will support your business growth. It absolutely will. If you rely on it exclusively as your only channel for growth, uh, you better be ready to really commit, like we just discussed.

[00:18:35] Chip Kispert: Well, I think your, your point on, uh, authenticity was the one that really resonated with me.

[00:18:41] Chip Kispert: Lots of, lots of, lots of different channels. Authenticity to connect with the prospect, customer, et cetera, just really resonated. Um, you’ve mentioned it a couple times. Um, it’s, you know, any conference I go to, most conversations I have in the [00:19:00] industry right now, this, this subject raises head. Marketing is front and center.

[00:19:06] Chip Kispert: How do you see AI impacting marketing? I gotta ask you the question.

[00:19:10] Robert Sofia: Oh, man. I mean, it’s, everything, everything is, is getting touched by ai. There is, there is almost no corner of marketing, uh, that is not already being impacted and won’t continue to be impacted in a very large way by ai. We, we are really positioning ourselves, uh, to be a true AI platform.

[00:19:30] Robert Sofia: Uh, we continue to, to leverage it, but you don’t see us. Talking about AI in that way, like, you know, it’s not Snappy Kraken AI because we, we don’t see AI in itself as the solution. Uh, nor do we see it, um, as anywhere near fully developed yet. So it’s very hard to predict what the future is gonna bring with ai.

[00:19:51] Robert Sofia: But what we see is that it is a way to dramatically speed up your ability to perform any marketing [00:20:00] function so you can do more. In less time and with greater precision with with greater personalization. And those are the biggest value points. So let me tell you what I mean by that. First speed.

[00:20:14] Robert Sofia: Historically, you get a new lead, what do you do? You spend a few minutes entering it into your CRM, then you decide what to do with it. Are you gonna call, are you gonna email, are you gonna text? You gonna put ’em into a nurturing sequence? How do you know if they’re qualified or not? Maybe you have to do some digging.

[00:20:30] Robert Sofia: Uh, then you finally decide how you’re gonna approach this person. Uh, then you or, or you don’t do any of that. You just approach everybody the exact same way. And by the way, the whole process of that intake documentation, that decision tree, uh, that’s 30 minutes maybe. Okay. Let’s just take an example. This is a speed example.

[00:20:50] Robert Sofia: I’ll talk about speed, precision, and, and personalization. So speed. Now it happens. Any lead from any source, AI immediately reads unstructured data, creates a [00:21:00] contact record in your CRM, pulls in third party enrichment data tells you if that lead is qualified or not. Then automatically adds it to a group of other people who fit the same demographic psychographic profile, then nurtures them in a sequence that is personalized for them, and then over time, scores that lead.

[00:21:19] Robert Sofia: And tells you when they are both qualified and their intent is high and suggests appropriate outreach. That whole process of getting them in the system and sending the first communication happens in less than three minutes. The average response time in our industry is 48 hours. So AI now takes you from responding in 48 hours average to three minutes or less.

[00:21:43] Robert Sofia: That drives. Outsized conversion rates, your ability to actually book meetings with those people goes up multifold because of the speed. Speed, that’s one, and the time that you saved, right? Precision AI can analyze all your data, surface your insights, surface [00:22:00] your best opportunities, segment your contacts, tell you where to focus so you’re not wasting your time on unqualified leads.

[00:22:06] Robert Sofia: All of that precision. Is there because of the fast data analysis and recommendation engine that AI is. And then we talk about personalization. AI can read all of this data that’s being accumulated on people. What are they clicking on out of your content? What are they viewing? What are they spending the most time on?

[00:22:27] Robert Sofia: Which channel are they engaging with the most? And at some point with all that data, now you can actually. Without even knowing it’s happening, without even thinking about it. Have AI personalizing content for that person based on all of that data, and that means that they’re gonna get messages that are more relevant for them, which is gonna drive up your response rates, your engagement rates, your conversion rates.

[00:22:52] Robert Sofia: AI is touching every bit of that process, and that creates speed, precision, [00:23:00] and the relevance and personalization drives better results. And that’s just, those are just a few examples I didn’t even talk about using LLMs to create content, which is a whole, whole nother beast.

[00:23:12] Chip Kispert: So you’re all in on ai?

[00:23:15] Robert Sofia: Well, you know, all in, uh, it’s a funny, it’s a funny expression.

[00:23:18] Robert Sofia: Uh, you know, I, I, I like all, uh, or like most, uh, also have some sense of trepidation. Um, I, I am going in on AI in a continuous measured, uh, thoughtful way. Primarily focused on our data strategy around it, our compliance strategy around it. Um, and the, the, the next thing is, is just, you know, being aware of the developments because it’s actually doubling in its power every seven months because if you don’t stay dialed into that, you’ll very quickly get left behind because, you know, AI’s gonna be doing things in a few months that it didn’t, we didn’t [00:24:00] know it could do a few months ago.

