Top Advisor Marketing Podcast: Start Creating Content, Even if You’re a Perfectionist With Adam Cox (Ep. 426)

Are you still waiting to get your voice out there? Maybe you’re stuck because you believe your content will “never be good enough.” 

How do you push past perfectionism and publish anyway?

In this episode, Matt Halloran talks to Adam Cox, Executive Vice President and Chief Wealth Management Officer at The First National Bank in Sioux Falls. In 2020, Adam hired someone to record podcast episodes for them. But despite being pumped to start, Adam waited a year before taking action. He was too focused on wanting everything to be perfect. 

Now, there’s no looking back. Adam is the host of Common Cents on the Prairie™, an award-winning podcast that “tackles some of today’s toughest financial questions in an approachable and personable style.” A vital part of his firm’s content machine, the podcast is helping them add more than one new relationship every business day. 

Adam discusses:

• To what extent compliance impacts his team’s ability to produce a podcast
• How he consistently shows up as a thought leader and content creator, despite being a self-described perfectionist
• What he wishes he’d done differently when starting his podcast
• Three pieces of advice for advisors who are hesitating to create content
• And more 

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Matt Halloran: Welcome to the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, brought to you by ProudMouth. I'm your host, Matt Halloran. Being your own loud is not new to marketing, but the mindset, strategies and resources to help you get there are evolving faster than this industry is keeping up. It is time to find a new perspective on what works, why, and how to move your business forward.

[00:00:24] Matt Halloran: Listen, as I interview guests to help you learn from them how to be your own loud. Let's get to the show.

[00:00:34] Matt Halloran: Hello and welcome to another Top Advisor marketing podcast. I am your host, Matt Halloran. Today we're going to talk about being able to market into the most unlikely place. And when I introduce my guest today, you'll be like, what? What's going on? Why is he on your show? And how is he doing this? Alright, so Adam is our guest today.

[00:00:49] Matt Halloran: His name's Adam Cox. Now here's the crazy thing. He works in a bank. In a bank. I don't want everybody to know. Okay. And here's the craziest part. He has a podcast and he markets and he's really good at it. So all of you who are sitting back, I can't do this cuz of compliance. No, you can, you just have to know how to play by the rules.

[00:01:10] Matt Halloran: Adam, welcome to the show.

[00:01:12] Adam Cox: Thank you very much for having me, Matt. I appreciate it. 

[00:01:14] Matt Halloran: Okay, brother, how are you able to do any of this? Oh, actually, you know what, before we get there, let's talk a little bit about, let's tell you a little bit about your story though. So why are you at a bank, and then we'll go into how you do those.

[00:01:27] Adam Cox: Yep. You started at the beginning. I kind of grew up in banking. [00:01:30] I've worked in RA before, so I've got a taste of that life. But my first level was always kind of banking, and so I know the space, know it well. I grew up as a practitioner in this business. I was kind of a trust and estates expert, and then I got this job where I became a leader of a 40 person team and my job changed and we did a lot of hard work.

[00:01:50] Adam Cox: We transformed our, our company and our culture, and then it became how are we going to grow, which is the question all of us face, right? And so natural led me to. We're going to have to do some marketing. And so now I spend a lot of time thinking about marketing. I think about growth, I think about strategy, and are really obsessed about that stuff.

[00:02:08] Adam Cox: And so that's kind of what led me here. And we're doing a lot of fun stuff from a really, really unlikely place, like you mentioned in your intro. And I just love to be able to share the story because I think the more I get out there in this space, a lot of people say, I can't do this. Or compliance says we can't, or growth is really, really hard. And they're right. It is. But you can get around it and you can overcome it, and that's what I'm excited to talk about. 

[00:02:32] Matt Halloran: All right. Well let's just dive in. So tell everybody what you are doing.

[00:02:35] Adam Cox: Yeah. Okay. So I was actually describing this to somebody this morning. They said, well, how, how are you approaching marketing? Basically for us, we started with a podcast.

