Brad Johnson:: Welcome back to another episode of Do Business Do Life. I’m joined by a whole group of Nebens today. This is a family affair. So, we have Mike, we have Blake, we have Seth, we have Lauren joining us today of ULA. So, welcome to the show, guys.
Blake Neben: Hey, thanks for having us, Brad.
Mike Neben: Thank you.
Seth Neben: Thanks for having us.
Brad Johnson: Well, I’ve worked with a lot of family businesses over the years, and you all took it to new levels. This is, I think, a new record for most on the podcast at one time. So, this is going to be fun. I’m just picturing where the only thing we’re missing is a nice bottle of wine in the middle where we’re all sharing a glass. I know that’s a shared love of all of us is good California red wine. So, with today being a big day for Lauren moving into the new house, is that on the radar anywhere at the end of the day?
Lauren Neben: Yes, it is at the end of the day.
Brad Johnson: Nice. Well, Mike, let’s start with you as we dive in because you are the guy that started this whole thing. And you have a really, we share a story. We were both small-town Midwest farm kids. You in Nebraska, me in Kansas. And I know we were talking before we hit record and you said, “Hey, I give some of that success back to my early days growing up on the farm.” So, maybe let’s start the journey there and give us a little bit of your background and what led you into finance.
Mike Neben: You bet. So, as you just mentioned, I grew up on a farm and, on a farm, as you know, Brad, you learn work ethic, and I think I credit the hard work ethic that I have to those early days on the farm doing chores. And the other thing that has shaped me significantly has been athletics and we all have that in common here on the podcast. Also, I went to college at Concordia College and I played football and baseball at Concordia. And obviously, the athletics promotes teamwork and it promotes competition, competitiveness, and those kinds of things. While I was going to college, I joined the National Guard. And through my military experience, it really shaped me as a young man in those days of having the ability to make decisions under pressure and some of those kinds of things.
And in those earlier days, it was really stress to me. The attitude and effort are the two things that you can really control. And that has been permeated through our entire organization making sure that everybody checks in with a good attitude and we’re given a lot of effort along the way. The other thing that I really learned in the military was to focus on process rather than results. And that’s another thing that I think has aided the success that we’ve had in our practice is we are very process-driven, and we continue to try to improve our blocking and tackling every day so that the results follow the process.
Brad Johnson: I’ve seen quite the evolution, even since we started working together, you all in Triad. And it’s only been a couple of years, and the results have been insane. And I know we’re going to get into that a bit in this conversation. So, you’re a college athlete. You go into the military. I believe, now, this is coming from Shawn. So, if this is wrong, then you’re going to have to blame him. But he said really want it, well, I know there was a family, you know, a rough time in the family that kind of nudged you into this business a little bit. But he also said at one point you were kind of this he called it a hired gun, where you were dropping into businesses and doing some serious I think it was business owner life insurance to make sure businesses were covered. So, give us kind of that stage of Mike leaves college, leaves the military, and how do you actually get into finance.
Mike Neben: Yeah. So, I started my career out in teaching. So, I was in education for five years. And upon graduation from college, I married my high school sweetheart, and we’re coming up on our 40th wedding anniversary in January. And, at that time, Concordia placed their graduates somewhere in the country where your skills matched up with what the school needed at that time. And that, for me, was in Phoenix. So, my wife and I got married, packed up, moved to Phoenix, and I taught and coached. I was the athletic director for the church and the school. The church had about 3,500 members. So, it was a very large congregation. And I drove bus. I served communion on Sundays. It was a full-time gig.
And that was the beginnings of my wife and I’s relationship. And then shortly after we were there, Blake entered the scene. Blake and Seth were both born in Scottsdale, at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital. And after about five years of teaching, Blake and Seth were still young and so we decided to move back to Nebraska. And one of my mentors was in the financial services industry and really encouraged me to come into the industry. He said teachers and coaches do well in our industry. And so, I made the leap. My wife thought I was crazy. She supported me but kind of at first because we went from having a salary to eat what you kill pretty much. And so, I started my career with MassMutual as a career life insurance agent and quickly learned that calling on your friends and family isn’t the finest way to get into this business.
So, I chose a different path and went out independent and started working with business owners, a lot of ranchers, farmers, just business owners in general. And probably what Shawn was explaining to you was I developed a center of influence network that I had attorneys that would go and do some estate planning. And the hire again part was typically with estate planning with high net worth individuals. Life insurance played a role. And so, the attorneys and CPAs would say, “Okay. We need 40 million of second-to-die life insurance. I have the guy or Mike will come and take care of that for you.” And that was a blessing and a curse because, obviously, the income was great but it really weakened my sales skills because, literally, I was hired and I came in and wrote the life. It was a little bit more than that, obviously.
And so, fast forward to 2019, and that’s when Blake and Seth and I founded Unified Legacy Advisors. It was actually founded a few years earlier but we started down the path of workshops. And really the model that we’re running on right now, Blake was working at an FMO in Boston at the time and we kind of developed this idea through that FMO and we’re just honored to have the opportunity to work with great organizations like Triad and a couple of previous FMOs that we are part of. And the leverage that we get from Triad is significant because when we have folks talking to us about how large our firm is because we’re competing with Carson Wealth and some very large firms, and it gives us some leverage to say, “Hey, not only do we have our office here in Omaha and in Lincoln, but we have a team of 80 in Kansas that is fully supporting us.”
So, we leverage that throughout. But we started doing the workshops and here we are fast forward four or five years that we’ve been doing it. And it’s been a fun ride and the really cool thing for me as a father is having my kids as part of the organization and not only part of the organization, but they’re going to be the successors of this thing in the not-too-distant future, so.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. I love that, Mike. You know, we were all together in Tahoe last summer. And my son, Nash, he’s my middle child. He got home and he goes, “Hey, dad. How much do people at Triad make?” And I go, “Well, it depends on the role.” And he goes, “I think I might want to work there someday.” Now, he needs to understand not every day is a day at Lake Tahoe in the real world, in the business world. But I’ll tell you what, that was the first time where I kind of got some of what you’re talking about where what could this look like if one of my children ever did grow into a role in the business? And obviously, I would make him earn it just like any other team member but that’s what I see.
I want to get to Blake, Seth, and Lauren here. And it’s been really awesome to see how you all have come together. Obviously, it starts as a family, but in business, there are challenges, there are growing pains, and even when you’re family members. And sometimes when you’re family members, there’s even more challenging parts of that because you can’t just go home and not talk to each other at the end of the business day. So, Blake or Seth, let’s start with you before we get to Lauren because I know you were kind of the first round of Nebens that came into the business. Let’s go back to 2019. This thing’s coming together. It’s the honeymoon phase of, “Hey, guys, let’s do this.” And then kind of reality sets in. What have been some of those challenges that you’ve gone through as you all learn to work together and grow a business and still have a great family dynamic as well?
Blake Neben: You know, I think some of the challenges that have happened over the years, I guess, when we first started back in 2019, it was all three of us doing the paperwork, processing the applications, and figuring out what our specialties were within the practice. You had three founders of a business and how are we all going to make an impact on this business in different ways? And the nice part about, I guess, Seth, Mike, and I is that we all have a little bit of a different twist on how things work, which can be good and can be challenging at times. But I guess just evolving and growing a team has been a nuance for all of us because Seth and I especially have never had any sort of leadership training or overseeing people, which was a completely different aspect of running a business compared to just being an advisor, meeting with clients and those types of things.