[00:24:01] Robert Sofia: And, and that is. Uh, something you just have to stay in tune with, so I’m all in on keeping up with it. I don’t know what the fu what it means for the future of mankind. I’ll just put it that way.

[00:24:13] Chip Kispert: That’s, that’s an interesting point. Um, no, it’s interesting because we, uh, we’re getting more and more advisors kind of coming to us and, and what enterprise wealth firms and talking about, all right, I think we need to put some, some gar, you know, create our own AI policy.

[00:24:30] Chip Kispert: Um, and it’s amazing how many of these firms are using ai. But they really don’t have any policies around it. And we gotta start taking a look at where that data’s going, how it’s being used, how it’s being retained, et cetera. So it’s, it’s a fascinating area. Fast growing. Without a doubt. You say seven months, it feels like it, it’s every two months, uh, how fast it’s moving.

[00:24:54] Chip Kispert: So it does, I’m gonna move to our next question, but, um, [00:25:00] when you. Look at the wealth space and, and you study the industry, you know, a lot of folks in the industry and the advisors. Um, who do you follow and pay particularly close attention to?

[00:25:14] Robert Sofia: Yeah, the, the leaders of the fastest growing RIAs. In this space are really interesting to me.

[00:25:21] Robert Sofia: Um, I follow the leaders of, of firms like, you know, Mariner and Carson Group and Focus and Merit and uh, you know, I could just go on and on about, you know, modern wealth management and these, when, when I see firms that are entering the space. Or have been in this space for some time, but are, are really, um, adding billions in a UM every year.

[00:25:42] Robert Sofia: Uh, and they’re doing it organically and inorganically. I really follow those strategies. There’s a, um, there’s a lot to be said for the thought leaders in the industry. I could talk about people’s newsletters I read and, and a lot of people who, who are household names that everyone knows and, and [00:26:00] you know, I probably subscribe to their newsletters as well, but I’m a lot more interested in.

[00:26:05] Robert Sofia: When I see the media or podcasters interview, uh, the people who are doing that, who are accomplishing that, because that’s, you know, we’re in the business of driving growth at Snappy Kraken. We are a automated growth platform. So for me to continue to do that in the most cutting edge way, I have to know what the fastest growing firms are doing.

[00:26:26] Robert Sofia: And I learn a lot from them because I see. For example, uh, I see firms struggling to implement Salesforce and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and I see them spending years building out these very, very complex workflows and round robins for leads and multifaceted integrations, and they end up having these big implementation teams of marketers and technologists, and they spend, you know, 10, literally tens of millions of dollars.

[00:26:55] Robert Sofia: I worked with one firm. They actually spent. They dedicated $12 million to building out [00:27:00] their, their growth engine in one year. And so I pay attention to that because for Snappy Kraken, that’s our future. We are making all of that simple, so we’re taking the, you know, multimillion dollar investment in people and technology and figuring out how to let firms do it for six figures or less and make it outta the box.

[00:27:21] Robert Sofia: Plug and play deeply integrated with the tools they use. So that’s my lane Chip. That’s why that’s where I focus. I wanna know what are the biggest firms that are really well capitalized doing, and how can I take that and make it accessible and available to the very smallest firms, uh, in the industry and help them continue to compete at a higher level.

[00:27:39] Chip Kispert: I think that’s great. Yeah. I, it’s, uh, I wish, you know, and, and we’re on the consulting side. Yes. We do a lot of marketing. I wish we had something as easy to use as, as your platform. I’ll be honest. Because we may be on, uh, one of those platforms that you just mentioned. So, um, one of the things that, uh, we always like to do before we wrap up the show is to [00:28:00] give you, uh, a flash comment.

[00:28:02] Chip Kispert: So, um, Robert, you got about a minute or so to, uh, provide your 1% better every day. Flash comment for, uh, for our podcast today.

[00:28:13] Robert Sofia: Everything we’ve talked about with technology and AI and data is secondary. To people and there are always people in this industry who are smarter, faster, better. They may work for you or they may be outside your company.

[00:28:30] Robert Sofia: And the more that you listen and really pay attention to people to their recommendations, don’t think you have all the answers. Stay humble, stay hungry, uh, let people showcase their expertise. Don’t think you have to have all the credit, the better you’re gonna be at keeping up with all of this. If you surround yourself with people who are doing it and you give them the space to do that great work, uh, they will take you farther than you ever could on your own.

