Happy Monday!
So I had drafted an entire email, thought it was pretty good, pretty inspiring… sent it to several people — they were confused. What exactly is this?
So I’m selecting all, deleting all, and starting over.
You see, I had a problem. A clarity problem. I wasn’t exactly sure what this “3,000 Project” was. I thought it was a rousing call to banding together and helping each other grow. And people kind of felt that, but also kind of were still confused.
Today I had some fresh perspective. People need clarity. I need clarity.
So let’s get super clear.
What problems do most financial advisors, consultants, RIA operators, and tech builders have?
Joe, you might say, that doesn’t sound clear, that sounds like you’re targeting 4 different niches. And you’d be right. Scrap that.
What problems do most financial advisors have?
Joe, there’s like 300,000 financial advisors… which financial advisors are you talking about that have all these problems?
Ok, fine. Financial advisors that have the CFP®.
Now we’re at 100,000 people.
So its super easy to find financial advisors with a CFP - they usually put it in their name line and doing a LinkedIn people search for “CFP” is super reliable.
But I’m not looking for 100,000 people. I’m trying to be super-duper clear.
I’m looking for 3,000 people.
So what might these 3,000 people have that the 100,000 don’t?
Well, good question. They have the autonomy to pick their own tech stack. That’s super important because “TooMuchTech” is one of the 7 problems I’m trying to solve.
They have autonomy to market how they want. YouTube, blogging, doing handstands in public… you name it. They can do it.
They also have the desire to become something more, to make a difference, to make change. To take a stand for something.
Ok, so I’m going to call that good enough. I’m looking for financial advisors, potentially with the CFP, that have autonomy over their tech stack and marketing, and that want to make change.
Do you see how clarity helps?
I actually did a LinkedIn post a few weeks ago asking:
You can read the comments if you like, but the overall gist I heard was “clarity.”
So again, let’s get super-duper clear.
What are the 7 Specific Problems I want to help solve for 3,000 Specific People?
The Niche Problem
The Marketing Problem
The Money Problem
The TooMuchTech Problem or “The AI Problem”
The Personal Growth Problem
The Inspiration Problem
The Goals Problem
The first four problems are very business-y. The last three are very human-y.
I can feel this email getting way too long… Hmmm.
What if I just focused on ONE problem, for ONE person?
And use that as a template to solve all these other problems.
#5 it is. THE PERSONAL GROWTH PROBLEM
After all,
Everything grows at the rate that you do.
Said another way:
If you want your business to grow, you have to grow.
I personally want to grow to become the person that can help others solve these 7 problems - 7 problems that I personally have struggled with for many years.
I want to grow, to become a better human, to become a better businessman, and then in turn help others do the same.
So really, I guess that’s what all this is.
I’m going to work on growing, and do it in public, and share what I’m learning on the way.
And as I do, I’m going to work on solving these 7 problems for myself and others.
Now let me go into a bit more detail on each one:
1. The Niche Problem
Exactly “Who” do you help?
A symptom I see all the time for this problem is that financial advisors’ niches are waaaay too broad (kind of like my own lack of clarity in the beginning of this email).
It’s nearly impossible to pull a list of your niche to prospect and market to if you’re not super clear on who your niche is.
A niche, IMO, is a specific list of 3,000 specific people - their names, their emails, their LinkedIn’s, where they live, how much they make, what they do… Once you have that much specificity, the Marketing Problem gets a whole lot easier.
2. The Marketing Problem
“Is your marketing working?”
Yesterday, I was chatting with an advisor on LinkedIn, and he said he was paying someone $850/mo to help with video content, company social media management, and website content.
I asked, well, is it working?
Is the business growing, do you have lots of warm prospects, is change happening?
“You’re hilarious” he says… 😂
What is marketing anyway?
“To get a chance to tell your story, and then, even better, to have that story make an impact.”
~ Seth Godin, This Is Marketing (one of the books included in this program!)
Yes, there will be books, delivered to your door. By Amazon of course. :)
Many advisors are outsourcing their marketing, letting someone or some“thing” 🤖 else tell their story.
Bad idea (there are caveats which I’ll get into). Tell your own story. Because in the telling, you will grow, and when you grow, you’ll solve your Money Problem.