So, I guess growing the team has been the biggest challenge for us. And how do we delegate and step away from some of those old things that we were doing in the past to help this thing even scale even more. So, that was my take on it.
Brad Johnson: I love that, Blake. I’ve seen that from my side. Seth, I wanted to get to you in a second, but before we move on, I think, I mean, I don’t want to put words in your mouth but I would say my observation, three great dudes when I first met you all that were a lot closer to sales guys than business owners. And what I saw, even your team and your approach to your team, as one of our coaches told Shawn and I, your differences are your strengths. And I think you just hit on that, Blake. They are strengths but sometimes they’re really dang frustrating, too, when you’re like looking at things from different angles. And remind me again your Enneagram numbers because I believe all… Are all three of you different Enneagram numbers?
Mike Neben: Yeah.
Blake Neben: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: What are the Enneagram numbers real quick?
Seth Neben: I’m a 3.
Brad Johnson: So, Seth’s a 3.
Blake Neben: I’m a 2, I think. I can’t really remember.
Brad Johnson: Blake’s a 2.
Mike Neben: Yes, you’re a 2.
Brad Johnson: Definitely a 2, Blake. And then, Mike, are you a 7?
Mike Neben: I’m a 7. You and I have that in common, Brad, and Lauren…
Lauren Neben: Is a 2.
Brad Johnson: Lauren’s a 2 as well. And I want to give context for real quick early in the conversation for those listening in that just aren’t familiar with your practice. So, 2019 you’re formed, team of four. So, the three guys. Lauren was not there yet so you had a four-team member, about 14 million of total assets. Did you guys manage assets right out of the gates? Were you both doing insurance work and securities in 2019?
Seth Neben: Yeah. I got licensed in 2019. So, we introduced the assets under management side then. So, in 2019, we were doing both at that time. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: And, Seth, you were kind of leading the charge on the security side, correct?
Seth Neben: Right. Yep. Yep. Got licensed there. I got licensed shortly after that but, yeah, I was kind of managing most of the investment aspect of the business.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, I’m just going to go through the roadmap here that we talked through. So, 2019, start the business. 14 million in your first year is insanely impressive. I mean, especially as you all are figuring out how to work together. 2020, team grows to five. You bring in 20 million of total assets, which is also in a crazy year, 2020. 2021, team grows to 6, 37 million of total assets. 2022, team is still at 6, 52 million of total assets. Joined Triad in about mid-2022. 2023, team grows to 9, 65 million of assets. 2024 year-to-date, team is at ten, pacing for 90 to 100, almost a double. Well, you’re pacing for a double from just two years ago, which is insanity. So, let’s go back and kind of follow the thread that Blake hit on. You’ve had great team members but I think what I’ve seen is the intention of how you hire has changed so much.
Retire Fearlessly didn’t exist when we first met you. That was a brand that was kind of plucked out of a lot of conversations with you all. One of the coolest brands I’ve seen come out of any Triad member. So, let’s go back to like, here’s how we were hiring and thinking about growing a team, Blake, kind of like what you were talking about, where the three of us hadn’t really figured out our roles, and now how that’s transitioned in a few short years to how you’re looking at growing the team and how you all have started to divide and conquer. And, by the way, if anybody else wants to hop in beside you, Blake, but I’d love to hear your all’s thoughts there.
Blake Neben: Yeah. So, I started my career out at Mutual of Omaha as a financial planner there and mainly working with life insurance and various other products for business owners. And so, sales has always been a big part of my role within the company. And what I’ve done for the last 16 years of my life is meet with people and help them solve problems that they’re experiencing on the financial side with their life. So, my main role is meeting with people. I love talking to people. I love meeting new people, hearing their story. And so, I have found that my strengths within the company are running meetings and those types of things.
Seth Neben: And back to your question, Brad, about the growth hiring process, before we joined Triad, our hiring process was awful, nonexistent. Until we joined, you guys really developed that identity and the brand manifesto. We completely changed our hiring process, interview process. We just moved into a new office as well that’s elevated to attract some higher talent and got our book done. We really leveraged that brand manifesto through the hiring process as well.
Brad Johnson: Speaking of those watching on video, I’m holding it up. I love the, we call it congruency in marketing. Name of the book. Beautiful new office. Those that are watching video where Mike, Seth, and Lauren are hanging out in the conference room, I definitely want to dive into that. Let’s go back to hiring and talent acquisition. I see this very common in finance. And it’s not done purposefully. It just kind of you’re so busy running appointments, like you said, Blake, where you’re like, “Wow. Okay. Time for the next appointment.” And you’re like, “Oh, shoot, we need some help around here.” And so, I’ve seen waiters and waitresses hired. I’ve seen the person at the dry cleaner that can hold a conversation gets hired. It’s just kind of like, “Oh, shoot, I need some help. Will you show up on Monday?” And you weren’t doing that but what you were doing, you were like, “Hey, we need some help.”.
Mike Neben: It wasn’t far from that, Brad.
Brad Johnson: It wasn’t far? Okay. But actually, defining roles. I’ve seen you do a ton of work there where like, “Okay. Here is the intentional purpose that this person needs to serve.” And then back to, “Hey, we’re a financial advisor firm in Omaha.” Let’s talk about, and I’m just going to hit a couple of things from your mission brief and if I miss anything that you weave into the hiring process, please share it. But you talk about, hey, your goal at ULA is to help your clients retire fearlessly. What we’re known for is guiding our clients to a life in retirement that is fearless. So, I just imagine, number one, I’m inspired just by reading that.
But now if I’m trying to recruit talent onto the team, how was that woven into the conversation about, “Hey, here’s what we’re about, and here’s why you would want to work here or not work here”? It’s a great filter.
Blake Neben: You can take that one, dad. Yeah. Go ahead.
Mike Neben: Yeah. So, what really changed our hiring process was a conversation that I had with Shawn. That was about a year ago. And we were having conversations about growing our team. And I said to Shawn, “Hey, we have trouble not having a conversation with people when they come in, candidates.” But the typical questions of asking people things like, “Hey, what’s your greatest weakness? What’s your greatest…” all those just seemed corny and just not very productive. And Shawn and I had a conversation. He said, “Mike, you are a great salesperson. All you’re doing is selling your business to someone who you’re trying to attract.” And he said, “What do you do with a sales process? Do you first start talking about yourself or do you find out more about them personally before you get into all the financial and all that kind of stuff?”
And we walked through that. I said, “Here’s how we bring on a new person.” And he said, “Why are you doing that with a candidate that you’re trying to hire? You’re selling them on your company.” And so, the very first conversation we have with any qualified candidate that comes through is we give them our brand manifesto and we say, “This is what we’re about,” and we don’t go walk through that but we run that conversation exactly like we run a business meeting that where we’re trying to attract someone, asking them about themselves, and getting into the personal side. And our last several hires have commented and when we ask them, “Why did you choose us?” it was always, “Because I felt that you cared about me as a person versus what I can do for your company.”