[00:28:58] Robert Sofia: So for me, [00:29:00] that’s, I find that although I can’t read as much as I want, as, although I can’t, uh, go back and get all the education I want as freely as I, as I could in the past. Because I’m too busy. Uh, just by listening to the people around me, uh, I get better every single day and by really trying to imitate their good qualities, uh, and even learn from the bad ones too, uh, that I think that’s been a big part of, uh, you know, my secret to success, I guess you could say.

[00:29:27] Chip Kispert: How refreshing was that? That was terrific, really. Um, that resonated with me. Um, you know, I think one of the things. We don’t listen enough. And I think that would, that’s fabulous. So, um, Robert, I wanna thank you for joining me on the Beacon 1% Better Every Day podcast. I’m so grateful to have had you as also have you as one of my go-to people for all things marketing.

[00:29:53] Chip Kispert: Um, I love to hear your thinking and, uh, you truly are one of the leaders in our industry [00:30:00] and, uh, I look forward to having you on the show again soon. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here. Rj. Wow. I really enjoyed having Robert on the show. He was terrific.

[00:30:10] RJ Malyk: He really was. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:30:12] Chip Kispert: There are three things that, or three thoughts that he shared that really resonated with me.

[00:30:18] Chip Kispert: And, and honestly, there, there were a lot more than three. I agree. But you know, in, in, in talking, in our conversations, I think number one is that, you know, marketing really is a required cornerstone for advisors businesses. Right. That, that’s one of the things I really took away to, to really drive organic growth.

[00:30:41] Chip Kispert: Um. The other one, which isn’t a, it is a part of marketing, but it is so important to be authentic and not. Be, you know, manufactured or plastic. He, when he talked about, you know, advisors and [00:31:00] YouTube channels and, and being able to, to have their authentic message out there. I love that. I thought that was absolutely terrific.

[00:31:09] Chip Kispert: And then, you know, the, it was interesting ’cause, ’cause he wove in AI through all our conversations and at times it was, plus at times it was a little negative, but. What he, what, what really kinda came away is how AI is speeding up the process of marketing. He talked about taking, you know, a marketing, um, process that once took 48 hours.

[00:31:37] Chip Kispert: Now it’s down to three minutes. That is amazing.

[00:31:41] RJ Malyk: Yeah. There was just so much there.

[00:31:44] Chip Kispert: You know, and you add to that, you know, the ability as you collect the data, as, as advisors are collecting the data and you have this data to be able to take that unstructured data and, and, and enable better personalization to really connect with that customer [00:32:00] again.

[00:32:00] Chip Kispert: I thought that wa for a third point, for me, that was pretty amazing.

[00:32:03] RJ Malyk: Lots of good stuff there. Uh, like, you know it, and it seemed, you know, it’s one of these things where I think this is the type of podcast you’re gonna have to listen to twice. To get all the information. That’s what, yeah.

[00:32:18] Chip Kispert: Um, all right. So as I go to kind of sign off, um, I wanna say, Hey, lastly, check out our archive of past shows with industry leaders like Jeff Moore, ValMark, I couplers, Derek Notman, and Dave.

[00:32:30] Chip Kispert: Go from advise on the name a few. These can all be found at beaconstrategiesllc.com slash podcast. We here at Beacon encourage you to get 1% better every day, and to quote Walt Whitman and most recently Ted Lasso, be curious, not judgmental, until our next episode. This is Chip Kispert. Be well.

[00:32:54] RJ Malyk: Thanks, Chip, and we need to add in a shout out as this podcast is brought to you by Beacon Strategies, [00:33:00] LLC, the go-to resource for Round Tables Consulting and services that support wealth management firms and their providers.

[00:33:07] RJ Malyk: If you need some industry perspective or help, please visit Beacon Strategies. llc.com And thank you for listening to the Beacon 1% Better podcast. We ask you to share this podcast rated and leave a review because this actually helps others find the show. Again, thank you for listening and for Chip Kispert and everyone at Beacon Strategies, I’m RJ Malyk.

[00:33:27] RJ Malyk: We look forward to you joining us for our next podcast. Thanks for joining us on Beacon’s. 1% Better Every Day podcast. Be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode. And stay up to date with Chip and his friend’s. Latest insights and strategies. If you want to learn more about Beacon Strategies or get in touch, visit us@beaconstrategiesllc.com.

[00:33:53] RJ Malyk: Remember, progress starts with just 1% every day. Let’s keep challenging ourselves to be [00:34:00] curious and grow the information covered and posted, represents the views and opinions of the guest, and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Beacon Strategies. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only.

[00:34:16] RJ Malyk: The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice.