Bill Cates – Welcome to the Top Advisor Podcast, brought to you by ProudMouth’s PodRocket Academy. I’m your host, Bill Cates, creator of the Cates Academy for Relationship Marketing. In each episode, I interview one of our industry’s top performers, getting them to pass on their secrets to success to you so that you can impact more lives and generate more income. Now, on to the show.
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Now on with today’s show.
There was a time when financial planning was much less common than it is today, and these days, just about every financial professional offer some sort of financial plan or talks about financial planning in one way or the other. Granted, the financial planning made available to clients ranges greatly in depth, at breadth that I’ve seen that firsthand in some of my coaching clients, and we’re now seeing a myriad of planning software apps that have made certain aspects of the financial planning more efficient.
So offering financial planning, as important as it is, is no longer the strong differentiator it used to be. Financial planning has become the norm rather than the exception. Some advisers, including today’s guest, have developed ways to bring more increased value to the financial planning process. The term holistic planning comes to mind, and this more robust and more inclusive planning is appealing to an ever growing number of clients.
So adding more value to the planning process will be one of the main topics of today’s discussion. And in addition, I also hope to touch on how our guest uses her weekly newsletter to bring continued value to her clients, as well as her recent decision to start hosting her own podcast. I sincerely believe that you will find today’s show to be both interesting and valuable. My featured guest today. Abbey Henderson is a CEO and wealth advisor and coach with Abaris Financial Group. In addition to being a seasoned financial planner, she is also a certified Life Planner and Certified Life Coach. To say that Abbey brings a holistic approach to her clients would be an understatement, and her clients love it.
Let me brag about Abbey just a little bit more, and then I promise we’ll tap into her wisdom and experience. Abbey’s designations include certified Financial Planner. Chartered adviser in Philanthropy. Registered life planner. Accredited estate planner and certified professional co-Active coach. Abbey is an Investopedia Top 100 advisor. She has spoken at Fidelity’s Inside Track, the E-Money Summit, and the Carson Partner Summit, and her firm, Abaris Financial Group, is currently at $180 million in AUM and growing. Abbey Henderson after that long introduction. Zooming in from Concord, Massachusetts. Welcome to Top Advisor podcast.
Abbey Henderson – Thank you so much. I am thrilled to be here.
Bill – Well, great to have you. I just I was referred to you, you may recall. So my referral thing is still working. Um, so I’ve got so many questions for you. And I think a great place to start would be the concept that you call authentic wealth, which seems to be one of the guiding principles in how you do this more robust work with your clients.
So what is authentic wealth and how do you apply it to the work you do with your clients?
Abbey – So I’ve spent many years trying to figure out how to really integrate all of the things that I learned about coaching with my 20 plus years and financial advising, and then the things that I’ve just learned personally in my personal growth journey, and it’s culminated in our authentic wealth model. And the idea behind that is we help clients clarify their value, their vision, and the impact they want to make on the world. And with that in mind, we then dial in their resources, which we call their five levers, which finances are obviously one of them. But we also include health, time, relationships and mindset. And so that’s really the backbone of how we do our financial planning engagements and our coaching.
Bill – So by authentic wealth and you’re, you’re talking about more holistic way of looking at wealth. Um, and I think your newsletter is called the Five Levers. If I’m I get it every Friday.
So you’re always you’re always visiting those aspects of your client’s life when you meet. Is that correct?
Abbey – That is the goal. I mean, obviously, there are moments in every client’s life where one thing takes more of a center stage than others. And of course, vision and impact and the ideas around that can evolve. So everything’s a little bit a moving target. But we are looking to to continue to keep that in the center of everything that we do.
Bill – In all the interviews I’ve done with advisors, all the coaching that I am doing with advisors. You know, some stick to the finances for the most part. Some bring in the mindset a little bit. You kind of have to. It’s almost impossible not to to some degree. Um, a lot of them don’t go into other relationships that exist, which to me is weird because how can you be a really good financial planner or do a financial plan if you don’t know all the other relationships that are in a client’s life, at least the more immediate ones? But then getting into health and time, I don’t see that a lot.
