Welcome to the Top Advisor Podcast brought to you by ProudMouth’s Influence Accelerator Academy. I’m your host, Bill Cates. In each episode, I interview one of the financial service industries top performers to learn their secrets to sustain success. These short interviews will get right to the heart of what each top advisor is doing to acquire more right fit clients.
You’ll be reminded, renewed and inspired to take powerful action. You’ll impact more lives and increase your income at the same time. Now onto the show.
BILL: Welcome to this episode of the Top Advisor Podcast, where I interview top advisors for top advisors. My guess is that you make a contribution to your community in some way, you probably have a philanthropic cause in which you’re involved, maybe more than one.
And if you do, then you’re really going to appreciate this interview with today’s guest. And if not, I think you might get inspired to find a philanthropic cause. First because it can be personally rewarding to impact your community in this way and impact individuals in your community. And second, if you do things right, it can have a huge impact on the growth of your business as well.
So with us today is Jeffrey Chaddock who hails from Columbus, Ohio. Jeffrey and I met many years ago when he and I we’re hired to speak at several events for his company. We had a lot of fun and the more I learned about Jeffrey’s business acumen, the more impressed I became. So now years later, when thinking of guests for my podcast, Jeffrey was one of the first people that came to mind.
Jeffrey Chaddock, CRPC, APMA, welcome to the Top Advisor Podcast.
JEFFREY: Thanks Bill. I appreciate it. That’s a heck of an introduction and charitable giving, philanthropy is in my DNA at this point.
BILL: Yeah, I know. And we’re going to get deep into that, not just for the benefit of the charities, but also how it’s benefited you and your practice.
But before we get to that, I’d like you to provide just a bit of context to everyone listening, give us a brief glimpse into your business. A little bit of the structure, a little of how you’re doing this year. So people get a feel for your model and what you’re up to and then we’ll get into some meaty topics here.
JEFFREY: Well, I started in 1988 and had a very choppy start at best as a lot of advisors I think could relate. But about 18 months in the career, I really had an illumination. The bulb kind of started to illuminate to thinking of the business differently and focusing on more targeted markets. And thinking about the way in which I want to acquire clients and the bigger thinking started to emerge pretty quickly thereafter. And, we’re now at about a $3 billion business. This year we’re up about 650 million in assets, both in growth in new assets coming in net flow about 250 million and it’s kind of neat to see that dichotomy from that struggle to what’s going on today.
But if it weren’t for the 42 folks, the team members I have that play a very important role in getting us there, it would not be possible. So it’s really through the building of a pretty neat organization that I’m proud to say we’re continually moving along. So it’s been an enjoyable ride.
BILL: Let me ask you about those first 18 months. Cause all right, your talking about 3 billion in assets, 42 employees. I mean you’re doing well. Probably some folks are listening and saying, “Oh, I don’t want 42 employees, you know, give me a couple and I’m okay.” Right. But you know, everyone’s got their model. Where I want to go with this is that first 18 months, I mean, you probably thought about quitting a few times, maybe once per week during the first 18 months. So, why did you stick to it? And now you’ve come to this incredible business you’ve created. What kept you going when you were in all that doubt?
JEFFREY: I put it somewhere I guess, a social worker. I felt I was in the business to help people and you know,I started thinking zero about me and more about the client and I think the transformation was being client centric and all behavior versus anything but.
That was extraordinarily important and to this day maintains that obsession to only focus on the client, never focus on anything else. And, it’s kinda like the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” that was written probably 14 years ago. I think I wake up daily saying, focus on the client and that’s it. Period. End of discussion.
So what does that mean? It means that the marketing and the way in which I started to think was different. The words in which I would use, the tactics that were implemented, the strategy, and certainly the relationships that were forged were much, much more different and dynamic after that 18 months of struggle. And I made it fun. That was the other big part of this. I wanted to enjoy it. I did not want to make it feel like going to the orthodontist or quite frankly, you know, another experience that was agonizing. This should be a very positive experience.
