EP 61 | Jordan Montgomery on Building Client Trust and Relationships

Jordan Montgomery  10:27

Well, I think a lot of it depends on the spirit of a person. And when I say spirit, I mean, their posture, their tonality, the way they approach the situation. And what I'm testing for, David, is the same thing I hope other people are testing for, which is a coachable spirit. And what I want to know is that the person I'm engaging with, is going to do something with the information that I gave them, in the same way that I did something with the information that was given to me. And I wasn't always perfect; there's times where I missed it. But more often than not, if somebody did share wisdom, or some nuggets with me, I would go implement that wisdom, I'd go implement the nuggets, I’d tested out and try it. And then I would circle back with the person and I would share what I learned. So let's use David Meltzer, for example; if David taught me something, and if I was fortunate enough to get 10 minutes of his time, and he was gracious enough to donate that to me, I would thank him for it. But then I would really show my gratitude through the implementation, and then closing the loop, to your point. So I'd circle back with David within 30 days, and I'd say, hey, David, you taught me these three things in a 10-minute phone call. Or I might say, hey, David, I heard you say this at a talk that you recently gave, we actually haven't met; or I heard this from you on social media, and I wanted to share with you that I've been implementing these three things that you taught me, either directly or from afar. And because of that, it's changed my life, it's changed my business, it's changed my life, it's increased my income, it's given me opportunity, it's allowed me to leave my family better; whatever the result is, I'm gonna share that. And then I'm going to say thank you. So I've got a posture of gratitude. And if somebody has a posture of gratitude, we're always more willing, right? That's true for all of us. The opposite of that is when somebody reaches out and says, Hey, can I pick your brain? Well, nobody wants that, right? That's a kind of a taker’s mentality. That's a take first kind of thing. And so I'm testing for a spirit; more specifically, I'm testing for a coachable spirit. There's a big difference between being teachable and coachable. Many people learn, they're teachable, but they forget to close the loop, they forget to circle back. And because of that, they actually lose the greatest opportunity, which is the ability to build a relationship. And so what happens is they focus on the moment, they learn a little bit, but they sell themselves short; they could have learned a lot more if they would have circled back to grow a relationship.

 

David DeCelle  12:29

Yeah, I agree. One of the ways that I try and I guess qualify if someone's going to be coachable compared to teachable, I like how you put that, I had a call yesterday with a kid named Tom. So if Tom, if you're listening to this, I'm calling you out here. So he had reached out, wanted some insight on potentially transitioning firms and whatnot. And I said, Well, it seems like you're very much like in education mode, trying to figure out what else is out there. So I sent him to a resource, one of our prior guests, Brad Wales has a company called Transition To RIA. And he has a multitude of videos on his website, that's all education oriented, just learning about the independent space. So I said, because you're in education mode, why don't you go on his website, consume his videos, and listen to the podcast where he was on our show. And then once you do that, reach out to me, I'll send you a calendar link, and we'll get back on the phone. And I would say, 85 to 90% of the time, I never hear back. So it's a way to protect my time, while also figure out who's serious. And if someone actually does reach back out to me, I'm elated. And I am more than happy to hop back on the phone, because again, it gives me that psychological income. So that's one way that I try and qualify, which kind of goes back and hits on the point whether it's, Brad, in that example, obviously you pump out a lot of content, we do as well. Content helps not just with exposure, and awareness, and branding, and all that type of stuff, but also helps protect your time while still being a nice person and saying, Hey, here's all this valuable information that I already created, so it's scalable. And if you want to reach back out to me, after consuming that, let me know and I'm happy to; so a little bit of a qualifier there.

 

Jordan Montgomery  14:06

So true, man. I love how you just unpack that. And I would say too, because I know this is true for you, David, there's also something about, and I think Andy Stanley says it this way, he says do for one, what you wish you could do for many. Do for one what you wish you could do for many. So the reality is there are people that reach out that don't understand the art of being coachable. And they're not closing the loop, not because they don't want to — maybe they haven't been in the right environment; maybe they're young and inexperienced, they just haven't been exposed to the art of that. So some of this too, because I know this is true for you, and so I'm going to speak for you and take some liberty here. Part of this is also just being a good person, right? It's saying, hey, somebody did this for me, so I'm going to pay it forward. And while I can't answer all the questions, and I can't spend all the time, I can do that with one person every day, even if it's a five-minute conversation. So I love this adage of do for one you wish you could do for many, and if you have been given an opportunity, if you do have favor, if you’ve built something significant, you've done it because other people gave you that opportunity. And I think we should feel this sense of urgency to pay that forward. So I wanted to be clear that, for us, it's not always about closing the loop. It's not always about this coachable spirit. It's also about just doing the right thing, and I think that means paying it forward, regardless.

 

David DeCelle  15:14

Yeah, it's that giving mentality, which oftentimes people are reluctant to give to someone who can't give anything back. But the universe doesn't recognize that; the universe just recognizes the act of giving and something great may happen in your life that's totally unrelated, but also seemingly related.

 

Jordan Montgomery

That's great. Yeah. Amen. I couldn't agree more.

