338: How He Built 80% of His Business on LinkedIn with Mando Sallavanti III

Not a single day goes by that I don't get an email from an advisor asking about how to get more clients and how to do Prospecting today. I started my business way back in 2004 Literally the year linked in was invented so that's humbling But things have changed a lot in the last 22 years and marketing. It's not my sweet spot So I like to bring on experts that are living in it right now for you guys if you want to learn to build a business That is such a great client experience that you just get referrals. I'm your girl. But prospecting. I'll be honest It's been a minute for me. So this is a real tactical conversation with an advisor who has built a significant portion of their business by showing up consistently and intentionally on social media If you've ever wondered how advisors are actually attracting clients online How much time it really takes and not just any clients, but ideal clients or whether linked in can work without feeling Salesier awkward you are going to love this episode. I'm excited for you to hear this conversation with my friend Mando Salavante Look, I know you're here because you know it's possible to have energy Left over for your family and still have your dream business and you don't know talking about the business that you are running instead of it running you If you're new to the efficient advisor welcome. I'm so glad you're here I'm Libby Gryway and I started built and sold by age 37 a 100% referral only practice that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor all while working just three days a week and taking off 14 weeks a year. I'm here to walk alongside you and to show you how to do the exact same to help you take a Media action on the most important strategies for scaling Organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business We are about to transform your practice together. So move over exhaustion and get out of the way advisor ADD It is time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love And before we dive in one thing that I do want to share is over the holiday break I got so many emails from advisors that have been successfully Implementing Quinn in their business. So if you've ever finished an amazing client meeting and felt so good about how it went and Then had that met sinking feeling of oh my gosh. I have so much follow-up work waiting for me now that I'm done with this meeting All the things the CRM updates the emails the task lists What if I told you there's actually a way to eliminate all of that Quinn an AI assistant built for advisors Automatically does all of the things and it's so much more the note-taking It does take notes, but it drafts follow-up emails handles CRM data entry schedules reminders preps emails It can give you back anywhere from 15 hours to 20 hours every single week And I love it because you can even talk to Quinn while driving and have it handle admin tasks for you while you're on your way to or from the office You can check them out at haquin.io/efficientadvisor That's H-E-Y-Q-U-I-N-D-I-O/efficientAdvisor Trust me. You will wonder how you ever managed without it I've also got that link for you in the show notes and over on the aficionadvisor dot com under resources Now without further ado my conversation with Mando Salavante Mando, welcome to this show. I'm I'm always excited for guests and I am extra excited I feel like I see that every time I have a guest, but I'm really not gonna have on a guest I guess that I'm not extra excited about so that makes sense But this is a very exciting episode for me. So I love systems. I love processes Marketing not my favorite. I mean, it's a fun topic and I love Learning about it, but it's not my sweet spot for advisors. So whenever I have a resource that is just totally crushing it in What feels like an unknown to me, right? I get new advisors all the time Well, how do I go my practice? I'm like I can tell you how to become referral only But how do you actually find people on LinkedIn and do paid ads and social media marketing not my sweet spot? So whenever I find someone like you that has had not only just so much so much success with it But it has this deep willingness to teach other advisors how to grow their business because in all like I was saying before we hit record I'm an old lady. I started my business before LinkedIn even existed as a platform So I had to walk up hill both ways in the snow and the way that it's done now is Completely different than the way it's it was done when I started and Frankly, I didn't have to market the last like 70 years that I was running my business So this is like uncharted territory for me. So I'm always fired up when someone is willing to share their success So thank you so much for being here. Yeah, Libby. Thanks so much for having me really excited to chat today Yeah, it's cool. So tell us your story. How did you become the the mando that you are that the well loved and known all over the LinkedIn Ecosphere mando that you are So I'm gonna give the short version of the long version because it might take up the whole pocket, but I remember growing up like sports or my life, especially football That was my first like thing that I ever was like, oh my god I have a passion about this and played through high school, played in college I wasn't good enough to go to the NFL But I was planning on going over to Europe playing professionally and there's some leagues over there You can play in and they'll pay for you to live you'll make some money You're not gonna be filthy rich, but like you're playing a sport for a living. So that was my plan Flashback to college then it's 2020. I was interning in financial services planning to get into this business I get sent home from school because of COVID. So now we're sent home from school I'm finishing up college that year and I start buying and reselling sneakers on Instagram and this will circle back to LinkedIn in a second, but I start buying and selling sneakers on Instagram I was doing a hundred pairs a month in my peak and That was the first time ever. I got a taste of entrepreneurship, which is like I can provide a product or service Put out information and market myself online and a random stranger will buy from me and I can make money So that was like mind blowing that that even Even even being like at the time even being 22 years old and growing up with social media when that that was happening Like it was still just bizarre to me. So I graduate in December Football was put on the shelf. My senior season got canceled I'm like I'm not going back for a six-year in college like So let's get in the finance like let's rip the bandit off We all got to hang our cleats up at some point so I get started in finance and actually Libby I grew my business to start the same way that like I think everyone old school does I called call I joined every chamber of commerce I'm already make a list of a hundred people you know all the things I was going in networking events like I was asking for referrals Anytime any place like I was doing all those things. I was even trying like direct mail stuff like I was doing it all I actually was good at some of that and got my business off the ground got a good base of like 25 30 clients my first year and I'm like all right like there's some evidence here. I could build this the problem was in my second year in business And I know you're you're the systems and processes person like I felt like I had no system or process for marketing And I'm like I don't know where my next client's coming from so how am I going to run a business and actually help the people I have when I don't know how I'm going to continue to make more money and like support myself so At that time I start investing in myself courses coaches listening to podcasts anything I get information on and Actually stuff outside of our industry because I felt like no one in our industry is doing social media marketing and this was Early 2022 by the way for context on timeline like why it's and there probably was people But I was not being exposed to anybody who was doing anything with social media So I thought back to sneakers. I'm like, why am I not doing that in this industry? Let me find people and under in other industries who were doing it take that to this industry because you know the saying goes like Financial services is 10 years behind banking. Who's 10 years behind everybody else so I start on LinkedIn that year in 2022 I got seven clients and I I said to myself I'm like if I could get seven I could get 70 like there's enough proof here I just need to continue to work and refine and that's kind of the backstory on how it got started Present day we're recording right now. It's December of 2025 Over 80% of my business and 80% of my current client client base has come directly from LinkedIn and not like Oh, I knew them from high school or they were my parents friend or like my uncle or something like it's like total strangers That live in Austin, Texas and I'm in Scranton, Pennsylvania are my clients now. Yeah, that's wild I always think that you know I always think it's so interesting. I'm I'm 43 so I'm like an old lady now and It still blows my mind that strangers on the internet will sign up for like a 10-month program with me And I've never met them. We didn't have to do a big extensive sales call like I'm such a believer than if you do it well So I'm I mean, I'm like here to take all the notes like secretly this actually recording is just selfishly me getting some free coaching from you Um and then happening to put it on my podcast and use it to better so 80% Our strangers on the internet who are now doing business with you and I'm going to assume but correct me if I'm wrong that these are ideal clients for you Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean and I'll also paint that picture because I know a lot of people might be like Well, what does that even look like for me personally and I think you know There's gonna be people who listen they'll implement what we're about to talk about in the next couple minutes and Beyond and they're gonna get higher network people than I work with there'll be other people who might be on the lower end, right? I think it does depend on like where you're at in your business and who you actually are qualified to help in a track because My ideal client right now and who I really have in my wheelhouse. They're making three to five hundred thousand dollars They've got about a million bucks investable assets. I mean, I have clients above that of course I have clients below that of course, but like generally the wheelhouse three to five hundred K of income Million bucks of assets 40 to 45 years old like that's what I'm typically working with with that said I've had the 40 million dollar people that reach out to me I've had the 60 million dollar people that reach out to me from LinkedIn quite frankly I think when I had some of those conversations I just wasn't qualified and I dropped the ball. It wasn't because you find those people on LinkedIn Yeah, okay, I love that so what's in the secret sauce? So how do we Go from I know I need to get more clients and I need to attract a deal clients to Holy smokes 80% of my new clients are coming in from social media So first things first I remember what I started and I would look at people who were building social media businesses And I'm like how could I ever do that or become that Don't judge your day one off of someone else's day 1000 quite quite literally I've been doing this every day and when I say every day I have not missed one day For over 1200 days like I think that's important to know because There are just benefits you get from a certain marketing strategy with longevity that you do not get when you're just starting And I'm not ignorant to that so I need to be be clear on that if anything that's Motivation that you should do this for an extended period of time now with that being said Let's think about marketing in general If we are not even marketing psychology in general If I don't know who I'm trying to attract How could I ever attract them that's like walking into a pizza shop and being like Make me a pizza with the exact topping I want but you have to guess It's like maybe maybe they'll give you the right thing that you want Maybe they won't and that's actually more generous of an example than what the reality is So I'm a firm believer first things first used to be super clear and who you're trying to attract And that's I know like I gave the example of age income investible assets We all do that as advisors like that's the thing that we all think about like who we work with and why we're working with them Maybe we think of occupation, but are you thinking about what their fears are What their frustrations are what their wants are what their aspirations are fears frustrations wants and aspirations of your ideal client if you take nothing away from this recording and you're listening to this That's the one thing that you do and you integrate it into all of your marketing you will get more clients in the next 12 months Now here's what I mean by that Most advisors myself included when I started on marketing what are they post Here's the like I remember when the secure act 2.0 past I sat 9,000 post Oh the secure act 2.0 past and like this is what you need to do and know about your taxes and blah blah blah blah blah Okay, you're now Google you're now CNBC articles like nobody is hiring you off that You know what you just became the best source for DIY investors who are never going to pay you To come get information like quite frankly because that's those are the people that even like and read that stuff They might appear as your ideal client by job title they might appear that way by their like experience But they're not going to buy from you because the people who will buy from you as an advisor are just not consuming that stuff Most clients the best ones that I work with at least in my experience They want to save time and they want to optimize and they don't want to be bothered with the minutia of it So how you do that is you focus on emotions in the marketing you're putting out in content in the messages you send The way you design your profile the way you design your website like everything you do Okay, I love that so in our like in the official advisor