Podcast Commentary

Podcast Transcript

Introduction  09:23

Welcome to digital marketing for financial planners. The podcast where you learn which digital marketing strategies are working best for advisors. We interview financial planners who share what is working or not for their practice. here’s your host, Jake Wagner.

Jacob Wagner  09:42

Whoa, Hello, this is Jacob Wagner, and welcome to the digital marketing 4FP podcast. Today on the show, we have Julie Johnson from XY Communication. Julie, welcome. How are you doing today?

Julie Johnson  09:53

I am so well Jacob, thank you so much for having me.

Jacob Wagner  09:57

I’m really excited to have you on the show today, I think that you have some wonderful insights to share with everybody on that, can you introduce yourself and your firm and just a little bit about what you do

Julie Johnson  10:08

Absolutely. So XY Communication. It’s funny, it came out of a number of different scenarios. But I started my career as a wealth advisor in 1996 was Smith Barney here in Denver, and then moved from Smith Barney to UBS in 2007. His luck at it, we manage about 1.2 billion in assets under management and had a wonderful group of people wonderful group of clients. Needless to say, 2008 to 2010, were extraordinarily challenging to say the least as many on this call can empathize with and might have a little automatic heartburn. But so my business came from my love of behavioral finance. And I started with the discussion of different genders, in finance, and how that’s a challenge in that communication. Right? those a little bit late to that game I started with men are from Mars, women are from Venus in the financial world. And that was about 2015/2016, and did the good old lunch and learns and a lot of public speaking and whatnot, I was very honored to get to speak at the various conferences and fidelities. And at that time, impose an apex and whatnot. And so the gender discussion, I was a little bit late to that game. And so but I wanted to build my niche, even more, I wanted to dig into additional aspects of behavioral finance. And that’s what got me into the generational conversation, which we’ll touch on more in a little bit. But I am a huge, I never like to call myself an expert because I, in my opinion, an expert means we’re we’ve learned everything that we can learn. And so but I do think I’m an authority. I know a lot, but I’m always wanting to learn more. And that’s where my passion lies in helping people figure out how to communicate and connect with the people they’re speaking with dependent upon gender generation, demographic, etc.

Jacob Wagner  12:25

So how do you work with financial planners?

Julie Johnson  12:27

So the way that I have so I got into the behavioral finance, I came back into the financial world and after leaving the wealth advisory space, because that’s where I’ve spent 20 years of my career. And I, I knew a lot of how the challenges the pain points that Wealth Advisors are faced with all the time when connecting and building relationships with stronger relationships with existing clients, and also networking and building new relationships, prospecting, etc. And I thought I had a lot to give and provide as far as how to help Wealth Advisors connect with their audiences, again, peers, clients, prospects, and how to make sure that they are matching or mirroring their audience, and therefore connecting in a greater sense with whoever they’re speaking to. Because especially in this age of COVID, if you’re not able and comfortable in a virtual world of virtual setting, you’re not able to still develop those deep relationships in those trusting relationships. It makes business development and maintenance of client relationships very challenging. So just really being knowledgeable in the financial space and feeling that I could provide a great service as far as having that additional engagement, and communication, and connection. And then in the generational space. Obviously, there are a lot of changes that are occurring as the older generations and the younger generations basically sometimes speak a different language, cadence, vernacular, etc. And so it helps a lot to know your audience and be able to cater and mold your presentation to whomever you’re speaking with.

Jacob Wagner  14:36

Could you give us some examples of what it is that you’re talking about?

Julie Johnson  14:39

Absolutely. So I was very fortunate to speak at the Barron’s conference this past February. And the topic that they had me speak about was,

how do financial advisors make sure that they are staying ahead of the game as far as the new younger generation that’s coming into the market, whether it be as peers wanting to become part of your team and succession planning, whether it be making sure that you are working with your clients, not just as the patriarch, or the typical communication and relationship of the past, but making sure that you are building very strong and authentic relationships with the younger generations, the family members, everyone that’s involved with the present, and the future of the wealth building.