 

David DeCelle

So let's talk about consulting. So transitioned from the financial services space over to consulting, and then you kind of lit off a little bit. So you leverage your experience in the financial services industry. But then you also started to do a lot of work with both collegiate and professional sports teams, if I'm if I'm not mistaken, and a multitude of other sales organizations as well. And I think that a lot of what we learn as advisors as it relates to sales and relationship building, mental toughness and mindset, things along those lines, certainly is transferable to other industries. But how did you break in? I'm just curious, similar to like a Ben Newman, who was on a prior episode as well, both of you have broken into the athletic arena, so to speak, which I’d imagine is just fun. It spices up your day, a little bit, you're not only working with one type of person, but coming from the financial services industry, how'd you even break that open? What was the first win that got you into that network of people?

 

Jordan Montgomery  16:36

Yeah, well, I appreciate that question. It's an awesome question. I'll probably answer it similar to how Ben would answer that question. And honestly, Ben was a part of that experience and that transition for me, so I'll give him kudos. And so much of it too, David, when you're in this space, and you know this from being in the space, you're dealing with people and it ultimately all falls inside the bucket of leadership. So it's helping people think bigger, thinking more abundantly about what's possible, it's helping them see more, and it's helping them see before. And I love how John Maxwell unpacks the science of a leader; he says, if you're a leader, you see more and you see before. And if you're a leader who develops other leaders, you help people see more, and you help them see before; so you help them see more in themselves, and then you help them see it before they can see it. And that's really the essence of our work, even with athletes. So, it's interesting, because the question comes, people will say, well, how'd you get in front of this person? Or how did you start working with this professional athlete? And that's a fair question. I just don't know that it's the right question. The question should be, How hard did you work to get in front of that person. And so, when you see a person working with another person, there was like twelve other people that they worked with prior to that, that got them to that place. And Ben’s story was the same way. I gave talks to my junior high football team for free. I gave talks to a high school football team. I’d drive an hour to give a 10-minute speech to a bunch of kids in the middle of nowhere for zero fee, late on Friday night, because it was adding to the journey. I knew that I would gain experience in doing that, and I know that I would impact people when doing that; but I didn't have to be paid, it didn't have to be convenient. If I had an opportunity to speak in the world of sports, I was gonna take it. I didn't care if it was a sixth-grade basketball team, a high school team, a junior high team, a peewee team, a little league team. And I think too many people are unwilling to do that, they just allow themselves — people say, hey, I want to be a professional coach like you, or I want to speak to division one athletes like you do. And I say, hey, that's great. But tell me, what sixth grade teams are you working with? And they're like, no, I want to do what you're doing. And what I want to tell people is, Well, before I was doing this, I was working with sixth grade teams, and I was willing to do that work for an extended period of time. So it's no different than anything else in life, right? It's like what you focus on expands, and you got to be willing to ask, but you got to also be willing to put in the time and humble yourself to do the little things that ultimately lead to the bigger opportunities.

 

David DeCelle  18:52

I agree. I think that there's a little bit of like inflated egos involved when people are unwilling to do some of those things. I also think, and I try and talk about this a lot, I think I can talk about it some more. And maybe you can too, where it's oftentimes people will look at someone's Chapter 20 and just assume it's the beginning of their book. And they don't see the sixth-grade girls’ basketball team that you spoke to with no fee. They don't see that I was driving for Uber in the evenings and digging holes on the weekends when I was first getting my business off the ground. And perhaps we could be even more vocal about that to remind people that hey, even though we're doing this now, here's where it started. And I think that in and of itself does a good job of humanizing us to show that we're just like everyone else, but also, maybe it's a nice serving of humble pie for some of the folks that want to be a Chapter 20 without reading the first 19 chapters in advance.

 

Jordan Montgomery  19:51

Spot on. One of my favorite quotes goes like this: the greatest reward for a person's hard work is not what they get from it, but who they become by it. So, you're an example of this, right? Back when you were driving an Uber, you got a paycheck, and it created an opportunity. And somebody would say, oh, David, I get it, you took that paycheck, and then you invested it, or you paid down debt, and that allowed you to build what you're building day. And it's like, sure, that was part of it. But way more valuable than that was the perspective that you gained, relationships that you built that increased your wisdom and experience. It was figuring out what you didn't want to do to figure out what you did want to do. And so there's so much that goes into that process, and I think the greatest reward for hard work isn’t what we get from it, it's who we become by it. And my story is no different. Man, I'm glad that I gave the sixth-grade girls’ basketball team the pregame speech, and I'm proud of that. I'm not sure that my work today is all that different; the audience has changed, but the work is the same.

 

David DeCelle  20:44

I feel like a lot of people think that once you get to a certain point, you would never go back to do that. But that would probably be, if you went back to that same basketball team, that's in high school now, you'd probably do that for free because it makes you feel awesome. And you're able to see kind of how they progressed over that time period. So you never become, I don't think anyways, or at least I haven't become this way yet, too good to give back to people who need your service, need your encouragement, but don't necessarily have the wallets to pay for it.

