Candice Carlton On Using Video to Set Yourself Apart

Show Timeline:

03:44 Being more collaborative, the shift toward authentic relationships
09:07 The ‘New Skool Mindset’ and the role of transparency
13:01 Creating authentic communications
17:21 Two exercises to help you show up authentically
19:40 How to utilize video with clients and prospects
22:22 Understanding the technology you need to have in place
23:24 Key elements to an effective video
28:33 Leveraging videos to show clients how YOU are what they’re really looking for
31:05 Using video to supercharge client communication
34:12 Ways to enhance the referral process with video

Links:

New Skool Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-skool/id1529343494
Website:           https://www.ficommpartners.com
Twitter:             https://twitter.com/candicecarlton
LinkedIn:          https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicecarlton/

Want more?
Stephen Wershing: http://advisorchecklist.com/blog/
Julie Littlechild: http://www.absoluteengagement.com/blog

Episode Transcript:

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Julie Littlechild:
Welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that helps you become the advisor people can’t help talking about. I’m Julie Littlechild, and today, Steve and I are speaking with Candice Carlton, the SVP of FiComm’s Advisor Education business. This is one you really don’t want to miss. Candice has a really interesting background, she’s worked with two powerhouse RIAs, Mercer Advisors and United Capital. And now she’s responsible for developing the strategy and execution of programs and workshops that help advisors get their message out to the world through marketing campaigns, through videos and podcasts. So we talk to Candice about her views on old school versus new school marketing and the role of authenticity in delivering your message, it’s an important one.

From there, we get really detailed and dig into the full story on how you can use video in your business as a way to set yourself apart. Candice is a true expert in this area and helps us to understand everything from the equipment basics to the focus of your videos, to distribution. And she makes some really critical points on exactly what creates a compelling video and where you can go wrong. The good news, I think, is that video is not nearly as complex as we make it out to be. And with that, let’s get straight to the conversation with Candice.

So Candice, welcome to the show. So happy to have you here.

Candice Carlton:
Hi guys. So excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Julie Littlechild:
Oh, can’t wait to talk. There’s so much I want to ask you, but we’ve got 30 minutes, so that’s going to limit it. I’m just going to jump really quickly.

Steve Wershing:
We have to talk really fast.

Julie Littlechild:
But before we jump into all of the detail, do you mind just starting with just a little context on the work that you’re doing and FiComm is doing with advisors, so everybody’s aware of all of that.

Candice Carlton:
Yeah. So hi everyone and welcome. I am the head of Advisor Education at FiComm Partners. It’s actually a new line of business that we launched at the beginning of 2020, and interestingly enough, the year that COVID hit and advisors, I think realized quicker than they’d ever bit had before that they needed to be all things digital. So I am the creator and I lead our virtual coaching and consulting to help what we say is the modern heart driven advisor of today, show up authentically and powerfully on all things. Podcasting, video and really strategic marketing, translating that to them in a way that feels really authentic and aligned with the type of business that they want to build, the type of life they want to live and the type of client they want to serve.

Julie Littlechild:
I love the way you talk about this, because it’s so compelling just as you’re describing that, which of course is intentional, it’s meant to be. But initially when we were thinking of having you on and I will get there, I wanted to talk about video just because I know you have so much experience in that area, but what you just said really starts us in a different place that I think we should look at. And I’d love to create a bit of context and in that context, I think really has to do with your views on marketing, and you’ve talked in particular about this old school versus new school. So maybe we could start there, what’s the difference between those two things first of all?

Candice Carlton:
Yeah. So Julie, I think it’s really interesting because I come from a very non traditional marketing background and I think that’s important. So I studied finance and economics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. I said, I would never go into finance at the time, because I thought it was very cutthroat. I thought it was very male and just not fun is essentially what I thought, even though I had a degree in it. And then I discovered the RIA space and I went to go interview at Mercer Advisors, which was, I think a five billion RIA national in Santa Barbara in the investment department. And my boss was going to be a 30 year old woman in charge of this investment team, aligning people’s money with their values, team orientated and I was like, this is something I can get behind. So I spent seven years in investment and investment operations.

I was going to be a financial advisor actually, I was halfway through my CFP and I got to estate planning and I was like, I think this is not for me. Right? This is not really what I want to be doing. And long story short, I went to go work at United Capital, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs. And when I started there were 30 offices and I didn’t have a job description. I was the point of contact for a 100 managing directors across the country. So whoever with the equity shareholders and my job was just to solve whatever problem came up, identify if it was a strategic problem and then solve for it. And it just so happened that one of the problems that showed up was a communication problem. So all we were acquiring, all of these offices and they were feeling like they were a little islands, they weren’t feeling aligned in vision.

We had so much change happening that they couldn’t keep up with it. And it was impacting growth is what the long and short of it was. And so I had to solve for that and it goes into my background, a video at the time my boss said to me, “Candice, I need you to be more visible. I need you to create culture and I need you to solve the communication problem.” And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” I remember writing it down on a note pad at my desk and be like, “Do they know I have a finance degree?” So the long and short of it is we started with one video, shot on our phones, zero budget, about eight years ago, rap music bloopers and we sent it out and the advisors loved it. And the CMO tried to shut us down many times because she said that not on brand, which it wasn’t.

And by the time I left, I’d built United Capital’s digital network, which was a video first platform. And we did everything, client communications, prospect in life, all of it in this very non traditional financial services background. And so I give that context because I think old school marketing is what is the traditionals, what we’ve been accustomed to. And probably what I would have studied when I was in university over finance. So if you think about the context of the advisor client relationship, it would be much more like top down. Do you know what I’m saying? So almost like when we still go to the doctor and the doctor was the professional in our health. Now we know that that relationship has changed, it’s much more collaborative and we’re an advocate for our health. And we see that in the advisor client relationship, it’s much more collaborative.

We also see that clients want transparency, they want to be part of the conversation. So when we think about old school marketing, it’s that top-down approach. It’s almost like you broadcast your expertise and what clients should do. Whereas new school’s more about being in conversation with clients. So for example, this podcast, you have a lot of advisors walking through their plans with clients now, and having them make the decisions same in the marketing world. Old school, you had your website, you had your pitch deck, you probably had your beautifully shot video, it was a one and done, and it was on your website. You informed, you broadcast it and you were the expert. The new school is you’re really in conversation with your clients. So you’re asking them for feedback. It’s a lot more colloquial. It’s more human to human language where I think old school was very professional. We have 100 years of expertise.

New school, you’re using video across your prospect and client experience. It’s not a one and done. It’s also more authentic. It’s more DIY style, advisors are able to show up authentically as themselves in a more human to human consumer type relationship. So it’s more like that consumer relationship and that interaction versus, I am the expert, listen to everything that I have to say.