3. The Money Problem
This one is kinda self-explanatory. We all know when we have a money problem.
We’re either not making enough to pay for our AdvisorTech stack, or we are. There are only those two options. :)
Ok, in all seriousness, a money problem is quite a serious problem to have. And when a financial advisor has a money problem, it’s really serious. Because its super difficult to give money advice when you have a money problem.
And most money problems lead to this next one.
4. The TooMuchTech Problem
Or “Shiny Object Syndrome”. Jumping from tech to tech to tech, from tactic to tactic to tactic… trying to make more money.
And in the process just burning a whole bunch more of it.
Now AdvisorTech is my bread-and-butter. I wrote a book about it after all.
The truth is, you are using the wrong tech. Bad tech, outdated tech, frustrating tech.
But FINNY won’t solve your money problem, or Jump, or SmartAsset, or hiring a bunch of consultants. Of course, there are places for all of these things.
But I think TooMuchTech, and “AI” overload, and doom scrolling are from a deeper problem, a clarity problem… or maybe even:
5. The Personal Growth Problem
Have you tried niche after niche, or tech after tech, or marketing tactic after marketing tactic… with not all that much success?
You have a personal growth problem. I definitely have a personal growth problem.
And this is what the “10X is Easier than 2X” book is about. Personal growth.
10X personal growth vs 2X personal growth like most people do.
But personal growth isn’t just extreme focus, or “right” focus, or becoming the best in the world at something. It isn’t even “transformation.”
Personal growth is death.
Personal growth is saying NO… to ideas, to beliefs, to past ways of doing things, to bad habits. And saying YES to…
well, inspiration.
6. The Inspiration Problem
“You don’t do the things you want to do… well, because you don’t ACTUALLY want to do them.”
If you wanted to do them, you would do them. People do the things they want to do.
This is the inspiration problem.
If you’re not getting the results you desire, you need some inspiration.
Inspiration comes from proof.
This weird dude Joe is doing this… and it’s getting him this result… I’m inspired to do that weird thing too.
Then you go do it.
My inspiration came approximately 70 days ago. I was in a real funk. I have proof:
Inspiration comes from a Creator, or a creator… sometimes the Creator working through a creator.
Well, for me, that creator was Peter McKinnon.
And the video, or “art” that sparked all this for me was this one:
Tools That Sharpen Your Mind
I absolutely loved this video. And I immediately went and bought this canvas art roll-up thing, and some nice pens, and some Field Notes notebooks, and a LEUCHTTURM1917® journal.
And I started some basic daily habits:
Day 1 of 1000 I wrote… at the top of each page and my simple daily habits.
Day 2 of 1000…
Day 3 of 1000…
As I write this, I’m on Day 62 of 1000.
Ya know what I learned? Daily habits COMPOUND!!! big time!
Like money compounds, habits compound, tiny little “atomic” habits. Ever heard of that book? :)
Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.
~ James Clear, Atomic Habits
But I’m here to tell you it doesn’t even take years… I mean for sure, there are underlying habits I’ve had for decades that have led to this moment.
But the funk I was in? Just 70ish days ago?
Small daily habits change lives.
Maybe this email could be your inspiration, or maybe watch Peter McKinnon’s video and go buy you a canvas roll-up thing.
The elephants are not mine :).
Because goal-setting time is coming!
7. The Goals Problem
Everybody knows people set big goals come New Year. And everybody knows most people don’t stick to their goals…
This is starting to sound like a Leonard Cohen song. :)
Everybody Knows… they have a Goals Problem.
The niche isn’t specific enough, the marketing falls flat, the money is short, there’s too much tech, there’s only 2x personal growth, there’s not enough inspiration in the tank, and the Goals we set, well… they don’t get scored.
In the absence of that clarity of what you want, you will lack the motivation and discipline to do what it takes to get there.
I need clarity, you need clarity, your clients need clarity, your prospects need clarity, you need clarity on even who your prospects are.
In the absence of clarity on what it is exactly that you want… you will not do the work to get there.
So what is it exactly that you want? Like really?
You probably don’t even have to think that hard about it… we all know what we want, don’t we?