 

Jordan Montgomery  21:15

Yeah, I'd go a step further. Not only is it something that we could do, it's something that we should do and have to do. Like, the best part about giving back and working with people that were a part of your journey in the early stages, is they're not impressed at all by who you are or what you've done. When you go speak to a junior high basketball team, they could care less who you work with, or what you've done, or what your revenue is; they don't care about that. They're like, I don't know, I'm worried about like, the girl that I'm hanging out with, or what time I'm getting out of school. I got this random guy talking to me about my future leadership or whatever. And he's willing to listen, or she's willing to listen, and not because of all the great things you have to say, but because you're being real, and you're in front of them, and it's here and now. And so not only could we do it, but I think we should do it. I think it's a duty and I think it's an obligation.

 

David DeCelle  22:02

I agree. Let's talk about some of the problems that advisors experience and, in turn, some of the solutions. So for me, I feel like oftentimes, advisors stunt their growth. So they get to a certain point, maybe they're managing 50 or 100 million bucks, and if their team is lean, it's a pretty good life from a revenue standpoint. However, they know deep down inside that they have potential to build something bigger, but complacency may play a role in keeping them where they're at. So staying on the theme of complacency, how do you help folks get rid of that? Do they even have to get rid of it or is that like an okay thing to do? And if they want to get rid of it, what are some steps they can take to move past that to truly level up and impact more people that can be served?

 

Jordan Montgomery  22:55

This is a deep place to start. But I'm glad that we're having this conversation, because it's an important one. And I think we spend so much time in this financial services space talking about revenue, and our team and leverage and serving clients, and all that conversation is great. It's necessary, and I have a lot of those conversations all day, every day. The conversation about who you're becoming isn’t happening enough. And I think what happens is people prioritize what they're going to do before they prioritize who they're going to become. And I know that sounds cliche, and maybe a little bit cheesy, but I'm really serious about that. If you've been given gifts, if God's given you ability, it's your responsibility, it's our responsibility to tap into that God given giftedness or that ability and say, what am I going to do with it? And how far can I take this? And how much can I serve? And how much can I really impact the people around me? And so I want to work with people, David, that are asking that question. Who do I really want to become? Not, what am I going to do? Not, what's my revenue going to be? Not, how big is my team going to be? But, what's the legacy that I'm going to leave? What's the impact that I'm going to have? How am I going to change the trajectory of my family's life? So I think we got to start there, because the reality is, they don't need to do more. I had a guy the other days, 55 years old, very successful, huge business, big team. And he says to me, Jordan, I'm tired. And I said, I totally get it. I'll call him John. I said, John, I totally get that you're tired, and you don't have to do more. He’s like, yeah, I just, it just doesn't really, it's not bringing me joy. I made all the money; I've got a flexible schedule. He's like, I just don't know if there's really purpose. And I said, well, John, let me give you an analogy. So it's kind of like this, right? You're the pilot of your own plane. And so if you want to slow the plane down, you can slow it down, and you'll get to your destination a little bit slower. But don't forget there's people on the plane that will miss their connecting flight. So it's not about us, it’s about the people on the plane. It's about the passengers. It's about all the people that you're leading, either directly or indirectly. And when we decide to slow down, when we decide to get complacent, we impact the lives of other people, for better or worse. It just happens; and so, I think we’ve got to start with mission and purpose. You have to know why you're doing what you're doing. I think you have to ask the question, who do you want to become? And I'm willing to tell people, like I would say to John, dude, I believe in you and because I believe in you, I'm not willing to accept this current version of you. Like, if you tell me you want to go spend time with your kids or you want to go start a nonprofit, then go do that. But if this is like, I just want to read the newspaper more often, play more golf, and just hang out, I'm gonna challenge that person. I think that's BS; you were given ability, and I want you to think about how that ability is affecting other people.

 

David DeCelle  25:21

I like that analogy a lot. Because me too, like early on in my career, it was I need to make money so that I can be independent, and I can pay my bills. And then you get to a certain point where, alright, you're making money and bills are being paid and then, what else? And then what else and then what else? Then it’s taking more of a, it's not just me sort of altruistic type of view on, like you said, if you've been given a gift, it's your duty to share that gift and impact the lives of the people around you. So I like that a lot. As it relates to actually growing the business, we both know that there's multiple different ways that you can market and brand and seminars or webinars or all that type of stuff. But more often than not, the best clients come from referrals. And I know that a number of advisors that I work with become uncomfortable or squeamish as it relates to asking clients for referrals. This kind of goes back to asking, which is what we talked about the beginning of the podcast. So what advice do you have for folks who have this mental hurdle that's difficult for them to overcome, specifically, as it relates to asking for introductions and essentially growing their business from the folks who they're already serving? And they're just hesitant to doing so. So my question would be how to get over that hurdle? And then I guess specifically, if you have language around how to go about asking, what would that be?