And if you’re not making sure to get engaged and have a strong, trusting relationship with the entire family, when those assets are left to the grandkids, kids, what have you, if you haven’t done that, build that foundation, and done that work, chances are very good that you will lose those assets, because they will go to somebody that that child or grandchild does know and does trust. So it’s so out of the game.

Jacob Wagner  16:09

So as a part of what you’re talking about, with this,

we’ve mentioned both mirroring and how we need to speak differently to different people.

And then part of the end game here is also to make sure that you’re creating, like by taking great care of a family. And also by showing that care, not just to the client, but for the next generation, when that handoff happens, you’re already in the right position to plead place of trust, to continue to manage those assets. And conversely, if you end up speaking to somebody and your parents are great clients, but you aren’t jiving, however you want to consider that with the younger generation, when the assets move hands, it’s more likely that those assets are going to go to a different firm.

Julie Johnson  16:51

When I did my research before the barons conference, I found a number of statistics and Pew, thoroughly, etc. I’ve got statistics coming out of my ears. But it said that the

younger generations were 60%, or more likely to move the inherited assets to a different advisor if there wasn’t a trusting relationship there.

So clearly, it’s not Oh, they managed and had a good relationship with my father or mother or both. And so they’re probably trustworthy, I’m just going to stay with them. It’s no I’ve done my own research, I’ve done my own homework, I want to make sure that I’m with an advisor that I know that I trust that is in sync with what I am looking for what I want to invest in social impact. Now those are all really important things with the younger generations.

Jacob Wagner  17:58

So what about situations where, like the just, I’m not a parent, but I’ve been a child my whole life. And something I’m thinking about, there’s just a time where like, the kid just kind of does the opposite of what the parents did, just because it’s what the parents do not for another reason as far as I can. Yeah. And so I mean, I’ve seen this happen. I’ve seen this happen in the scenario. And sometimes I’ve kind of thought about it in the therapist sort of a sense where it’s just like, Well, I mean, I guess this planner is a match for the parent, and that they’re not as good of a match for this the kid in the jeetu. And so g two goes and takes these assets to another firm, that’s just a better match. And I haven’t really thought about that as competition necessarily. I am aware that there are assets leaving a firm and other things like it, but hopefully, you’re also still positioning yourself. So you’re attracted to the younger firm, and you went to another place where someone’s doing the same thing, you get the G two assets, rather than the other firm retaining them.

Julie Johnson  19:01

So I think your question is, is there sort of a dichotomy there? Yeah,

the most important thing that a wealth advisor can do, in my opinion, is to make sure that that that they have as strong of a relationship as possible, with their existing clients that they’re communicating.

Again in a way that their client needs them to be, as often as they need them to be with the data that they want to hear, etc. — the things that are important to them. And then you’re able to be very confident when you ask for an introduction to their kids. We were very lucky to work with the Benjamin Moore paint family when I was an advisor. And we started with one client $2.5 million. We ended up amassing 100 people in their family and the million dollars. And it was so fun. We, I mean, they were a great group of people, a very eclectic group of people. And we ended up doing annual seminars, annual retreats, and they were basically a family reunion. And we would have different breakout sessions that focused on what the different generations might want to hear. Anyone could obviously go to whatever session they wanted to. But the point is, you want to make sure that all generations realize that what they feel is important to the wealth of their family, or the wealth of their than their own family is absolutely honorable, you respect, you know, all of the collaboration, all of the different ideas, and that you will work with the family, I get brought in a lot of times to family office discussions, where if there’s a real disconnect between what the older generation wants to invest in and what the younger generation wants to invest in, they bring me in so I can show the pros and cons of all of the above. and have it be a very collaborative discussion, make sure everybody feels heard, honored, and respected, has had a seat at the table. And

we walk away with everybody feeling like they’ve won.

It’s kind of like a mediation.