No, we don’t, actually… and it’s that lack of clarity that stops us cold. The doom-scrolling, the shiny object syndrome, letting AI tell our story because we don’t even know what our story is… might as well make it the average of all the other stories…
NO!!! WRONG ANSWER!!!
:)
It is YOUR story. It is MY story. Don’t outsource YOUR story. Don’t do it.
(Again, John Swystun reminded me to tell you some people have very low trait “openness” and they might need to hire someone to help them tell their story. Noted.)
Here’s my clarity.
I want to build the #1 💻 Tech community on Skool.
I didn’t choose AdvisorTech. It just kinda came to me. But it is my passion. And I want to help financial advisors select and use the best tech… so that… they can make epic amounts of change in their lives and their clients’ lives.
Technology is awesome, but technology also kills stories.
Use it to write your story.
Use technology to help your clients write their stories.
And I’ll work on becoming the top community in Tech on Skool:
Do you see all the AI communities? Don’t worry, there’s literally thousands more.
I want to become the top community to show that humans still matter. Human stories… Humans using tech to better their lives and their clients’ lives.
No more AI slop.
AI slop will destroy humans’ stories.
This is what ✨ The 3,000 Project is all about.
Solving all these problems us entrepreneurs have. Or maybe just “us people.”
I hope you’ll join.
To epic human stories,
Joe
To join the movement, sign up for Standard (if you’re really serious, join The Fellowship):
…
Ok, so now you may be thinking, “Joe, why should we trust you? You’ve worked in public, we’ve seen some of your highs and lows…”
Fair point, some social proof is good. Here are some official testimonials:
A less official one (💙John Swystun):
Some more or less official ones 😂:
So what exactly is included in this thing?
I’m glad you asked. I’ve been wondering the same thing 🤔
1st, there is a welcome package including:
An awesome book
A 3-pack of Field Notes
Some uni-ball Signo DX pens (trust me, they’re awesome!)
A self-inking Date Stamp
These are to help you kick-start your daily habits. Solid daily habits will take you where you want to go.
2nd, there is a recommended tech stack:
3rd, there is a mini-course about the 7 Problems:
Don’t worry, I’ll make it as absolutely minimal as I can to solve each problem. Everybody is busy. You can’t sit around and read and watch stuff all day…
4th, there will be additional resources about each problem if you want to dive deeper, including links out to all the TOP consultants in the industry on each topic.
The very top ones, like the legends…
Speaking of TOP lists, sure, there are some of those too:
5th, there will be 🔥VIP intros.
If you need a specific problem solved, I’ll connect you with a very specific person who is very specifically good at solving that specific problem… Bluefishing style:
6th, Niches are hard, I’ll help you identify exactly who the people you can help are:
Lastly and finally, 7th.
There will be a community of some of the coolest people in the industry to hang out with… People like:
Bob Veres (he gets no explanation… sorry)
Derek Notman (REBL Dad guy)
Grier Rubeling (the Transition queen)
Ryan George (the most funnest CMO)
Jay Coulter (the most Resilient advisor)
Ben Olsen (the AI & Automation guy who picks on Redtail)
Jason Pereira (the KITCES of Canada 🍁)
Kirk Lowe (the ProudMouth guy)
Liam Hanlon (the JUMP insights guy)
Dustin Belliston (the humblest man in advisortech, and proud of it!)
Jayce Nall (the mastermind behind RIApulse.com)
Kendra Wright (the #1 marketer in financial services)
Emily Rassam (has the biggest tech stack of anybody… :)
David DeCelle (I think he’s famous in some circles)
James Cantwell (the CRM killer)
Marcella Toronto (the UHNW queen)
Brian Thorp (the not-Google testimonials guy)
Alex Mathe-Cathala (he flies to advisor’s offices and does tech demos live… in a chair, next to the advisor, it’s wild!)
Yes, so the community is the most valuable part. Join for that.
That is all.
Joe
P.S. This email isn’t perfect. This offer isn’t perfect. But as I’m reminded from “Improv Wisdom”:
Close enough is perfect.
~ Gene DeSmidt
And I think its close enough. And I’m ready to make a ruckus.
Your work matters. Make a ruckus.
~ Seth Godin