 

Jordan Montgomery  26:44

Yeah, it's a good question. And if our audience gets one thing out of today's conversation, it might be this. So if you're listening, you could write this down. It's called two-camp language. And we developed this language because we realized a lot of advisors were not asking for referrals in fear that they were alienating their current audience. So it was like this, right? I'm just gonna make this up. If I'm sitting down with somebody that makes half a million dollars a year, they're making three to five hundred thousand, they're doing well, they've been a decent planning client, but I’m really focused on seeing people that make two million or more, or they have a net worth of 10 million or more. Whatever your target is. If that's your ideal client, oftentimes, people aren't asking for the ideal client, because they're afraid that when they do that, they'll alienate the person that they're speaking with. It's like, well, how am I supposed to ask for the person that makes five or six times the amount of money that the person I'm speaking with makes? Okay, so two-camp language, here's how we would approach that. So I would affirm the person that I'm sitting down with. I would say, look, I'm working with two camps. Today, I spend time with two groups. The first camp that I'm spending a lot of time with, they're the emerging affluent, they're people just like you. They're making $300,000 to $500,000 a year, they're doing foundational planning, they're getting the right insurances in place, they're developing a savings philosophy, they're focused on reducing debt and being tax efficient, but they're in the early stages of planning. And I just want to let you know that’s a huge part of our business, we love that work, it's very near and dear to our hearts. There's a second group of people that I work with, too. And that second group, or the second camp that I spend a lot of time in is the affluent. I work with affluent people that have done extensive planning, they're typically a little bit closer to retirement, sometimes they're even in retirement, and they're focused on issues like mitigating tax liability on investment income. They're thinking about retirement planning, succession planning, estate planning. Oftentimes, they're in the highest tax bracket, and tax planning becomes a huge focus of our work, and we've found that in that space, we can add incredible value. So those are kind of the two camps that I'm spending time in. And I'm gonna pause there, so I'll come out of advisor mode, but it's a great way to affirm the person you're working with: this work is important to me, I enjoy working with you, I want to continue working with you, and let you know that there's a different space that I worked in, and I'm gonna ask you for referrals to both spaces. And it's the silliest thing, and I know that's like stupid simple, but if you approach that conversation the right way, you should be able to ask confidently and boldly for any type of referral, including the referral or the introduction to your A plus prospect.

 

Patrick Brewer  29:17

Hey Model FA's, I know you're enjoying this conversation, but I wanted to take a quick break to talk to you about the Model FA Accelerator. This is a unique collaboration between us and you, where we help you build a financial advising practice that you can be proud of. We focus on the foundational concepts around how to pick a niche or a specialization, how to price your services, how to construct an offer that people are going to buy, and then how to market it and sell it in a way that will get people to sign on the dotted line become clients of your firm, all while giving you the information to scale and set up workflows and operational processes that will allow you to reclaim your time and build a practice that doesn't run you. So if you'd like to hear more about that, go to www.ModelFA.com/accelerator or www.ModelFA.com. Hover over Work With Us and click on Accelerator. Hope to see in the program.

 

David DeCelle  30:08

I really liked that language. I mean, when I was an advisor, I would say that was the number one thing that I struggled with was prospecting up, is kind of how I worded it. And I think that that language is great. However, I don't think that that language will work if you don't do what we talked about at the beginning of the conversation, which is adding value both in and outside of the scope of what you're compensated for. So like we have, similar to your two-camp language, we have a system called the exponential relationship system. And that's the whole idea, rather than bringing on clients by being super salesy, and bring them through a sales process, and asking for referrals in an aggressive way, we believe that clients give referrals or prospects become clients when you strategically advance the relationship with them and make relational deposits along the way. So you alluded to some of those at the beginning, but things could be simply asking for their feedback. It could be they mentioned in passing, their daughter was graduating this year, and you know where she goes to school, so you look up the graduation date, and you pick up the phone and actually call and say, Hey, congratulations on your daughter's graduation. What are you guys doing for it? And just be inquisitive about that. It could be rather than a birthday card that your staff does, it’s a first thing you do in the morning, before you do anything else is you’re their first phone call in the morning. I'm sure you could count on one, if not two hands, how many people actually call you on your birthday. It’s usually a text or a Facebook post or something like that. It's memorable. And what happens is too often advisors will rely on their service model to build relationships. So let's say for example, they have a newsletter, which no one reads, by the way; so they have a newsletter. And they have, say, two to four reviews with the client per year, and then a birthday card. Well, if they're not actually reading the newsletter, I don't think those touch points count. So you have basically, call it five touch points over the course of a year. So four review meetings, one birthday call; and if you're asking for introductions in one or two of those meetings, well you're asking for introductions 20 to 40% of the time, right? And you're asking for something 80% of the time, because the one thing that you're not asking anything in is the birthday call or the birthday note. But the other four times, you're asking for their time, their money, or their network. So essentially, every time you interact with them, you're asking for something. So yes, that should feel weird. And I would probably hesitate asking for introductions, if I knew that every time that they saw my name pop up in their email or on their phone, that I was going to ask for something. So what we believe is you’ve got to have 30, 40, 50 touch points every single year with all of your clients, or at least the ones that you want to replicate and get introductions from. And when I say that people, their eyes kind of grow and they're like, Whoa, how do I do that? Well, they don't need to be monumental things. It can simply be you saw that they posted a picture on their Facebook account, rather than writing a comment, perhaps you actually send a message; or maybe you randomly pick up the phone and just check in and see how they're doing with no ask at the end; or maybe you remember that they really liked to cook. So you send them a recipe and a picture of the meal that you cooked and said, Hey, let me know if you end up trying it, it was delicious. My wife and I have it together. Or whatever it may be — it doesn't need to be monumental. They can be micro moments. And when you turn those four or five touch points into 50 touch points, and by the way, your content helps a lot with that if they're seeing you every day, those all kinds of touch points. But if you're taking these 50 touch points, and you're asking for introductions once or twice, they know that you care about them and you're not just asking them for stuff. And that's what I really struggled with as an advisor was every time I interacted with someone, including friends and family, I was asking for something, and it caused people to answer my calls less, respond to me less, and it was disheartening. So I can certainly understand when advisors feel like that, but there's a way to go about fixing that. And it's actually giving a crap enough to advance three to five relationships a day within your book of business in a non-groundbreaking way, just showing them that you care and that you're thinking about them. But I don’t know if you have any thoughts on that or what, but that's kind of how I'm wired and how we're wired to make the withdrawal and deposit ratio more appropriate to where you don't feel guilty going in for that ask.

