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, onto the show.

I have worked with, interviewed, and coached financial advisors who work with professional athletes. Today’s guest focuses on successful college athletes, helping them plan for their financial futures and build wealth over time. He uses a strategy he calls the lighthouse effect. I really think you’re going to enjoy today’s interview.

But before we jump in, I want you to 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, other tools. Simply go to referralcoach.com/resources. Now write this down unless you’re driving. Referralcoach.com/resources. Also, it’s in the show notes. While you’re there, make sure you sign up for our weekly tips. They’re always we’re always sharing best practices, and we’ll notify you of our newest podcast interviews as they go live.

And while these are free to you, I think you’ll find them quite valuable. And now on with today’s show.

I found today’s featured guest while spending some time on LinkedIn responding to some posts and doing a little relationship building. And I did a double take when I saw our guest LinkedIn profile that read RU Financial Athletic Department. So I looked a little further and connected with Jeff Durer, who is a senior partner at RU Financial Athletic department. One thing that I noticed right away was that Jeff has a little over 28,000 followers on LinkedIn. Now most financial advisors are lucky to have a couple of 1,000 followers. Jeff is both a financial advisor and coached other financial advisors in his firm.

Jeff has been in financial services since 1988. And since 2010, his RU Financial team has been coaching current and former college athletes in New Jersey on financial strategies. They craft a playbook with their clients, emphasizing that wealth isn’t just about the score on a financial statement, but the ability to execute a full life experience. Jeff Duhr, zooming in from Warren, New Jersey, welcome to Top Advisor Podcast.

Jeff Durr:

Bill, thanks for having me. I am thrilled to be on the show today with you.

Bill:

Great to have you here. I I understand you actually, recently read my book, Language of Referrals. Yes?

Jeff:

Bill, I I not only read your book, I made it my part of my playbook, you know, and and for those who may be following me on LinkedIn, like you said, I got a lot of followers. I posted I read your book not too long ago, and I don’t I didn’t just read it, Bill. I studied it. I lived it. I highlighted it. I tabbed it, and then I put a video of it on LinkedIn, so everybody can see. And I highly recommend for anybody out there who’s looking to build a referral based practice. This is a must read.

You have to read it.

Bill:

Alright. Well, thank you for that. I probably owe you a promo, royalty on that one. Yeah. I just remember the video you sent, and it had all these color coded tabs and stuff, and I just I I love it. Thank you. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about you and what and the work you’re doing so our folks listening can learn a few things.

So tell us are you financial athletic department? That’s not a typical name for a financial services firm. So tell us a little bit about the origins of let me repeat it again for folks. Are you financial athletic department? What sparked the idea? How has it evolved? And and what’s your mission today?

Jeff:

Yeah. So it it started a while back, you know, you know, working in in the really in the college world, Bill, bringing financial literacy to college campuses, and, the the letters RU is just RU financially strong is really the the name of the the DBA, for lack of better words, the company. And the idea is is can we bring financial literacy to the local college campuses to prepare these young men and women for for life after school? I’ve been a passionate passionate well, I’m a former college athlete myself, and, you know, I’m very passionate about coaching and and helping, you know, the student athletes. So once the NIL stuff started to kinda blow up, the name, image, and likeness, You know, I saw all these big name athletes getting all this attention that, hey, they’re making millions. They’re doing this. They’re doing that, and all the top advisors are chasing them all. Well, there’s only about 300 of them, Bill, that are really getting paid some significant dollars. Then there’s 1,000,000 of other ones that are going to school, getting their degrees, and going out into the regular world, and I’m like, what about them? You know? Hence, the idea of, hey.

I’m gonna start a team, a program, a department called the the RU Financial Athletic Department, where we specialize in bringing financial literacy to the local college athletic programs in the northeast now, as well as to bring create financial game plans for former college athletes so they can go out there and what I call win the win the game of life. So that’s kinda how that started.

Bill:

And I know that, since you’re from Jersey, and they see the RU, and and the colors are red and white, people automatically think Rutgers University. And and you don’t mind that association, do you? It it it creates conversation. Tell us about that.

Jeff:

It’s all about marketing and branding, Bill, and, you know, I’ll be in the airport. I have hats. I have shirts. I have all kinds of stuff. When I’m walking out and about in airports or I’m in the mall, so many people say, oh, is that Rutgers? Is that Rutgers? I’m, like, no. It’s not. But, you know, we we’ve done so a lot of work over there in the athletic department, but it we’re not we’re not part of that school itself, and I say and I I get into the story of what it’s all about because, well, that’s pretty neat. I like that idea.

Bill:

So you you got invited to speak at schools, right, and and about financial literacy, and and you also use that as a recruiting Yep. Tool, I guess, for other folks who wanna wanna get into careers of this this speaking, which I wanna get into more detail later, but but just roughly now, you you kinda use it, what I wanna say, for 2 things. It’s prospecting Yep. For clients as well as prospecting for folks who might want to get industry. Right?