So how do your I assume you talk to your prospects about this right at the very beginning? And the ones who are interested become clients, the ones who aren’t? Don’t tell me how that works a little bit.
Abbey – There’s no question that this approach appeals to some clients and it doesn’t for others. And. I think clients have to be ready to look at all of these things. And oftentimes if you’re dealing with a couple, both people within the partnership have to be ready to look at it. So, you know, I think that it’s important to me to be upfront at the beginning that that we’re looking to do all of this. Well, we can add it in as they’re ready, but it’s it’s definitely what we’re what we’re all about. And you know, it does get incorporated in different ways, whether it’s directly through the financial plan or through its programming. Um, we have a, for example, a five letter book club that we do with clients. So, um, so how we bring it in also is in different pieces.
So on the health piece, it might be for one client. All they really want to address in that aspect is to read the book from our five level book club on health. And, you know, my goal is just to help clients move incrementally in every area and in whatever way they’re comfortable.
Bill – Would you say though, eh? Obviously the clients that are with you enjoy this to some degree or another, but this being a little more robust, a little more inclusive, um, has made you more referable. Are people referring you and the process that you bring? Tell tell us about that a little bit.
Abbey – It’s definitely making me referable. I think it’s easier for my clients to really say how I’m different from maybe the prospect’s current advisor. And I think that it also, you know, just when a prospect looks on our website or it looks on my LinkedIn page, you know, these themes are repeating themselves. And so I think it helps from that perspective. I’ve had a lot of prospects tell me that they chose.
They were looking at the profiles of several advisors, and they chose me because of my coaching background.
Bill – Ah. And it’s that’s a perfect example of the things I teach in terms of marketing and branding for advisors, because how you talk about your value, if you do it in the right way, it’s going to attract the people that you want to attract. It’s going to repel. I know that sounds like a strong word. Let’s say it won’t attract the people that you don’t care about attracting. And so it really creates a win win. So the clearer you are and what you do and what you offer and what it looks like, the more likely the people you do attract. They’re they’re, you know, they’re almost sold, so to speak. They’re they’re ready to go. Is that does that making sense.
Abbey – That oh my gosh I couldn’t agree more. And it you know it takes a while I think in one’s career to get to the point where you’re comfortable repelling people. But it just it saves so much time, you know, other than trying to work through a prospect that’s ultimately not going to become a client or not become a happy client.
It’s and it creates space for the the perfect clients to find you.
Bill – So I guess it sets up expectations to a degree, which is always good to have expectations match. So you’ve been a financial advisor. You had been a financial advisor, I should say, for about 17 years before you added this expanded view of planning to your repertoire. So tell us a little bit about why you decided to become a certified life planner and a certified Life coach, as well as what that looks like to your clients? I think you’ve touched on that a little bit. We haven’t really gotten in the coaching side as much. So what what made you to add this and and then how’s it looking these days with your clients?
Abbey – So I started working with my own coach and we started focusing on, I mean, I’ve been doing for such a long time, like what parts was I part? What parts of the job was I really still excited about at some point, you know, running cashflow projections, they all start to, you know, sort of look the same.
Um, and she really helped me clarify that it was the deep relationships with clients that I really loved. And I’m a big believer in following the breadcrumbs. So if something keeps popping up into your universe, I’m a believer and follow it. So there had been something that was just bugging me about the registered life planner, uh, designation, and it was around the same time. And so I decided to pursue that. And it’s it’s through the Kinder Institute. And for listeners who maybe aren’t familiar, uh, it’s really based the beginning of the process is based on three questions, which are really simple but turn out to be really powerful. And one of those questions is effectively, what would you regret not doing, being or having if you died tomorrow? And the first client I tried this on answered that question by saying that she would die and no one would have truly known her, and that she was not a good enough wife or mother. Wow.
Bill – Heavy.
Abbey – Yeah. And at that point I was like, oh God, I need more tools in the toolkit.
Bill – So if you’re going to ask these questions and they’re going to give you answers like this, you’d better know where to go next, right? Yeah.
