Yohance Harrison, CEO of Money Script Wealth Management, has built a successful firm with over 300 households. Over 2/3 of his current book of business can be traced back to just one person. In this episode, Yohance will teach us the fundamentals of building a referable practice and how to create an automated system that will keep clients engaged and eager to refer their associates to you.
Yohance Harrison, CEO of Money Script Wealth Management, has built a successful firm with over 300 households. Over 2/3 of his current book of business can be traced back to just one person. In this episode, Yohance will teach us the fundamentals of building a referrable practice and how to create an automated system that will keep clients engaged and eager to refer their associates to you.
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A proven method for gaining more client referrals for your firm
9 game-changing black advisors share how they grew their firm
Intentional financial planning: a guide to serving your niche
What nine advisors wished they knew before starting an RIA
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The Advisor Journey - Yohance Harrison
Jason: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, we have a pretty exciting show for you. So I met an amazing advisor in person. I'd known him virtually, for years, but met him in person recently, Johans Harrison. He's joining us today on the advisor journey, and what I think you're gonna love the most is that nobody likes to have to pay for leads.
Nobody likes to have no clients, so, You know, the best possible way. In fact, all of the most successful businesses, I think in the world are built by referrals, and Yohance has built an amazingly successful business. Takes you back to the early days of his story, how we first got that very, you know, sort of serendipitous referral.
That's since turned into probably 200 plus extraordinarily valuable clients as practice centers on, people in the healthcare industry. So a lot of physicians, people in the healthcare industry, so administrators, folks that are like the dream clients for advisors. And he has these folks really trained is probably the wrong word, but he's got them very much, trained to [00:01:00] continue that advocacy and just create this real perpetual referral stream.
It's very, very impressive. So we're gonna have a lot of fun with it. We're also gonna give a big shout out to Carl Richards, so be prepared. Carl, like you're gonna hear your name a whole bunch. And Michael Kitsis, we're gonna cap off with some fun stuff for you too. , so thanks for joining. Stay tuned.
We're gonna have a ton of fun.
Welcome to the Advisor Journey, a podcast by Altruists dedicated to giving advisors the edge they need with proven RIA growth strategies. Each week, Dasarte Yarnway and I will have hard hitting conversations about the topics that matter most to the modern ria. How to scale, how to maximize efficiency, and how to effectively reach your goals.
It's real advice from people who've really done it, and we're so glad you're here.
All right, well, hey everybody. Uh, this is Jason Wenk and welcome to the Advisor Journey. Um, you know, I feel a little, little naked today cause I'm [00:02:00] without my good friend. Dasarte Yarnway. He had a flight mishap and so I have to do this solo, but I, but I, I'm fortunate to be with a another friend, Yohance Harrison, uh, thank you for joining us in.
I'm gonna give you a big formal intro so that everybody knows how amazing you are. But we, we got to spend some time together in, uh, Texas about a month ago, and it was actually awesome. So those who don't know Yohance, he's the founder of Money Script Wealth. They specialize in helping healthcare professionals take charge of their financial world, does a lot of financial literacy, uh, teaching, um, all over the world.
So not just, uh, in his state or in this country, but, but all over. In addition to owning his own RIA firm, he's also a licensed insurance agent and a chartered retirement planning counselor. And so that's like the formal stuff. But tell us a little bit more, put it in your own words. Thank you, by the way so much for joining us.
Like I have a ton of fun doing these things and I think people are gonna learn a lot cause we're gonna try to dig in deep on referrals. You have like one of the most unusually successful businesses built on referrals and almost everybody sucks at that. So we can dig deep there. But before we do, tell us a bit more about, about you that maybe we wouldn't know just [00:03:00] by my by-line.
Yohance: You know, I think one of the most exciting things, first, thank you for having me. Wonderful setup here. This studio is, I'm a little envious.
Jason: Just getting started.
Yohance: I'm still kind of side part of my office for my studio, but none. Nonetheless, love the studio. I think one of the most interesting things about my journey, to me anyways, is how it almost didn't start my first day to see clients was September 12th, 2001.
So you can only imagine. and the firm that I worked for actually had offices in the trade Towers, so it was like, oh no.
Jason: Where'd you work, by the way, then?
Yohance: It was American Express Financial Advisors.
Jason: Oh, it's a small world. I worked for Morgan Stanley at the time. And I just left, uh, Manhattan in March of 2001. And I still with Morgan, I was in Chicago when the towers got hit. But I mean, devastatingly horrible day period in American history. But, uh, I digress. Let me go, go back and say your American [00:04:00] Express and we all, you're supposed to start seeing clients and basically the world halted, right?
Yohance: The world halted, the markets were closed. We didn't have a client ready date. SCC was closed. I mean, everything, there was nothing was, nothing was happening. And so we were, or I was very fearful of, okay, what, what, what happens now? I've got all these licenses, I have all these meetings that are supposed to happen this week and nothing now.