world We call it ideal client avatar work and and it's it's funny because when this episode airs in January I'm thinking of like three or four episodes that I've recorded that will come up between now and then where it was successful advisors Who have like five x their business in a short period of time or three x or Had some sort of crazy growth All of them have mentioned this ideal client avatar work and it's funny because when we do our group coaching program It's one of the first things what we do and I always tell people it's like the iRoll work that everyone's like oh That's like so woo woo or fluffy or like liby get to the process that's gonna save me the time right now And I cannot underscore enough how important this foundational work is so thank you for Highlighting that again and going a little bit deeper into like what are the qualitative qualities that these people have like What have their experiences with advisors been before what missteps of other advisors taken at maybe we need to Work walk them through or work around or show them how it's gonna be different. What are they afraid of what are how do they make buying decisions All what are their collective experiences built up into that so I love it. So we need to start with a foundational who am I trying to reach and then building all of our messaging to that So two and two things I want to add to that because I think these are really important points right like what are the things that you can You can say in content or in marketing or in storytelling that you do that You're not calling out your ideal client, but they are the only person that can read it and know it like That's me. So here's an example. Yes, you you write a post And you're speaking directly to the ideal client and and you're like You open your email up It's your your first thing you do when you get to the office and it's the tuition receipt for your kids college You know the next one is coming in six months and now you're thinking to yourself What do you do because the lack of planning you've done is caught up to you? You don't want your kid to take loans and now you're left with a choice take the loans or borrow from your 401k or take a withdrawal And like I'm spitballing this right now Like the higherner who didn't plan and they have this big shot job that they know that they should be able to cover college for the kid But they didn't plan because they can't that's a big fear that that person has or yeah, or you can plan the aspirations of like You're at the world series. It's game three and you're there with one of your best friends like the type of person That's at the world series is probably the person that makes $500,000 a year has a million investible ask like you get the point So it's like what are those little things that you could bake into your content that don't say You make $500,000 a year and you're this person But when you drop that little line it calls them out that they resonate with it So you're saying if I'm working with um People who just graduate like like um the current generation just graduating from college. I shouldn't say when you step off your g5 Exactly exactly right Okay, so using some language that would resonate with those individuals. Yeah, I'm like if you're targeting you're targeting first time home buyers It could be like you're scrolling Zillow you've saved up some good money, but you don't really know what house You should be looking at like who am I calling out? I'm calling out probably the 30-year-old that's a Henry That's making good money. They don't really have a lot saved. They're unsure what direction to go like Everything we're doing is is speaking to someone and and repelling another group always Okay, I love that what else Um, what else as far as what like oh how else they're like so okay? So what else do we need to know? So I see a know who you're talking to bake in that emotion into your posts. Oh, yeah I think just like one more thing on that the Like you said people think it's woo woo like pine the sky like to do that stuff It's funny how the same people that refuse to do that people that I've coached over the past Three years that I've been even helping other advisors like integrate marketing strategies The ones who won't do it are the ones who don't get clients and then are like it's not work And I'm doing everything that and it's like when we get into the first most important step So that's key and like integrating that in the content and marketing is key. Don't get me wrong But your activity is actually everything because who's going to see your stuff if you're just starting from day one And like sure you could have the perfect post calling out the perfect client and your spot on But if no one sees it, it doesn't matter. It's in the void So the comments that you make in outbound is important the messages you make outbound are really important um You know, I'd about to go on a little bit of a tangent But I think it's relevant to what we're talking about. So I'm going to rip on this because this is go This is like you want to get content. This is how It's not about I make a post and people come find me do I get inbound leads to my business. Yes, I do Is that the expectation that even I have at this point? No, it is not Everything I'm doing. It's like a flywheel so that my profile helps me my content helps you I comment tell me messages help me they all play together. So here's what I mean by that You have your ideal client defined. Let's just like make an assumption that we already did that We did that work because we've listened to Libby's podcast and we know how important that is and we're like all right Let me like I'm in you got me finally. I did it. Cool. Now we're at this point Your profile should be designed that everything on there is hard selling your ideal client Like if they click your profile, they should know like How is this guy in my head right now? And there's a lot of components so you have your banner which is like the the rectangular photo at the top That's valuable real estate where you can call out a dream outcome your client wants what you provide like stuff like that Your headline knows probably the most important your headline the first 50 characters go everywhere you go on LinkedIn Yes, on other people's posts on your posts and this is the key 50 characters on mobile most people are using it on mobile 50 on desktop. It's more than 50 characters to go everywhere you go But on mobile it's only going to be 50 for the most part might be like 52 But 50 is an easy number to go off. So like mine. It's I think right now it says crushing quota But bad with money Question mark click here. So I work with business to business sales executives They all have quotas that they're trying to hit and If that's then they're bad with money, but they cross their quota That's a higher order that needs help with the financial planning. Click here. Click my profile. Now here's why that's key What I'm doing. I'm going out and I'm commenting on influencers that I know my deal clients follow I'm also commenting on people who quite frankly are ideal clients and their content creators And then by doing this on a weekly basis I'm giving myself