Abbey – I mean, it was it was, to your point, heavier than, you know, maybe a more typical answer of I didn’t spend enough time with my family. That’s a much easier one for a financial advisor to to work around. Let’s figure out how you can spend more time with your family. This one was a little. A little is the answer was a little bit more intense. So off I went to, uh, get my life coaching certification. And I did that through what is now called the Co Active Training Institute in California.
Bill – I was curious about that Co active. What does that mean exactly.
Abbey – So it’s basically trying to integrate the doing and the being. So it’s it’s also. You know, I think about it as sort of the the to do list in the Y. Um, so it’s a way of and it’s also a way of coaching where you believe that every client has the answers and that it’s it’s our job to help them discover them.
Bill – Of course I know. If you said you have the answers, Bill, I’d say no, I don’t. That’s why I’m coming to you. Then I’m sure you’d have a good retort for that. But, uh, anyway, so we had a nice little conversation. Um, and I want to lead up to it so people know where this is coming from. So I, I’m in the middle of launching my next book, which is the Language of Referrals. I mentioned at the top of the program, but I’ve also started writing a book about money, more specifically, the limiting beliefs, mistaken assumptions, unhelpful emotions, and unproductive behaviors that most humans have around money and advisors included. By the way, you and I had an interesting little discussion about this as we prepared for today’s show, so I’d like to replicate that a little bit for our listeners. What are 1 or 2 of the biggest limiting beliefs, mistaken assumptions that you see in your new clients, and how do you help them overcome or at least minimize the impact of these unproductive stories that they tell themselves?
Abbey – I think the most common limiting belief I see.
They all fall into a scarcity mindset. It’s you know, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve I’ve heard I don’t want to be a bag lady. I don’t want to be eating cat food. Um, and related to that, I think there’s also fear based statements like, I’m just not good at this and I don’t understand money, and it’s not my thing. And, um, it’s just it’s all of that. Fear and sometimes hopelessness. Mindset towards finances and and security to to some degree. Um, and I think that it’s, you know, typically rooted in childhood and the client has no idea that that’s where it comes from. It’s just such a deeply held belief. It just it manifests itself without the client knowing where it came from.
Bill – I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and working and reading and listening on this. I also think, yes, a lot of it is childhood. There’s no question a lot of those beliefs get formed because we get messages from parents and others. I actually think it’s also rooted a little bit on who we are as human beings, meaning the old reptilian brain that’s that’s looking for food, looking for survival, keeping the organism alive.
There’s it’s like the that mentality, that scarcity mentality is built into human beings. There’s never enough. I’ll never have enough. I always gotta look for more. I don’t know if you agree with that or not, but that’s just what I’ve been seeing. It seems like that’s why it’s so hard to get past that.
Abbey – I think I do agree, I think that that’s, you know, and I think that’s what’s triggered in childhood. Like it is that innate issue. And then, you know, if you have a situation in childhood that then just brings that out, it’s just magnified.
Bill – Yeah, you’re right. It certainly doesn’t help. Um, so as you work with clients and you work with their fears and, and, you know, mistaken beliefs and all those things, uh, do you get the quiet, that noise down for them? Quiet. Those fears, anxieties. Do they ever get it over? Totally. The check back with them from time to time. How are you doing with that and how are you doing with that?
Abbey – So I think the first step is helping clients become aware of it.
And sometimes that can be as simple as just asking them questions like what’s what’s your first memory of money? And, you know, or what’s your first negative memory of money? And just asking them questions about a, about. You can even ask them, like where? Where do you think that belief came from? And often if they’re asked the question directly, it occurs to them like, oh yeah, I that my mother, you know, was always clipping coupons and she was always really worried about, you know, not having enough money for groceries. And um, and so I think self-awareness is the first step because until you’re self-aware, you can’t actually even try to choose different thoughts and different behaviors. And it is something that a client likely will never get over entirely. It just becomes managed.
Bill – Yeah. I liken it to, uh, a tape. We used to listen to audio tapes, uh, radio station, whatever. It’s like when it plays. You just got to turn the volume down, right? It’s not.