So we all, what ended up happening is we all got pushed back. They pushed our, what they call client ready date, they pushed us all back a month. So I got pushed back to October 11th, 2001 and October 10th my son was born. So there, I started paternity leave right after that. So again, I, I had these, these fits and starts, if you will, to, to the career and all things that were completely out of my control.
Well, I guess having a child, I had a little control of that , or at least influence, but, you know, just, it was these things that are out of my control. So it did, I feel prepare me a lot for this [00:05:00] career long term because all the people that I was talking to during the summer, you know, as I, as we were, I was setting appointments for my client ready date and talking to people, and I'm starting to look at statements and things of that nature.
By the time they actually came into the office, they did not have as much money as they'd had over the summer. So I became entrenched in being a recession advisor. Because, you know, that's, that was coming right off the.com bubble and then, you know, the, the Trade Towers just kind of pushed us over the edge. And so I had to learn how to communicate to clients during those times, very early on.
Whereas the majority of the markets are granted bull markets. So a lot of advisors who start their careers, start their career in a bull marketing market that's going well. So it's, it's, it's a different, it's different conversations. You have to know, you have to know how to have. It's a different way to, to be able to be proactive with those conversations with your clients.
Because if you're just sitting back being, being reactive, it, it was, [00:06:00] you weren't gonna be, you weren't gonna have a career, or you'd have a lot of unhappy clients. So, so that's, that's probably one of the, and in my eyes, one of the most exciting parts about me beginning that career. And then of course, just, you know, six, seven years later, here comes another recession of '08.
I remember that day faithfully because the day that, I guess was the day after Lehman Brothers, I had a, a debit card that was attached to the Reserve Fund account. So the Reserve Fund broke the buck. I don't know if you yet, so when they broke the buck, they froze all of our accounts and I was at a luncheon with dozens of my advisors.
I was a manager by them with dozens of advisors, a bunch of clients. We were at this, this luncheon. And I go to pay the bill. I was like, oh, I'll just use my debit card and do the reimbursement. Or sorry sir, your card'sdecline [and I'm like], rub it off. Don't try that again . And it was because I wasn't attached to my phone.
I had no idea [00:07:00] what was going on in the rest of the world. Cause I hadn't, you know, wasn't like watching CBC or Fox. I was entertaining the clients and doing the client education. So then to find out, oh, well the reserve fund broke the buck and your, your checking account is frozen. Like, how does that even happen?
So, so again, I've had some of those unique experiences in, in the marketplace, which, uh, I think makes me uniquely qualified. To be able to have these types of conversations with clients. Cuz I, I've been there.
Jason: I wanna actually rewind a little bit cause I'm curious actually, I want to, before we get into the current business and, and, and kinda how it's growing and, and all the success.
You started in a really tough time. What were the stats like at American Express? I remember like hearing about like the, you know, like 80% of advisors don't even make it two years or something like that through most training programs. But I mean, so, so typically like the odds are not great when someone comes into this industry period.
And then you came in, in basically, at the time, that was the worst bear market and it got people who aren't, you [00:08:00] know, who didn't live through it. The, this, the year 2002 specifically was the worst market year, and I think, you know, 20 years, certainly worse than any year in the nineties. And coming off this huge bull market where people were kind of delusional about gains, but, so what were those like, early years?
Like, I'm just like really curious, like, you know, what were the, you know, the fail rates because like, you had to show a lot of resolve too, obviously, to have not just made it, but made it really successfully, you know, all these years later.
Yohance: So the, the training that we had at the time was. The goal was to get 25 to 50 leads per week, whether that be leads that American Express were supplying us through their relationship, marketing, referrals, of course, natural market, what have you.
So, so 25 to 50 leads. The goal was to set 12 of those people for appointments. You, the goal was to see four of them and one of them become a client. However, because of the recessionary times, if you were not working [00:09:00] directly with referrals and people in your natural market. Your numbers were closer to 75 to a hundred leads that you had to get, cause it was even harder to get leads and we were trying everything back then, but I would see at least a person a month leave the career. I mean, just the lights are just going off in offices one by one. The other thing that was happening is for those of us that were in training, shout out to shout out to Samuel Mitchell.
Samuel, I hope you're doing well. We should catch up. I'm back in Texas now, but Samuel and I are the only two individuals from our original group of, what was it, 12 people that got licensed that are still in the business today. Oh, so it's less than, than or right around 10%, 11, 12%. In those first few I'd call the first six months, we were down to three.
Jason: So I'm glad you made it and you stuck with it. You showed a lot of resolve but you mentioned in there that the, if you didn't [00:10:00] have some type of a referable base of clients or a natural market, like the, sounds like the, the, the sales cycle just was so elongated, right? It like made it really, really hard.
You know, perhaps that was fortuitous, right? Because your business today is like massively referral driven, bunch of processes on there. So it's maybe like kind of get a little bit into like the very early referrals. Like when did that light bulb go off? What was the moment? Um, and uh, and then how did you kind of codify that?