BILL: So do you remember the time when you and I were to speak at an event and someone in the organization picked you up at the airport? It was a bit late. And we had to go to a grocery store to get a lobster because you used a lobster in your talk? And you talked the grocery store into opening up the seafood department to get you a lobster?
JEFFREY: You have one heck of a memory. I remember having to buy a lobster. Yeah, well, that’s actually a point, isn’t it. If you don’t create a memory, an delegable different if you don’t have a shelf life in what you do you shouldn’t do it.
And what does that mean? Shelf life is certainly in the mind where it sticks there.
And most people have largely forgettable experiences and I’ve always been I guess, drilled to think that it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be exciting. It can be different. That was an example of many years ago, 25 years ago, to be exact an obsession of the way in which we thank clients.
And, you know, if you were worked through a financial plan, a business owner that, you know, has an awful lot of moving parts to decisions and anxiety and quite frankly, you’re there to help with the confidence level and you get them across a goal line. And, you want to do something that is pretty special, live lobsters were really a cool thing to consider.
And, you know, I just had someone leave my office 20 minutes ago that we did a succulent planting exercise for 660 clients, by the way that attended. And she showed me a picture of going out the door of this one particular succulent. That’s now about two feet in size. And she said, I’m showing everyone how amazing my plants are doing.
And you think about such a small gesture of teaching folks, how to possibly plant succulents. You know, cool pops and things, and it’s not a big deal. And I can’t tell you how many people this year have stop me dead center and want to show me several photographs of their of their plants that we sent kits out to all 660 folks.
That’s just a quick example, but yeah, I think it creating an indelible difference in lives, but I think it’s also, we’re there to create the best possible experience and most experiences, whether it be buying a car or going to the orthodontist or what have you is largely forgettable. And, it just doesn’t have to be.
BILL: Yeah, and there’s a difference between great service and great experiences. So I think a great place to start and dig into some of the content that you and I talked about in prep for this interview, was something that you call the trifecta of difference. And if I remember correctly, elements of the trifecta are performance, positioning and philanthropic leadership. Which is really what we’re going to really dig into in a little bit. But, can you elaborate on all those a little bit? Especially performance and positioning before we dig into philanthropic leadership more deeply.
JEFFREY: So positioning is marketing. I like the word positioning.
I think most financial advisors get skittish as I do about the word marketing. It feels like it costs money and it, again, it’s not really exciting most often, but positioning is just that, it’s how you position the practice. It’s how you position, a number of things to orchestrate.
And I use that heavily because you really want to orchestrate that aspect of positioning your value, positioning the way in which referrals are coming into the practice. So make no mistake that one-third is 100% marketing and strategies, tactics, a low cost, high impact ways to build your presence.
So think of it that way as low cost, high impact, most folks think the price tag has to be pretty high. And I actually think almost the opposite that the little things in life, and we learned this from the ultra rich, right? I mean the ultra high value client in some instances gets more tickled or excited or energetic about some of the tiniest things, because all the others are handed to them, the bigger stuff.
But if you do something that is very calculated, very specific, but it can be little and it’s really awesome. I think we all have that as a bit of a common denominator of who we are. The other piece is performance and you know, before 08 and 09, I can tell you that wasn’t necessarily part of the trifecta to really make it a success.
But I do believe today that that you’ve got to be different on performance. You cannot do what you’ve always done. You’ll get what you’ve always gotten. It feels to me that it’s paramount to not drink the Kool-Aid any longer from the mothership or quite frankly, that of the banks or wall street in general.
And therefore you can sip a bit, but to drink it is probably not always in our client’s best interest. I just think that it has to change in, you’ve got to work harder at it. And I think performance and the way in which we deliver that is absolutely radically different than it needs to be different than it used to be.
And we have to be different than others. And I believe we do that with a decent degree of energy. I mean their infrastructure internally, you have to have the CFA’s and you have to have solutions that are distinct and braggable by these clients. And I think they want that. They want to brag about that performance with a martini glass.