more exposure to that market So if I can just drop a comment that adds to the discussion on these posts on a weekly basis I view it like a call list almost but it's like a comment list like I know the creators in my niche I'm going to go comment on their posts That's going to get me exposure my headline of the 50 characters is going to be there If that resonates with them, which I know it does that's going to get people to view my profile Hopefully they look at my content. Maybe they engage with that maybe those people I'm supporting engage with my content That's going to get me more people. So now last thing before I tie this up and I'm sure we got follow up Bear with me one second LinkedIn premium lets you see who views your profile Also when you get the traffic because you've gotten out you've taken activity And people are now looking at you because they're like who's this Mondo guy like let me check him out Your likes and your comments on your posts Profile viewers likes and comments. I can message them and say hey liby thanks for viewing my profile Were you just stopping by to check out the content or was there something particular on your mind? I can just give a simple question like that The post I could say hey liby thanks for liking my post about Um saving on taxes. Is that because it's something you're thinking about actively or are you just supporting the content? And what's really important here? I have a relevant reason to reach out to them number one So if they're not interested guess what I don't do well. I don't burn the bridge because 99% of advisors are marketing to 95% of the market that is not ready to buy they're burning a bridge that that person might have been ready in five months But they're not ready now, but now the bridge is burnt So when we reach out with relevance because of these actions we've taken before We don't burn bridges. We can still get clients and we can continue to build good well with our network Okay, so I love that so my brain rate goes right to the process behind it like how much time you spent on LinkedIn are you the one doing The messaging what is is it a copy and paste kind of thing? What does this look like? Yeah, so the the short answer is like When I give this I want to give this as a prelude to it actually okay People will always tell me that's way too much time. I don't know if that time to spend on LinkedIn and like I would defer to that and say What time do you spend on prospecting? Because is there any prospecting strategy that you do that would not require a time commitment for some reason people think LinkedIn should be like I just set it up two minutes a day and yeah, and it's like two minutes and it works like not the case With that said it's gonna sound like much less time after I've kind of braced for what I'm about to say I spent seven hours a week like it's an hour a day and Quite frankly if you don't have that to put into a strategy I don't know how you could expect it to work that would be bizarre to ever think that like seven at anything Like even less than that right? So I comment for an hour a day on weekdays and then on weekends. I spend two hours Creating my content for the week and it's okay. That's good. It's I'll still post on weekends But I don't really comment on weekends because it's just like weekends are a little more dead on LinkedIn I've found and I just post still because I have OCD about my posting streak that I haven't missed in like 1200 days If I didn't have that OCD, I probably wouldn't post on weekends But like average person starting off if you make a post on every weekday You go on every weekday when you post like I would suggest posting at 8 a.m. Eastern time That's when most people are active you post at 8 a.m. 8 to 9 you're on their commenting like I don't know Libby, but my clients Every time I schedule an 8 a.m. meeting anyways like these people reschedule on me Maybe it's just my clients But I think like no one likes an 8 a.m. meeting. So like use that for your LinkedIn time anyways. Yeah fact Okay, so I love this And I will say this in defense of your seven hours a week. I have seen advisors Waste a lot more time than that on a lot dumber things that don't actually move the needle or do Anything inside of their business So everyone could just open their phone right now go look at their screen time And look for all the dumb stuff that you waste a lot of Not productive time on and there you go. There's your seven hours a week By the way, cut it in half. It's three and a half hours a week Maybe LinkedIn because LinkedIn doesn't need to be your number on lead source like it is mine It drives 80% of my business and I'm spending seven hours a week like maybe you're spending three and You now get five new clients a year on LinkedIn. Would that really be so bad. Right. I love it. Okay. Okay. I love this So and then I heard you say between 8 and 9 a.m. is kind of your posting time And are you doing you're you're creating your content on the weekends and then you're scheduling it to leak throughout the week Okay, so what goes into you tell me a little bit about your content that you're creating so is there Strategy is it whatever Amanda feels like talking about in the moment like what goes into the actual content that you've seen High engagement or high success with So so with marketing we have to first understand like there's three types of content you have with three types with three different goals You have top of funnel content Which is I want to get new people in my world like I want to fill the funnel. That's why it's called top of funnel Middle of funnel content is where we're building authority building trust building that leadership That's middle funnel and this is like I have people in my funnel I want to build more trust with them and I want to have a better relationship So this is where you're going to share personal stories. This is where you're going to share like educational type stuff Which I already said earlier like I don't necessarily recommend like making educational content Because you're just going to track DIY people for the most part But it has its place to mix it in for sure like it doesn't hurt to mix in and you definitely want to so I'll do that bottom of funnel was like I do this This is how many people I've taken on for it if you want the thing take this action and buy it That's few and far between but that's a bottom of funnel is now how I think about it Think about your audience's goodwill as a battery that you need to recharge So if I'm giving giving giving giving giving I'm charging the battery up like that's a lot of goodwill that I'm building when I then drop the hammer and I pay I'm taking some goodwill off the table in exchange for dollars Sure The ratio if we think of a scale and like one side You know like those like old-fashioned like Greek mythology scales. I don't even know what they're what they're called But I think everyone listening probably is like an idea when everyone knows exactly when you talk about it, right? so With that like you never want the goodwill ratio to be out of your favor So how you you get in that position you actually could pitch with your audience is Do the top of