And it’s been really refreshing because it’s changed our thought process of how we bring folks on. And then with Kenzie on the culture side of things, we are probably hiring more for culture than skill right now, to tell you the truth. And we feel like it’s going to pay dividends down the line. But we weave this brand manifesto into literally every – it’s part of our DNA now. And everywhere you walk around our office, you see Retire Fearlessly. We talk about it at the workshops. We talk about it in our meetings. And they probably hear that 30 times in the first meeting.
Seth Neben: Yes. And then the book going along with that has been huge, the launch of the book. I just had a meeting yesterday. The guy in between the first and second meeting, they took time to read the entire book and had a huge impact, I think, on the meeting there. So, that’s going to be a huge deal for us to incorporate and launch that Retire Fearlessly for us.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. So many things to hit on from your thoughts there. And, Lauren, I haven’t forgotten about you so get ready. I’m going to get to you. Trust me. So, first off, back to hiring. I have to thank Mike. It’s a lot more fun for you, too, as opposed to here’s a list of interview questions I printed off the internet that I have absolutely no interest in. Is that fair?
Mike Neben: Night and day. It’s literally night and day because it’s a conversation versus trying to put them on the spot to see how they’re going to react to different things.
Blake Neben: Can I chime in on one thing, too, that’s really helped with attracting new candidates to our firm is our Google reviews. We’ve gotten a lot of response from people that have looked us up and said, “Hey, I looked at your Google reviews. They’re all very, very positive. That was one of the reasons why I chose to come interview with you guys versus maybe a firm down the street.” And that has been a big thing for us and continuing to try to get those Google reviews from clients and just anybody in general that’s had a good experience with us, so.
Seth Neben: Yeah. Something cool came out of that recently. We had our first candidate who actually reached out to us and said, “Hey, I want to work for you. Do you have everything? I saw you guys online. Heard about you guys.” That was the first time that’s happened. That was pretty cool.
Blake Neben: And somebody with a lot of experience, too, in the business, in the role that they were looking to fill. So, that was huge.
Mike Neben: Brad, I used the term that we now have the fish jumping into the boat and never having to cast the lines, which is really cool.
Brad Johnson: That’s a beautiful thing. I’ll tell you, you hit something, you all are hitting all over something that has been something Shawn and I learned in the first three and a half years of Triad. We grew up trying to recruit some of the hardest people in the world, which is offices like you all that are super successful, a lot going on. You’re getting solicited every day. So, Shawn and I to have success, we developed pretty decent sales skills. And then when we start Triad and it was now our job to start to bring talent onto the team to serve our members, I remember Shawn and I one day, and it was probably the first six months we looked at each other we’re like, “This is not too far off from recruiting. It’s applying it internally to your team versus externally to your clients.”
But exactly what you just said, Mike, was it’s I have to sell my business and here’s why I want to work here with us versus somebody else. And by the way, there’s a lot of financial firms in Omaha with big signs over the door. So, I love that. And I think that is one of the biggest ahas. And what I’ve realized is Triad is now, we don’t ever stop hiring. Like, it’d be like a sports team saying, “We don’t need any more great talent on the team.” It’s like, no, we need as much great talent. And I love, Mike, that you also hit filtered through you have to fit our culture. We’re not looking for I players that are rock star talent but only concerned about themselves. You have to be here for these reasons if it’s going to be a fit.
So, 100%, I was just talking with Jessica on our team yesterday. I’m like, “I try to always learn from the ones that didn’t work out,” and nothing against them. It just it wasn’t a fit, right? Like, we were a sports team and they weren’t the right player for the team. And we went through a list and it was almost universally a culture issue. It wasn’t a skill set issue. Have you guys found that to be true as well, like on the ones that are no longer with you? Was it more of a skill set thing or a culture thing?
Blake Neben: Absolutely. It was more of a culture thing. We’ve had our trial and errors. We’ve gone through plateaus with our team where we’ve gone down a team member when we were really trying to add three more to the team, which, at times, can be challenging. But it all comes down to what I always say, would you have a beer with that person? And if you wouldn’t have a beer with them, then they’re probably not somebody that you want to hang around with every single day. So, we’ve totally found out that culture is the key to building your team the right way and continuing to build on your vision that you’ve had from starting the company, so.
Brad Johnson: I love that, Blake. You think about it, you’re spending more time oftentimes with your team than you are your buddies.
Blake Neben: Right. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, you go have a beer with your buddy like I’m spending more time. Like, I probably want to enjoy these interactions. So, I love that thought process. Okay. So, you hit one other thing there, guys. One of the things I’ve seen in our industry, whether it’s FMOs out there, whether it’s broker-dealers, RIAs, sometimes we refer to it internally at Triad as the shiny object factory where, “Here’s the latest, greatest thing. Hey, mass manufacture this and give it to all our guys.” I know you guys, but you probably did some of that back in the day. I know I did.
Mike Neben: I did. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, you said something where you’ve got Retire Fearlessly on repeat but I want to even step back a section. And, Lauren, I’m going to throw this one to you because I think in your role oftentimes you’re interacting with the clients almost even before the guys do oftentimes, right?
Lauren Neben: Yes.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, this one will be for you. So, you all, first off, you did the work. It wasn’t like just some, you know, Mike had a crazy dream one night and the next morning walked in and he’s like, “Retire Fearlessly. That’s the new tagline.” That was multiple sessions of kind of interviewing that out, distilling that out, refining that. And I believe a skydiving story might be woven in there somewhere. I don’t know. But you said something where what I’ve seen is one advisor I remember at one point blueprint and roadmap were like the different things, and they were thrown around. And then the next thing I knew, I looked at every financial advisor website, and they either had a blueprint or a roadmap.
And all it was was they copied it from one financial advisor’s website and just pasted it on theirs and they’re like, “Yeah, here’s our process.” And then you’d ask their team and they couldn’t even remember the name of it. And so, it actually wasn’t their process. It was just kind of ripped off and they like threw it up for like a marketing conversation. And differently than you all, you’re like, “We weave it into the book. It’s in the seminars. It’s in the first appointment. It’s in our interview process. We talk about it internally.” So, that’s very different because now that’s your process. That’s like your DNA. So, Lauren, let’s start with you. How in your role has that started to play out? And how do you see that hitting prospects? How do you see it hitting clients differently than prior to where, “Hey, we do financial plans,” or you didn’t really have anything that was unique to you all?
Lauren Neben: Yeah. Well, and even seminars, things like that, we’re doing the seminars, I am greeting people and then asking if they would like to start learning things like that. And it’s actually been, actually, because I don’t have a lot of experience in the industry. I was a MedTech before. So, actually, like listening and having this the brand manifesto and being able to tell people, “You know, you want a fearless retirement. You don’t want to be wondering and worrying when you could be out and enjoying your retirement.” And so, I think that, for me, just getting that brand manifesto and the Retire Fearlessly piece of it is easier for me to kind of talk with prospects. And I learned a lot through just with all the things that I’ve been listening to the guys as well, being able to tie that in, so.