 

Jordan Montgomery  34:41

Yeah, everything that you said is profoundly true. And I think people do by who you are not what you do. And so I do think we want to lead with who we are. I think if people like you, they’ll listen; if they trust you, they'll buy from you. They'll work with you. They'll give you their business; and everything that you just said, David, adds to the trust factor. Trust is currency. And it's also interesting, I get asked a lot about what we should say. I'm sure you get this too, like, Hey, give me the sales language. And I want the systems and the process and the language and the idea as well. The language and the ideas only goes so far. And if you don't focus on how you're showing up, if you're not really focused on who you're becoming, then you're going to miss. And so a lot of the work that we're doing advisors today, it's everything that you talked about, it's the touch points, it's adding value, it's building the relationship. We’re in the relationship business before we're in the financial planning business. I believe that always to be true. But it's also working on the whole person. And it pains me, I think, when advisors are struggling with a certain part of their process. So let's say it's prospecting, right? So you have this young advisor, and they go to their leader manager, and they say, you know, I'm just really struggling with prospecting. I think it's very natural for the leader or manager to say, well, let's work on your language. Yeah, and that's normal, and that happens, and that is a part of prospecting that is important. But before that, it's how they're showing up. Ninety percent of communication is nonverbal, and it's all the things that you talked about. So are you adding value? Are you listening? What's your energy like? What types of questions are you asking? How are you being perceived, received, and experienced? I don't think advisors focus on that enough. And so I think personal development starts with self-awareness. And I think in our industry, we’ve got to focus less on what we say, and probably more on how we say it and how we’re being experienced. And so I couldn't agree with you more, I would sign off on everything that you just said. Hopefully, two-camp language gives people a framework to ask for the A plus referral consistently after you've established trust, built a relationship, and have added a ton of value. So I couldn't agree more.

 

David DeCelle  36:47

So it's a good segue to your favorite book, and I'll explain why in a second. But I do want to go back to the trust portion. So I really like how you put, people will listen if they like you, and they'll do business and buy if they trust you. And I feel like a common misconception is that trust just takes time. I don't think that that's true. I think time certainly plays a component, but it's not the only component. I think trust is built based on the accumulation of experiences. So back to my example of advancing the relationship, if you have 50 touch points over the course of a year, or if you have 10 touch points every year over the course of five years. So same amount of touch points, just different time for those touch points. I'm willing to bet that if you could figure out a way to analyze that data on their level of trust or whatever, I'm willing to bet that they would feel the same after 50 touch points, whether it happened after a year or after five years. So you can certainly accelerate and condense; accelerate the trust and condense the amount of time by just simply doing more things in the interim, and just speeding up that relationship to get them from a new client immediately to a good working relationship, over to a loyal client, and ultimately transition them to raving fan status to where they just want to see you win, and they're willing to help you get there.

 

Jordan Montgomery  38:05

Yeah. And I'll give you some kudos here, David, because I think there's a specific area where you do a really great job with your business, and you're doing a really great job in a lot of areas. But one area where I think you shine is your social media presence. And there's so many advisors that aren't active on social media. And when we talk about social media, and I'm sure you get this too, with advisors, they're like, well, I don't want to talk about what I do, or it's not all about me. And I really challenged that. Because first off, social media isn't about us. Let's look at it this way. If you really believe in what you did, then wouldn't you share more of who you are with the world? We're going to use social media for two reasons: to add value and to illustrate our values. And you're doing that; you're adding value, you're sharing motivation, energy, ideas, you're making people smile, you're making them laugh, you're adding value, but you're also illustrating your values. So if I go to David's social media page, I know that you value family, I know that you value friendship, I know that you value experiences and travel, I know that you love to be around people, I know that you have a really strong network. So you're showing me consistently what you value, you're illustrating your values, but you're also adding value. And I want to point that out because all of that adds to trust. So what's crazy is in the social media era that we live in, you can trust people without even knowing who they are. It's the weirdest thing right? My wife and I had a conversation, I think was Monday or Tuesday morning, I rolled out of bed. And this is like creepy, but this is just the way the world works, I guess. So Thomas Rhett is her favorite artist, country or otherwise, she loves Thomas Rhett. I like Thomas right; we're country music fans, so if you're not a country music fan, I apologize, but this is a Thomas Rhett story. So Thomas Rhett plays at a concert and he announces that the concert that they're having their fourth child. Okay, so I roll out of bed, I'm drinking my morning coffee. My wife comes up from her workout and she's like, Hey, did you see that Thomas and Lauren are having a fourth child. And I like cut her off like yeah, it's number four, I saw. Did you see the way that he did it? He announced it in front of a crowd. She’s like, oh my gosh, that was amazing. It was so thoughtful, I'm so happy for them. And then I remember saying to my wife, do you realize how weird it is? We do not know them, we have no clue who they are really, but we feel like we know them because they illustrate their values on social media. So not only do we like their music, but we've learned to trust them from afar, because they put their values on display. And that's the power of social media. And while you might not be Thomas Rhett, people can learn to trust you when you decide to put your values on display. You're doing a great job of that. More advisors need to be posting more of who they are on social media.