They want to say they earn 36% in the past 12 months, but done it with less risk. But you know that now matters. And I think matters more. The other piece of you picked up on it is probably what is about 51% of my life. And that’s the hour by hour focus on being a leader, having leadership and philanthropy. I didn’t expect even high value clients needing this, I in fact, had rose colored glasses as my grandmother would say, years ago, thinking that, you know, as folks had more accumulation, they have their ducks in a row when it comes to that. They have their ducks in a row in how they spend their time and charities. And in the due diligence that goes on by these ultra wealthy or even not so mega wealthy, 5 million let’s say net worth and above is all been done.
And quite frankly, it isn’t. And I don’t know if it’s because people are living longer that they aren’t as interested as they would’ve been 30 years ago to make a charity and the vetting and the due diligence a priority, but it is widespread that it is not being done. So we’re playing a bigger role than I ever dreamed.
Never when I’ve thought 15 years ago that we would play a centralized role in helping clients. But that happens Bill, when you start with folks that are 50 and now they’re 85 and they’ve had a decent businesses and certainly great consistent savings and their assets have grown. And now we’ve got their trust because of 35 years in relations that we’re really partnering strongly with them on sourcing how their money is going to be utilized, including current giving through the requirement of distribution, which is certainly pretty unbelievable as well as planned giving. And of course, appreciated stock still is that old school way of magnifying your gift? If you think about it, those are constant on a daily basis to the point where it is over 50% of the work I’m specifically doing.
BILL: And I want to get to that in just a second, but this you’ve used the term a couple of times and you used it with me years ago, and it’s this idea of experiences that have a shelf life.
And I remember when you told me about it, you did a sushi rolling class. Again, we’re going back some years. I remember these things Jeffrey. And what you liked about the sushi roll in class is that it had a long mental shelf life. In other words, if let’s say you do a wine tasting. Okay. That’s cool. People like it, does it stay in the brain as long as a sushi rolling class, which is kind of unique and different? Well, probably not. Right. And so when people go out after that to have sushi, they tell their friends. Yeah. I learned how to make that. I learned how to make that.
And now you don’t want that. You don’t want to know what goes in that, right? It’s like all of a sudden they’ve become an expert in sushi and they talk about. Right. And then people say, well, how did you end up doing a sushi roll in class? Well, my financial advisor organized it, right? So there’s this idea of experiences with shelf life has stuck with me for a long time.
And that’s about being creative and doing things that these well-to-do people might not think of, or maybe they could afford to do it, but they just don’t marshal the forces to actually create it.
JEFFREY: Exactly. You know, you hit the nail on the head. If others are doing it, don’t do it. You know?
And in fact, somewhat actually on almost each notepad of mine, I’ve got Robert Frost “The road not taken” poem because to me that taking the alternative road, it makes all the difference. I do have to believe that if you do what others do, you’re going to get what they’ve got. And so anytime someone is doing this chicken dinner thing at a hotel, which is embarrassing. I just warn them that that’s so largely forgettable that your money’s been spent on that is at risk and quite frankly it just doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t take much more to be creative. It doesn’t take more money. I can assure you that. In fact, in most instances it can be done, you know, really, really affordably.
So I really want you to be thinking of the idea of going the other direction of what everyone else is doing. And it tends to land in a pretty good spot. So, and then have fun with it. If anyone in an organization that is in marketing or building presence is not enjoying putting it together.
The chances of the audience having fun with it are pretty limited as well.
BILL: All right. So philanthropic leadership, those are two words I’ve not really heard put together myself anyway, maybe others have. What does it look like to you? And also how have you used it to grow your business.
So it’s I know you do it cause your heart is in it. You’ve become excited about, about it. And it’s also helped you grow your business. So give us a look into all of that, if you don’t mind.
And we’ll just, I’ll ask you some questions as we go.
JEFFREY: Yeah, well, you know, the good news is I didn’t start it out thinking it was a business builder. I, in fact, just thought it was the right thing to do. And I started one right about that 24th month in the business. At 18 months, failing miserably, 6 months, I started having mega success and I actually I got a phonathon for a specific university called and asked for a donation.