Jacob Wagner  21:28

Yeah, combative, you’re making sure to from what you’re saying. And this is something we do with our clients, too, that it’s a facilitation to help people find their own answer. And you bring skills and education to the game that help people in that entire process. But there’s something I was thinking about when you were speaking was, you really want to avoid getting in between the generations and being someone who can be blamed for something, whatever regard and so if you can go in and take a mediator type of an approach of here’s the pros for this, the cons for this. Steven Brody taught me a thing where it’s called the 360 survey, and a teacher created it and but yeah, if you do it, what are the pros or the cons? If you don’t do it? What are the pros? And what are the cons and a little grid just to specs on a piece of paper all you need, but man, it can provide some amazing answers.

Julie Johnson  22:28

So often, people don’t know what they don’t know, right. And due respect, the older generation has been raised to believe a certain way to feel that, you know, stocks and bonds are kind of the way to go that alternative world might be a little bit scary, a little bit uncomfortable. And then maybe the younger generations, they obviously impact investing social responsibility, more alternatives, private equity, things like that. And stocks and bonds are not necessarily sexier or exciting. And so there it’s not right or wrong. It’s just different, right? So as long as you’re achieving the goals of the family that the wealth goals and everything else that they want to fulfill, whether it’s income or what have you, there’s no right or wrong answer as to what they’re investing in, as long as it’s the highest quality. So you come in and you give them you educate them, mentor them, give them all the facts, give them the stories behind why it matters. And then let them discuss it

Jacob Wagner  23:43

doesn’t matter to me. I think there’s a lot to learn about with that as well. I mean, there is about investing based on your values, but at the same time, if you invest in Tesla, it does change their stock price, but at the same time, it doesn’t change how many cars they produce. And there’s a delicate balance in that.

Julie Johnson  24:00

Exactly right.

Jacob Wagner  24:02

Yeah. So as you’re talking, you’re demonstrating this like, well, actually one of the things that were coming up for me is different, how different generations are attracted to different types of investing. And yeah, and definitely seeing earlier younger generations liking the ESG stuff. also wondering Have you ever seen any big conflicts come up because of Bitcoin and crypto because that’s so much power popular with the younger people, I kind of like a gold rush or at least gold mining just virtually. But yeah, how is that? How have those conversations gone?

Julie Johnson  24:36

So the fact that I’m not a wealth advisor enables me to sort of step outside of those specific conversations, but not meaning to use a cop-out. What I tried to let people know is, here are the facts. getting stuck on Bitcoin versus this versus that, here are the pros and cons of each. And more importantly, or in my opinion, more importantly, here’s the benefit of the diversification of many. And so let’s not get too stuck on the minutiae of asset A versus asset B. It’s just, you don’t want to get to sort of silly in the titles in the what’s groovy and what’s not. Sorry, groovy is a very old word, but you just kind of, again, it’s a bit,

it should be a collaboration and a discussion, and try to keep it away from being a debate.

Jacob Wagner  25:35

Um, yeah, and I was just thinking that that’s something that it’s confusing, and it’s also kind of sexy. And so I could see why one person would be majorly for another person being mutually against it, and just think I could see that being a source of conflict. And so part of what you’re also talking about is how to navigate those common point in conversations of conflict. And maybe there’s a point in that conversation, you might want to train a counselor, psychological professional, rather than a financial professional for that as

Julie Johnson  26:06

well. And I think too if worst comes to worst, or I shouldn’t say worse comes to worst. But if it comes to this, alright, if you agree to a 2% allocation to Bitcoin, that’s not going to have that massive of an effect on the overall portfolio. But who is really fighting for an allocation to Bitcoin? They get their way. They feel heard

Jacob Wagner  26:29

they, everyone has a right to their say in these conversations. Right? So this is them being respected and heard, even if it is this new, wonky donkey crazy, new time to buy money stuff.

Julie Johnson  26:41

That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Sometimes it comes down to that, if you have someone that’s literally digging their heels in, like you said, because they can not necessarily because it’s purposeful, or accomplished as much, in fact, is probably counterproductive. But it is what it is, and you can’t control it.

So you just have to be there to provide solutions.

