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Randy Gerber is the founder of Gerber, LLC, a firm dedicated to working with first-generation entrepreneurs, and being a place where these individuals find more than just financial advice. Randy is a member of the Raymond James Financial Services Leaders Council, has served on their Executive Council and Chairman’s Council, and has been recognized as an outstanding financial advisor by Raymond James every year since 1999.

Takeaway Quote:

“We look and feel like our clients look and feel.”

Show Timeline:

01:58 Background on Gerber, LLC
The firm’s commitment to its target market
03:11 The approach they took in transitioning clients out of the firm
The process, positioning, and solutions for clients
05:10 What it means to Gerber, LLC to be a professional services firm
The effect of this branding in the field, and why it’s more appropriate given their offering
08:31 The firm’s fee structure
Working with a variety of client asset profiles
10:37 Why they’re specific to first-generation entrepreneurs
The needs and challenges Randy has recognized within this group
13:21 Becoming more referable through this approach
How their dedication to their niche has increased referrals from clients and other professionals
16:19 How the rest of the business aligns around this target market
Helping the first-generation entrepreneur see the forest for the trees
19:48 Bridging the business goals and personal goals
Simple solutions they can provide to clients to help them cross common hurdles
22:13 The Emerging Entrepreneur program
A structure for educating entrepreneurs on business fundamentals
25:42 The firm’s digital and physical presence
The deliberate choices around the way they show themselves to current and prospective clients
30:58 The roots of the decisions made by Randy to work with a specific group of people
The questions he asked himself at a critical point in his career, and how that shaped the future

Links:

Website: www.gerberclarity.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GerberClarity
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gerberclarity
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GerberLLC/ 

Want more?

Stephen Wershing: www.TheClientDrivenPractice.com/checklistblog
Julie Littlechild: www.absoluteengagement.com/blog

Episode Transcript:

[Audio Length: 0:35:13]

Julie Littlechild:       
Welcome to another episode of Becoming Referable, the podcast that helps you be the kind of advisor people can’t stop talking about. I’m Julie Littlechild, and on this week’s show, Steve and I speak with Randy Gerber. Randy’s someone I reference a lot in my work, so I was really excited to talk to him about his work. Randy is the founder of Gerber LLC, which works exclusively with first-generation entrepreneurs just like him, and their offer extends beyond financial advice to really look at the issues that connect life, business and finance.

Now, one thing you’ll notice is that Randy gets two things very right, among other things, of course. First, he has a very clear understanding of why he works with this target group, and second, he’s built his entire business around their unique needs. None of this happened overnight, so we talked to Randy about transitioning to a business with this level of focus, and of course, we talked to him about the impact on referrals.

Randy is a member of the Raymond James Financial Services Leaders Council, has been a part of their executive council, and is a two-year member of the Chairman’s Council. With that, let’s get on with the show.

Well, Randy, thank you so much for taking the time today. Very excited to talk to you.

Randy Gerber:
Happy to be here. I enjoy this.

Julie Littlechild:
You know, I have been stalking you, as I’ve told you, for some time, since I discovered what you were doing around niche markets. It’s been, to me, such a great example of how this can be done well, and I’d love to talk to you in detail about that, and of course, the impact that that has on making you referable, as well. But maybe we can just start and tell us a little bit about your business.

Randy Gerber:
Sure. We’re a professional service firm exclusively advising first-generation entrepreneurs. We got our start in what I would call traditional financial planning and evolved into wealth management, and realized over time that the clients that we can serve the best and we enjoy serving the most are first-generation entrepreneurs. So, we’ve really redesigned our firm around dispensing advice and services specifically to that group of people. We are pretty disciplined about exclusively advising only that group of people. We went through the process in 2004, again in 2007, of politely and professionally moving folks off our books that weren’t ever going to be first-generation entrepreneurs, or were not. Since about 2008 we’ve been very careful, only taking that population as clients.

Steve Wershing:
Can I jump in and ask a question about that, because you bring up something really important, it’s a question I get all the time. That is, if I focus on a target market and develop a niche, will I lose the clients, will I alienate the clients who are not in that niche. But you took affirmative action to move them off. Can you tell us a little bit about how you did that and how it affected the business, and what that was like to go through?

Randy Gerber:
Well, actually, the first wave was really easy. The clients that we didn’t find very respectful to us, we asked them to leave first. And that was about $20 million at a time that we had about $280 million assets under management, so it was a pretty big chunk of change. Through that process, we started the process, it was interesting to watch my staff, how relieved they were to see me take action against people who were most problematic for them. It actually had this very counterintuitive sense of relief to it. Once we went through that first wave of people, the second cut was harder, because the people that we liked a lot, and people that had bet on us when I was starting out. But at the end of the day, it was a fairly easy message saying hey, we’re making this shift, and I’m not sure we’re the right firm to serve you going forward. We had identified a couple of other firms that could easily pick up where we left off, and with the exception of really, one client, everybody understood and they were fine and gracious about it. We got a lot of thank-you’s and not much blowback at all.

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