And the young person on the other end of the line was asking for a hundred dollars and I said, okay, $10,000. How about if I gave $2,500 over four years to create, some sort of small scholarship fund and they didn’t even know how to react. And it was kind of fun.
But I gave when I was young. I was 22 years of age and I just started to implant it in my thinking that it was the right thing to do not realizing the power that would be in client acquisition. And it’s ironic. I guess telling a quick story to tell you how relevant this is. I never thought much about this, but unfortunately a very good client passed away that met me as a 22 year old because I was part of donors club, if you will, the society they call it.
And he happened to be the CEO of a major auto manufacturer in the US and really wasn’t that interested in becoming a client, but he thought it was interesting I was so young and starting out and we’ve gotten a conversation and he asked me to come to dinner, not to ever consider me as an advisor, but to really try to probably be a mentor, if anything, I did do that.
And I did research on him and arrived at their doorstep with a little car they collected Morgan’s, which either as a horse or a coin, but in this case, that’s a car and they had about 22 of these collector cars, but he recently passed away. And during the eulogy the family paid homage to me being in their lives to push them to live on edge, so to speak and to use the resources from a charitable standpoint, they educated 49 children and grandchildren, the grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, I might add, all 49 were paid for by these folks.
And they also gave tens of millions of dollars to major causes through my 35 year relationship with them and it all came down to an interesting meeting when I was 22 years of age, having given just a small amount, but it forged an amazing relationship an amazing client, amazing friend.
And I just have to say that none of that was done purposely, but it was done true. It’s done authentically. And that’s a novel idea nowadays to be a thing. I think beyond that, I started to notice that exact point of folks not having it near the direction I anticipated. And I thought it behooved me to become a leader, in helping them. Leader, as in making introductions, planting the seed today.
I asked someone to start thinking of it as a person that has a decent amount of wealth. No children never been married, no siblings and I even asked about cousins and that hit a brick wall. And you know, they’re young enough that they don’t have to think of it today, but I’ll start with giving them some reading and then inviting them to several types of educational events to get them warmed up to the idea of how it can be done the logistics and the thinking. But it really has been cool.
BILL: So philanthropic leadership, then what I’m getting is the leadership role you take in your client’s life. To help them with philanthropy and giving back. So you meet these people they’ve done well. They may be giving a little, maybe not at all, but they haven’t put a lot of attention on it. And you bring that attention to bear. Is that what I’m getting? Is that what philanthropic leadership is?
JEFFREY: Exactly, if they see their portfolio grow 35% and their wealth is up 3.5 million for the year. And they think about giving 3,000 or 5,000, because we’re all raised sometimes, you know, pretty poorly, or we have our thinking that dates back to the seventies or eighties where we’re pretty narrow it’s I think it’s our role to make them feel comfortable of, you know, maybe 10% of that gain is something that you could consider and only giving charitably, but even to family members or to the education of the next generation. All advisors I think do a good job on the giving to the generational side. I’m guessing. It just felt to me to open up that other aspect of discussion was a proven thing and it became a constant in each and every discussion and not everyone is, and will be philanthropic, but in some, it becomes religious to others it becomes to their Alma mater or others it becomes to a community foundation, which is a nice thing to consider. And, then they get to a pretty much stopping point of who does it go to and how confident are they that their resources will be used as prudently as they have built them.
And that was where we come in. We come in to provide the assurances through a gift agreement through working with attorneys, through working with the nonprofits to provide the assurance that is as frugal prudent, shrewd, as the client has been in the accumulation. We want to be frugal prudent, shrewd about the organization and the dispensing of these funds.
That piece is missed. It seems about 99% of the time by attorneys, accountants, even the charities and lastly financial advisors. And I’m a bit mystified because we take that same care in trust creation for children and grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. But when it comes to the charity and the legacy that often is pretty important. You know it seems we should be thinking this way if Bill Gates or Melinda Gates, or if you think of a number of very wealthy folks have decided to give 80, 90 and 97% of their assets, which I’ve committed to, by the way, as well, the 97% of assets will go to non-profits. It just seems to me we as advisors have a bit of a responsibility to help ensure that the money is cared for in an amazing way.