Jacob Wagner  27:06

Yeah. And one of the ways that I know that you’ve talked to me about before is something called reciprocal mentoring. Is this one of the tools that you’d use in this type of situation?

Julie Johnson  27:18

Absolutely. So reciprocal mentoring and reciprocal engagement, reciprocal mentoring, it’s probably pretty self explanatory. But, you know, there’s a lot of discussion about how the older advisors or older investors teach and educate the younger. But the younger generations don’t always want to be taught by their parents or grandparents, they don’t necessarily want to be taught by an older advisor that they feel doesn’t speak their language. But if you say, Listen, I want to share my experiences with you. I know where the bodies are buried, so to speak. And I think my ability also to build relationships and have conversations and, you know, make tough decisions during really hard and markets that are very volatile,

Jacob Wagner  28:15

and had some strange days lately. Yeah, that’s all there is to it.

Julie Johnson  28:18

Yeah. And it’s not looking to change anytime soon. So they basically say I want to, I want to share with you my experience and my knowledge, I would also love how becoming more efficient, becoming more productive, navigating my computer, navigate my CRM, something like that, or how do I use social media to further my business, I have no clue.

So when you’re not only wanting to impart your own knowledge and your own experience, but you’re also asking the younger generation, to help you with their knowledge, then they’re like, it makes them maybe a little bit less defensive and more feel more valued.

And then therefore, they’re much more willing to sit at the table and work together. And it’s is always you want to set aside your ego and ask for help. Even You may not want to do that. It may feel weird, it may feel uncomfortable or you know, your own ego is getting in the way. Like, what does this kid know that I don’t? Well, they actually know a lot. And, you know, we were talking just before this conversation, I had to get a lot of help with my website, my all of my computer skills that is like, that is not my top language, in any way, shape, or form. So

if we’re smart enough to recognize what our strengths are, and then what our challenges are, and we can find younger or older people who can fulfill and help us with those challenges. That’s a fabulous opportunity for mentoring. Mentoring builds trust, it builds respect, it enables you to be vulnerable without judgment, and you find a safe space there. And there’s so much to be learned.

And same. A lot of work I do is with younger advisors, learning how to speak to and ask questions from older advisors or their older generations, because there’s a lot of times where the younger generations don’t necessarily know how to ask for what they want, in a way that the older generations will actually want to hear them and engage. And so it goes both ways. 100%. And the irony that a lot of the older generations that I work with are like why in the world? Are these bigger generations, so that you hear over and over the words entitled, they’ve been with me for a year, and they already think they deserve a raise or a promotion or a seat at the table or a vote? You know, I had to work for 10 years before I got any of that I hear a lot of that, right?

Well, the irony is a lot of the baby boomers that are complaining, they raise these kids that are now Gen Z’s and millennials to ask for what they want to have a seat at the table to feel that they get a vote, because they got a vote growing up. They were asked questions and they wanted the parents wanted them to collaborate with them on where they want to go to be on vacation.

Where do you want to go to college, what’s important to you. And I could get into the whole trophy just for showing up. But we don’t need to go. It’s very important. My point in all of that is

it’s very, very important for each party, to understand their strengths and what they can offer to the other person, but also know themselves well enough to know what they can learn and what they need to learn from the other person. Find somebody that characteristic wise, character wise, conversational wise you match up with and approach them to do mentoring with one another.

Jacob Wagner  32:36

I have a really good example of a share. At the beginning of my career in the early 2000s, I worked for a think tank called the Integral Institute and based travel worked with a guy named Ken Wilber. And one of the other teachers who came, and I have a psychology bachelor’s degree, that’s my background, how it came to marketing. But before that, we actually had one teacher come and she’s a psychologist and this adorable, probably mid-60s or something the time German woman. And I just deeply respect the work that she’s done. There are some of the instruments that she’s made, and frankly, the amount of time that she’s put into actually creating valid data for looking at these different levels of consciousness and how that grows and how to determine it. And it was exactly what you’re talking about early 20 something out of college. And that was like she just needed help with her computer. And I had to give her a fair amount of help and just go and fix things. But it was stuff that was, frankly, easy for me. Right, and it was impossible for her and she is frustrating. And she’s a one-of-a-kind teacher. And everything that I learned from her was just wasn’t gold. It was platinum. I was so grateful. And we were able to have that cross-talk and I was able to do what I call multi-channel sort of a conversation where I shared my wisdom, she shared hers and we’re both better for it.