Brad Johnson: Well, you hit something, Lauren. You grew up in a house that had a bunch of financial advisors. Well, Mike, originally and then your brothers. So, you kind of, I’m sure, had an awareness of the business but I see that so often with new team members. They come in day one and they get a call from a client or a prospect, and it’s kind of like, “Yeah, so why are you guys different?” And you’re freestyling, you know? And so, now you actually have one of our guys calls it a talk track. You know, “I’ve got a talk track. I’ve got something to lean back on. Here is why we’re different. Let me tell you about that.”
So, guys, how does that play out on your side? Whether it’s seminars, appointments, whoever wants to jump in, on kind of retire fearlessly and let’s call it free kind of distilling that brand out. And then what you’ve seen over the last couple of years since you’ve really refined that.
Mike Neben: One of the things that I’ll mention, Brad, because the tagline, Retire Fearlessly, the genesis of that actually had some divine intervention here because the word ‘fearlessly’ I was at our Christmas church and the sermon was entitled Live Fearlessly. And our pastor walked through what the word fearless really means. And it means not being afraid of outside influences. And it was something that because at that time we were going through with your team this brand manifesto and this whole idea. And one of the things that our group here is challenged with sometimes is coming up with those kinds of ideas and verbiage and those kinds of things.
And so, after that, I came back and I wrote it down and I texted it to Blake and Seth and said, “I found it. This is the it for us.” And so, that’s how that all happened. I’d like to say we came up with something like that but it was, literally, a sermon at our church that was entitled Live Fearlessly.
Brad Johnson: But I love that. Shawn and I get the question, “How did you guys come up with Do Business Do Life?” We didn’t. We were on a hike and we were just talking, and we’re like, “What if we could just do business with people we want to do life with?” And it was just a comment, and then we’re like, “That’d be pretty awesome.” And then like how did DBDL become a thing? Nick Whitaker one day in a conference room is like, “Do business, do life. Oh, DBDL.” I’m like, “Oh, okay.” So, this stuff evolves. And that’s what’s cool is it’s almost like it was ready for you and you were ready for it. And so, I don’t want you all to not take credit because it’s what you’re about. You just didn’t have the words to put to it.
And because you were willing to do the work and you were looking for it, it’s one of my favorites. And I think maybe the skydiving thing was we wanted a picture to represent Retire Fearlessly. And I think it was you jumping out of a plane, wasn’t it, Mike? What’s the story? I saw some picture with Retire Fearlessly with the guy jumping out of a plane in the background. Was that you?
Seth Neben: That’s our About Us video that we shot a few years back. And he made an analogy about retirement on the doorstep of retirement and he has an analogy that he goes through in the video. And he jumped out of a plane for the video.
Brad Johnson: That’s commitment there. Did you guys let him go by himself on that one?
Seth Neben: Yeah.
Blake Neben: I’ve been skydiving before. I’ve been skydiving before and I asked my wife if I could do it, and she said, “Blake, we have a five and a six-year-old at home. I don’t think so.”
Brad Johnson: And Mike was like, “Well, my kids are already grown, so not a big deal,” right?
Mike Neben: Yeah, I was expendable, Brad, so.
Brad Johnson: I love it. Okay. So, let’s go back. There’s so much around what you all have done with Retire Fearlessly. I don’t know if now is a good time to get into the book of which I have here. Or if we want to go to how you’ve kind of, Mike, you’re a gifted speaker. I haven’t seen you speak, but Shawn’s like, “Hey, Mike’s really good.” And Blake and Seth I know you can hold your own as well, but I know you were doing a lot of… You’ve evolved to where you’re doing a lot of educational-based live events. Before, you were doing a model that was kind of pay for who shows up in the room and having success with that. And I know a lot of times those are kind of like different groups have kind of pre-canned presentation.
So, before where you’re doing a lot of, “Hey, this is kind of pre-can, more of a financial planning 101,” and now you have a different way that you frame that with Retire Fearlessly, what was the before and after there? How’s that changed and what do those results look like?
Blake Neben: Yeah. You want…
Mike Neben: Blake, you want to take that one?
Blake Neben: Sure. So, we started out doing a very canned presentation. Social Security was the topic that we started out using. Seth and I actually flew out to the old IMO that I worked at out in Boston and we did some practice training, how do you present a workshop, those types of things. And then we brought the presentation back to Mike and we did our first one here in Lincoln at the Lincoln Country Club. And we were just scared out of our minds to do the presentation. Didn’t know hardly anything about Social Security. We’re worried about, “Hey, what if somebody asks us a question after the workshop”? So, we got through that first workshop. And over that 12 months that we were doing them in the first year, we just kept getting more and more confident.
After doing mailers for a while, we started working with a firm that was helping us fill workshops through Facebook and social media, and that really took off, until COVID hit. Obviously, that kind of disrupted the whole industry. And then now we’ve started using some nonprofit organizations that have presentations that have really, really been helping us generate more revenue at a lower cost, which is always good for a business, right? So, that’s kind of how the workshops have evolved. We’ve also started doing topics such as taxes and retirement and various other topics, and we include Medicare and estate planning in there as well. So, just a variety of different topics that all weave back to our book, right? The five pillars there that we use every single day in our meeting process and we try to tie it back to those five pillars. And then we invite people in for a meeting after that. So, that’s kind of how everything has evolved. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Well, look, I’m holding up the book for those watching. By the way, if you’re listening, you might go out to the YouTube channel. So, right here, the cover, it’s got the three of you on it, Retire Fearlessly. You have the five pillars there, the five pillars of and I love how you worked ‘unified’ in there. Well done, gentlemen. The five pillars of a unified retirement. But then here on the back, I love too. You’ve got Retire Fearlessly: The Five Pillars of a Unified Retirement. And then you kind of list them out: income planning, investment planning, tax planning, health care planning, legacy planning, which for anybody in finance, it’s not rocket science. That’s kind of the CFP standard of how you build a holistic financial plan.
But the difference is that I’ve seen and I would love your all’s take, from my experience and I’ve watched probably approaching 100 plus seminars now at this stage in my career, I see the definition of a financial plan for the standard retiree can mean something very different depending on what organization. Like, Mike, when you were at MassMutual, I’m sure a financial plan was very different when somebody said Ed Jones or fill in the blank, all of the other organizations there. And oftentimes I’ve seen the financial plan is really just a basket. It’s a portfolio. It’s a basket of stocks that’s not really built for a retiree to retire fearlessly. So, how has that conversation evolved as you went from kind of canned presentation to actually building out a holistic plan and then delivering on that promise of retiring fearlessly?
Blake Neben: Yeah. You want to hit on that a little bit of our first sale process?
Brad Johnson: I saw the nod to Seth. So, this might be Seth’s turn to run with this. So, Seth, what are your thoughts there?
Seth Neben: Sure. Yeah. So, when we first started doing these, our sales process, Mike coming from, he was used to dealing with a lot of young leads getting referred into the centers of influence. So, we were bringing on product in our first meeting, things like that. That wasn’t really working out until we developed the five pillars that really worked that model and weave that into our sales process. We have a two-meeting sales process right now. And, yeah, we lean heavily on those five pillars throughout the meetings.