funnel content to get people in your world? This is like the motivational inspirational aspirational type of stuff Do the stuff that builds trust that educates them and tells personal stories about your background and like Client stories about what you've done with clients do that stuff that should be the majority of it And then maybe you drop the hammer once every 10 days once every two weeks where you're like this is what I'm doing I personally I love this saying is from Alex Marmosi. He says the bigger the playing the longer the runway So it's like the bigger the weight the longer or the bigger the ask the longer the weight So I don't like to make a bottom of funnel type post more than once every like two months or so Because I think when I do it then it's more effective all the while in between then I'm gonna do outreach I'm gonna message people have you my profile privately and message people like posts But I'm not losing goodwill with my audience in general when I'm doing that private. So that's kind of the hack But where are the ideas coming from because everyone asked this Well, the number of place they should come from are your client meetings What are your clients asking you questions about what are your clients telling you they're concerned about what are situations you're helping with clients Like I wrote a post the other day. It was opposed about kinds of mine that Back in February they closed on it. It had been something we're working on for a couple years They bought a second home into little Mexico I had never helped a client buy a property out of the United States. I'm like guys. I don't I've never done this Well, let's go over there, but like I'm gonna use my network and I'm gonna figure it out I'm gonna get the right people involved. So long story short I did and like they bought it and it was all good and like we saved them money and like it was great It was just like one of the coolest things I've ever done as an advisor in my opinion, but I told that story Like that's a cool story to tell an action without giving up an anonymity of your clients Of course like there's a right way to do it and I think I should like very strongly say like use your judgment and like be smart here But client stories are great personal stories are great Tell about your life tell about the things you do I talk about my travel we travel a ton I talk about it a lot why because I'm gonna continue to do that You know, I don't want the client who's like the armchair quarterback like this guy's managing my money And he's on vacation again and like I want to work with those people. So guess what? Like my content's gonna repel you before you could even get on my calendar Enter ideal client avatar is probably wanting to travel and do those kinds of things. Exactly. Yeah Yeah, so so when I talk about like we were in London and we did XYZ Well, guess what the half a million dollars sales executive would a million bucks investible. They're doing the same thing Okay, sorry to interrupt But I often get asked Libby if you were still running an advisory business today What would some of the tools and things that you would be using if you were doing your business now And if we're going to talk about efficiency, right? You wouldn't build a financial plan without a very clear Visible of your client's entire financial picture, right? I personally would use asset map to keep myself Super organized and to be able to see all of my clients Complex data in one easy to understand interactive snapshot It helps you engage clients drive better decisions Emboost efficiency in every meeting if you want to streamline your practice and deliver more value in less time Make sure you check out asset map today at acid dash map dot com slash Libby asset map reimagining financial planning Okay, so we've all been on an AI journey together and I know I know all of this AI and integrating it into your practice can feel super overwhelming And we all know how important it is, right? AI is transforming how financial advisors work It's streamlining everything from client onboarding to communications to meetings to creating deliverables for you I mean gosh, you can even use it to write your investment policy statements and so much more at Bimo automation They do it all for you. It's a done for you customized solution Founded by a former advisor So instead of an off the shelf we're trying to connect things together, which all are totally cool and have their place If you want something totally custom tailored to your unique needs you need to check out Bimo automation And as an efficient advisor listener Because you're awesome you get to visit bimo automation dot com slash efficient advisor To get a free consultation and complimentary AI blueprint for your business You will not regret sitting down and having someone map out all of the things that AI could be doing for you in your business It's all like you get what I'm saying and start to tie together but with content strategy It's like charge up the battery extract some goodwill charge up the battery extract some goodwill And do the messaging in between to people who view the profile like the post comment on the posts Okay, I love that so question Video still images text only are we doing a variety is there something what do you know? Do you have the secrets to the linked in algorithm? It's really what I'm trying to get to you here So it changes it changes all the time. Okay, I could tell you liby like a year ago like fall of 24 If you posted a video and sneezed in the right direction that thing was getting half a million views like it was crazy They like open this video tab. It was a new thing and they were pushing video like crazy Like I had some mega viral videos like almost a million views on multiple videos on LinkedIn That's amazing. Yeah, I'm linked in so like but they were good. They were like the tick-tockification of the world They're like we're going in on this and they were active like I know some people from LinkedIn directly like they were like telling us like This is happening Then like February of this year, they're like oh, yeah, just kidding actually like never mind And then they got rid of the video tab this year like it's gone now um So with that said should you post video just on that topic Yes, why well if I post a video and I'm in the setting that I'm in with clients I'm wearing what I typically wear with clients. You hear my voice You see my mannerisms. I'm Italian and throw my hands around. It's amazing. I didn't break my own nose yet in this recording But like you see all these things you're more comfortable with me You trust me more why there's one less variable or three less variables that you don't have to be uncertain about Let's think about as advisors when people get in calls with us the most uncertain anxious Scared person is probably the prospect if they're not like we've got bigger problems on the advisor side But they're the most uncertain anxious scared person So people who are uncertain anxious and scared don't make decisions They definitely don't become your clients one of the ways you can remove that barrier without having to come up with some report talk that isn't even genuine Is that