Julie Johnson  34:03

Absolutely. Now, we are our own worst enemies we get in our own way, right? It’s our own. The biggest challenge to building very trusting relationships is ego. Typically, if we don’t ask for help, or we’re afraid to ask for help or whatever we think we should know more than we really know. And who are these people to tell us how to do what we think we know how to do better than they do. But just Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s an oldie but a goodie. Absolutely. Steven doesn’t hear me refer to it as an oldie but a goodie. But anyway, one of

Jacob Wagner  34:47

his some sequels, he’s out a couple of sequels on that.

Julie Johnson  34:51

So I’m a fan of what you wanted me to bring in is one of my favorite generational books, it’s called sticking points. And Steven was a co-author of sticking points, a fabulous book about how different generations get stuck and silly things like what to wear to work, and whether or not to wear sandals and other things that of course, are even more important. But anyway, so he Yeah, you’ve had a phenomenal run of many great books.

But his effective habit number five, seek to understand and then be understood. And I think that that delves into every level of life. If you no matter who the relationship is with, if you’re trying to develop a relationship with your child, your parent, your family member, friend, peer client prospect, if you’re seeking to truly understand them, and be of service to them, you’re building a relationship you’re not selling, it’s not hard. And it honestly alleviates a lot of stress.

And a lot of new when I had that sort of epiphany that every phone call I have is a conversation. And if I can be of service to that person, awesome. If not, I’ve made a new connection. And maybe eventually, when that relationship has been built enough, I can ask them for referrals of people that they feel I would bring value to

Jacob Wagner  36:32

well in you know, as you bring value, but that’s a part of what actually makes that referral process happen for sure. I mean, one of the things that I’ve been taught, and I’ve said is that it’s not happy clients that refer its successful clients. You know, when they feel the results, when they see that transformation, when that difference has been made in their lives, then they want their loved ones to have that same joy in that same liberation.

Julie Johnson  37:01

That’s so true. And when you can say, Hey, I just want to make sure that that your family and friends are being taken care of, I’m not going to go in and do a hard sell. But I would love to at least have an opportunity to give them or view a second opinion and want to give them the comfort and the peace of mind to know that their financial plan is going to fulfill their goals, the most efficient way possible. And the least amount of fees, the best value, etc.

if you believe that in your heart, even in this virtual world of screen to screen, you do the eye contact you had you ask the good questions, and you truly care, then the relationships will come, they will absolutely come especially when you know how to ask for them.

Jacob Wagner  38:02

Well, and one of the things we were talking about in the past was also how to just make the best connection possible through this zoom world as well. And just there are little things like just one of the little tips we’re talking about is that we are using our cameras right now. And one of the things we also made sure to do and I encourage you guys to do is to actually just put the camera window like fit the video that you’re seeing the other person on put it near your camera for me, I’m on a Mac, so it’s at the top of the screen, but it makes it so that I’m looking at Julie and that Julie’s also looking right at me. And we can feel that connection going through the virtual space. And meanwhile, if you have that video over on your second monitor, and you’re looking over here and you’re typing over here, it looks extremely distracted at that as far as body behavior. And so it’s something I think that we really need to just bring awareness to and bring awareness to a box that there’s sort of a box that it’s a little bit above your head. And it’s about a hand with past your shoulders and just right about the heart level. And that tends to be sort of the space that our hands and our expressions can be seen in and understanding how we’re using that is one of our major tools to be able to reach across the screen and to the other side of the looking glass

Julie Johnson  39:21

couldn’t agree more to add that a little bit. And I’m sure a lot of people that are listening to this have done their homework. And so this might be a little bit repetitive, but making sure you’ve got a really solid background, it’s clear, it’s clean, maybe it if you’re, if you’ve won some awards, or you have your CFP or what have you, you’ve got your certificate is hung behind you. There’s as little distraction as possible. We all have dogs barking or the trash pickup or whatever, you know, your

Jacob Wagner  39:53

neighbor has construction, you know, all sorts of things.