Yohance: So the moment came in the interview process when the VP that was interviewing me was sharing about where I would get my clients from. And he talked about natural market. For me, I didn't have a natural market. I come from parents who at the time were living at poverty or below, depending on the month. I also, I mean, I was making, I forgot what the wage was back then, but I, I was also struggling to make ends meet cuz I had a new baby and I didn't, because I was only [00:11:00] 20 years old or just turned 21.
I didn't have any peers that were successful yet either. All my peers were still in college. So I didn't have the natural market, but then I heard him say this word, referrals and he said, and the phrase he used was, you could, and a lot of successful advisors build a referral based practice. And I didn't know what it meant, but it sounded really sexy.
I was like, oh, referral based practice. What is that? And so when I finally got the offer, the my manager, Frank, shout out Frank, he's still into business as well. Frank said, here's the first script you need to memorize. It's called a referral script. It was about two pages. He said, you're gonna be tested on it.
You need to know it cold. Well, I had some acting in my background, so I was like, oh, scripts, I can do that. I did and I remember I used to read it to my son at night. That's how I would practice to put him to sleep. I would...
Jason: He's gonna be a hell of a salesperson sometimes.
Yohance: I was just actually he decided to go into acting, but so I'm, [00:12:00] so it might work out.
There you go. So, but I learned that referral script very early on and what I realized that I had the opportunity to do, being in Dallas, cause I'm originally from North Carolina, moved to Dallas for the job, so I was applying at different franchise organizations back then, and they said, no, you need to go to the employee world employee, uh, model that American Express had set up.
And my choices were Boston, Dallas, and San Francisco. Boston I thought was too cold. San Francisco seemed expensive and Dallas and North Carolina or Charlotte were in the same like latitude. So I was like, okay, I'll just go to Dallas. And that's where I went. And so I realized that I could potentially build a natural market just by asking for referrals. And so I would use that referral script on anybody that was willing to listen.
Jason: I mean, do you still, do you still know it?
Yohance: Oh yeah.
Jason: And can you tell us the referral script? Or is that like trade secret?
Yohance: No, it's not trade secret. I hope everyone knows it. But the, the, let's see. I mean, I gotta put myself in the...
Jason: I might just give you a referral. I mean, it literally could be that [00:13:00] magical.
Yohance: So did you enjoy the time that we had today?
Jason: Had a heck, a good time.
Yohance: Hey, well, you know, a lot of people that I talk to find that to be true as well. If you have a moment, I'd like to ask you for one last question.
As a financial advisor, my goal is to create a referral based practice, and I do that by getting introductions from individuals that enjoy me and enjoy the process. So if you'd like, I'd like to brainstorm with you a little bit to see if we can think of some individuals that might be open to this.
Jason: That's pretty good.
Yohance: And then it goes on from there.
Jason: Brainstorm some ideas. That's, brainstorm some ideas. That's so much better can you just write down the names of like seven people I can call? And, you know, it's like, that's, that's quite brilliant.
Yohance: I also picked up as well that I didn't have to, once I got really good at understanding how important my job was to listen, I didn't have to do the referral script word for word anymore. Because if I were, if I just listened, so for instance earlier we were talking about a good friend Carl Richards, [00:14:00] and we were just having a casual conversation and Carl came up. So let's pretend I didn't know Carl .Well, when it came comes time for me to ask referrals, I would just say, Hey Jason, earlier you mentioned Carl is a good friend of yours and you mentioned going hiking with him. Would you be open to introducing me to Carl?
Jason: Absolutely. By the way, Carl, if you're listening, I was, I made sure I said that you're lovely and invite me and I'm always too busy and you give me, uh, appropriately a little bit of grief for it. Cause I gotta cut back on my work. But yes, I'll introduce you to Carl anytime you want.
Yohance: So, so yeah, so that's, so that is, that's what I learned how to do very early on and, and going back on, on, on how I built this referral based practice. So I, in the office I worked in on the floor below us was, Heart Place Associates was the name of the company and they provided cardiology equipment, so medical equipment.
And there was a young lady who I, I saw a lot in the elevators and I would [00:15:00] speak, she would speak. And one day I asked her if I could take her to lunch and she said, I have a boyfriend. And I said, I have a wife. So, I mean, we could make it the four of us, or this can just be a professional thing. I wasn't trying to date you.
She was like, yeah, yeah, I know you're just one of those financial advisors. You just wanna meet all my cardiologists. And I said, yes, that is exactly what I'd like to do. But I'm also new to town, so, can we go to lunch? Finally, she relented and she decided to go to lunch with me, and she gave me her entire Rolodex.
Now this is 2001, so yes, she had a paper, Rolodex, business cards, the whole thing she gave, she walked into the lunch and she put it on the table. Now, my mentor had also taught me that if you get a list of names, it's no different than picking up a phone book. You want to get an introduction, so how can you turn that list of names into actual introduction?
