Furthermore, since it’s a non-financial workshop, I accomplish several crucial things. It gives me access to community programs and events where other advisors had already marked their territory. Prior to the Naked Retirement format, when I called an employer, adult education center or community college and offered a seminar, the most common response was, “Thanks, but we already have a person doing that.” However, now that I’m armed with something uniquely different, I am welcomed with open arms.
This format also allows me to provide concrete proof that I am a financial life planner. These days, it’s almost cliché to claim to be a life or holistic planner … and to claim that clients are more than just a number. But few of these proponents back it up with their community efforts and with material they share with clients and prospects on a regular basis.
By applying true life planning, I build what I call KLT: know you, like you, trust you. By starting new relationships in ways that the client values personally, it is much easier to create a long-term trusting relationship, which works as a two-way street.
It may seem a little strange for a financial advisor to offer a completely non-financial workshop, but that’s the whole point of thinking big and stepping outside of the box. It’s not supposed to make sense to everyone.
After being validated by my first big idea, I developed an even crazier idea. I started offering Do-It-Yourself Retirement Planning workshops with free retirement planning software and portfolio management tools.
I may look like the kid standing in the aisle with the huge frog in his hand but, once again, by stepping out of my comfort zone and the limits to what I knew, I was pleasantly surprised by what I was able to catch.
It turns out that most people aren’t do-it-yourselfers; they just think they are or think they need to be. Look at it this way: The boomers are the first generation that needs to fund up to 70 percent of their retirement on their own, so they’re sweating it out. They don’t know how to do it and, worse, they don’t know who to trust. So they think if they can learn it themselves, they can avoid the headache of finding the right advisors and, better yet, avoid getting burned by bad advice or a scam.
So they show up at my DIY Retirement Planning seminar, and I give them everything they came for and more. In two hours, I cram so much information, examples, ideas and expertise into their minds that I think some people may have PTSD afterwards. I follow up with an email that provides links to free retirement planning software on the Web, a free Morningstar trial and other tools.
Imagine telling a group of people everything you know about retirement planning in a couple hours and then wishing them good luck figuring it all out.
Inevitably, this process not only reveals to them my level of knowledge and expertise, but also how cumbersome retirement planning can be. At the end of my seminar, the one thing most people don’t want to become is a financial professional.
Taking these unexpected ideas one step further, I also began attaching a fee to my classes. The fact of the matter was, I knew my hold ratio was much higher when people had to pay and being that I was back on the scene as an individual advisor, I needed something to help increase actual attendance. So I charge $15-$25 per class.