It’s never going to go away. Totally. But you can say, no, not today. Turn the volume down. Right. And I have you. I can just feel you know, think of the some of the folks that are listening right now. Right. They’re finance majors. Uh, they’re econ majors. They’re they love working up, you know, the portfolios. And they’re thinking, what what is all this stuff about beliefs and feelings and emotions and but I think if anybody’s been in this business for more than 3 or 4 years, they realize that that’s a big part of the of the job, is it not?
Abbey – Yeah, absolutely. Because in all likelihood, if you’re not addressing this, you might be seeing clients who aren’t really implementing your beautiful plan in real life. And this can be a big reason, you know, big obstacle to them actually following through on your recommendations. And so I think it’s, you know, assuming you want to see your plan come to life, it’s to your advantage to try to at least start addressing this.
Bill – Yeah, and advisors do complain about clients not implementing the plan or implementing it fully. Right. And so there’s something going on there. There’s a reason why they’re not doing it. If you don’t get into that then you may not really help help them as well as you could. I remember I asked you a question. Um, so I’m going to ask it again, and maybe everyone else listening can pretend I’m asking it of them. And it was essentially this let’s say that you retire, you’re no longer serving your clients. You’ve done your job. What are 1 or 2 big things you hope that your clients will get from working with you? Once you hang up the shingle and they’re off with someone else? Or what have they gotten from you? The 1 or 2 biggest things you think?
Abbey – My hope would be that they feel capable. And by that I mean capable of understanding what’s going on with their finances. You know, whether that’s they’re now doing it themselves or they’re working with the next advisor.
I want them to feel capable of understanding, capable of making good choices and advocating for themselves. And in an ideal world, I hope that I leave clients feeling more secure than they did previously, and moving on a track towards having more fulfillment.
Bill – Makes total sense. And it it seems to me that if that’s what you want, the legacy, if you will, to leave your clients, then you really want to start working on that from day one, don’t you?
Abbey – I think so, yeah.
Bill – This is great. Uh, in about 90s, I’m going to introduce three new topics to our conversation. One, as I alluded to before, how you use your email newsletter to bring value to your clients, because I like the way you’re doing it. Uh, second, your decision to host your own podcast. And third, hopefully we’ll have time. Why you decided to go from an Ria to your current affiliation with the Carson Group, not a promo for the Carson Group, but the process of just making that decision.
Uh, first, let’s take a brief pause to listen to a word from our sponsor, Pod Rocket Influence Academy, brought to you by ProudMouth. First, they make this podcast possible, and their core business is helping financial advisors accelerate their influence through marketing activities like podcasting.
SPONSOR MESSAGE – This podcast is sponsored by ProudMouth, The Influence Accelerators, Round Mountain. It’s tough to be seen as an expert if you’re spending most of your time as a salesperson. That’s why we help industry experts like you spend less time selling and more time advising by turning you into trusted subject matter authority. We help amplify your influence over a growing audience of magnetically attracted fans who will chase you down instead. Visit ProudMouth.com to learn more.
Be your own loud.
Bill – I want to let you know about some free resources that I invite you to retrieve after you’ve listened to today’s interview. You’ll find checklists, guides, videos, and other tools. Simply go to ReferralCoach.Com/resources. Now write this down. Unless you’re driving referral coach.com/resources also in the show notes.
While you’re there, make sure you sign up for our weekly tips. We’re always sharing best practices. We’ll notify you our newest podcast interviews as they go live. Now back to my conversation with featured guest Abbey Henderson. Her firm is Abbey’s Financial Group, based in Concord, mass. Abbey. Abbey. Tell us about your weekly newsletter, five Lever Friday.
Abbey – So this is something that I started. Uh, I guess early in the fall. And I was looking for a way to sort of bring the five levers to life. And I also spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and reading, and I wanted to have a way to share what I was finding that was interesting with clients. So we started five lever Friday comes out every Friday as as you would guess, and I am offering a resource for each of the five levers. So health, mindset, finances, time and relationships. And it could be anything that I found over the course of the week that was interesting. It could be an article, a podcast, a Ted talk, even just as simple as a quote.