they're already are comfortable with like your voice mannerisms and environment So video is valuable for that reason in my opinion It's not Gonna be what brings new people in your world unfortunately, but it is gonna build trust so Off that point text only I have found has actually been doing really good. It seems LinkedIn is pushing that that's been A surprise of mine. I'm always testing things by the way like even if I've never done something like I'm just gonna try stuff and like see what sticks sometimes once or twice a week Because they do change it often. It's funny how it happens and then lastly like I think if you look at my content and anyone listening that has seen my stuff before you'll know like Bro, why do you post selfies all the time? You're always posting pictures with your wife like I do that for not the reason they like to look at myself. Let's like get that out in the air I do it because if you're a prospect and you have seen my face 47 times You're gonna get on a call with me and be like there's that guy with too much pomade in his hair and a big nose and super glasses Like that's that's what you're gonna see though So that's why I do that with photos a lot of the times and I found text plus a photo Is the best format, but also I've had some text only post that like go crazy too Okay, I love that so we've got three types of content. We've got top of the funnel Which is that motivational inspirational aspirational we've got that middle stuff which is building authority and trust It's personal it's educational and then we've got that bottom of the funnel, which is the direct I've heard it called like indirect and direct and you're you know making sure we're balancing that old-timey Greek scale love that and you're using your weekdays To comment and then weekends to craft the content. I love all of this so far. So Okay, so I'm a client. I see your content You reach out to me and say hey where you just stop and buy now is this you're doing all of this in your hour week I am it's me doing all of it and like my LinkedIn time is that hour in the morning So you know again, I probably spend seven hours There's weeks that I spend another two three four hours on it just because I'm like I am gonna put some more like same Say we got through we typically I think a lot of advisors go through this but for me especially my business will be like We bring in five clients in a month and then we have like a month where it's like all right We didn't bring in any new because we're like implementing a lot of stuff with client Sure, and then the next month we're like all right We got to fill the calendar again. So like if it's like a filled calendar type of time I'm probably gonna spend more than seven hours But for the most part that's what I spend it is all me right now With that said I would suggest like I don't care who you are and like how successful you are if you if you want to make this a part of your business I don't know how you could delegate it without doing it yourself at least for like a little bit Because you won't understand it and then you're just gonna throw money at a problem and burn it quite frankly You could get lucky and get someone who's absolutely amazing, but Even for me like now when eventually I'm gonna hit a critical mass where I need to delegate parts of it I don't think I'll ever delegate the whole thing But I'm gonna need to delegate parts of it eventually like I'm not stupid and I know that but I'm gonna be able to delegate that much more effectively because I have done it and I'm gonna know exactly what to look for Right, okay, so I love it So I send you you send me a note and you say where you just stop and buy what if I respond to like Yeah, your post was just super entertaining just you know just pop it over know like Oh, that's a tech strategy that I was really considering. How do you respond to that? I'm not gonna push like I'm I'm a believer like I'm probably awful at sales for this reason And I say that completely You're doing this right I'm completely saying that with sarcasm Because I just don't believe in turning nose into yeses like if you want to buy for me There's too many people out there who want to and like right we work with 75 households doing financial planning right now Like that's a lot our team I've hired two new people to my team this year like we're gonna scale and like bring more people in and whatnot But besides the point if we had 150 it's like At that point, it's like how much more do we really need to get the business where we want it to go unless we're continuing to hire and scale That's another story, but just present day. It's like we did another 50 people we worked with like we'd be rocking and rolling no doubt So anyways off of that point How many people do you really need don't try to turn the nose into yeses just keep moving on and it's cliche, but like I think too many advisors don't have pipeline So they try to turn the nose into yeses and they try to make everyone a prospect and everyone a client It's just not the way to go about it now. I will tell you this because there is like a colder way that I reach out to people as well And this is really tactical that I'm about to get, but I think it's relevant to like where we're at in the conversation right now LinkedIn, let's you send out roughly a hundred connection requests every week make a search dial it down that it's like who your ideal clients would look like on LinkedIn Rip out connection requests on a weekly basis send out 20 of them a day with no no by the way, just a blank request It was out 20 a day you get your hundred and by the end of the week day it probably took you less than five minutes a day now If you go to the my network tab there's a manage connections It'll show you everyone who's accepted a request in order of most recently added So why is that important another way I can message people is say Libby thanks for connecting looks at your profile saw that you're a VP of sales at xyz company Remind me of a conversation I have with my client Steve last week who also is a VP of sales different company But before he started working with us, he was struggling with this problem We helped him by giving him this solution and this was the outcome Are you just here to be connected or is this something that's on your radar at all like it was for Steve Now a couple names here. I'm building the message with points of relevance So the point of relevance is you connected with me the second point of relevance is you're the same occupation as a client That I've recently spoke to and you remind me of them Third point of relevance. This is where we're fishing we're throwing out hooks and hopefully we're getting we're getting a fish on the line Problem solution framework Guess how I know what my problem solution framework is that's going to be most effective or giving me the best shot Take the number one problem of the ideal client profile that you've done really well to articulate and define use that and if they don't have the problem Guess what they're probably not your ideal client. So that's when you move to the next person But you can do this and now you've reached out with three points of relevance