Jeff:

Bill. Yes. So, you know, when we get in front of the college athletic programs, we talk about financial literacy, making sure they’re prepared to make the right financial decisions when they graduate. But, also, many of them say, well, what’s that career all about? You know, what kind of opportunity is there? So I I let them know. We’re hiring. We’re looking for for college athletes to join our team as well to become financial advisers, to go back to their market, to their schools, and to and to bring financial education to their athletes and to the alumni.

Bill:

So you mentioned the NIL name, image, likeness, like you said, about 300 athletes making some significant coin, from that, and the rest are just kinda the athletes that were always around. They now they get an education, which is great in most cases, especially if it’s division 1. So your focus isn’t really on the the the NIL folks. You’re working with regular with students and and graduates, folks who have graduated. I think that’s important because I can I can imagine some of the, advisors listening right now are thinking, well, these young athletes, they don’t have much money? You know, where’s the profitability in this target market? What what would you say to them?

Jeff:

Well, you know, I believe that people buy or work with financial advisors, Bill, because of 3 things, synergy, likability, and commonality. Once that’s established, then the trust factor comes in, and they say, I wanna work with this person. So the idea of the the common student athlete, they don’t really get a lot of education around financial literacy. It’s almost literally nothing depending on the school. So when they come out of school, they’re they’re forced into life, and they get their jobs. They have to make these these financial decisions, and they don’t a lot of them don’t make the right ones. So the idea is we build the brand, we build the reputation, the synergy, and commonality while they’re in school. They come out of school, they get jobs, but you know what? They’re gonna grow up.

They’re gonna get older. They’re gonna make more money. They’re gonna get married. They’re gonna have kids. They’re gonna have what we call dominant financial need decision making parts of their life. And we wanna be there when they’re ready for that, and they have the relationship with us so we can make the impact and help them.

Bill:

So it’s clearly a longer play, and since you’re bringing in and I wanna talk about your team. You’re bringing folks that are a little newer to the business, little younger in most cases. It’s a good age group. I guess, they can relate to each other, and they all kinda grow together, I guess. Yeah. Sure. So let’s talk about the RU Financial Athletic department. Yep.

And how is it structured? Are you how are you expanding who you serve? I think you’re looking to expand your team slowly in the right direction.

Jeff:

Yep.

Bill:

Yep. And and you talk about the lighthouse effect. So talk about the team and the lighthouse effect.

Jeff:

Yeah. That’s that’s a that’s a great point, Bill. I’m glad you brought that up. You know, when people come out of college, they come into our into the financial world. It’s all about target markets. How can they specialize and develop a relationship with a specific target market where there’s synergy, like, ability, and commonality? Well, athletes, you know, as as a former college athlete myself, when I come across any college athlete, I can create some sort of bond, some sort of connection really quick. Right? But I created what I call the lighthouse effect, marketing effect, where if I hire someone from a college, let’s just say Rutgers for an example, because we brought that school up before, you know, the lighthouse effect for that athlete that I bring on is going to be Rutgers alumni of that sports program they played for. So let’s assume they played football.

So the lighthouse is is the directional, you know, so the football team is gonna be the is their focus, their lighthouse, and the alumni of the school. Now there’s offshoots. They can work with the baseball team, the basketball team, the soccer team as well, but the focus is gonna be when I bring this athlete on, it’s based on their synergy, likability, and commonality, will be in the sport that they played and the alumni from that school, which could go on for, you know, god knows how long ago the school started and when this this team started, they could have 10, 20, 30, 40 years worth of alumni to talk to.

Bill:

So so you’re mostly recruiting athletes then, not just ah, okay. So there’s there’s that added commonality, obviously, not just the the age. Right. But, yeah, college athletes can appreciate the experience of of college athletics, etcetera. Right. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. And so how quickly can can one of your advisors, newer advisors, start to reach a little deeper into that the alumni? Is that something they work on right away? Like, let’s just say they were a cross a lacrosse player, let’s say.

Mhmm. So they they just look at all the alumni that played lacrosse at their university and maybe starting to look at other universities too, but still in lacrosse

Jeff:

Yep. So lacrosse would be their focus, Bill. Like, that leave their lighthouse. And their job, when when I hire the the athletes, I say your job is to go to every lacrosse game possible you can attend. And and they said, really? Like, I I get to go to my school. I’m like, yeah. You have to go to every athletic event that that school has. I don’t a fundraiser, you know, a an event, anything that has something to do with that athletic program, that school.