[00:02:42] Adam Cox: We started this podcast at the beginning of 2020. A little backstory for me was I had this idea to do a podcast and I was really pumped up about it, but I was also freaked out. We actually paid somebody to record the episodes for us, and we started just audio. We added video later, but we started with audio [00:03:00] and I didn't record an episode for a year.

[00:03:03] Adam Cox: I was so freaked out about it. We had paid for it. The producer was like, this guy's never going to record an episode. Like he's clearly, his head's not in it, but I'm a perfectionist and I start every day with a certain level of anxiety and I just want everything to be perfect. And so I didn't do anything.

[00:03:18] Adam Cox: And then finally I said, you know what? I just gotta start. And so we started the pod, the podcast, and then we added video. And then from there we do blogs. And so now we've kind of turned our little content creating machine, which is, which is great. I think content is the future of this business. I've heard you talk about and others talk about push versus pull marketing.

[00:03:38] Adam Cox: We're big pull-marketing kind of people. And so for us, everything starts with the podcast. And from there we get video, we get micro-content where we can chop it up. We get a blog if people aren't into seeing my face, which I get. Or if they aren’t into hearing my voice. I also get, they can read about it. And so everything really for us starts at the podcast and goes from there.

[00:03:57] Matt Halloran: How are you navigating compliance with the podcast? Because in effect, I just had a conversation earlier today where they were like, well, does everything have to be scripted? So, you are in a much more heavily regulated environment than the majority of the listeners who are listening to the show right now.

[00:04:15] Matt Halloran: How do you navigate that from a prep perspective? And I also want to highlight, cuz I love that you said this, I'm a perfectionist. Yeah. I was a therapist brother. We have lots of stuff we can talk about there, but how do you balance all of that? 

[00:04:27] Adam Cox: Yeah, so banks are [00:04:30] very highly regulated, but weirdly on the marketing standpoint, it's, it's, it's different if you're marketing bank products.

[00:04:39] Adam Cox: Very highly regulated in the investment side of things. If you are under the fiduciary standard, it isn't as much. And so the compliance issues that a lot of our I IRA friends have, you know, we're under the same fiduciary standard, but it's a very different compliance structure. So I know the struggle there is, you know, having to get things pre-approved and scripted and those sorts of things.

[00:04:59] Adam Cox: We don't really have that. And so weirdly, we have a little bit more free reign to create the content that we want. So it's just like this. It's weird. It's like you wouldn't think it would be this way in a bank, but it really is. And maybe it's different if I'm sitting in a chair at Bank of America versus the First National Bank in Sioux Falls.

[00:05:17] Adam Cox: Maybe that's a different structure, but we do have some, some more latitude, I would say, prep wise. It's a struggle because I am a perfectionist, and if you could go back and listen to my first episodes, I'll give you a secret. I read them because I just was so uncomfortable with making a mistake that I wrote out every word and I read them and I tried to put inflection in my voice, but I only have so much inflection to give.

[00:05:44] Adam Cox: And so they just weren't very good. And so now I've gotten a little bit better just being able to go with a conversation and have it be a little more free flowing. But it's, it's, it's taken me a little bit to get there. 

[00:05:56] Matt Halloran: Let's talk about the format of the show then. All right. So is, so it's [00:06:00] not a monologue, right?

[00:06:01] Matt Halloran: So you're interviewing people, right? So let's just talk about, there's a lot there. So let's just talk about the format to start. 

[00:06:07] Adam Cox: The format is, I started and I, I did the, did the episodes myself. But a couple things happened. Number one, I thought, well, this is kind of boring. Wouldn't it be nice to get other people's perspective?

[00:06:18] Adam Cox: And I, one of my favorite things in the world, To do is to have really good conversations with people about money and finance and the life around it. And so for me, I thought, well, let's just take that love and try to create a show out of it and see if anybody listens to it. And so the show, if you look at my initial show ideas, it was all about backdoor Roth strategies and tax-loss harvesting and buckets and really, really technical stuff.

[00:06:45] Adam Cox: And I thought, I don't know if people want to listen to that. And I know for sure I don't want to record that. So I just really want to have real conversations with people. And so the format has, I, I kind of break my episodes up a third, a third, a third. So a third I would say are more national experts. Maybe they've written a book, they're thought leaders in the industry.