You give them an easy out are you just here to be connected easy out regardless of old sales tactics I don't believe in the whole are you free the beginning or end of the week. I don't believe in that I don't I don't think it feels sleazy like I don't like it so Are you just here to be connected easy out if you are tell me it's cool like we could be friends I got I don't need every person in the world to be my client or Is that on your radar at all? Is this something you're thinking about notice that the easy in is not Do you want a book of meaning with me? It's just are you thinking about it because now if you show interest I can say Libby Where do you feel like you might need support with that What's your main focus with that right now? Tell me more about that. Oh actually when you said that it reminded me of this kind Joe and this is what we did with Joe. Yeah, by the way like Tell me more about this and now I'm having a conversation and when we go back and forth a couple of times They tell me a little more. I've probably qualified them because I've gotten more information through my questioning I can say hey Libby are you open to a suggestion? Yeah, man. What's up? Now I might send the voice note because I could do that on my phone Let's just get 20 minutes on the calendar. I want to ask some more questions I think we can help you like I said we talked about Joe and Steve like your situation feels similar to theirs And if it is there's probably a lot we could do here But I just want to make sure we're fit and I'd love to invest some time together if that's cool with you Would that be absolutely insane to do that? They're gonna say no and now you got a meeting Did it take you an extra 10 minutes to book the meeting compared to a cold call that they answer and then you book it? Yes Are you that much higher likely to actually convert the client and are there and not waste time on a call? Absolutely I love that okay, so that's an amazing and I'm assuming is it kind of a similar response when someone's just Commentating you're like hey you just hanging out here. Is that something you like you just kind of keep that same Yeah, like vibe to it start a conversation with them exactly like sometimes if I'm like hey thanks review of my profile Or you just checking it out or was there a particular reason like Usually when they answer if they don't give me a lot they'll be like Well, like I've been you know thinking about how to manage my money better Like that's been something sometimes and it could just be cool like what are you focused on there? Can you tell me more? And I just want to be curious like we we have to detach from the outcome of booking the meeting and just be curious to like Hey prove to me that like I should even pursue having you on my calendar But in a tasteful way obviously, you know what I mean? Yeah, okay. I love that Okay, so now we've got our content. We've got our types of content. We've got our strategy We've got the time organized on the calendar. We've got our language down What how do you how now I know you've built a community for advisors to help them Crush their LinkedIn marketing strategy. How do you actually like Strip like where would an advisor start? So if an advisor is like hey, I have never even taken a look at LinkedIn Um, I have a LinkedIn profile. Not sure if it's any good. Don't even know what my headline is Field cheesy. Where would an advisor start? Is it The profile picture? Is it the headline? Is it the like where would we even like what's the baseline before we dive into starting to try to message people? Where do we start? So number one, get your Password from your assistant because they probably So now that you have your password and your assistant is no longer the gatekeeper over that um But seriously and you turn off all the canned content that's coming from hearsay. Okay. Yeah, like get get get the campaigns off um anyways Where you start like it goes it up being said, but it is important like have a professional headshot in our industry Like I think everybody has one but like if you don't have a professional headshot, it really doesn't matter It is a first impression. It's something small but it matters Next build your ideal client profile. There are some amazing ways you can leverage AI to help you iterate off of this I would suggest brainstorming there in my community like we have a whole process for this with AI that we use And I'm sure you probably even have something similar because I know you said you guys do some exercises But like I would leverage AI like cloud or chat you be tea or what I have perplexity to help you brainstorm and get in the mind of your ideal client That's the next thing you want to do I would I would third in that process because you're going to come up with the emotions that they're feeling the demographics that they are But you want to come up with what I call like three big problems and solutions Because these are the things that you're going to use in your profile in your outreach in your messaging Like they're all going to be really important that you're speaking to the right person So once you've done this pre-work Design your profile that it speaks to the ideal client In the second tense I think it would be considered like using the word you your you don't want to use they them we Most people many people you always want to be like you your you your It's going to feel really awkward because you're going to feel like oh, I feel like I'm like Calm people out and it's like yeah because you are and that's the problem because if someone doesn't read your stuff and it's like Is she talking to me? They're not going to reach out to you they have to feel that to reach out to you And that's like that's where people want their cake and they want to eat it too They want no one wants to be seen and everyone wants to be super private But they want to get all their business from social media. It's like you can't have a both way We got to open ourselves up in order for people to open up to us Um, but the pro like I do a client profile building out your profile like those are the first two things Third, just go comment like don't even make content just go on the platform try to find people in your niche market That are creating content great way to do this A few sales navigator you can make a search do it by job title do it by geography So you know they're in the US if you're in the US if you're in Canada So you know they're in Canada if you're in another country etc because of our boundaries with loss Once you do that you can toggle on posted on LinkedIn in last 30 days So now you've list well last 30 days doesn't help you because if they posted 29 days ago But like they post once every three months Well good because they're clearly not active But once you have this list on sales navigator you can click the profile of the person And then scroll down to their activity and it'll show you their recent two posts So if you see someone who's like they posted yesterday and they posted three days ago like there's a good chance There's someone that's active So find, call it a group of 10 of those people start interacting with their stuff Learning like the language of