Brian Haney, CLTC, CFBS, CFS, CIS, CAE, RFC: It's commonly understood that one of the best ways to grow a practice or to grow a financial practice, insurance practice is to get referrals. And I always say, "Well, what's the best way to get referrals?" Anybody want to throw up a hand and give me an idea? What's the best way to get referrals? Word of mouth? Give referrals? How about be referable? Because what do I say? What did we say earlier? If somebody has a great restaurant experience, we don't contain that. We share it naturally. If you create an exceptional experience for your clients they will not be quiet about it. And in the digital marketplace, you can create brand ambassadors that become your digital army going out telling people how awesome you are in ways that the old versions of networking and asking people and helping them tell your story. It's on steroids, right? Then up and coming generations are not silent about their preferences online. And when they have a good experience, they will tell you. Also, you know, if they don't have a good experience, they tend to like to leave some good Yelp comments as well. So we want to be mindful of both sides of that equation. So where are our clients and our consumers starting their journey? And what are they really looking for? The reality is, even though some of the consuming public likes to feel like they can do things on their own, a much more significant majority do want help. They want expertise, they want guidance. They may not know how much of that they want and they certainly might not know where it needs to come from. But we want to know we're getting information from trusted sources, don't we? Right. We're not gonna go to our mechanic for medical advice, or at least anymore because I've got to tell you the last time he told me what to do with my knee I was just, it didn't work out. So what do we need to do to stand out? What are some of the content creation things that we can do? We can produce books and articles. Podcasts and videos certainly help. Again, coming from agents not from the companies themselves because there's not a single financial company that recognizes the need to brand its field force very well. And frankly, I get that, you know, they're a massive company. They need to manage and monitor a national brand. But insurance that's not just bought online is bought through people. So it's the people that have to help produce some of these resources and provide value before somebody ever wants to come and work with you. So these are some of the ways. Now you say, "Well, Brian, I don't have time to write a book." That's ok. You could put together an eBook or maybe, within the insurance infrastructure, there's some things that have already been produced. Maybe you want to have something ghost written. There's a lot of ways that you might go about doing that. Podcasts and videos as mediums, it's never been easier to produce content. Doesn't have to be, you know, studio quality. We've got so many ways to do this. So what does effective content look like as we start to communicate and create a better experience and start to draw people in? What do we need to be doing? I always say my goal with our content as a brand is to help people make that next decision, take that next step, not all the steps that they need to take, but take one. Because, once you do that, then the psychological law of reciprocity comes into play. Anybody know what that law is all about? Kind of if you scratch my back, then what happens? I naturally want to scratch yours, don't I? We all feel that way. So if I put something of value out there in the digital space and I meet people where they are and then I help them make a decision or take a step that they were trying to take anyway, are they naturally now inclined to feel at least more positively toward me or more interested in whatever else I might have to offer? And it also demonstrates that we're not out there just producing things for the sake of producing them. We've taken enough time to really hear our audience and meet them in a meaningful way. Then we feel heard, right? You didn't just put that podcast out there for the sake of having somebody, you know, at the end of it call me so you can buy insurance, right? Nobody wants to hear that. But if you're providing value people are like "Wow, that was helpful, maybe I should pay attention." Another one you might want to take a picture of, if you want to know all of the content components, I'll get into some of the ways that we can do these articles, white papers, interviews, get into why it might be easy for you to be interviewed or get on a podcast. Maybe you don't want to launch your own. That's ok. I having run my own for three years, I don't recommend everybody do it. It's a lot of time energy effort and very little to no money involved depending on what you're doing for your 9 to 5. Advertorial style videos is probably the highest impact you can have. So if you have the ability to do some really quick hit videos that's also a great way to reach people. "But how can I do this, Brian? I don't have that kind of time. I'm not gonna write a book. I'm not gonna launch a podcast, but I do recognize the need to try to do this in a more meaningful way." Work with other people. Because what I know is if I work with a good attorney or if I work with an industry partner or frankly, if I work with smaller independent practitioners, we're all trying to do the same thing. We're all trying to reach people in a similar manner. So maybe instead of me having to do it all myself, why don't I reach out to other people and say, "Hey, why don't we join up? Why don't we try to work on something together." Or don't start your own show, go out and be on somebody else's. Did you know that there are over 587 new podcasts launched daily? So, just to do the math on that, that's over 600,000 a year. It's a very busy space that's probably not gonna slow down. And as somebody who runs a show, I am always looking for guests. So back to what I said earlier, if I have a good idea of the podcast my clients might be listening to and I could find a way to be a guest on those shows that would bring significant value to me, right? Because I take advantage of that brand, it enhances my own I get in front of an audience I'm trying to reach anyway. We don't have to always work harder, we can work smarter. And just being on different shows, whether or not it's directly relevant to your audience, gives you the ability to say "as seen on," right? Which implicitly says you're a subject matter expert.