[00:07:04] Adam Cox: I want to bring those thought leaders into our show and a neuro orbit and to, to our listeners. The other third would be people from my team. So we get to highlight the different perspectives of people on my team. And again, from a marketing standpoint, it can't always just be. About me and my face. Like I have a team of, there's 43 of us, so we need to get other people out there and, and do the great work and get their opinions out there.

[00:07:26] Adam Cox: And then the third are my, the last third to be my [00:07:30] favorite, and that's where I talk to couples and I call it How We Money. We talk about how they were raised with money, what money was like for them growing up, where their money, fears, more behavioral finance type stuff. And we get to have some really, really interesting conversations.

[00:07:44] Adam Cox: And those are the episodes that I get the best and the most feedback on because the truth matter is, you know, money that's, that's a finance thing and we can solve for that, but we have a much harder time. And you'll know this given your background, solving the things between our ears and the stuff that we bring into our relationships and those dynamics.

[00:08:03] Adam Cox: And so those conversations are my favorite and the most impactful.

[00:08:06] Matt Halloran: What is your frequency of shows

[00:08:08] Adam Cox: once a month 

[00:08:09] Matt Halloran: and with that, how much content is created based off of those shows?

[00:08:15] Adam Cox: Yeah, so we usually do, we'll, we'll do the video. So we put every episode on YouTube. Then the podcast is available wherever you get podcasts.

[00:08:23] Adam Cox:  It also lives on our website. That we do a blog summary. I would say it matches pretty close to the episode that we publish and we have on our website as well. And then we do mini videos. So whether there's fun little clips, you know, when I make a mistake and all those sorts of things, you know, my team loves to push those out in the universe or just like little snippets of a really impactful part of the conversation.

[00:08:46] Adam Cox: We use those for social and then, yeah, everything just goes usually on LinkedIn, you know, Facebook on TikTok, Instagram, all the places. 

[00:08:55] Matt Halloran: How are you archiving all of those things then from a compliance standpoint, [00:09:00] because TikTok, specifically from an API on the backend, it's very difficult to archive like shares and comments.

[00:09:08] Matt Halloran: So do you mind? Do you know? 

[00:09:10] Adam Cox: I have no idea. That's a great, there's a great question, Matt and I have no, no idea. 

[00:09:16] Matt Halloran: Alright. Alright.

[00:09:17] Matt Halloran: Well, and, and so that's one of her, in fact, I just got introduced to a lady today who has over 200,000 followers. She's a financial professional. I'm air quoting there cuz she's actually a coach.

[00:09:27] Matt Halloran: She's not a licensed advisor. But, so we're going to be diving into TikTok here and you know, a few episodes here in the future. Okay. So you said it all starts with the podcast. What else are you guys doing? Because you guys are really killing it, like, You were referred to us for, for my friend at FiComm Partners.

[00:09:44] Matt Halloran: Right? And so, so they only work with the best of the best and she's like, Matt, you gotta follow this guy. This guy is doing everything that we talk about and that's working. So podcasting and then creating social media content. What else are you doing to really grow? 

[00:09:56] Adam Cox: Yeah, so I really obsess about organic growth.

[00:09:59] Adam Cox: Because we're in a bank environment. You know, RIAs, all the Crave right now is m and a. That's all anyone talks about is M&A. And, and we all know organic growth is really, really tough. So we don't have m and a because we're, we're really at this point where we're going to be acquiring other banks and it's hard for us to bring on other advisory teams based on our structure and insurance and all those sorts of things.

[00:10:22] Adam Cox: So, our only option to grow is organically. And so for me, I've spent the last few [00:10:30] years trying to crack that code, so to speak, and so we spend a lot of time on, obviously in the marketing, we do a lot of digital stuff, so we don't do, we make the joke, we have 43 people on our team and 41 of us are probably introverts, and so we have to really have some good marketing.

[00:10:48] Adam Cox: Because that's, that's really going to, to get us in the conversation. My goal when I started all this was to say, if someone says, I could really use a financial advisor, I want to have us be in their top three because of the content that they saw. They saw a blog that I did or somebody on the team did, and they just somewhere in the back of 'em high and they say, Hmm, I saw something from First National, from Han or whatever.

