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Stacy Francis, CFP®, CDFA® is a nationally-recognized financial expert and the President and CEO of Francis Financial, a firm that serves women going through transitions. She is also the founder of Savvy Ladies™, a non-profit that has provided free personal finance education and resources to over 20,000 women.
Takeaway Quote:
“It’s meeting the client where they are, in the place that they feel most comfortable to talk about money.”
Show Timeline:
1:30 Stacy’s background and the story behind Savvy Ladies
How a personal tragedy prompted her to pursue a career in financial services
5:36 How Stacy’s work with Savvy Ladies crosses over into her advisory work
The psychological similarities people share regardless of asset amounts
8:00 Skills that are critical for advisors to have in order to engage deeply with clients
Why her firm places great emphasis on creating a comfortable environment for clients
10:56 Differentiating yourself through your process
The investment Stacy’s team makes in the discovery process to have a lasting impact
16:15 How the firm positions who they are and the work they do
The themes running through their messaging and online presence
19:30 Other ways in which they get the message out
Leveraging online and traditional media, and unique events and experiences
22:01 How the team members have developed their own skills to best serve their clients
Trainings, certifications, and group activities tailored to their target market
24:03 Why Stacy would encourage all advisors to commit to serving a certain market
The benefits that come along with drawing a line in the sand
27:43 How they have reached out to non-traditional centers of influence
Demonstrating the commitment to helping and supporting clients to generate referrals
30:08 Their referral marketing system
A process for monitoring how the firm is doing and pointing out areas for improvement
35:10 Their on-boarding process
The details involved at each stage, with peace of mind as the end goal
Links:
Website: http://francisfinancial.com/
Podcast: Financially Ever After
White paper: Unveiling the Unspoken Truth: The Financial Challenges Women Face During and After Divorce
Francis Financial Sample Investment Plan
Francis Financial Wealth Management Consultative Process
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacyfrancis/
Want more?
Stephen Wershing: www.TheClientDrivenPractice.com/checklistblog
Julie Littlechild: www.absoluteengagement.com/blog
Episode Transcript:
Steve:
Welcome to Becoming Referable, the podcast that shows you how to become the kind of advisor people can’t stop talking about. I’m Steve Wershing.
On this episode we talk with Stacy Francis, an Investment News Woman to Watch. Stacy was on a career track in college that was about as far from financial services as you can imagine. But personal tragedy intervened and gave her a mission that’s made her a successful professional, the creator of the charitable organization, Savvy Ladies, and the leader of a healthy and growing financial advisory firm.
Some of what was interesting about our conversation is the different approach she takes to things that Julie and I usually recommend to advisors. From not stressing her target market on her homepage, which by the way is one of the most beautiful websites we’ve seen for a financial advisor, to how much work she’s willing to do for prospective clients before asking them for the commitment to become a client. One other particularly valuable topic is when we talk about her referral tracking system. In the study that Julie and I did we found that this kind of system correlated strongly with getting a higher level of referrals, and Stacy clearly has it mastered.
Here now is our conversation with Stacy Francis.
So, Stacy Francis, welcome to Becoming Referable, thanks for joining us.
Stacy:
Thank you, I’m happy to be here. I’m very honored.
Steve:
Stacy, you and I have spoken a couple times and I’ve seen you speak before and I understand that when you were younger and going to college, financial advice was long way from your original idea for your career, except that this major life event sort of jumped in the way and set you on a new course. Can you tell us a little about that story?
Stacy:
Yes, I never, ever pictured myself becoming a financial planner. In fact, wanted to do everything as far from money and numbers as possible. I ended up going to a wonderful liberal arts school, Middlebury College, and I became a French major, Spanish minor, and not a whole lot of numbers in there. But I had a life changing experience, my dear grandmother, one of the most special people to me in my life, we had a heart-to-heart and I finally asked her why she stayed in her marriage. That sounds little bit like a prying question, and maybe even inappropriate, but I had seen her be verbally abused and unfortunately physically abused, and she never left.
I couldn’t understand why, and I was a sophomore and that point and finally got the courage to ask her why she stayed. The reason why she decided to stay was because of money. My whole world changed on that moment. My life became something very different and at that point I committed myself to learning about money. I realized it was not an option anymore, because if this could happen to one of the smartest, brilliant, most wonderful women on the face of this planet, that could happen to me.
Steve:
Yeah, and that launched you into an area now, did your charitable work start around the same time as your career? I wanted to ask you about getting into this career, but also starting Savvy Ladies. Can you tell us a little bit about the genesis of those?
Stacy:
Yeah, thank you for asking about that. Savvy Ladies is really my love letter to my grandmother. She ended up passing away unfortunately because of the abuse and I was devastated obviously. She and my mother were two of the most important people of my life and I lost one of them. Savvy Ladies was my way of honoring her memory and most importantly she was a person who lived her life trying to help others. So, it was my way of giving back.
So about 16 years ago I started Savvy Ladies and it started very small. It was women coming to my home, I would make snacks and dinner, and we would talk about all different topics. In fact, I remember the first one was the 25 Most Overlooked Tax Savings Opportunities. My kitties ended up sitting on I think, each one of the people’s laps there. Thank goodness no one was allergic.
It started out very, very small and my heart was so warmed by the women getting excited about this information, wanting to learn more, telling their sisters, their friends, their mothers, and ultimately grew. Some of our seminars have as many as 250 women coming and we have now weekly webinars that literally dozens, and dozens, and dozens of women attend. It’s become a huge part of my life and part of my mission to help women. We’ve now helped about 20,000 women.
Thank you for this interesting and informative article. It demonstrates that if we care deeply we can make a meaningful difference in the lives of those we touch. I have shared this interview with several of my associates. I appreciate all of you putting this together.