You know, the interesting part about this Bill is, you know, how many folks now have named the assurance that as it goes to a charity that we manage the money for them postpartum, and that I never knew. I just saw a document recently. I did had no idea that we were even considered and I didn’t even ask for it, sadly, I might add, but I saw the document and it said a company name and it had our CFA’s name and Harold, which I thought, wow, that’s pretty specific.
They’re funding things now by the way today. So they certainly have the ability, but if you think of that, that’s kind of a cool connection in the end. You end up bringing the horse to the trough they drink, and then they end up naming you as the advisor postpartum. So that’s, that.
BILL: Pretty awesome. So, obviously this is part of that experience that you create because you’re right. Differentiation, most advisors don’t go to this length. I mean, I’ve coached, interviewed, spoken to hundreds and hundreds over the years, and this is not something I hear a lot.
So obviously this is a bit of a differentiator. How has this turned into a means of growth. And what I mean by that is attracting new clients to do people love this experience so much that they just naturally talk to others about it. And that’s how you get these unsolicited referrals and introductions, or how else is it, or are you on boards where you meet people and they ask you what you do. “I’m a financial advisor”, and they become clients. Tell me about client acquisition related to that philanthropic leadership.
JEFFREY: Well, you’re good Bill. Yeah. A board and board involvement is a certainly, unexpected major way. And I recommend anyone to be on two to three, if they’re not, I think they’re missing opportunity, and doing it for the right reason to following your heart and following your soul on what makes you tick is critical.
Doing something you’re less interested in is not what I would consider. I do see advisors often in organizations that they’re so far distant personally that it they’re doing it for the wrong reasons. So I just have to bring that up. And in my case, it’s interesting too, that I’ve got so close to these nonprofits that they’ve referred a lot of clients and these are big clients, $10- $15 million folks that have great relationships with their broker.
But, in isn’t in depth to this type of work. And therefore we’ve worked with other advisors then by doing that, we’ve garnished half the asset and sometimes all the assets just by nature of caring differently and being different. The non-profit itself by just working with them and getting the knowledge of what to do, how to do it.
And having it become part of your regimen with such ease, because you’ve done it so much is that in of itself is a blessing and blessing then that the nonprofit thinks of us, as I mentioned, and thinks of us to others. I think when you equally do it with ease for the client and I’m talking about giving it, becomes and if you’ve got systems processes, you have individuals that are heading this with the DTC transfers to the nonprofits of individual stocks are highly appreciate your stock and all of that done with such ease.
And I don’t have to use the word, but it just makes for a magnetism of folks that come through that avenue. And it’s been enjoyable. It’s triple enjoyable. If you think about it, you’ve got the nonprofit that seems praises. You’ve got the client, that’s grateful for that leadership. And then you certainly got a business that’s being built with that mantra.
BILL: And I would think that your employees see that right. They see how number one, you’re impacting the lives of your clients in a personal way and protecting their wealth, growing their wealth. And then there’s this other aspect of helping the bigger community in so many ways that they’re not just working for a financial advisor for you, right. There were they’re impacting the community because of the type of work you do. So it must be pretty rewarding for your employees. Could you address that real quick?
JEFFREY: That’s interesting. Yeah, I think we have a majority of employees that are on board. If there’s an organization that needs some help and support for time, I think our team is uniquely energetic about that compared to others where they check in at first for support. I think they find themselves getting involved and when you look at the one-on-ones, the happiness of individuals doing their job, it is unequivocal one of the top bullets of those one-on-ones of helping charitable giving and being leadership, giving to our clients. Very few of our service team or even those that are dispensing advice on our financial planning team would not list that is really in the top three. That it is really telling.
BILL: I would think that helps you retain your talent, maybe even attract. If our listeners want to get more engaged with philanthropic causes in their community, any guidelines for them or any landmines you can coach them to avoid?