And so I set the list aside and still performed my referral [00:16:00] script with her at the end of our lunch. And I pulled out my piece of paper in my pen and asked who she'd be open to introduce me to. And I had, and I had prompters. I was taught in the script to have some prompters. Cuz if you just ask someone, Hey, who do you know?
The brain doesn't know how to access who they know. Cause they know so many people. Instead, if you're listening, you'll get cues or you can give some prompts. And I said, who do you know? Actually the phrase was, uh, business owners typically work incredibly hard for their business, but may not be aware of ways to make the business work equally as hard for them.
Who do you know that is trying to, that wants to start a business or recently start a business? And she named a person, and it happened to be her, her, uh, her OBGYN and her OB and her mother were like friends. So it was more than just her referring me to her OB it was someone that she had a, that she had a, a family relationship with.
And that OB referred me to my first ER physician, and that ER physician is [00:17:00] responsible for almost two-thirds of my practice today because it just, It just kept going, going. And matter of fact, last week I just got two new clients last week. I can trace both of them all the way back to that OB.
Jason: So it's like the old six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Yohance: It, it is. I actually drew the tree out one day. It was, I had one of my assistants. I said, I wanna see what this looks like. So I had to go into one of those mind map programs and start plotting every, oh my God. It was, it, it looked like ancestry.com. That's what it looked like. It was just, it just went on and on and on.
Jason: I mean, I think it's amazing and, and you know, I guess just a highlight that I'm hearing is, um, I think sometimes like advisors, they wanna take the easy way out to growth. They just think like, well, can I just send an email out like once a month and get a bunch of referrals? Like, that's not how referrals work.
You know? Like it's, to your point, like psychologically, you can't even ask somebody. You're sitting across from like, Hey, think of five names or whatever, like, Those prompts, I think are really key. The brainstorming, like to get, you know, give a specific situation, you know, in this [00:18:00] situation. But probably one of the things I, I would say that most is like there is some work involved.
Like, I mean, you have to be willing to put yourself out there. You have to be willing to have a conversation.
Yohance: You have to be willing be told, no. Yes. I highlight the story about this young lady that we went and had tacos together. Yes, that that is, I can remember it because I know where it led, but. We could go on for days from all the people that told me no, that chastised me for having the nerve to ask them for referrals, and I hadn't done anything for them yet, you know, for the people that, that referred me to people and then those people who were frustrated because that person gave their information out.
So, you know, I, I, I took some, I took a few beatings, but I had to be willing to take that. And I've developed just a persona of next, you know? And, and that's, and that's what really helped me to get over it. What was the movie, uh, Boiler Room where he says, I'll just add you to my list of unsuccessful people today.
So, so that, that, but that's what helped me [00:19:00] just, just get through it, is just to, Shake it off, shrug it off, and just know that there was, and I also knew that I had people, but as my practice started to grow, I knew that there was someone in my practice at any time that if I called them up and said, Hey, who should I talk to today?
And they'll say, hold on a second. And they'll hand the phone to someone. Because you'll start to, as you build the referral of a referral based practice, you'll find out who your champions are. I mean, I have a young lady right now, she is competing to be the champion. Like she'll ask who's referred more to the people than I have this year.
Like, are you counting? I mean, okay. There's one other person that's got you beat. Okay. I'm gonna send you some more names today. Okay. But, and she's, I'm not paying her for it. I'm not, I mean, does, she gets a birthday gift from me. She gets a thank you. What she enjoys, but she, for her specifically, she sees a, she sees everything that she received from the services that we've worked together, and that makes her feel good. And she just wants to share that with others. She just wants to be someone that, to, [00:20:00] she wants to be that person that says, look, I, I helped bring you to Yohance so he can help you, and, and she just gets a lot of joy of that.
Jason: So let's get into some of the tactical stuff. I think, you know, if you were to give someone advice, they're saying, Hey, look, I have some clients. I love this business. My biggest problem is I just need to get in front of more good fit prospects, you know, that I can convert to clients and that'll start this kind of chain reaction of sort, I mean, where, where should they start?
And then maybe just, um, take us through kind of the evolution, because years obviously started back with that first story. The processes evolved a lot more today. It's still relatively simple, but there is very much intentionbehind the referral based practice.
Yohance: Absolutely. So every year I sit down and I rewrite the sort of manifesto, if you will, of who, who is my ideal client.
Not even manifesto, it's more of a, an avatar. So I write out the avatar of who is my ideal client. And I describe, I'm [00:21:00] talking to page long of describing who this person is, what type of work they do, you know, what are their activities, everything even down to how much money they have, how much they save, what type of accounts they wanna open with me, et cetera.
So I write out this, this, this avatar of the, of the ideal client. And then I look at my client base and say, who fits that? Okay. And the first time I did this, I looked at it, I said, oh, that's so and so, and so, and so, and so. Immediately I knew who my ideal clients were, and then I go to those clients and I say, Hey, I'd love to take out the lunch, coffee, what have you.