I want you to attend, you know. And they’re, like, I mean, I get to do that for work. I’m, like, yeah. You know, and especially if if they’re on the football team, they go create I would say create your own tailgate. Invite 30, 40, 50 people, and you become the manger tailgate and have them have all the fun.

Bill:

So this is kinda cool. I like I like its its target marketing. Yep. A little different though. Rather than employees in a certain company, it’s, folks who played lacrosse.

Jeff:

Yeah. Right.

Bill:

And it could I guess they probably start maybe in their university, but can branch out fairly quickly. You know, I’m curious about in general, it’s often talked about in our industry that athletes can make pretty good advisors in the sense that they they’re competitive, they they know what hard work is all about, They know about team play, obviously. Right. They’re coachable, usually. It would you agree with all that? I mean, if you found it yes.

Jeff:

A 100%, Bill. You know? And and it’s not always the star athlete either that becomes the best adviser. You know, the star athlete may get the most attention, but sometimes it’s it’s the 2nd guy in, the 3rd girl in that is coming off the bench that is really putting in the time, the energy, the effort, the practice, the the grit, the grind. Those are the ones who really came into our world and say, you know what? I know what I have to do. I’m willing to pay that price to get to where I gotta be.

Bill:

Yeah. Love it. Great. So, gosh, there’s more I wanna talk about. In about 90 seconds, I wanna, continue the conversation. Sure. I wanna talk a little bit about your speaking to groups, because I know that a lot of folks listening should be speaking to groups, in some form or another, to help build their business. I wanna talk a little bit about your social media and LinkedIn.

But first, let’s take a very brief pause to listen to a word from our sponsor, PodRocket 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. Tired of chasing potential clients? We help you spend less time selling and more time advising by amplifying 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’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the 3 main ways I work with financial advisors. 1st, we have my Kate’s Academy for relationship marketing. Some advisors go through the academy all on their own, and some add a bit of coaching with me to make sure they maximize their results. To learn more, go to the katesacademy.com, thekatesacademy.com. 2nd, yes, I have several coaching programs designed to help you acquire more right fit clients through more relevant messaging, attracting ideal clients through reputation marketing, and multiplying your best clients through referrals and personal introductions. To learn more, go to coachkates.com. That’s coachkates.com. And, yes, I use a whistle because coaches use whistles.

3rd, I love sharing my proven strategies and methods in live forms, such as speaking at conferences, virtual presentations. If you’re part of an organization that brings in experts such as myself, I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me an email at billkates@referralcoach.com. Billkates atreferralcoach.com. Now back to my conversation with my featured guest, Jeff Durr, senior partner at RU Financial Athletic Department, a financial planning and education firm specializing in working with current and former college athletes. Jeff, before we get into all the speaking that you do and how you use that to build your business, should anyone wanna contact you to learn more about your model and even explore possible opportunities with you, how should they contact you? What what do you suggest?

Jeff:

They they can shoot me an email real real simple at atjdurr@financialguidejustthefullwordspelledout.com. They you can call me. I you can call me on my my cell number, 908-285-1052. You can go to my website, rufinancial.net. You can find me on Instagram. You can find me on Facebook. You know, and, any way you wanna reach out to me, feel free.

Bill:

Right. You know, this is funny because you you in all the interviews I’ve done, Jeff, this is, I think, like number 80 or something in that range. You’re only the 2nd person to actually give their phone number out.

Jeff:

Okay. Is that a good thing or bad thing?

Bill:

No. It’s it’s neither good nor bad. I I think it’s pretty good. I mean, it just shows you wanna talk to people. You’re accessible. The more the better. Yeah. Okay.

Good. So, so let’s let’s talk about the speaking you do, the presentations you make. Yep. Whom whom do you speak, and how does that fit your overall business strategy, and is this just about brand building? Is there more to it? Just give us a sense of your spirit.

Jeff:

Bill, it’s it’s both. One, it’s primarily brand building, getting the word out there, but I’ve been invited to numerous college athletic programs where I have a number of different topics that we talk about. The most prominent and and, let’s say, popular one is financial literacy. All the colleges want, hey, can you can you teach the kids a little bit about making the right decisions? So it’s great to get in front of I just did Kean University not too long ago right here in New Jersey, which is great. And, he’s speaking in front of the football team about, you know, making the right decisions. But also, I’ve I’ve done talks around how to prepare for an interview. You know, getting these athletes ready, so when they they’re on the spot again, under the spotlight in the interview. Are they ready? You know? And it’s not just about ready to answer questions, Bill.

Jeff:

It’s about are they prepared to ask the right questions?

Bill:

Yes. Right? Yes.

Jeff:

Which which is big.

Bill:

You know? It’s it’s so important that when you interview someone when you’re being interviewed that you have good quality questions to ask. Yeah. And not just how much time off do I get? Yeah. How much sick leave do I get? And Yeah. Insightful questions to learn more about the possible employer. Yes.