Julie Johnson  39:57

Yeah, it is what it is. And so don’t let that distract you or get you frazzled. We just all have to be very patient and full of grace. As we give these presentations. One other thing, I believe that’s very important. My data points it, I’ll use the acronym RBF. Make sure that so it’s resting four-letter word, face.

Jacob Wagner  40:26

That one,

Julie Johnson  40:27

right, you want to make sure that you’re smiling, or at least you have your facial expression is attentive, right? You’re not sitting here like, Oh, dear God is this all over yet? You’re engaged and you’re sitting up and your shoulders are back. And you know, again, the eye contact and all of that stuff. That’s funny, but it’s when many of us are literally on the zoom calls for hours and hours every day, it is very challenging to stay attentive and engaged.

Jacob Wagner  40:59

Yeah, and even how our eyes focus on screens and motion and stuff. It’s disconcerting for us on a biophysical level to resume fatigue is a very real,

Julie Johnson  14:41:10

yes. So if I may, a couple of points that I would love to just kind of make from a sales development in a connection, virtual world connection. couple tips. But I have

Jacob Wagner  14:41:24

one thing I wanted to mention in this last chapter, which I view is very much talking about the relationship between generations. And I learned just a wonderful, fancy word. It’s juvanoia. And what Yeah, what juvanoia is, and there’s a, there’s some YouTube channels that are wonderful, wonderful for this mind field is, I think the one that I learned it off of, but what it is, is, it’s, it’s everything we know, from especially the 60s, where the older generation, if you’re over 30, you know, you’re too old, and you’re tuned out man, and anyone younger, 30 and then 30, you got it. And that, you know, that’s continued, like the next generation down. And I had my own experience with that. And I’m seeing it with Gen Z and the next generation that’s growing. And those adults, they just, they forgot how to play. Yeah. And so what juvenoia is, is it’s actually been documented to be happening since like the 1400s. That basically, you look at the older generation, and you think that they just aren’t in touch. They just don’t get it anymore. They’re lame, the younger generation and you’re like, what that is scary that what those people are doing that’s just outright absurd. How on earth could they be? So yeah, bold, risky, casual, whatever you want to put in there. But apparently, we’ve had the same phenomenon going on for hundreds of years. So we can rely on it is a part of what that means and also as an obstacle and as a tool. And so this is something to just bring voice to those intergenerational conversations. And maybe it’s even just over the holidays where you have one conversation with a niece or nephew that you don’t get enough time with and you feel how that goes and then talk to an uncle or a grandparent and how different that conversation is, oh, yeah, under that

Julie Johnson  43:19

nine days now,

Jacob Wagner  43:20

let’s bring it back to the business a little bit more and how you’re going to talk to us about us. Yeah, some business etiquette and a pandemic

Julie Johnson  43:28

takeaways. So to your point, when I do when I was doing keynotes last year, and actually had big screens and whatnot, a lot of times I there’s the big controversy about everyone wearing hoodies, right, even in the office, and how the older generation thinks that’s so incredibly inappropriate and their ties or nice to business jacket, etc. And I would put up two slides, one of it 70 sippy, and one of somebody in a hoodie, and I would just say, look, you guys aren’t the first ones to challenge what we were to work. And then you got to Birkenstocks and flip-flops. And so there’s like you said, it’s like what we were

Jacob Wagner  44:22

like, We need to word for juvenoia is real, we are absolutely repeating the same pattern a different way it gets reincarnated each time but it’s every matter in every generation,

Julie Johnson  44:33

everyone thinks they’re the first ones to have the argument and to have the struggle. But it’s a different struggle, a different argument, but it’s an argument that’s happened often.

