ALL IN on FINNY!!!
however... there are 22 investments better than FINNY *currently*
I’ve been working in RIA operations for 7 years as a CSA, Paraplanner, Ops Manager of a CRM consulting firm, COO of a $190mil RIA, Writer of the AdvisorTechBook, and general all-purpose Conneqtor. You can see it all on my LinkedIn.
Needless to say, I care A LOT about operations-people, advisors, the clients they serve, the prospects they AI-slop blast, and the engineers building some truly epic AdvisorTech these days, and the RIA service providers that Kitces is about to release a Map of...
I think my passion for all of this comes through in my writing.
And I’m incredibly passionate about everybody getting a fair deal.
And I think… there’s a lot of people getting lied to these days… mainly about AI. What it’s good for, what actually works, how you can actually “Organically Grow” your business…
Here’s the tl;dr:
Using AI to create content to use in outbound cold prospecting via email, LinkedIn DMs, AI voicemails, cards written by robots… is one of the worst marketing methods out there.
Full stop.
Basically, just don’t do it.
For 30% of people, it will hurt your credibility… i.e. reputation:
But we’re talking COLD PROSPECTING! Not someone you already know, like and trust… You’re spamming people with content you didn’t write.
That’s rude for one. Lazy for another… and just bad for the industry as a whole.
So what’s with all these AI-Slop blasters (ahem, prospectors…) popping up???
The reality is, AI is powerful new technology, people don’t know quite how to apply it yet, and Notetaking and Prospecting were low-hanging fruit…
So companies like Jump, Nevis, Zocks, FINNY… are raising a lot of money to SEE if they might be able to solve a problem for advisors.
I think Jump and Zocks have proven that they can…
Nevis… well, Nevis is special. Here’s a quote from a top advisortech thought leader:
there is a greater than zero chance that this wil be the dumbest cheque ever written in this indutry
He can’t spell, but that’s how you know this is real! Real… what is real?
Let’s not go there… yet.
I can sense this post might get wordy… here’s another tl;dr
Here are the 22 “Organic Growth” investments better than FINNY:
(referencing the Kitces marketing research)
I don’t even see cold outbound on the list… it’s not a great way to market… but it is A way… There are many much much much better ways…
At the bottom, I’ll list 22 extremely good ways to spend $6,000 on your marketing that will get you much better ROI than signing up for FINNY.
Here’s another quote:
And at the end of the day, in a relationship business who wants to make AI cyberstalking the cornerstone of their business development?
~possibly someone on the blue shirt team
So now we have AI-Slop blasting (aka spamming people), and we have cyberstalking… aka taking people’s private information and serving it up all over the place.
Seeing people’s mortgage balances just from a first name, last name, email is creepy. Probably should be illegal… but here we are.
I want to sprinkle actual very good “organic growth” advice throughout this so you have some REAL MEATY action items.
If you truly want to 10X this year, or if you want to grow like mad, I suggest you take the entire balance of your retirement accounts and wire it directly to this man:
At the very least, double-bell the dude.
I’m calling him the TOP marketer in financial services… possibly globally…
Second only to this character:
But here’s the deal, John won’t take your money… he’s already working with the top brands in this space. And his default is set to “no”… as it should be for a TOP marketer who’s already chasing absolutely ridiculous goals for his business.
But I have other ideas on how to spend your $6,000… Just wait :)
Ever heard of this guy?
He’s also a truly fantastic marketer… you can try giving him all your money… maybe he’ll take it! But he’s also chasing his own goals… not yours.
Here are his thoughts on cold outbound:
AI prospecting - cold outbound is “crap”
Don’t do it.
AI prospecting… is bad marketing, by the way… if you couldn’t tell…
So why the heck did FINNY just raise $17 million at a $150 million valuation?
WITH investments from Joshua Brown and Jason Wenk… btw…
“whopping” valuation…
John Swystun does remind me constantly that most Ai-advisortech companies will go to zero.
Hence the “whopping”. Mostly likely, FINNY will go to zero, but there’s a chance… it’ll be unicorn…
There’s some gold in them comments though:
I’ve heard this from more than one advisor that has churned from FINNY - it was buggy, didn’t actually work that well as a software…
It sounds like it’s getting better though…
It also sounds like they may be moving away from AI-slop blasting…
I’m really glad to hear that honestly, and think FINNY may now have a slightly greater chance than zero of not… going to zero.
But a Saas company versus an actual marketing service are quite different… I don’t know how they’ll help advisors build personal brands at scale. That sounds difficult. But its a nut I want to try to crack too…
…So I asked Michael about the $150million valuation…
Joe: “FINNY, is it absurd?”
Michael: “10,000 firms at $6k/firm = $60M revenue = $600M valuation, sounds like a good deal to have bought in at $150M. They get to 4X their valuation if they can quickly get to 10k firms! Yay! 🤣
(It may be ‘absurd’ to think they can grow to 10k firms that quickly, that’s a LOT of growth to create and absorb, but the point is that there are no absurd valuations, there are only varying extremes in growth goals TO validate the valuation.)”
Is it $6k/firm or $6k/advisor? Guess that’s something I need to clarify with Eden…
Either way, 10,000 firms or 10,000 advisors… that’s a BHAG of a goal… especially for an AI prospecting company that’s pivoting to marketing services…
Alright some closing thoughts from another top marketer in the space, and then I’ll wrap this up:
He was referring to cold outbound:
“…It’s horrible, it just burns through your goodwill. No matter what market you operate in, you don’t have infinite TAM (total addressable market) to burn… and so it’s a dumb idea.