JEFFREY: Well, you know, the more specified you are, for a university, etc. is great. But I do think community foundations align nicely with the average advisor because a lot of donors and in this case, clients have multiple objectives versus one track mind. And. that typically is something I’d recommend getting very close with and that is community or regional foundations that serve hundreds, if not thousands of nonprofits, it’s a centralized way, it’s a simple way. And I think that you can really shine for being able to be adaptive to multiple needs of the client that way. If you think about the due diligence, but equally, what do you think about efficiency and you also don’t get in the corner from a compliance standpoint of driving once one specific organization that way.
And that seems to be a bit also good. Because I think Ameriprise, in our case, my broker dealer will look at the number of checks that go out annually. And I’ve had several calls to the client of if I’m instructing this, or if I’m railroading these donations. Of course the client says “No”, but it’s an interesting thing in that you want to be careful of that.
So the community foundation does an awesome job of mitigating some of that risk.
BILL: Good, good. So, and just to mention Jeffrey I want you to tell everyone about an incredible project that you undertook that really has created massive value for so many people in your community. And has made you a go-to advisor for many. But first let’s pause for a word from our great sponsor.
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BILL: You’re listening to Top Advisor Podcast, where I interview top advisors for top advisors. And with me today is definitely a top advisor, Jeffrey Chaddick based out of Columbus, Ohio.
So Jeffrey, the Zenner house. This is a project that has created massive value for your community, many organizations and individuals. Tell us a little bit about the Zenner house project.
JEFFREY: So this is a home that’s in Appalachia Ohio. And it, was not in good order. It was pretty much neglected for about 50 years and one thing is to give money, but Bill the other is to leave something tangible and The Zenner House became somewhat of a midlife crisis of mine to do something different.
And this has been a nine-year project to resurrect or to build this facility so that nonprofits can use it to raise money and to have their board meetings. There’s a university in our community, Ohio university and they use it about 50% of the time. Student projects and all kinds of student oriented initiatives.
So it’s really been a cool way to give back. We’ve raised almost $2 million in a period that’s that is pretty tight and short. The house has only been done a couple of years and it’s just my way after death to leave something besides just money, but hopefully have something that has longevity and does something for the greater good of the community.
And it allows for these nonprofits, interesting to the commentary earlier about the number, but to allow a number of nonprofits to utilize one facility to make sure they’re reaching the greater good as well.
BILL: So if someone wanted to just take a look at, as it’s Z E N N E R, right Zenner House or The Zenner House, if they Google that will probably come up.
JEFFREY: Exactly. You’ll get a lot of hits on what that is, but that’s absolutely true,
BILL: Well it’s a beautiful building and grounds. And it must feel very good for all these organizations, local charities, non-profits to have this place that they can use for meetings, for events. So I know you just get so excited about this, this philanthropy and who knew when you were 22, that it would grow into this incredible business. But an incredible business that gives back to other people. So I just got to give you kudos for that. I think it’s great.
JEFFREY: So Bill, first thing that comes to mind in talking with you, especially how you evolved, how has COVID changed in a way in which you’ve been coaching others for referrals and growing their business?
BILL: Yeah. You know, it’s interesting because a lot of people thought it would make a huge difference. And my experience is it’s not a lot different. Right. Okay. We’re meeting with zooms rather than meeting in person. That felt weird for a lot of people, but the people who embraced it did very well. You know, when COVID first hit that March of 2020, and then the market crashed, I was training a company a pretty successful firm that’s in Barron’s Top 100. I think there are 14 right now. So we were going through the whole process and then COVID hits. Right. And so we can’t get together to do our live event. A lot of hand-holding going on for two months, all the advisors were doing were pretty much over-serving their clients, but you know what.
That really helped them, because then when we got back on track to doing things around referrals, they had become super referrable because of all the contact and now that I talk to other folks, people I’m interviewing for the podcast, to a person they’ve all said, well, I’ve been in touch with my clients a lot more than I used to be because of COVID.