Jacob Wagner  44:45

Well, and I think when we learn from history as well, and just following that entire adage, just understanding how the hard work that happened in the civil rights movement portion of things that laid the groundwork that now is being brought up on the Black Lives Matter movement and some of that’s for good and some of that’s for bad to know includes like the brace stuff we accomplish and the baggage

Julie Johnson  45:08

factory. Now feature. So, to switch a little bit sorry to get business see for a few moments as we wrap up a couple of points that I want to make sure that we touched on our if, in this virtual world, especially if you are reaching out to people who you thought were just dead done the deal with a closed prospect, you’re they said they were going to send you their statements and you’re like, great, I’m gonna send you the paperwork. We’re moving on, we’re good to go. I’ve landed this. And then all of a sudden, crickets. Like, I’m you drip on them, right? You, you touch base and still crickets, one email, however, you best commute, they want to receive your communication, if it’s text, email, even tweet, whatever it might be. Direct Instagram message, words that seemed to get their attention and get them to respond back to you. Is, are you okay? There’s a lot going on in the world these days. I just wanted to make sure you and your family are good. Please let me know that you’re okay. And I will almost guarantee you that 70 to 80%. Say you send 10, 20, 30 of these, and 70 to 80% of those people will at least respond. And then and then what you do with that connection is up to you. And if you want help with that, of course, let me know I’d be happy to help you. I’m navigating LinkedIn is huge how to break through the noise. They’re having me questions that are different and not salesy. If I have one more person, say, Hey, we have contacts. And so we have similar contacts. Can we connect and talk and I’m like, that’s, that’s not meaningful enough to me, that makes me want to reach back out to you. But if it’s something where you can get a lot of information about a person on their social media, their LinkedIn page, their Facebook, their Twitter, it doesn’t have to be creepy. These are public. Yeah, these are public sites, go on their Facebook and see that they’re playing with their dogs. And you can mention your love of dogs or whatever. So you don’t have to mention something about their dogs, which might be a little creepy.

Jacob Wagner  47:43

That’s a little Yeah, there’s and there’s also an etiquette line that’s very different between LinkedIn versus Facebook, say, in the LinkedIn world, I and I’ve told people this in the last week in presentations, but that stalking somebody on LinkedIn is appropriate to let you in through the Facebook wall. That’s a big thing. And I have many professional friends that I’m connected with on Facebook, and it absolutely helps me. I think about them a lot with what I choose to put on Facebook. As such, I also don’t want to connect with every single business friend, there’s probably like a 20 to 30% overlap because I love you guys. But same time, like there’s a certain voice for the business world and where let’s call it research, and let’s call it bisdev. And it’s also I think it’s respectful to learn about your client or your prospect

Julie Johnson  48:36

says the equal Yeah, go ahead and

Jacob Wagner  48:38

commenting on Oh, no. Yeah, a dog is probably fine. You know, something like that. But oh, you were at this intersection with your dog last Tuesday? Probably not the tone you want to use. Yeah.

Julie Johnson  48:53

Yeah, avoid stalker, but saying the amount of information you can learn about a person by looking at their LinkedIn. I mean, if you’re tuned in to what to look for, you can learn a lot. I mean, learn their approximate generation because they probably say what years they went to college so you know their approximate age. And that tells you that opens up a whole host of information about what might matter to them. How you’re approaching a 60-year-old man is going to be very different than how you’re approaching a 35-year-old man or a woman, and vice

Jacob Wagner  49:30

versa. And also, I want to say that, folks, if you haven’t listened to the podcast I have with the Crystal Knows company, just a couple back in the order there. They have a LinkedIn extension, a Chrome extension, where it’ll tell you about the person who you’re looking up about their disc profile, which then gives you insight into the personality. And it’s a wonderful resource. They also have a bunch of other personality test things that will give you insight along the lines of what Julie sharing with us. Yes, yeah,

Julie Johnson  50:00

that’s so cool. And it just helps you to then mold your message to something that probably matters to them.