 

David DeCelle  40:30

Well, I appreciate that. I would expand that slightly to say yes, it certainly helps with trust. But when you think about it, you’re a financial advisor, they’re a consumer, maybe they have assets and they need a financial advisor. So at the end of the day, they view you as a service professional that may be able to help with their need, and that's it. But we have a client that built, they just merged with another firm, but he built a $1.5 billion wealth management practice, a lot of it through his passion of fly fishing. So if you give people the opportunity, I like to say social media does a great job at leaving clues as to what people are into, what they like to do, and how you can relate to one another. Because if you can find something else unrelated to what you do for work that you're passionate about, in tandem with what they're passionate about, they're that much more likely to want to work with you because you have some other similarity outside of a service and a need. And if you're not showing and illustrating what it is that you enjoy doing, you're just not giving them the opportunity to connect with you outside of the service and ultimately the need.

 

Jordan Montgomery

Amen. Totally agree.

 

David DeCelle

Let's pivot slightly to your favorite book, and I'll tee this up two different ways. So one, you mentioned that an advisor goes to their manager or mentor and says, Hey, I'm having trouble with prospecting. So you immediately go to language, more often than not; when in reality, there's something more foundational in nature around the personal development topic that needs to be taken care of first, before the language is going to help at all. Because if you're not right between the ears, it doesn't matter what comes through your mouth, in my opinion; because it will be reflected in your tone and your energy and skittishness or confidence or whatever it may be. So now part of the reason why I'm asking all of our guests what their favorite book is, is because I want to promote learning, and specifically learning outside of our industry. Because I feel like oftentimes, advisors are either totally complacent, and they're not learning new stuff, or they are learning new stuff within the confines of our industry. And there's a select percentage of folks who are actually forever learners, regardless of the industry. So part of the this segment is to promote learning and understanding that there's great personal development books, there's great books about other industries that historically we tend to lag behind. So go and get those ideas that they already show work and apply them to our industry. So part of its meant to promote it. The second thing that I want to do to tee it up is it’s interesting, the favorite book that you mentioned, so it’s the Bible. And so I grew up, and I was a church every Sunday Catholic and altar server, played my guitar in the church choir. And as soon as I went to college, and I could make my own decision as to whether or not I was going to go to church, I stopped. Then it was, to appease my mom, it was Christmas and Easter I would attend mass, and then got to the point where I wasn't even doing that. And then my girlfriend now she just viewed her religion and spirituality a little bit differently. Where I was brought up in more of like a ritualistic type of way, sit up, stand, kneel down, whatever. And she views it as more of spirituality, and then I have a story I’m going to save for the after-hours portion. But just kind of like put it into perspective for me to where it started to reopen my mind about it. And then you mentioned that it's your favorite book, and I'm like, Alright, well, my mind is open so spill the beans. Let me know why you feel as if it's an important book for you and other folks and things like that. So with that being said, why'd you choose the Bible as your favorite book?

 

Jordan Montgomery  44:05

Well, I think as a person of faith, my relationship with God and with Jesus is everything; it is the foundation. And so, you think about any of the work that gets done in the personal development space today, I think you could tie it back to the Bible. It's all there: leadership, stewardship, relationships, communication, principles, values, understanding. I mean, it's just, it's there. And, I'll say it this way, God has been really real to me in some really unique points in my life, and he's real to me today. And I want to share Him with other people. And if I'm going to share God with other people, I want to understand His truth and I want to know who he is and I want to be a light for his world. And so the Bible is not only a self-help book, but I think it's a playbook. It’s a playbook for how we should live and operate and interact. And I just want to be a good steward with what I've been given. So, I think in today's world, David, we do have to be careful. I mean, this is just my truth. So I'm a person of faith. My truth is my faith, it doesn't have to be your faith. But if you're asking me like, Hey, what's your favorite book and asking me to respond to that in an authentic way? That's just my authentic response. I think it's the book that's probably taught me the most, and I'm really thankful for it. So I appreciate the question. It's awesome question. And of course, there's a lot of other books that I love. I am a huge fan of John Maxwell. I'm a big fan of Craig Groeschel, I love Berné Brown, I love Adam Grant — we could talk for a long time about the books that we're both passionate about. But for me, that would be number one.

 

David DeCelle  45:32

So for me personally, and for anyone else who's listening to this, that's interested, the Bible is a big book. And the good thing about it is that you don't have to start at page one, and at the very end and go in order. There are specific excerpts that you can go and just kind of dive into. So for me, and for anyone else who's interested, what's a good place to start, if we're not going to start by reading cover to cover? Is there a particular excerpt where it's had the most profound impact on you? And if so, what is it?