Brad Johnson: Seth, on that side, would it be fair to say the first appointment is kind of I always pretty much every firm I’ve seen, it’s kind of just a fact fun. It’s like, “Hey, get to know the people. Where do they have problems or concerns?” And then have you adopted? I know Blake mentioned earlier we’re not doing appointments alone now. So, you’ve got a second in there doing the recap, kind of capturing, “Hey, here’s the gaps. Here’s the problems, the details.” Are you guys doing the recap email within 24, 48 hours? Is that pretty standard at this point?
Seth Neben: No meeting ran alone anymore. So, that’s been a huge win for us. And yeah, we do send the recap email. We’ve also in between the first and second meeting, we are sending the book out with a handwritten note. After the second meeting, we’ve got some if they don’t sign on in the second meeting, need a little bit more time, we have a video card that’s been really successful. We send it out. We recorded a video of whoever ran the meeting. We get that out to them. It has been a huge win too. So, we’ve incorporated the book and some other things to help us with those touchpoints in between meetings.
Brad Johnson: Love that. And so, in that second, that’s where you’re moving the assets over because you’d mentioned, “Hey, prior, which by the way, this is super common.” You guys were getting into kind of the solutions in the first appointment. Here’s the product. And now it’s, “Hey, here’s the problems with some form of kind of a high-level rough draft of potential solutions.” And then in that second, that’s where they’re committing. Is that typically moving assets over? Is the commitment in the second?
Seth Neben: Feel great having assets over in the second.
Brad Johnson: How has that changed the game from leading to a product before to leading with the process now?
Blake Neben: It’s actually night and day. So, we kind of came up with the process because we were doing some planning of our own with a business coach. We were going through that old SWOT analysis. And we were like, “Wow. This could actually work if we utilize this during our meeting process with clients and figuring out what their problems are and what their goals are, and then where do we go from here,” that type of thing. And not introducing any sort of products because as Mike mentioned earlier on when the attorney came to him and said, “Hey, this guy needs $20 million of life insurance,” it’s right to the product.
So, just the difference between a cold market and a warm market is night and day to developing trust to as well you’re not shoving something down somebody’s throat in the first meeting and saying, “You know, here’s the solution to your problem,” right away. So, that’s the…
Brad Johnson: Here’s the solution to your problem that you don’t know that you have.
Blake Neben: Right. Yeah.
Mike Neben: Yeah. The reason they’re smiling while they’re having this conversation is because they’re being very kind to me because, as I mentioned, one of the… It was a plus and minus. Somebody’s feeding new business and you not really have to go through a sales process was really cool because it was easy. But what they’re not telling you is that I failed miserably at the beginning of this because we didn’t have a track. And Blake had some training. What was the name of that training process?
Blake Neben: Yeah. Sandler Sales Training. So, we took the process that I used from Sandler and we developed that process to what our process is today. So, kind of having an upfront contract at the beginning of the meeting was huge. Finding out what their problems and issues are and how long that’s been a problem and what have they done to try to fix those things, have they given up trying to fix the problems, those types of things? And then another thing that we learned was from SHP is don’t go to that second meeting and put more stress and time on your team members that are putting together financial plans for these people.
Because we’re asking them at the end of the meeting, “Hey, are you guys serious about fixing these problems? And if not, if we were to ask you today, or not ask you today, but if we were to ask you to make a change with some of your assets that you have here, how would that make you feel? Would you guys be comfortable doing that to fixing these problems that we just outlined here today?” And we get a really good gauge from them at the end of that first meeting of whether we schedule that second meeting. And it’s been a night and day thing for us because we were putting so much extra time and effort into people that weren’t even going to become a client in the first place. And it just saves you so much time to blow up that bomb at the end of the first meeting than to have subsequent meetings that you’re really just an unpaid consultant at that point in time.
Brad Johnson: Guys, is there anything more frustrating than building a financial plan or in your blood, sweat, and tears into it, hours of time, and presenting that to a client and then they’re like, “Eh, yeah, I think we’re good.” That has to be the most disheartening. Yeah.
Seth Neben: And we used to, you know, we used to have about 100% people go from our first meeting to the second. We thought, “Wow. We’re pretty good. We don’t have drop-off there.” We realized pretty quickly, that’s not what you want, right? You want to be more bold in that first meeting at the end of that first meeting to get a true gauge of, “Hey, is this a prospect or not?” That’s been a huge win for us for our sales process.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. So, what you just explained, guys, it’s the equivalent if I was building a home. So, I know Lauren’s just moving into a new home. It’d be like if I met with the architect for one meeting. And then for meeting two, he’s like, “Hey, yeah, we’re going to meet here. Just meet me at this address,” and you show up and he’s like, “Hey, I built your home. What do you think?” And you be like, “What? We didn’t even review the blueprints. What’s going on here? Like, I didn’t give you the full go.” And that is one of the biggest mistakes that I see in finance. And it’s not for, I mean, you’re just trying to do your best but you’re sitting here and taking their problems and a lot of advisors what they don’t realize, they bring a full-blown financial plan into that second that, honestly, their team has slaved away at, spent hours of time.
And what’s happened is there hasn’t been any mutual commitment and there hasn’t been any high level. Like, I know you guys now do kind of a high-level rough draft like, hey, team kind of geeks out on this stuff, might have got a little ahead of themselves but, hey, you’re here. You said you want to be here. We’ve solved this problem hundreds of times before. How’s that looking? And getting that mutual commitment, that’s where, Seth, that ACAT comes in. Okay, cool. If you’re ready to move forward to engage our services and build out this full thing, we need to get the raw material to actually build the plan and do our due diligence. And how much like for your team has that been a game changer where they’re not just building lots and lots of plans that don’t actually end up getting executed?
Lauren Neben: Well, I think the thing that they started to say was, “I need to protect my team’s time,” and instead of just saying, “You know, we’ll put this together,” it’s like making them kind of not feel bad but just like if you’re not serious about this, don’t waste somebody’s time putting together that plan for you.
Brad Johnson: I love that, Lauren. And that’s real and authentic. That’s not a sales pitch. It’s like let’s not waste each other’s time here. Like, if you’re not sure you want to move forward, we’re not sure we want to commit to three, four hours of building a plan. And when you are ready, let us know. We’re here.
Any other breakthroughs that you’ve seen where you really evolved? I’m going to call it like evolving from selling to true planning. And not that you weren’t doing planning before but now you’re like kind of putting your stake in the ground of like, “Hey, here’s what we’re going to do at the end of the day but you have to want us to want to build on that for you to fix these plan or these problems.” Any other big ahas in that process?
Mike Neben: Yeah. It’s probably not so much of the process on the sales cycle but one of the big things that we changed at the workshops is when people are filling out, the ones that say, “Hey, I want to come and see you guys,” we had the asset levels below what we actually were trying to attract because we thought, “Hey, if we don’t have a 0 to 100 and a 100 to 250 and 250 and then continuing to climb,” then some people are going to think, “Well, they’re only going to work with rich people.” And so, we totally took off and this was something that I was a little bit nervous about these guys, Seth and Blake, were the ones that said, “Let’s take off 0 to 100 and 100 to 250 because we have a minimum of 250,000.”