And again, you got to remember, it’s not about you, it’s about them, when you’re trying

Jacob Wagner  50:16

and the way that they want to be talked to and the way that they’re going to naturally receive what you have to say, and have it just be as easy as drinking tea. And that’s exactly Nice. Yeah, yeah, the more you do that, the better. And some people have a dominant personality, and they want something to be presented very directly and just tell me what it is straight up. Don’t mince words, just say it. I’ll tell you what I think some people they want you to relate. Other people want to know that they’re being heard or seeing demonstrated how you can recognize the support that they’re providing to the entire group. Yeah, they’re different voices. And they’re also if you’re thinking in traditional sales stuff, frankly, it’s different answers to sales objections, even it’s important to know this stuff.

Julie Johnson  51:02

Yeah, absolutely true, like a using so a lot of us know. But when you go to a doctor, and you receive a diagnosis that you don’t like, going to go get a second opinion or the doctor may ask you to get a second opinion, that works more with an older generation. Right? Where with the younger generation, you talk about experiences, feelings, peace of mind, building a partnership. With all you always honor what their objection is, right? You never feel defensive or make them feel defensive or wrong. But then, knowing how the next what is the next question, what is the next step? So that you can keep that conversation going? And hopefully engage them to at least let you give them a second opinion? Or maybe take a portion of the portfolio or whatever the case may be? But you’re exactly right. Yeah, I think that you know that what

Jacob Wagner  52:00

else do you want to make sure people know here? You’re getting close to the end of our time?

Julie Johnson  52:05

Today? Yes, we could talk about this for hours, I’m sure absolutely

Jacob Wagner  52:09

kind of already had, if you want to talk about it with Julie for hours, please make sure to reach out or guys.

Julie Johnson  52:14

Great. And I will, Jacob’s gonna provide my contact information at the end of this. So thank you so much. So what another thing that’s very important,

a mantra that I have is get curious, don’t get defensive. What I mean by that is ask questions. Again, seek to understand. Remember that semantics matter. The words that you use, whether it be an email, tweet, what have you, make sure to always put at least a please and a thank you.

It’s very easy for us in this world, that we’re doing so many things firing things off so quickly, that we may sound very direct, and maybe sometimes almost rude. So I can’t read what you’re sending before you send it. But in a pleasing Thank you, or whatever the case may be to make it more engaging and more friendly. And those are really so a couple of books. You wanted me to mention a couple of books that I love.

Jacob Wagner  53:09

Yeah, some great resources, the folks want to look up to just dive a little bit more into this process.

Julie Johnson  53:15

So besides generational opportunities and challenges, two of my favorites are the one I was talking about before sticking points. One of the co-authors is Stephen Covey, and another one you’ll giggle at the title I know I did was Not Everyone Gets a Trophy. Right, Bruce talking to you. LJN is the author of that one, both great reads. And I don’t know about you guys, but the only time I really read is when I’m listening to it on Audible because otherwise, that’s the only way I know I’ll get it done. Conversational Intelligence is a wonderful book that talks about how to build relationships in this day and age. And that is written by Judith Glasser which is a very well known author. And then again, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s a great one.

The main thing is remember, seek to understand and then be understood put other people first and you’ll go far.

Jacob Wagner  54:17

Thank you truly wonderful out for us to wrap up on so folks, I want to thank Julie from XY Communication for coming on the show. And again, probably easiest if you find the links in the both in the show notes. And then also in the blog post for this episode, probably the most details on the blog post for this. We’ll probably just have them link over in the show notes. And with that, Julie, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. This has been such a wonderful conversation really

Julie Johnson  54:46

fun. Thank you so much shake it, but it’s been an honor.

Jacob Wagner  54:49

Yeah, it has and thank you guys for listening in. I really appreciate it. Make sure to share this episode with anyone that you think might learn something from it. And with that, we’ll see you guys on the next episode of digital marketing for financial planners.

Julie Johnson  55:04

Take care