And I can also use it as a way to highlight some of the blogs we have on our website or the podcast if we have a relevant, relevant topic. So it’s it’s been really well received and it’s been a great way to for clients and prospects to really understand what the five levers really are and how they, how they fit into the the bigger picture.
Bill – I like that it keeps it lively. And, uh, your newsletters start off with the diagram showing the five levers. Correct. So they’re always reminded of those. Exactly. Creates continuity I like that. It sounds like in some cases you’re creating content. In other cases you’re really curating other folks content. Uh, for your clients. Correct? Correct.
Abbey – And I try to keep it really short and sweet. So it’s not a huge burden on me. And it’s something they can just skim through quickly on a Friday and see if anything piques their interest. And if it does, they just click on it and they’re good.
Bill – So let’s turn to podcasting your decision.
So it turns out that you’re using ProudMouth to help you launch your and host your podcast. They they are produce mine. Our producer is online right now. Patrice. Hello, Patrice. She’s not going to say anything, I will too. Hi, Bill. Oh. Uh oh. I didn’t realize that. Anyway, so it’s nice to keep it in the family, I guess. Right. And what’s what’s driving your decision? What what made you decide to do the podcasts and how’s it going so far?
Abbey – So podcasting is sort of been on my radar for probably the last, oh gosh, four years. And it was actually suggested to me by someone at fidelity. He was like, what you’re doing is so different, you should start a podcast. And at the time, my thought was, that sounds like such a commitment and so much time and I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t want to learn how to edit video and get all this stuff done, and I this is just crazy.
So fast forward and I created my authentic wealth model, which I didn’t. I have to say I wasn’t smart enough to intentionally design it this way, but it’s so lends itself to all these different things, whether it’s the newsletter or the podcast. So I created the model and at the same time, ProudMouth sort of came into my, uh, onto my radar as well. And they obviously saw maybe not, obviously, but they solve a lot of the problems. You know, I don’t have to become a video editor. I don’t they told me what equipment to buy. And the Academy provides you so much training if you want to take advantage of it, you know, to to learn how to do this, that it just it was so much more approachable and accessible.
Bill – And have you had any shows yet?
Abbey – So we launched January 3rd. So I think we have uh, the fifth episode is coming out this week, and it’s a mix of, uh, me and my co-host talking about a topic.
Or I also alternate having guests on and it’s based on roughly based on the five lovers. So, uh, the podcast that I, um, just recorded is on, actually The Neuroscience of Change because we’re asking clients to make changes. So I had a guest on talking about, you know, what, what’s going on in your brain when you’re trying to change your behavior and how can you maybe make it a little bit easier?
Bill – Well, I’m going to ask you for a referral to that person so I can review them later. Uh, perfect. I love neuroscience. In my book, Radical Relevance has a chapter on the neuroscience of relevance. It hurts my brain thinking about it, but anyway, yeah, so you’re having a combination. So you have a co-host, which I think makes sense. And, uh, that. Might, might create a little work in terms of coordinating, but in terms of bringing life and questions, and there’s got to be a part of that. Having co-host makes it easier as well.
Speak to that.
Abbey – Yeah, it absolutely I don’t know. I mean, I guess I could have done it, but it feels so much more intimidating to make the decision that I’m going to sit in front of the camera for 27 minutes and and just talk at the camera. It’s so nice to feel like it’s conversational and light. And, you know, that’s one thing I really didn’t appreciate until this actually came out, is how much a podcast can actually help your clients and prospects get to know you better as a person, and I don’t think that would come across if it wasn’t conversational with a real person.
Bill – Absolutely. One of my episode’s early episodes was with a gentleman by the name of Malcolm Etheridge, and he works with hi tech folks. He’s got a very targeted, uh, podcast. But he said to me, he says when his clients were prospects, reach out to him. Uh, they feel like they know him. Um, they he says, uh, I wasn’t him, was another guy.