 

Jordan Montgomery  46:02

Yeah, I would start in the Gospels. So Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the books that I would start with. If you're somebody like, I haven't read the Bible, I don't even know if I believe in the Bible, like whatever. And you're just curious as to where to start. And look, I don't know the Bible; I wish I did. It is, it's a dense book. It's a big book. But I admire it, I respect it, and it's meant a lot to me. So if I didn't know anything about the Bible, that's where I would start. And I would start there because it describes fully the life of Jesus. And so I think it's a great foundation for understanding why the Bible was created, what it means today, what it meant throughout all time; so that would be my short response.

 

David DeCelle  46:39

Cool. Appreciate it. So before we pivot over to the after-hour section, I think you'll appreciate and get a chuckle out of my story I want to share; but before we do so, if someone wants to consume your content, someone wants to reach out to you, someone just wants to connect with you. What are some of the ways that they can do that?

 

Jordan Montgomery  46:58

Yeah, I appreciate the question. Like you, David, we're fairly active on social media; probably most active on Instagram. So I'm Jordan M Montgomery on Instagram. If you interact with me, I'll interact with you; I respond to every message. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, we'd love for you to join us in our community on social media. We try to add as much value as we can. And then our website is montgomerycompanies.com; so Montgomery companies, plural, i-e-s, dot com. Again, we'd love to hear from anybody listening, if we can add value, or come alongside you in any way, we'd love to help.

 

David DeCelle  47:15

Awesome. Appreciate it. And for those of you who would like to connect with me, outside of just the Model FA channels that you've probably interacted with, just Google David DeCelle and all my social links will be there, or type in David DeCelle on one of the platforms, similar to Jordan. I post on all the platforms, but I'm most active and responsive on Instagram; that's platform of choice. Also, if you found this episode helpful, which I'd be hard pressed to believe if the answer was no to that, and so I would assume that you found this episode helpful. We'd really appreciate you sharing this with someone that you know; whether it be in the industry or outside the industry, I think there's a lot of things that we discussed in this conversation that are applicable regardless of kind of where you're at in your career. So I appreciate the share. Also, it would really helped with our visibility and listenership, if you went and left a review on iTunes, and as a thank you, if you go ahead and do that, just do me a favor and screenshot that and shoot me a text at 978-228-2338. Again, that's 978-228-2338. And just text me that picture with Jordan so I know which episode that's from. And what will happen is you'll text that, you'll get a quick automated response for you to enter in your first and last name, and then beyond that, it's actually me talking with you. It's not like an automated system or anything like that. And as a thank you, we have some referral methodology that's slightly different, and I think very complimentary to Jordan’s language that he shared earlier, the two-camp language. So as the thank you for leaving that review, we'll go ahead and give you a link to where you can access those two training videos. So thank you in advance for doing that. And happy to add some value with some of that training. With that being said, we're gonna head into the after-hours portion. So Jordan, appreciate you join in and we're going to head into the other side.

 

Jordan Montgomery  49:20

Hey, David. Thanks, man. I just want to say before we sign off, I appreciate you, appreciate the work that you're doing. I love what you're putting out in the world, and I want to say congrats on all your continued success. It's been fun to follow your journey, man, and I'm honored to call you a friend.

 

David DeCelle  49:31

Appreciate it. Likewise, and let's go have some fun.

 

 

 

After-Hours

 

David Decelle

Awesome, so you’ll really like this story. So I've been more curious about religion lately and what not, but I just haven't — my experience up to this point has been more of like a punitive experience, the do's and don'ts and kind of regimented type of feel. So we have this client. It's a large RIA, we work with a number of their advisors and one of their leaders, his name is Jason. He used to be a pastor, and so I started on his LinkedIn. So I was like, how did you go from being a pastor to get into the financial services industry? And as we started talking, I kind of opened up a little bit and was like, here's kind of my background, and I'm interested, but I just haven't found something that appeals to me. He's like, Well, here's the way you can think about it. He's like, you know when Jesus turned water into wine? And I was like, Yeah; he's like, Well, here's kind of what really happened. So basically, there was this big ass party, and they had like 500 bottles of wine or something like that, and they started drinking all the wine, and they were starting to get low on the wine. And Mary, Jesus was still a kid at the time, Mary looked at Jesus and was like, yo, do your thing. He's like, No, I'm not ready yet. She's like, No, do your thing. He's like, I'm not ready yet. And she's like, Listen, we have all these people here, we're running out of wine, do your thing. And he was like, Okay, fine. And then he turned water into wine. And I was like, yo, that's such a cooler way to put it than when I grew up and heard the story. So it's like, it just kind of like opened up my mind a little bit where I was like, okay, that's, that's actually really cool. It's not a chore to listen as it was when I was growing up. So that's my little out-of-the box funny story.

 

Jordan Montgomery  51:18

I love that. Well it should bring joy, right; like faith and living a life of faith. It should be adventurous and exciting and awesome and joyful. And I think, yeah, for so much of our culture, it’s been about obedience and instruction and discipline and doing the right thing. And I mean, faith is certainly both parts. But I think being filled by faith, and being someone who scribes to believing in Christianity would be my faith. I think it's about having joy and having fun. You know what I mean? Like, it's crazy to me, that there's so many people that have had experiences that, unfortunately, have turned them off to faith. And I think the church is a big reason for that, unfortunately.