[00:11:09] Adam Cox: We should reach out to them. And so a funny thing has happened. The, one of the frustrations with marketing, and you see it now, especially when the markets pull back a little bit, is people and firms have a tendency to pull back on their marketing spend, which I think is a mistake by the way. But what happens is we just, we get into people's subconsciousness somehow, and at that pull marketing thing, and we put this information out in the world, and we don't always know when it's going to come back to us.

[00:11:36] Adam Cox: And so we started the show and we've had really meteoric growth as a firm, but I can't sit here and tell you, Matt, I'd love to, but I can't sit here and tell you that it's all because of the podcast. I think that's part of it. I think it's made us cooler than maybe we were before. We're on the top of people's minds and we're in the conversation and [00:12:00] people are finding our content really engaging because it's content we create.

[00:12:03] Adam Cox: Everything that we do is created by us. We don't buy content. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but we just. We just don't, so if I do a blog or someone down the hall does a blog, it's something that they created. And so that for us, has really, really transformed our growth and made us into a firm that, you know, we add at this point, we add more than one new relationship every day, every business day.

[00:12:25] Matt Halloran: Whoa. Holy Moses. 

[00:12:27] Adam Cox: Right? And so from a community bank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that's, that's pretty incredible. And especially if you think back seven years ago, we were. A very traditional trust company, and so we've really had to add products and services that people want. We had to add, make ourselves highly referable, and we had to add marketing and thankfully, Cause I'm still here.

[00:12:49] Adam Cox: It works and we continue to grow. 

[00:12:52] Matt Halloran: What are the missteps that you made? What are some things as you look back on this meteoric growth, this, this top of mind, this pull marketing that you wish you would've done differently? 

[00:13:02] Adam Cox: When I, when I came into the role, one of the things we had to do, we just had to, we had to clean some things up.

[00:13:08] Adam Cox: We had to optimize some things, and we had to get processes and procedures in a spot that made us available to have more time to think about creating an ideal client experience to add marketing, to be able to add the amount of clients that we've added. We couldn't have done that six, seven years ago. We just physically couldn't have done that.

[00:13:28] Adam Cox: So we had stuff that we [00:13:30] had to do to, to get to a point where we could grow and handle the growth that we've had. But I wish I would've started sooner, and I especially wish I would've started at the beginning of 2019 when I paid to start this darn show. But you know, it is what it is. And the fun thing is, so I, we've got a phenomenal bank marketing team that supports us.

[00:13:49] Adam Cox: And now the wealth management team has a marketing person that supports our team directly. And so we've got a lot of horsepower. And the nice thing is we're doing the most fun work. I'm biased, but I think we're doing some of the most fun work from a marketing perspective. So they've been so helpful in wanting to jump in and say, let's try this, let's try this.

[00:14:09] Adam Cox: And we just, and we have the leadership in the bank to say, let's give it a shot. And thankfully it's worked.

[00:14:15] Matt Halloran: I'm going to get back to the perfectionist thing cuz you just opened another door. I don't know if you noticed that you did that, but when, when you, so you, you are still the primary content engine.

[00:14:26] Matt Halloran: How do you as a perfectionist get outta the way? 

[00:14:31] Adam Cox: So part of that is confidence. You know, I'm sure people talk about imposter syndrome all the time. I don't have any training in marketing. I didn't know what I was doing. I listen to your podcast. I listen to other thought leaders in marketing and financial services to try to figure out what's working for you.

[00:14:46] Adam Cox: You mentioned FiComm. We engage with FiComm. You know, they, they really helped us along the path to be more confident and to say, you're doing the right things. Just keep doing them. And so that was really, really helpful for me. But the thing I haven't [00:15:00] cracked yet is I'm still not able to just roll into an interview and say, Hey, what are we going to talk about?

[00:15:08] Adam Cox: I'm just not there yet. Maybe it will at some point, but I'm kind of an over-preparer. Which has turned podcasting into much more than a hobby. I spend a lot of time, you know, some nights and weekends doing it because my job is busy. You know, I lead a large firm that's growing and I have lots of other responsibilities, but I'm really, really passionate about the show and I'm passionate about putting good information out in the world.