And what’s interesting is it and again, the things we hang our hat on at the workshops was always what percentage of the room did we book? And we would book 80% of the room but of that 80%, maybe 40% of the 80% weren’t even qualified for us. And we were taking pride in that but it’s the same thing that Seth was talking about earlier with the number of meetings we were bringing from first to second. It’s not a good thing if we’re finally in our calendar up with prospects. And so, what was interesting to me was now and we haven’t seen a significant drop-off in our attendance percentage from the workshop, but we have seen a drop-off and we think it’s due to that bringing more quality and we’ve seen it in our meetings.
Lauren Neben: And even my calendar-wise too, like for scheduling for me, they can only put certain meetings in a day. And, yeah, there was a lot of like 0 to 100. It’s like, well, not they don’t deserve help but it’s like there’s a 1 to 2 million prospect that have been on that spot. So, I think for freeing up their time as well, it’s been really helpful for that too. And then with annual planning meetings that we do, it’s like the more people we take on, it’s like those spots aren’t getting filled up with people that aren’t qualified. So, it’s kind of a win-win for that.
Blake Neben: I was just going to go there too with what Lauren was just talking about there is you forget about when you bring on a client. We’re not selling them a mattress, and then they’re going to come back to us ten years later and buy another mattress. Right? And this is an everyday relationship with somebody. And there are clients that are more, you know, they need more hands-on with you throughout the year. But when you bring somebody on to the business, it’s not just selling them a product. It’s a true relationship. And so, adding somebody to your practice requires a lot of time on the back end as well as we all know.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. It’s kind of like, I mean, it’s not like you’re getting married but kind of the business sense of you’re now in a relationship, an ongoing relationship. I’ll tell you, you all are hitting all over something that I think is a fallacy in kind of how a lot of financial advisors have been coached when it comes to marketing. ”Oh, you want to book 100% of the room.”
Mike Neben: Right.
Brad Johnson: Well, not if half the room doesn’t have enough money to work with. And here’s the thing. I know you all. You’re great humans. You want to help people. You’re not like, “Oh, we only work with seven-figure accounts.” But at the end of the day, I’ll go back to the house analogy. When you’re building a true holistic financial plan, you can’t build a house if you don’t have the proper raw materials which be like, “Hey, I need enough lumber to actually construct this thing.” And no offense, but if they have $100,000, there is not enough raw assets to go around to truly build a holistic financial plan the way you guys build it, right? So, it’s kind of like, “Hey, here’s the plans we build and the minimum raw materials required or at least 250,000 for us to do our best job to construct that whole financial plan for you.”
And, Lauren, you hit all over something. As an advisor, think about a McDonald’s. If the whole line at the cash register was free refills back in the day where you had to get them behind the cash register, McDonald’s isn’t in business. And so, Lauren’s kind of controlling the line at your three cash registers, right? And if everybody in line does not have enough money, you’re wasting their time and your time. And now there’s no time on the calendar to see the people that you can help and do have the assets. So, it’s funny how the domino effect goes all the way through the organization if you don’t correct it at the front. So, I love that. That’s such a simple thing with massive impact and how it spreads throughout a financial services firm.
Let’s talk about the book. Let’s talk about the new office. So, within the last 30-ish days, you all, so I guess we missed a little piece of this story. So, when you all started, you were in Lincoln, Nebraska, correct? The whole firm was? And then what year did Mike and Seth open Omaha?
Blake Neben: Well, we all three kind of did. But you can take that. Go ahead.
Mike Neben: Seth, you want?
Seth Neben: Yeah, I’m just trying to think of what year that was.
Mike Neben: And this was kind of an evolution because what we did, the reason we started doing workshops in Omaha was population size. We kind of know that we couldn’t attract enough population. Lincoln has a population of approximately 300,000, and Omaha is only 45 minutes away from Lincoln. And so, we as a team decided, “Hey, let’s try some workshops in Omaha.” So, we held an event and we had to have a place to meet people. And so, we started meeting people. One of my centers of influence was a large law firm, and they had meeting space available that they offered up to us, “Hey, you can meet with your clients in our conference rooms.” So, we didn’t have a shingle really in Omaha. And then it went from bad to what was the name of the…?
Blake Neben: Regus office.
Mike Neben: Yeah, a Regus office. And then it went from a Regus office. Really, when we hung our own shingle, that would have been in…
Seth Neben: Five years ago.
Mike Neben: Yeah, about 2019.
Blake Neben: Yeah. 2019.
Mike Neben: It was in the first year and then just in the last month or so, we moved, we expanded our office in Omaha significantly about three times.
Seth Neben: And Mike and I moved to Omaha, well, a couple of years ago.
Mike Neben: Two years ago.
Blake Neben: Because you guys were going back. We were all going back and forth at that time. And Mike’s going, “I’m 60 years old, and I don’t want to be doing this type of travel every day.”
Brad Johnson: Yeah. So, you expand Omaha. Makes sense. Bigger market. Now, like if you break out flow of new assets, Omaha compared to Lincoln, has Omaha taken over as the major driver of new assets or is it still split fairly evenly?
Seth Neben: Omaha. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: And, Blake, nothing against your skills, buddy. There’s just more people there. We’re not roasting you.
Blake Neben: Well, yeah, well, I’m still doing the traveling a couple, but one or two days a week, so.
Seth Neben: Yeah. I do the marketing in Lincoln.
Blake Neben: But we did a few workshops here earlier this year that were successful, which was nice. But we’ve slowed down here this last half of the year. We’re going to look at 2025 to see what Lincoln looks like for workshop so yeah.
Brad Johnson: And as far as headquarters for the team and the back office, I believe the vast majority of that’s Omaha now. Correct?
Blake Neben: Yeah. It’s just Mandy and I right now. We’re hiring another person here for the upfront desk here soon, hopefully, so.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, let’s go into new office. You all have been in the brand new office that Mike and Seth and Lauren are sitting in right now about a month. Is that all?
Mike Neben: Yes.
Blake Neben: Yes
Brad Johnson: And maybe it’s too early. Historically, here’s what I’ve seen. So, trying to think, got in this business in ’07. So, I guess I’m coming up on almost two decades in this business. And almost without exception, I have seen when you upgrade your office space, the investable assets climb. And I think it’s the human psychology. Nothing against the Regus office, but it’s a shared office space. So, somebody with $5 million, hey, I’m just calling it like I see it. Somebody with $5 million walks in. They’re like, “Okay, interesting. Shared office space.” Then you walk into the office you’re currently in today, the first thought, “Wow. These guys must know what they’re doing because obviously this is a nice space.” So, some of those psychological things happen even before you sit down. Have you all seen that start to play out already with assets and the clientele coming in or any real-life stories there?
Seth Neben: Yeah. Higher level of assets. And then I’d say higher closing ratio with higher net worth people.
Blake Neben: Seth, weren’t you in a meeting the other day, and there was a comment made in that meeting and the wife goes, “Well, geez, Don, like, have you seen this office? Like, of course, they’re credible,” or something like that?
Seth Neben: Yeah. Something to that effect. We have a lady in here. I walk by the conference room. Her husband was taking a picture of her in the conference room.
Brad Johnson: That’s good. That’s what she wants. That’s awesome.