Nothing. You know, we don't, we don't have to talk about your accounts unless you want to, but this is more of a, of a social gathering, and I'd like to get some feedback from you. They're not gonna say no to that. They're, they're probably one of your top clients. You have a great relationship.. And then with that individual, I share with them my vision for the year.
So I'll tell them everything that I'm doing, whether I'm hiring new people, whether I'm adding a new platform to, to my [00:22:00] services, whatever it is, I'll share with them and then I'll ask them for some advice. Say if you were me and you were, you know, running a financial, a successful financial planning practice, or investment advisor practice, and you were looking to grow, how would you do it?
And then you just shut up. And every time I do this, and now I've got to the point where I can't, I can't do it with 10 clients anymore, but I did, of course, 20 years ago. Well, now I'll just do it with my, with one, with the new person that comes in, that came in the previous year that fits in that mold, and I'll just ask their feedback and they will tell me exactly how to access their network.
They'll just lay it out for you. And then once they lay it out, take some notes and then just do exactly what they said to do, no matter how crazy it may sound, as long as it's, you know, compliant. So, quick story. Did this a few years back. Almost 15 years back. And this was after I'd always had some success, started to, to build, my physician practice was starting to grow.
And I was starting to think, okay, how do I, how do I become a niche in this area? How do, how do I do that? And [00:23:00] so this was before I knew about the avatar, but I just went to those clients. I went to one and I sat with her and I said, how would you do it? And she said, well, just do what the pharmaceutical reps do.
I was like, what do they do? She's like, they just go door to door selling drugs. I was like, so you want me to sell ? No, sorry. Missed the point. So go door to door and the doctor, and that's what I did. So I went to her, her medical suite, and I would do this once a week. I did it for at least a year straight.
Once a week I would go get some donuts and some ground coffee beans and I would knock on the physician's door and there was about a 75% chance that as soon as I walk in the door, they were gonna take me straight back to the kitchen. They would set up the donuts, they'd start brewing the coffee, and then they'd say, okay, what drug you selling today?
And then I'd say, actually, I'm not selling a drug. I work with Dr. So-and-so on such and such floor. She thought I should come in and and meet Dr. So-and-so, and talk about the benefits that you offer the employees. And that person says, all right, well, I'll go get the [00:24:00] doctor. She's probably with patients, but as soon as she's done she'll come and see, have a seat. You know, do you need wifi, password, whatever.
Jason: This is why every time I go to the doctor, they're always 30 minutes late. They're having coffee and donuts.
Yohance: Yes. That's it. That's it. So, so I did that and I may have only got one or two clients from it, but I got really comfortable with just getting uncomfortable and you know, and there was even one time I, I had security come escort me.
You know, they were like, you know, you're not supposed to be here. You don't have an appointment. You, you gotta leave the premises. Okay? No. Never got arrested or anything. Nothing serious happened. But, but, but that was what that doctor shared with me. Now, fast forward 20 or 16, 17 years later, Saturday night, I go to an event in Dallas for physicians.
They wanted one of the college, it was, uh, uh, excuse me, medical school. They wanted one of the students to do the greeting as people came in. But I got there early and my client was one of the hosts. And so [00:25:00] I said, I'm here to help anything I can do. And she said, well, the medical students are doing this.
She was like, but people already coming either help the medical students, or I need to get them to do greeting. I said, oh, greeting. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'll, I'll do greeting. Give me the lists and I'll meet every single one of these doctors as they walk in. One of them came in, shesaid, "you look familiar". I'm looking at her name.
And so we start playing the game of trying to see where we know each other from. And finally I say, did you ever have an office in Richardson Regional Hospital? She said, yes, I did. I said, that's where I brought coffee and donuts into your office. 17 years ago.
Jason: And you threw me out...
Yohance: But again, that's, that's 17, 18 years ago.
And here I am running into the same physician. And now she's saying, well, I need to learn more about what you offer cuz so and so says you're offering, you know, so, so the, the talk is happening now. So, so that was, that was, I guess, kinda getting back to bridge point as far as the tactical things is define who your ideal client is.
Find the person that matches that most [00:26:00] closely in your, in your current book of clients. Invite that person out to lunch, dinner, or coffee, what have you, tell them about your goals and then just ask 'em for their, And be ready cuz they're gonna tell you exactly how you can get access to their network or what they think you should do.
Jason: Makes sense. Reminds me of the old Willie Sutton quote. I think some may recall, but it's like they, they asked him, he's a famous bank robber, why'd you rob banks? Said that's where all the money's at. Right. But, uh, but essence, it's like, hey, if you have, if you have, there's clients that they, to your point, this ideal client profile, this avatar, You know where they are.
If you can have a way to be proximate, like be there where they're at, makes a ton of sense. And, uh, I think for a lot of, especially young, impressionable advisors, if you spend all of your time on like TikTok, you're probably only gonna find clients that spend a lot of their time on TikTok. I'm not saying that's not okay, but, you know, you're competing with a lot of really bad advice.