[00:15:33] Adam Cox: And so at this point I've gotten better, but I definitely don't prepare as much as I used to. And I think the other thing too is, I leaned pretty hard on having national guests on who had just written books before, and I really wanted to read their book and highlight everything and ask questions, and that just takes a lot of time.

[00:15:51] Matt Halloran: You know, one of my favorite, I podcast host heroes or interview heroes. And, and, and you know, you, you go with somebody like Terry Gross who reads every book, right? Or she has a team that reads every book. I mean, I just can't imagine. She has a daily show, right? I don't even know how she does that.

[00:16:07] Matt Halloran: You know? And, and then you look at somebody like Oprah, who I guaranteed didn't read any of the books, right? And then you have somebody like Larry King. Who didn't read anything on anybody, on anything. He just showed up and asked questions. Right. And it drove some people crazy. But if you look at the fact that that guy was probably the most famous number one rated show, he did not prepare.

[00:16:27] Matt Halloran: So, but that's, so it's interesting that [00:16:30] that's where you went with that question. I'm going to, I'm going to rejigger that and have you. Pivot just to smidge with that. Preparing for a show is being a professional, right? So I talk about athletes often on the show, right? So you know, you are a professional basketball player, you've got a game tonight, you're going to have a warm up situation.

[00:16:48] Matt Halloran: You're preparing for everything, pre-game, to the self-talk, all this stuff. That means you're a pro, right? What I want to know is how do you get out of the way after the show is done and let the people who create the content, create the content so they can do their unique ability and you stay in your lane.

[00:17:07] Matt Halloran: Do you do that or you still 

[00:17:09] Matt Halloran: meddling? 

[00:17:11] Adam Cox: Oh, absolutely. I get outta the way because I have no idea what they're doing. No idea how they do it. And. We often don't like –  I'll curse sometimes and I'll make a mistake, especially at the end of my episodes. I tend to just completely fumble, like when I'm trying to wrap 'em up, it's often just like my tongue gets really thick and I just like blah.

[00:17:30] Adam Cox: So sometimes we have to re-shoot that, but otherwise we don't have to do a lot of that. I've got a great team who is very, very skilled at this stuff and you know, they infuse graphics and they infuse pictures now, and I really, I don't know how they do it. I don't care to know how they do it. They do it wonderfully.

[00:17:46] Adam Cox: And so I just stay outta the way and I, you know, I've gotten to a point now where I don't even look at the episodes like I get copies of the episodes before we publish 'em, and I don't even watch 'em because I trust 'em so much to do, to do that part of it. And the same thing with our [00:18:00] content team on the marketing team does.

[00:18:02] Adam Cox: They're going to cut the things that they want to cut, they're going to find the things that they think are funny, much better than I would ever do. And so they just do it.

[00:18:11] Matt Halloran: That's really interesting cuz that's one of the things that we have dealt with over the years is advisors. They don't actually do the controlling component that you are talking about, they'll show up and be like, what are we talking about today? Yeah. Whatcha are you doing? Say you can't do that. But then they want to micromanage the living a heck out of it on the backend when they are not marketing experts. Right. You know, we've done 7,000 episodes and a quarter of a million social media posts.

[00:18:34] Matt Halloran: Are you a great financial advisor? Yeah. Are you wicked smart? Probably way smarter than me. Right. But when it comes to the world of marketing, I don't walk into your firm and tell you how to manage money. Please don't walk into ours and tell us how to, to do the right marketing, because it's the same thing, right?

[00:18:51] Matt Halloran: We do little tips, tricks, and techniques that we don't tell people what we're doing. We just know it works. Right? Because you know, when you see the numbers on the back end. So let's talk about the numbers. One of my favorite things to do is the quantification of your marketing, right?

[00:19:06] Matt Halloran: Which is wildly difficult for most people. When somebody, one of these, one, one person a day comes in and they sit down and they want to become a client of yours, what are you asking them about how they got to you? Do you ask them, did you know we have a podcast? Do you know we're on social media? Do you follow us here?