Mike Neben: And it remind me, of course, people and you think that wouldn’t even impact them but it does.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, this all goes through the lens of wanting to serve people first. So, I don’t want to take away from that because when you sit down, you’re dealing with people like my mom and dad that have worked their butts off over decades to grow that nest egg and you want to take care of them, and I know you all have that heart. I’ve hung out with you. We’ve had enough conversations. I know that’s your natural. You’re servants. Like, that’s the way you run your business. But you’re also a for-profit business. And to Lauren’s point earlier, you only have so many hours in the day. There’s only so many appointments available on the calendar.
My guess is with just the evolution that we’ve talked about on this, where you now are talking about our clients deserve to retire fearlessly. Here’s what that means. Here’s how we define a true holistic financial plan, these five pillars. And then having an office space that matches that level of planning, like 2019, what was the numbers? 14 million I think of total assets to 2024, pacing for you’re like a 10X level right now. In a few short years, five years, you’re pacing to 10X. How have the investable assets changed during that evolution? Have you just seen them grow dramatically as far as average investable assets?
Blake Neben: Seth, talk about that.
Seth Neben: Yeah, we’ve seen that grow significantly as far as the average client that we’re bringing on. I don’t know what the average is currently. It’s north of I think it’s around 750,000, yeah, average that we’re at for this year. So, yeah. It’s grown significantly.
Brad Johnson: Good thing you guys told Mike to take the 100 case slot off the form, huh?
Mike Neben: Yeah.
Lauren Neben: Yeah.
Brad Johnson: Sounds like that’s working out okay.
Mike Neben: That was years in the making. Yeah.
Blake Neben: And it’s crazy how long it took. It felt like forever to get to 100 million of AUM, right? And now, once you hit that 100 million mark, we’re almost at 200 million. We’ll surely pass that this year.
Brad Johnson: Do you remember what year you guys crossed the 100 million?
Blake Neben: It was, what, last year?
Mike Neben: Last year.
Seth Neben: Last year. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: And you’re almost already to 200 then.
Blake Neben: We’re almost. Almost.
Seth Neben: It was like a year, yeah, it was like a year and a half ago. Yeah.
Lauren Neben: I started.
Brad Johnson: Wow, almost a double on the AUM side in the last year and a half. That’s huge.
Blake Neben: Yeah. Yep.
Brad Johnson: Okay. So, I want to, I don’t want to keep you all day on a Friday, but I want to make sure we get to the book. So, the book, I know our friend Shawn, I want to give him another shout-out. One of Shawn’s unique gifts in this business, when we all work together in a prior organization, I remember I walked by. We all had our little cubicle, our little cubicles surrounded with our teams, and he was just there hacking away on the computer. And I’m like, “What are you doing, dude?” And he’s like, “I’m writing a book.” And I’m like, “What qualified you for that?” No, I’m just kidding. No, but he wrote his first book. I remember he had me read the draft before it published, and I was like, I was sitting in my house one day, and I was like, “Dang, this is good. Like, this is really good.”
And he had just kind of taken all these lessons over the years of working with advisors. And I know his new book, The Advisor Transformation, I think it’s 10X even what that first book was, but he has a unique gift. He’s written books himself. And I know early on, Mike, I think when we were talking like, “Hey,” we’ve been working on this book, but we just keep hitting these snags and we keep like, I don’t know if it was writer’s block or what it was. And Shawn’s like, “Write a book with me. Let’s go.” And so, you were, this is, I believe, and Shawn can correct this if you hear it, Mike, but I believe this was the very first advisor book that Triad Partners helped write. And I know that was some time with Shawn and our team and really taking a lot of that work you all took out of brand manifesto and infusing it.
So, it’s not, you know, I’ve seen a lot of books in finance and unfortunately just calling it what it is. They’re not very good. It’s just like some ghostwriter wrote it and somebody slaps their name and cover on the front. This is not that. This is actually kind of like we did the brand manifesto pulling this out of you. And, Mike, we were talking. We were like, “Hey, there’s this book called the Bible sold a few copies.” Guess what? Jesus didn’t write a word of it. You know, it was all shared and spoken and scribed, and that was kind of similar to the process to help you all get this out because it was all up here. It just wasn’t on a piece of paper. So, I think you’ve only had it for like 3 or 4 weeks now. But what have you seen from the book so far? How’s it hitting? How is it showing up with the clients and prospects you share it with?
Mike Neben: The things that I want to mention is a shout-out to Kristen and Jordan because when we first joined you all, they were very instrumental in pulling out the information for our brand manifesto, but then it created content for our book and all these other things. But I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to them and how easy they made the process. And then they interjected Chris Smith a little bit later on in the process. And the three of us when we first were told, “Hey, we’re going to have a session with you guys to create something,” and we’re looking at one another like, “Oh my gosh, what are we going to do here?” They made that such an easy process for us that compliments to them and your team for that. The book itself, we have had such a short period of time. We rolled it out at our golf event because we did some book signings at the golf event that we had a month and a half ago maybe, a month ago.
Seth Neben: A month ago, yeah.
Mike Neben: And then when we opened our office, we had an open house event here where we invited our clients to come in, and we had drinks and food and everything. And was that a hit? And then there also we did some book signings there and we’ve started, I mentioned to you earlier, Dan DeVerna. I’ve had a lot of great talks with Dan and how he leverages books. And so, we’re adopting his process of every time we give a book out, we’re also asking. And just in a meeting yesterday, I signed a book to our client and I said, “Who else would benefit from this information in your circle?” and he said, “You know what? One of my golf buddies asked me who I was working with, and we were talking about you guys.” And I said, “What is his name?”
And he had a great name. His name is Mike. And so, I just put a note in there. “Hey, Mike. Cheers to a fearless retirement.” And I asked him to give the book to him. We don’t know what the results of that are going to be yet, but if it’s anything like Dan DeVerna’s, he’s made a career out of that. So, well, I try to recreate it a little.
Brad Johnson: I’m going to predict it right now. You heard it here first. The Mike you’ve never met is going to be a client within six months. So, those that aren’t familiar that are listening or watching in, so Dan DeVerna, a fellow Triad member, I believe the podcast I did with him was Episode 8, where he literally, Mike, what you’re talking about went through here’s my exact book writing process and how I use it for referrals. And Dan literally built his whole business off of that exact strategy. He’s written 6 or 7 different books now. So, I love that idea. And if you think about it, I mean, this is a business card on steroids because not only does it build credibility, but it educates of like here is how we deliver on our promise. These are the ingredients to how to retire fearlessly. And now if you want that too, we wrote the book on it, and it’s a beautiful thing.
So, I cannot wait to see how that plays out. And as you all come up with new creative ways to use the book, please share them back. And I know you will because that’s who you are. And you’ve been one of the most gracious giving offices in all of Triad of how you’ve shared some of your successes back with the community. Any other, Lauren, have you incorporated any book stuff yet from your chair? Anything else you all are doing to utilize this in your business?