If all you do is email blast as a core pillar of your marketing strategy, you’re doomed for failure. Reputationally and technically. You’ll be burning through domains, getting blacklisted…”
Let me introduce a concept: “The Golden Rule of Prospecting”
Prospect others in the way that you would want to be prospected.
Nobody wants to receive a ton of emails/LinkedIn DMs/AI voicemails/postcards written by AI from 17 different advisors when they have a life-changing event.
AND… they’ll tune them out too.
Meaning this might work a little for a year or two, but eventually the AI prospecting tools will break this industry’s outbound attempts… for good?
Nobody wants that either.
Probably not even FINNY.
So how do you ACTUALLY organically grow and win HNW prospects?
This man is another expert:
Especially check out the ending starting at 43:33…
Basically everything he suggests is the opposite of what FINNY provides (prior to the coaching part which I just heard about from Eden yesterday) … at least from my latest understanding… it may be changing and I’m open to that.
Alright… so 22 organic growth investments better than FINNY… here we go:
why Joe, why are you doing this?
FINNY isn’t proven yet, their churn is high from what I’ve heard, they’re actively trying to pivot to prospecting that actually works… but also… they’re just way overpriced… There are much better data tools, even a full-blown CRM with prospecting built in that is only $150 per month while FINNY is $500/mo.
It’s a bad deal.
Here are some good ones (not in any particular order, just how they are coming to my mind):
$5,799 - For less than $6,000, you can join Libby Griewe’s Systems to Scale Group Coaching & Mastermind. I can positively guarantee you you’ll get far and away better results from this than from FINNY. And it’s on Skool… duh… TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO JOIN!
$14.57 - Blend Out book from Robert Sofia of Snappy Kraken
Of course, don’t actually use Snappy Kraken… templated content is a terrible way to “blend out.” :) Sorry if I’m misunderstanding what SK provides…
$17.95 - A truly fantastic book all about not using templated content is this one: The Truth About Digital Marketing for Financial Advisors: How to Create a Magnetic, Authentic Brand that Unlocks Unparalleled Growth for Your Firm by Kristin Shea
here’s another one:
$17.30 - Uncomparable: The Financial Advisor’s Guide to Standing Out through Niche Marketing by Kristen Luke
or you can work with her - Annual Marketing Plan by Kristen Luke:
Clearly I respect her work… I asked her to write the forward of my next book:
Hire the best website designer in the industry to give you a fresh website:
Kendra did! I did as well…
Speaking of Kendra…
She’s also a world-class marketer! Even Michael Kitces hired her…
Start a YouTube… like Root Financial - they got more prospect than they can possibly onboard… like a 2 year wait or something:
I’m honestly starting to feel a bit silly now, there are literally loads of ways I can think of to market better than using an AI prospector… and many are not that hard, not that expensive…
Hire ProudMouth to start you a podcast
Book a call with Michael Kitces - I think it’s $1000/hr
Get a $3,000 operational assessment from Kate Guillen of Simplicity Ops:
Go to the Bill Good Marketing conference!!!
Hire Niki Clark Marketing:
Join The Exchange community on Skool and go through Dan Allison’s referral stuff:
This may be the best possible ROI you’ll get… remember this???
Hey, it’s worth a shot with John… say, hey buddy, I read Joe’s email… here’s $6k… how can you help me???
Cancel half your tech stack and actually spend 4 hours a day on marketing! LOW AND SLOW like a brisket as Derrick Kinney says…
Watch anything by MrBeast and do exactly as he recommends… FREE!!!
Buy any of these books and a journal and start reading, writing, and upskilling your MIND!!! (one included for free in the first month of my 7,000 project)
Find an advisor who’s obviously doing a lot better at marketing than you and ask if they’ll help you…
Ask me how I think you should prospect… believe me, I got some ideas…
Ok, well, there it is… the list of 22 seemed like a good idea before I actually started doing it…
The point being, don’t buy an AI prospecting tool thinking it will solve your “Organic Growth” problem… That’s literally the last thing that will solve your problem… here’s 22 better ideas… ⬆️
I bought some things, gonna take a picture, real things… mind you! Enjoy!
90% of advisors are the Hershey bar… be anything but a Hershey bar… and you’ll be successful.
Be special, find your unique voice, avoid making content with AI - start a podcast, a blog, a YouTube channel, hiring a speaking coach… well, you already have a list.
BLEND OUT!!!!!
Do not use AI for your prospecting! It’s a terrible idea!
Now do you see that tiny gold circle in the middle of the chocolate bars? Maybe a bit gold-colored?
Yes, it’s a 1/10oz Gold American Eagle worth over $500.
Gold and Silver been doing pretty well, eh??? Why?
Woah, what’s up with Bitcoin???
Bitcoin is fiat, farce, fake, uncertain… Gold is real, Silver is real… now they don’t always make good investments but they do right now!
Why??? Because AI is darn confusing… along with some other world problems going on right now…
If you use AI for your prospecting, expect results like GBTC… If you use your brain, develop your brain, hone your brain… expect results like Gold and Silver….
Expect results like these champions:
Josh Brown
Michael Kitces
Morgan Housel
John Swystun…
You get the point…
Real marketing is not AI slop. Real marketing is well… Real.
To Epic Human Stories,
Joe
I enjoyed the analysis. Just a bit confused how at the end you list Josh Brown as a "champion" to follow, but not Finny. But Josh Brown is a lead investor in Finny...
Great post ! All these sass companies are preying on financial advisors