the platform But in interacting with them because they're active creators guess what they probably have People who interact with them who are also your ideal clients Now you can find their profile and it starts to become a snowball effect Like it's a heavy lift up front and then it gets easier or simpler I should say So I would start there learn the platform you've got your ideal client you build your profile You start commenting so you could just learn the platform a little bit And like that's where you want to start Then you maybe start rolling on content then you start messaging people because it's relevant But it's not overnight like you don't have to do this tomorrow And I think the good news is like you're already a successful advisor You're probably adding this as a compliment Don't think that it needs to become everything you do because it probably shouldn't and doesn't It's just something that at first like could I get an extra client a month Like that's probably the way I would look at it to start Smart okay, I like it. I like it So the kind of the key themes which to me are no surprise but consistency Intentionality Yeah, and just keep showing up and doing the thing over and over and over again because it'll work Yeah, yeah But also it remember insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result So okay, fair play fair play So our consistent and you are just doing it and you're not getting results like We got to evaluate what's going on here. What have we got to change? Okay, so let me let me let me totally take that back. We're going to rephrase. We're going to say consistency Intentionality and actually measuring And looking at the data. Okay. Okay. Awesome. And you help advisors do all of those inside of your community. Yes Yes, so my community's followers the fact finders It's literally followers to factfinders.com and we do two live calls a month for an hour Basically on a different topic that either I'm coaching directly or I'm bringing someone in who I know is legit and a good marketing mind What I love about it. They're often not people from our industry So like we're getting a lot of that good marketing stuff that like just hasn't hit our industry Now I do get people in the industry, but like you get enough of that for me So like let's get a voice from outside of it Anyways, though, there's a community where you get help from other advisors We've got over 80 people in there right now. We just launched in September and It's all about how do you use social media to to get more prospects on your calendar and fill your pipe on? Okay, awesome because we get this question a lot right like I I want to Prospect more. I want to bring people in and I'm always really really transparent that that's not my sweet spot Like that is because I started my business back when you had to walk up hill both ways in the snow and all the things Like that is not what I do and I love finding a great resource for advisors that's affordable and effective So thank you for doing that. I will make sure we drop all of the information for that in the show notes below Or you can find it in a weekly email that goes along with this episode Anything else advisors need to know is there any other wisdom you want to drop on us before we wrap The question that always stumps me Here's here's the thing I'll say right like it's back on the point that I actually made a few minutes ago Just remember if you're not willing to open yourself up to other people They're never going to open themselves up to you if you want john smith who lives in Miami, Florida making two million dollars a year to hire You whoever you are living in let's just use me and scrant and pennsylvania Like up here on east coast like I'm he's never going to hire me if he doesn't know my background If he doesn't know about my family if he doesn't know about like what I've struggled with and went through and like client stories like you got to talk about all this stuff it's it's It's you're never going to get traction if you don't open yourself up So if you're not someone that's willing to open yourself up to the world like social media is not going to be for you And by the way, that's okay because I know a lot of advisors who are way more successful than me that like they haven't even sniffed their social media profiles But if you want it to work got to open yourself up Okay, I love that so this is just another iron in the fire that could be one of your marketing approaches I love the idea of just baby stepping your way into it just start with like I'm a big fan of taking Okay, the goal is to use linkedin to Produce new clients for my business and how do we break that down into teeny tiny steps? So even if it's just upload update and upload the dang head you know the headshot today and then tomorrow have a convo with chat gpt about your headline And then the next day update your bio Clean up your work history make it relevant make it fun and then work on your first post like breaking it down into teeny tiny baby steps So thank you so much what you have built on linkedin not only is it fun to watch as a consumer of your content But it's so inspiring to see how you've actually just really Maximize embrace and utilize the platform to grow your connections Not just in the financial planning space, but how you built this community outside of financial services that can then pour into the advisors that you work with So I love what you're doing keep up the great work and thank you so much for your generosity and sharing this information with us today Libby, thank you Okay, I loved that conversation. He is just such a great guy and I hope this episode it gave you a fresh perspective On what is possible with linkedin when you approach it with clarity when you approach it with consistency And when you approach it with a real understanding of who it is that you're trying to serve you can go way back to episode number 12 Where I dig into no episode number 10 where I dig into ideal client avatar. It has a download start there And you know if you're listening and thinking oh my gosh this seems like a lot the good news is you don't have to do it all at once That's the whole point right you can take these small intentional teeny tiny steps to start working towards something like what Mando has built and built and then always as always you can find the links and the resources mentioned in today's episode In the show notes or in the weekly email that goes along with this episode and in there I've got the link for Mando's community for you if you're wanting to build this with some guidance so make sure you check that out Every single week I am just so honored that you choose to spend your time with me you guys are the reason that I do this The reason that I show up twice a week So I will see you in the next episode I will see you over on linkedin and over on the official advisor community on Facebook And for those of you that are joining us this Thursday for our kickoff for the systems to scale group coaching program I am so excited for this group We are going to make 2026 your most effective and your most efficient year ever Thanks so much and I hope you have an amazing rest of your week