It's really bad. Good. It's just a strange role. But, um, but, you know, your practice is [00:27:00] based on, you know, people in the medical field. Large number of physicians and people probably that are PAs and administrators. Um, and so that's where you're spending your time, right? Is building relationships there, which is, uh, makes all the sense in the world.
So let's get it beyond like, okay, let's fast forward a little bit. Today, you know, you've got a lot. More clients. So big base of clients. I have it in my notes somewhere, but tell me again, what's the number? It's like 200 plus clients.
It's, it's approaching, it's right around 300. We seen into room around
Yohance: 300 families.
Jason: And you'd said two thirds come, have come via referral. You can almost trace back to like this one point. So that's a couple hundred. And these are like the clients, almost every advisor wants. Oh yeah. You know, it's like these high income earners, if they're not already have a high liquid net worth like they will.
You know, and they also have a lot of advanced planning needs, um, both for like, you know, disability and life insurance. Some of 'em are buying practices, selling practices, merging practices. Right. Lots of stuff [00:28:00] going on there. So pretty incredible business that you build. Now you get a new referral, brand new referral.
You've talked a little bit about how like, you know, a year later you'll take those best people out for lunch, but like, what's the process like where you get this referral? How do you say, Hey Jason. Hey, you know Carl, Jason introduced me to you. I'd love to sit down. What is that process like? I mean, how can, you can kind of codify that.
What can people learn so they can implement these things in their local markets so that when you get the actual referral, you don't pull the Tommy boy, if you remember that? Oh, sail ripped. Anyway, you wanna like actually, do great by that client, but probably even more so you wanna do great by the person who made that introduction. So they are proud of the fact they made the intro and wanna give you more of them. So like, how do you, how do you deliver, I guess, an experience that makes people love continuing to give you referrals?
Yohance: So I, I am a huge proponent of systems. If it doesn't have a system, then I'm gonna have to make it up all the time.
So every single client will, every single [00:29:00] referral will go through the same system. And I like to refer to as, as the, the Starbucks way of doing things. I can go to a Starbucks anywhere on the planet. Well, I won't say anywhere on the planet cuz I haven't been everywhere, all the Starbucks on the planet. I can go to just about any Starbucks that I've been to and I can order the same thing and it's made the same way every single time.
So it's an experience that I'm seeking. So I want, I develop the same system for the clients that come into the office and referral. So once I get the referral, they're gonna get an email from my assistant because I, I tell my clients if they're gonna refer me someone, even if I'm sitting across from them now, this is the way I do it to make sure it goes in system.
Do me a favor. Can you send 'em a quick email and just copy me on? Sure. I send an email as soon as my assistants, sends that email, she sends them a welcome email that says, Hey, we're just referred to you by Jason. And y'all would love to schedule some time or make some time available to talk to you about your finances.
[00:30:00] Here's a link to our calendar. Okay? So she'll send that email out. She has a follow up. So in one week, if that person hasn't scheduled, she'll send them a reminder email, but then she'll also send Jason you an email and say, Hey, we reached out to Carl and we haven't heard back from him yet. Are we sure?
You know, does he check that email often? Maybe it'll be easier to send him a text. Okay, so then maybe you come back and you send Carl's phone number. So then we send the same text and we do that same process for a couple of weeks. And if we don't hear from any, from them at all, then we just say, you know what?
Not the right time for them. We put them in our, you know, follow up continuous marking, what have you, and then I just follow, I will then follow up with you personally. Say, Hey, I, I try to reach out to, I didn't hear back from him. Okay. And then you'd maybe sometimes you give 'em a nudge, what have you, once they schedule that first introductory session, when they get the confirmation. It tells them who they were referred from and that we're excited to meet them. And then of course, they come into the session. As soon as I have [00:31:00] the session, I mention, Hey, I was introduced to you by Jason. Okay. And if you, you know, if you, this is what he said you may be interested in, and I'll let them talk.
So they're always being reminded that they were referred to the practice. That is how they got here. Once the referral makes the decision to move forward. And they're in now, my financial planning process or investment advisory process, once we've, once we got to the third meeting, that is when they do get an email asking them for referrals.
So I do have an email that goes out and ask referrals, and my assistant sends out about five of those emails a week. Okay. Sometimes they come back with an email with a recommendation. Most of the time they don't. But I look at that as my instagram, TikTok, billboard, what have you. It's me just reminding, again, letting them hear again that you are were referred to us.
You will refer us to others. That's the tone that I'm setting is that we, that is how this works. You were referred and you will refer us to others, so they'll get that [00:32:00] email and that next session after the, excuse me, the session I have with them after the email, then I'll bring it up again, and that's when I'll do my referral script.
Okay. It did come to the, to the end of the session, whatever we're talking to. Hey, you may have seen a note or two about it. I know that Jason referred you to us a few weeks ago, but I do build my practice on referrals. I have referral based practice. I don't pay for leads. I try to ignore all the people at LinkedIn that keep asked me if I want leads.