Don Hilario also has a podcast I interviewed. Says they he says they finish my sentences for me because they’ve listened to enough of what I’ve had to say, that they know me and they feel they know me. And so. Boy, so what you’re saying this is a trust builder. This is a credibility builder. Um, I suspect you will also find, uh, it will become a referral referral tool because your clients will hear an episode and they want to share that message with someone else in their life. And I want to encourage you, by the way, to, uh, you know, put that into your podcast, encourage people to share it with others, uh, because they they may not think of it unless you tell them to do it.
Abbey – Uh, I’ve already had a client do it, which was beautiful. Amazing. Yeah. And I had a client tell me. She said it so beautifully. She said, I, I’ve known you for a long time, but after listening to the podcast, I, I have there’s so much more texture to what I know about you.
And I just, I really liked how she said that.
Bill – I love it when, when people appreciate our value for how we like to be appreciated, right?
Abbey – Didn’t I?
Bill – So one more topic. You are an Ria for quite some time before making a move to become part of the Carson Group, and while this is not intended to be a commercial for Carson or really advocate for any specific business model because there’s so many viable models out there, I just think our listeners might find some value in your decision process. What made you to move from one to another?
Abbey – Um, so I started my own Ria in 2001, and fast forward to around 2018, and I had used the model where I had silos. So I had a couple other advisors who were basically leveraging the infrastructure I had built. They were, um, all significantly older than I was. And so the plan ultimately was for me to buy their books. And my biggest mistake in starting my firm was that I didn’t start with some sort of version of investment models.
So 2018, I found myself with a couple books that were coming to me. There was everyone was sort of doing their own thing. It wasn’t really standardized. And then I had far too many investment holdings because it had just sprawled over those 17 years, and I really needed to come up with a some solution to make the transition feasible. And I originally looked at things like looking at an outsourced chief investment officer. Um, Brinker at the time had a platform that was helping eyes with their investments, doing a little compliance, doing a little bit of marketing. And I just happened to be again at the time, a co panelist with Ron Carson at Fidelity’s Inside Track. And I started thinking instead of trying to solve my immediate problem, I started thinking bigger picture. Like how looking forward strategically, what future problems do I want to solve? And ultimately what I want to do is spend more time with my clients. I don’t really want I didn’t want to be chief compliance officer. I didn’t want to be doing trades like I didn’t want to be figuring out the latest and greatest technology.
And so a firm like Carson solves all of those problems for you.
Bill – You know, it’s interesting because, um, when someone decides to start their IRA, they, you know, they want to be done with all the other stuff that they had to deal with, being affiliated with another organization. Uh, and then and I get that and then then they become an RA. And while they don’t have all that mess, they also don’t have that support. Um, so then, you know, you become more self-sufficient. So it sounds like you found a good compromise for yourself, uh, to get the support you need. Uh, and yet enough independence, really, to do your own thing.
Abbey – Totally. And, you know, it was important to me to keep my brand and keep 100% of the equity. And so, um, having that flexibility has been really important.
Bill – Wonderful. My featured guest on today’s show has been Abbey Henderson with Abaris Financial Group, headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts. Abbey, thank you for sharing a bit of your journey with us, along with such practical and valuable content.
Abbey – It has been my pleasure.
Bill – To you, the listener of this podcast. May I ask a small favor? If you like this episode or like the podcast in general, please leave a five star review on the platform you’re listening to now. Uh, not all platforms have a place, but if yours does, I’d be grateful.
And don’t keep this a secret. Make sure you share it with colleagues and others who you think will find value in this episode, as well as others. And if you haven’t already, I’ve got three places for you to visit. A LanguageOfReferrals.com LanguageOfReferrals.com for my new book. Checklist scripts, videos. And also check out our latest academy, the CatesAcademy.com which is the most comprehensive, um platform we offer.
This is Bill Cates reminding you that ideas do not make you more successful. Only acting on those ideas will bring you the success you desire.
Thanks for stopping by. Thank you for listening to the Top Advisor podcast, brought to you by ProudMouth’s PodRocket Academy. I encourage you to visit my website, referralcoach.com for links to my books, online courses, and to register for the Cates Academy.