Lauren Neben: We also have started bringing them to like bringing in just one copy of the book to our seminars. And I had a couple of people the last time and they’re like, “How do I get a copy of that? Like, can I get a copy of that?” And so, I think too it does give more credibility to, you know, that it’s like, “Okay. We have this book.” So, I do think and even the clients have really loved it too. I’ve had really good feedback from clients to say, “You know, this book’s awesome. I really enjoyed it.” So, I just think overall it has kind of helped with in the meetings and in between the meeting processes with also the video card that we do that has really been a game changer. There was a guy that I called after that and he said, “That was amazing. I never had somebody send me that video card,” or like something like that he said. So, just those small touches is helping. I think it really is helping with closing meetings and things like that.
Brad Johnson: Well, you just gave me an idea. So, this isn’t a coaching call, but ideas sharing. How much does one of these cost? The hard copy? What’s your cost?
Seth Neben: I think like $8 to $10 maybe.
Brad Johnson: 8 to 10? Here’s an idea. I originally got this idea from Michael Hyatt, and he was doing this on webinars. And what he would do, he would call it a sign-up bonus, a show-up bonus, and a take-action bonus. And if you just think about a sales funnel, you sign up for a webinar, then if they show up and then if they take action, whatever the offer is on the webinar, you’re just encouraging them, kind of dangling a little carrot to move further down the sales funnel. And, Seth, I think you just said somebody that you gave the book to in the first visit read the whole thing before they come to the second. I almost promise you they’re going to come on as a client. You haven’t had the second yet, right? It’s coming up.
Seth Neben: Yeah. Yes, that was the second.
Brad Johnson: Oh, that was the second.
Seth Neben: And we did set up a meeting to open up accounts, so.
Brad Johnson: Oh. So, essentially they’re in the process of coming on board.
Seth Neben: Right. Yeah.
Mike Neben: And that would become one of our biggest clients. I think they…
Seth Neben: It’s the $5 million prospect. Yeah.
Brad Johnson: So, check this out. Here’s an idea. For $8 or $10, which is the cost of one of these books, what if you made that the sign-up bonus at the actual live event? “Hey, everybody that books an appointment.” Obviously, making sure you’ve got the proper asset levels, just like we already talked about. “Everybody that commits to come in and talk to us for a first visit, you’re going to get your own copy of this, our latest book, the first time you come in to visit.” Or you could even for those that sign up that night, give them a copy of this in their appointment confirmation. And now imagine all you’re doing is pushing the value further up the sales funnel.
So, rather than reading the book between the first and the second, they’re reading it before they even get to the first and they’re like, “How do I get this?” So, ideation, I know you’re just starting to incorporate this, but you can make it a sign-up bonus, a show-up bonus, and you just figure out where that goes. But to me, this thing’s valuable. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but I cracked it open, and it’s really good. It’s well-written. It’s your story distilled what you’re all about. So, how can you push that further up that value chain, if that makes sense?
Mike Neben: Exactly. Thanks for the idea.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, every once in a while I have a good one, my wife tells me. So, maybe that’s a good one, maybe not, but. So, I think as it’s Friday and as I know Lauren’s got a house to move into, and I’m guessing she might have recruited a few of you to help out with that process. Mike said. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see other hands. I just saw Mike, so. But this has been awesome. Seriously, I know Shawn had a longer relationship with you all than I did, but I remember the first visit up to Omaha and the trip on the pontoon boat, and I immediately knew, like, this is doing business, doing the life right here. You were super gracious with the time. We had a great time.
And so, it’s been a pleasure to work with you all and get to know you all. And I just love how I’ve seen you show up as just students. A lot of people when they’re cranking through the assets that you all crank through, unfortunately, in this industry what I see oftentimes is the ego grows with the assets, and that is absolutely not the case. Humble students and just always there to serve fellow members that need help. I know even just the other day, I think Terence needed a phone call in the community and, Mike, you hopped right on and helped him out. So, just perfect representation. Triad exists because of firms like you all. So, thank you for the partnership. And the last question, whoever wants to jump on the mic or feel free to answer this, or all of you can give your definition, but I would love to hear the Neben’s definition of what does doing business and doing life mean to you all.
Blake Neben: Well, I just said this the other day that I don’t work and put time into building a business to not be able to enjoy it on the back end. And doing business, doing life to me means putting forth the effort while you’re in the office and being able to enjoy it with your family and friends on the back end. And so, trying to have some sort of a balance there, it’s not always the case but really trying to be intentional about remembering why we do this and what it’s actually for. So, that would be my long-winded definition of doing business, doing life.
Brad Johnson: Love that, Blake. Anybody else would share their thoughts?
Lauren Neben: It’s kind of like, I feel like doing business and doing life, I feel like when I, and I’m not just saying this to be corny or whatever, but I feel like with our team and with my brothers and my dad, I feel like I am doing like, while I am doing business, you know, because we all have a good time and joke around and we have a really great team. So, I feel really positive about that. And so, I feel like on both ends. When I’m here I’m having a good time and I’m enjoying myself. And so, I don’t really see a huge difference in it other than my daughters and my dogs not here, but it’s just with different people and different family members. So, it’s pretty awesome.
Brad Johnson: I love that, Lauren.
Brad Johnson: Mike, Seth, do you want to chime in?
Mike Neben: Yeah. For me, it’s just the pride and the honor of working with the ones you love. And I would walk through a fire for these three, and it’s something that’s hard to describe. The feeling you get to having the successors of your business be your family. And we have challenges just like every family of separating business in our lives, remind us constantly that, because we will start talk and shop and we get the look. And that’s about all it takes because we know that, “Hey, we’ve crossed the line here.” And I’d like to say everything is roses, but we have challenges just like every other family. And having any partnership, whether that’s a marriage or a business partnership, comes with stress and some different things in different ways as family members. But I’m just honored to be in business with these three.
Brad Johnson: Awesome. Yeah. You guys, you’re building something very special. From my side, it’s been really awesome to observe because I see you all have fun together. And then the numbers say that the business front is working out really well too. So, I love that. Seth, do you have any closing thoughts?
Seth Neben: I agree with these guys. Just having the family in the business. Just making sure when I get home at night to turn the business off. Really focus. Be intentional at home and enjoy. You know, enjoy everything while I’m here with my family here. The business side too.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. Well, it’s been an awesome conversation. Thanks for playing all out. As always, I know this conversation is going to serve a lot of advisors in our community, and some you’ll never meet. So, thanks so much. And I’ve also heard the next Triad experience make sure not to challenge you all in soccer. I heard you have some skills. Seth, rumor has it you might have been like a Gatorade Player of the year or something like that at one point in a younger life.
Seth Neben: Yeah. A long time ago.
Brad Johnson: I bet you can still hold it down. I bet you can still hold it down.
Seth Neben: I haven’t tried in a while.
Brad Johnson: Us former athletes have to be careful when you get to our age, you start pulling muscles. I was at my son’s track practice, and I tried to sprint, and it didn’t work out super well.
Mike Neben: You pulling a hamstring or something like that.
Brad Johnson: Yeah. That’s right. All right, y’all, well, I’ll let you get on to the rest of your day. Lauren, good luck with the new home. And we’ll see you all soon.
Blake Neben: All right. Thank you, Brad.
Lauren Neben: Thanks, Brad.
Brad Johnson: See you. Bye.
Mike Neben: Bye.