Someone called me this morning when I came into your office, like, Hey, we got you from LinkedIn. Would you like to get 10 to 12 qualified leads a week? No, I, I'm good. Thank you. So it's, it's again, just reinforcing this idea to the client that they know that it is a referral based practice. So I'll do the script with them at that point, and maybe they refer, maybe they don't, but, and then that's it.
I'll usually just leave it alone. Okay. But guess what? When it comes time for their annual meeting, they'll have that annual meeting. And guess what? My assistant's gonna send out the referral question again. So [00:33:00] she's asking for referrals at least five times a week. And I'm confident that if I go into my email right now, I'm confident I'll find at least two or three referrals I emailed to us in the past week or so.
Jason: That's awesome. I think, um, so one thing you didn't touch on, but I think it kind of goes out saying that you have to do great work for people, right? For this, all, this whole system to work. You know, if you're doing great work for the clients, the clients, of course, they, they want to make referrals. I think all of us, uh, I think of myself.
I had, I had a good friend who was looking for a new job and super smart, super talented person, right? And ironically, someone else I knew was like looking for an exceptional technology leader, right? Put the two together. It's been a phenomenal relationship and I'm so proud of like, the fact that I helped make that connection and it was because it was like two people I actually greatly respected.
Right? And you were able to get them together. I think that's maybe one of the things if, if, if someone feels, boy, asking for referrals and having, saying, if you're doing really [00:34:00] exceptional work, like people are really glad to make those introductions because they're bringing two different people they greatly respect together, and then great things usually happen.
So anyway, I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't build a really successful fast practice, obviously without doing exceptional work for people.
Yohance: No, and, and I've actually, I, I've had a few clients over the years. They have not referred me to someone, and I've had to just ask like, what's up?
Why, why have you not referred me to anyone? And I've had something given me hurdles like, you know, we've only been together six months. I, I want us to have at least a year. I'm like, great. And I will put a reminder in my calendar six months out to say it's been a year. I've also had some clients that have said, you know, I like what you do for me, but I, I, there are some parts of it, I'll just say aren't referable. That's not what they're saying, but that's, it's what they're saying in a roundabout way. And then I'll ask 'em for their feedback. Okay, well, you know, how can I become more referable in your eyes? Because I also believe that if, if a [00:35:00] client is not willing to refer me, then I probably shouldn't be their advisor.
Cause I have a referral based practice . And if they're not willing, if they don't like me enough, trust me enough to share this great knowledge of financial literacy, the, all the options and the opportunities and the things that they're able to do. If they're not willing to share that with other people that they love, I'm not the right advisor.
Yeah. I'm not the right advisor. And I've had that conversation with some clients and Oh, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm, I'm gonna get you some, I'm gonna get you some, let get you some. And it's like, okay. I just, and I'll just ask. I like, I don't understand. Of all the things that we've done. I mean, you're not trying to retire alone, are you?
You know, don't you, you want some friends to be there with you. You don't wanna be supporting all of them. You know, you don't want them to miss out on, on these opportunities. Just like we talk about, you know, when a client says, ah, man, I wish I met you five years ago. Great. Who else should have met me five years ago?
Jason: That's a great one actually. Well, I, I think that the compounding sort of network effect, you know, when you start really kind [00:36:00] of getting it conditioned to me, it reminds me a lot of, uh, A lot of advisors will have a kind a, like a about me on their website. Right. And, and I feel like it's a really missed opportunity if people don't have like, something the effect of like, here's how I, here's who I work with.
Like, here's what I do for them. Like, here's what the relationship looks like. And it's almost better to be very, very forward, up front. And so in your case it might be, Hey, I have this referral based practice. So part of like working with me is I, I work with people who value connecting others, you know, to, uh, you know, the same type of planning advice, you know, investment management, et cetera.
If you're not comfortable with that, we're probably not even a good fit to begin with. Right. And, and I think like that takeaway actually is really important. Otherwise you end up having a business force, like, yeah, I took all these clients in that don't give referrals and I'm wondering why I don't get referrals.
It's like, well, duh, I mean you, you can make it very clear that that was part of the expectation upfront.
So I'm gonna hit you with some rapid questions.
Yohance: Rapid fire.
Jason: Yeah. You know, in the past week, what's the most [00:37:00] interesting thing you've read? Book, article. Blog post. Tweet, social media, whatever. What's the most interesting you've read recently?
Yohance: Oh my goodness. It is, uh, Carl Richards, here he comes again. He has this advisor manifesto that he wrote. Uh, I read it on the plane coming back from Salt Lake City. It was awesome.
Jason: Oh, that's right. You were just at Fearless, right?
Yohance: I was just at Fearless, so, so there is my list is long. He is at the top of it for the interesting things that I've read and picked up a couple pieces of his artwork as well.