Jeff:

Exactly. Exactly. You know, the other other talks I give are are around, well, what does it take to succeed in the financial sales arena in building a financial planning practice? I I have a whole talk around that. You know, and then so there’s a lot of different things that we talk about depending on what the school’s looking for, but the the big thing is is that brand, that awareness. But I wanna build a relationship and make an impact on these young athletes, Bill, so when they’re ready to get out of school, they can have a career opportunity with us, or they have a place to go to, or they have a financial coach to help them make the right decisions, you know, down the road.

Bill:

That’s good. Last thing I wanna mention is is social media. Facebook, 28,000 follow followers and counting. Talk about that. I mean, first of all, how did you get that many? Because most advisors are lucky to have a 1,000 or 2, and Yeah. It’s not all about the numbers. Right? I mean, it’s it’s the right people, really.

Jeff:

Yep.

Bill:

But I’m just how does how does that play in your world?

Jeff:

Yeah. So, you know, it’s it’s funny you say that, and and and I’m one of the guys, Bill, that says I’m never above the work. I know a lot of advisers are, like, well, hire someone to do that kind of stuff. Well, I I literally sit there on my couch, Bill, with on LinkedIn, you know, scrolling through, looking for the right candidate that I wanna connect with. And I’ve been doing this for a number of years. And of those 28, 29,000 people that I’m connected to, you know, there many of them are in our business already who are former athletes, right, or are currently current athletes in current school systems, or they’re in the professional world somewhere else, but they’re all former college athletes. So that’s the that’s the connection, you know, and and it’s it’s very easy. 1 athlete to another.

It’s like instant hello.

Bill:

Yep. Yep. So so you spend a lot of time connecting. You build relationships. You make comments, I suppose, and Yeah. Has some of that activity, that LinkedIn activity actually turned into either clients or advisors that work for you or both? It sounds like. Both.

Jeff:

It’s turned it’s turned into clients. It’s turned into advisors. You know, it’s in both both sides of the house, Bill. And, you know, we’re on Instagram. We’re on on on LinkedIn. We’re on Facebook. And I’ve recently started a podcast also. It’s called RU Strong.

Right? And and it’s really cool. It’s it’s all around, current and former college athletes. Right? And the mental and physical struggles and challenges they face both on and off the field, and how play playing college sports prepared them for life after the game’s over, which is kinda neat.

Bill:

So it’s it’s are you strong? Is it out now? Is it is it It’s out now. Yep. Episodes?

Jeff:

Yep. 40 episodes in.

Bill:

Oh, wow. I gotta check that out. I think that’s great. I and clearly that’s your market. They probably love hearing the stories of other athletes, and they can can relate to the challenges and the successes and all that good stuff. Correct. And then I I I you know, that’s part of building brand awareness. It’s part of staying relevant too, isn’t it, in front of your market?

Jeff:

Oh, yeah. You know, I’ve had I have NFL guys on there. I have coaches on there, current college players, former and and it’s staying relevant in that world, you know, because, you know, I’m it’s I’m no spring chicken anymore, Bill. You know what I mean? And and for me to stay relevant, I gotta stay engaged with these young men and women and let them know that I’m out there. I’m involved. I’m engaged, and I’m I’m really part of what they’re doing.

Bill:

Yeah. Staying relevant. Not a spring chicken. I can relate to both of those. I just, for those listening, also, you might wanna check out episode 19 in my podcast with Walter Stith. He’s a former, professional alignment. He was a left tackle, protected the quarterback’s blindside. Now he, protects, the his client’s financial blindside, and he works with, professional athletes and and a lot of NIL.

So it’s a different level. So but if you wanna get a full scope of, working with athletes, check out episode 19 with Walter. And, you know, Jeff, I just wanna say thank you, for being on the podcast. My featured guest, Jeff Durr, senior partner at RU Financial Athletic department. I appreciate the value that you provide today and and all you’re doing, not just for our industry, but I just love the financial literacy angle because Yeah. Most people don’t get taught that, and that’s part of part of my mission. So thanks again for all you do.

Jeff:

Bill, it’s my pleasure. I enjoy being on. And and again, your book, you know, the language of referrals, I highly recommend it for all those advisors out there. I read it. It’s a it’s a it’s a a one day read. Once you’re in it, you can’t get out of it.

Bill:

Oh, shucks. I appreciate that. Thanks. So, for those listening, if you haven’t already, well, Jeff promoted my book a couple times. I didn’t didn’t expect that. Language of referrals.com. Language of referrals.com. If you wanna get those free resources I mentioned at the beginning of this, program, that’s referral coach.com/resources.

Don’t forget the CatesAcademy.com, the CatesAcademy.com, and for my coaching, CoachCates.com. So 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 Cate’s Academy.