 

David DeCelle  51:53

Yeah. So I'm starting to get closer to that. And, your conversation, my girlfriend, Kennedy, my conversations with her, and then this Jason has helped a lot. So let's pivot slightly. So I want you to share, so you've met with, I would imagine thousands of people between being a financial adviser and now coach and consultant. You've spoke a ton on stage or to groups of people. There has to be one or two embarrassing slash humiliating stories out there throughout your career. And I was wondering if you would be so kind as to be vulnerable and share one of those?

 

Jordan Montgomery  52:32

Oh, my gosh. Bro, we don't have enough time. There's so many. It's part of what I love about the financial services industry. It’s just, in a really good way, I think it just exposes every part of who you are. You have an insecurity, it's coming to the surface. I'll tell one. So I was involved in this situation, I wasn't the one who said it. And then, I don't know, there's like four or five stories hitting me. Here's one that just comes to me. I don't know if it's the most embarrassing, but it was pretty bad. So I go up with this junior advisor, and this guy had just gotten his Series 7 license. And so, finally gets in front of this fairly affluent client, like we're both excited, really excited about being in front of this client. And, he's got a large sum of money, we know that it's ready to be managed, he just retired. There's a rollover opportunity. And, this kid, his experiences was really in insurance. He had done mostly risk management planning, but he gets his 7, he's starting to learn investments, he's getting excited. And so we're sitting down to talk to this client, and like literally the first like two minutes of conversation, he looks at this young guy, and he's like, so tell me what are your account minimums? And this is like, we're starting to get into business conversation, it’s an important client, big opportunity. And remember this kid like, background and insurance, right? This guy says, so what are your account minimums? And this kid, like very boldly says, Oh, $25 a month. And the guy's like, what? And so I just remember being so embarrassed. I just jumped, saying, I think he's talking about risk management. Needless to say, we did not get the business. The guy was not impressed by our account minimums being $25. So much of that stuff, and while that's not the craziest and most embarrassing story, I feel like that was like, my first three years in the financial services business. It was those awkward moments, you know. Speaking wise, there's been times where I've just forgotten stuff. I'm in the middle of telling a story, and I forget where I'm going, and I've had to stop and own it in front of a large crowd. That's been pretty embarrassing. Yeah, but man, you'd have to give me more time to think of the really good story, but there's certainly been a lot of them over the years. How about for you, man, if I were to throw that back to you, what's most embarrassing?

 

David DeCelle  54:26

I would say, and I've shared this on a prior episode, but it's really good and I think that you’d get a chuckle out of it. So as I was winding down my financial services practice and getting into consulting, is when I wasn't producing any more revenue on the financial services side. I hadn't yet gotten revenue from consulting yet or entirely took the leap of faith. And as I mentioned, part of that bridge was in the evenings, I would drive with Uber; have a big slice of humble pie and then walk out the door and hop in my car. But I still had responsibility with financial services and reviews and whatnot. So I get this request, and it's like 8:30 at night. And mind you, my business up to this point was primarily insurance based, and I had probably five or six decent wealth management clients. And when I say decent at this point, it was like between 200,000 and probably 800,000 in assets on a per client basis, nothing crazy. And so I get this request, it was like 8:30 at night or so, and I go and pick them up, and they're walking to the car and I'm like, shit, this sucks. It's one of my wealth management clients whom I was managing $300,000 or $400,000 for, and I had a review already scheduled with them two or three weeks later. And I played it off fairly well, because I said, they walked in, they were like, David? I'm like, hey. And they're like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, oftentimes, I'll get reschedules, or whatever, during the day. So since I'm already in the city, I just turned this on and make a couple bucks. And if I'm in the city, I'll just turn it on in the evenings just to pass the time, young and single and nothing else to do. So I feel like I played it off pretty well. And I walk into their house a few weeks later, all suited up, and neither party said a word about it. Like it was just known, like, wow, that was really awkward. So that would probably be my — I mean, trust me, I've done a lot of embarrassing stuff — but that would be probably one of the most embarrassing things that happened to me.

 

Jordan Montgomery  56:40

That's hard to beat, right there. That’s classic. You need to —when you speak, bro, you got to open with that every time.

 

David DeCelle  56:47

Well, there's also plenty of other embarrassing stories, but those are like after-after-after-hours stories, not meant to be recorded; maybe after a few cocktails. Well, Jordan, I appreciate the banter at the end. I appreciate a friendship up to this point; excited to see where this heads throughout the year. I mean, how old are you?

 

Jordan Montgomery

 

David DeCelle

Yeah, 33. I'm 30 years old. So we still got plenty of time on this earth and plenty of time in this profession. So, excited to see where it heads and for now we're gonna sign off. For everyone still listening, appreciate you spending some extra time with us. Hope you got some value. Don't forget to connect with Jordan, connect with me if you're not already connected. Share this, leave a review, go do something great. Be a nice and kind person and be sure to add value outside of the scope of what it is that you get compensated for. So Jordan, thanks again for joining.

 

Jordan Montgomery

David, thanks for having me, man. It's such a blessing to spend time with today, man. Appreciate you.

 

David DeCelle

Awesome. Take care.