And he, he actually said something, Alluded to what you mentioned earlier about on the website and in his manifesto, he mentioned how on your website, just the same way an artist has their work and says, see some of my work here of putting on your website of photos when, cause clients send me photos all the time of the houses that they've built or purchased or vacation that they're on, what have you.
But using that as, see some of my work here and putting that on the website, I can't wait to do that. So that that's. Uh, and it's [00:38:00] a quick read. I encourage you to go download or order a copy of it. It's a quick read. It's good. For me, it was a lot of it was reinforcement, uh, cause I feel like a lot of things I'm doing, but that was the one that I'm not, I was like, cause that's, that's what I'm always looking for, is like, okay, I'm sure there may be some things here, being in career two decades, then having a successful career.
Like, okay, what else can I learn? But that's the thing I'm looking, okay, what else can I learn? There's something in here for me and, and that, that is probably the most interesting.
Jason: I love it. That's a good one. alright, next one. What are three things an emerging advisor can do? So think about that advisor in their first five years.
Maybe, uh, maybe they just launched their own ria, they're going independent for the first time. But what are three things they could do this week to start or grow their business and maybe specifically with referrals?
Yohance: Oh, number one, know who is your ideal client, who are you looking for? So you can visualize that and attack it each day.
Number two is to have a referral script. Write out something. Copy what I said earlier, put something together. I know if you [00:39:00] follower of McMurray. McMurray has some good stuff out there. There's another gentleman in referral, but find, find a script, have some things you can say. So you can say it the same way every time so that you're not thinking about what you're going to say.
You can focus on listening, you can focus on body language, and you can actually get some referrals and introductions out of it. So that'd be number two.
And then number three is to have a process. What does your referral process look like? When are you gonna ask? How often are you gonna ask? How are you gonna track it?
You know, if it's important to you, track it. If it's important to you, you will.
Jason: All right. Third question. What has been the most helpful tool for you as a RIA?
Yohance: Most helpful tool is Michael Kit. Kitses I struggle with his name, his uh, nerds eye view website. It is so much information. I don't remember how many blog posts have been written out there about different platforms, different tools.
He's got it all. He's interviewed dozens of [00:40:00] advisors. Check out my episode 2 34, I think it was with him. Check that out. But that that is, that is, that is a favorite on my websites.
Jason: Big shout out to Michael Kitses. All right, and last rapid fire question, what is a new hobby that you've started recently?
Yohance: Uh, so I wouldn't say started, I'll say I'm perfecting it. I am a vegetable gardener, and, uh, just before I left to come here, cuz I was gone for four days in Salt Lake City and so I came back to some massive cucumbers and squash and zucchini and oh, a nice little bushel of beans. Probably not really a bushel, I don't think I could measure it in a bushel, but it was a lot of beans and so it's, it's just been thriving.
I, I had to, I'd say it's a more perfected hobby because I had to first get rid of all my pest. Rabbits and squirrels and birds and everything that was just destroying. So now I finally have it in a point where I'm actually getting a yield. And so I'm excited cause I want to do year round gardening. So now I have my lettuce starting to come up, which is more of a, a [00:41:00] fall winter crop that can sustain some of the, uh, frost that we may get in Dallas.
Uh, so I'm excited to start my early spring crop here really soon.
Jason: Love it. I feel like i, I'm envisioning, um, an update to your social media profiles where it says like farmer, entrepreneur, educator. Right. You know?
Yohance: Self, self-sustaining. Yes.
We'll go with it, you know.
Jason: Well, this has been a ton of fun. So, um, Yohance, thank you so much, man, for sharing the wisdom for making the Trek from Dallas, Texas to, uh, Southern California.
And I wanna thank everybody for listening too. You know, we've been having a lot of fun doing these shows. Don't forget to subscribe. So if you happen to be catching this via clip on YouTube, make sure you subscribe there. Most likely you're listening to our audio podcast, so, you know, make sure that you download, subscribe, listen, and share too.
I think that, um, one of the things that we talked a lot about today was that, It feels really good to share good stuff and to refer people. So if you're a planner, advisor and you know a another advisor out there that's struggling a little [00:42:00] bit and they could maybe get some of the, uh, wisdom from your Yohance's journey, make sure you share that.
It goes a long ways and you never know who might be listening like. You know, we've been doing this for 20 years. There's, we have so much in common, it's actually bonkers. Um, but man, I think back, uh, how cool would've been if there was podcasts like this 20 years ago when we were starting. We could just like be a fly on the wall and listen to like exactly how you started getting those first referrals, how you nurtured them, how you reward clients.
So you've almost make it like a tribe where they're like, Competing to be those who are growing your business the most. Um, that's pretty awesome. So if you're, if you're someone out there that you think you know a few people, right, that maybe could benefit from this, uh, jot those down, shoot 'em a link, uh, we'd really appreciate it.
So thanks, uh, ton again, Yohance. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next time on the Advisor Journey.
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