And because what happened with the market initially, and then they realize, well, you know, maybe I should always have been doing this. So what’s changing is many, many advisors are doing a much better job of staying in touch with their clients. So what that does of course is make them more referable and so they get more unsolicited referrals, which is great.
We did an interview, that’ll be on our podcast, the Top Advisor Podcast of two women who have a referral only business. In seven years they doubled their AUM. I’m sorry. They doubled their clients and they tripled their AUM without asking for referrals. Why? Because they became more referable. So for those who were flexible enough to take advantage of the opportunities, stay in touch with clients more.
Maybe not in person, but still stay in touch. Maybe do some fun events virtually. They become more referable. So the asking for referrals, the asking all of that hasn’t really changed. You just got to get past the fact that you’re on a zoom rather than in person. People are getting more and more natural with this.
It’s becoming more, a natural thing and people are feeling better about visiting with clients on zoom. And of course what’s changed for many advisors is now they’re just going to do zooms a lot more. I mean, I had an annual meeting, not an annual meeting or review meeting with my advisor a couple of weeks ago.
I wouldn’t feel well. I didn’t really feel like driving to the office. I said, Aaron, can we do it over the phone? Or can we do a zoom? He said, sure. And what would’ve normally been an hour meeting was probably about 30 minutes. We covered everything we needed to cover. We also schmoozed about personal stuff, just like we would if we were in person.
So it’s more efficient. And that adds to the referrability of the advisor when we have that opportunity. So, you know, it’s changed in some ways. I’ve talked to many folks who were doing the virtual thing even before COVID. And they go, what’s the big deal. We’ve been doing this for a long time.
So, you know, I think it’s changed things much less than people really think. You know, all right, you can’t do the in-person introductions as much, but otherwise, you know, it’s business as usual and in my observation anyway. So thank you for asking that. And you know, my last question for you is just to think, you’re a very reflective person, you’re a mindful person, over the last 12 months or so, how have you changed or how has your business changed? How has Jeffrey Chaddock grown over the last year?
JEFFREY: Well, I think, you know, it’s interesting, you brought up, what would take an hour to be half hour. I think capacity has been an amazing, great, wow, kind of eye-opener in terms of having more. And just the efficiency of what’s gone on in the past 18 months has allowed me to think very differently about how to move forward and to really have our cake and eat it too. And I think that means, experience, the deepening of relationships, deeper frequency as you brought up, but also the idea that we have capacity to bring in new, whereas we might’ve felt so bluntly, there were walls that we probably put in front of ourselves to even indicate that. I think that there is a non-verbal that goes on among most advisors to say, “Yes, I’m in business” or “No, I’m not.”
And, I think that certainly COVID has been probably the single best tool for me. And I hate to put it in those terms, given the severity, what it’s done to us otherwise, but when it comes to just being a woken of efficiency and frequency and reaching the client differently, and if you’re going to do a client experience, how we have to be more nimble and creative and that all occurred and we were forced to do it, which is an amazing, cool thing.
Yeah, I think we’re ready for what’s next more than ever. I was more proud of pivoting to technology. Our team did it in a rapid manner. We had a run through this many a time for other extreme events that may occur. And so we were prepared. Our preparedness was also about a hundred percent, which made us, I think, unique in that vein as well.
So, it really just made you feel proud and it made you think that we can take on more folks and finally put the sign out to accept new business, even in a greater way.
BILL: Yeah, good. I love that. The idea of the non-verbal of whether you’re open to bringing in more people or you’re not. And you’re right it probably comes across in language and body language. And we don’t even realize whether we’re putting up the green light or the red light when it comes to attracting more folks.
So our guest today on Top Advisor Podcast has been Jeffrey Chaddock. Jeffrey, thanks so much for sharing your story, your enthusiasm for philanthropic and for providing great value to everyone.
Thank you.
JEFFREY: Thank you Bill. I appreciate it.
BILL: Oh, likewise. So this has been 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 and listening to another show of Top Advisor Podcast.
This is Bill Cates, and you’ve been listening to the Top Advisor Podcast sponsored by ProudMouth.
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