Guest: Benjamin Brandt, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and Founder/President of Capital City Wealth Management, a Bismarck, ND fee-only financial planning company. Benjamin is also the host of the Retirement Starts Today Radio podcast and co-host of The Least Boring Tax Podcast.

In a Nutshell: Many advisors think about tech and marketing in terms of “more”: more reach, more productivity, more clients, more AUM. But lately I’ve been asking myself and my coaching clients: Isn’t part of the promise of our all-digital, AI-driven future supposed to be “less” time grinding away at the office and “more” time living your life?

That depends on what kind of service you want to deliver, what size firm you want, and how you want to spend your time. Some RIA CEOs are going to pump productivity gains right back into the business and keep trying to “add a zero.” Others, like my guest today, are going to be very intentional about maintaining both high-touch service for a specific niche of clients and healthy work-life balance for themselves and their team members.

On today’s show, Benjamin Brandt and I discuss his podcast marketing funnel, his unique approach to accepting and onboarding new clients, and how he’s leveraging technology to optimize the efficiency of his firm.

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.Benjamin Brandt and I discuss:

  • Why Benjamin only accepts new clients from his podcast audience and in limited cohorts.
  • How a “surge meeting schedule” in the spring and fall delivers exceptional year-round service to Benjamin’s clients and reduces advisor burnout.
  • The importance of setting “impossible” goals and how Benjamin plans to achieve “a meaningful impact on 1 million retirements.”
  • Why Benjamin doesn’t want to double the size of his firm even though he knows he could.
  • Learning to focus on leadership tasks as you grow into an RIA leader.
  • Marketing your firm’s message rather than the “face of the firm.”
  • Why Benjamin “graduates” clients if he feels his firm no longer delivers enough value for their fees.
  • How Benjamin uses content creation and stand-up comedy to “be a student of the game” and improve his communication skills.
  • Achieving qualitative and quantitative 10X in business and life.

Resources Related to This Episode

  • How to Start a Financial Advisor Podcast I hosted this roundtable with advisors who have successfully used podcasting to create more valuable content and grow their client bases.
  • Explosive YouTube Growth Strategy James Conole explains how he coordinated his YouTube channel, podcast, and website to create a lead-generating machine that in 12 months attracted $120 million in new AUM.