[00:19:25] Matt Halloran: Did you read our blog? Do you guys do that in your intake right now to help get [00:19:30] some numbers to this spend? 

[00:19:31] Adam Cox: That's a great question. So we have that information available in the CRM that we use, so we do try to figure out how they came to us. Oftentimes they've heard our content, they've read our content, but that maybe wasn't the thing that they would hang their hat on, is why they came in.

[00:19:51] Adam Cox: It's someone said, Hey, you should meet with these folks, and they already had some familiarity with us, and so it was a comfort level. I, I don't know who said it, but you know, they said, you know, marketing or advertising or whatever it is, it just gives people a chance to get to know you before they meet you.

[00:20:07] Adam Cox: And so I would say when people come in, they've engaged with us in several different ways. We just always don't know all the different ways that they've engaged with us, but we try, you know, to, to figure those out because we do want to tie things back. Now that being said, the bank has been incredibly generous with us to say, you can try things and, and let's spend some money, and we're obviously growing, so okay, maybe we should spend some more.

[00:20:31] Adam Cox: And so we don't have that pressure to say, is this podcast working this year? Yes or no? Or do we cut it? We don't have that. And that's one of the frustrations with marketing, but it's also one of the beautiful things. It's like this iterative process, but it's a long game and you have to spend the money.

[00:20:48] Adam Cox: And you don't always get to tie it back. Now, thankfully, we have had a few clients come in who have said directly, I am here because I came across your podcast and I loved it, and we're ready to go. And those [00:21:00] handful of clients that have said that who had no other affiliation with us or the bank, pay for the show every single year as long as they're here.

[00:21:07] Adam Cox: So we've already paid for the show, so check, right? We're good now, it's house money. And so everything above that and all the other growth, I think it just adds to it. 

[00:21:17] Matt Halloran: Man, I'm so glad I got you saying that on tape, dude. ‘cause there's so many people who I’ve had to talk about the exact thing and especially ‘cause it is, you know, long we call it slow marketing.

[00:21:27] Matt Halloran: Slow marketing is the way that everything works cuz it's a momentum game, right? Advisors come out, they'll, I think that this is going to be the next latest and greatest thing. It's not how the game works. It is a much longer. Now, earlier in this show that you had said that, you know, one of the main things that you guys have done is you've really started creating so much content.

[00:21:44] Matt Halloran: And Carl Richards famously on Twitter, posted the question, posed the question, are financial advisors going to have to become content creators? Is that their new job? And we are interviewing more and more advisors like you who are finding that the more they lean into that, the more successful they're going to be.

[00:22:03] Matt Halloran: Well, what do you, what do you think about that? 

[00:22:05] Adam Cox: The eternal question is, how do we as advisors or firms stand out in a sea of sameness? And one of the things FiComm coached me on, you know, you have to be authentic and you really have to be vulnerable. You have to put yourself out there. And so I think the more that you do that people identify with you and they gravitate you, it just kind of creates this pull and that really can really, [00:22:30] really help your growth.

[00:22:31] Adam Cox: But I do think that advisors are going to have to stand for something. You hear a lot of talk about, you have to really niche down and I think, you know, I think that that's true in a lot of situations, but even more than that, I think it's more important that you stand for something. So if you are a tax nerd and that's what you do and that's the content you create, God bless you.

[00:22:54] Adam Cox: Like be that. That is you. That's your authentic thing. Lean into that. I think it's really obvious to anyone that engages with your content if you're not into it. So I couldn't, at this point go really, really nerdy on my content because that's not who I am anymore. It was seven years ago. It's not today.

[00:23:15] Adam Cox: And so I think that authenticity piece of it and creating content and putting out in the world and just signaling what you're about, who you want to work with is really, really important. Because otherwise, how are people going to find you? And content and digital content in particular, I think is the way to crack that growth code.

[00:23:35] Matt Halloran: Well, we've grown our entire business with that model and the advisors who are, were using our system, who were really killing it. That's what they've leaned into, too. And, and I like, I like that. So there is a great book called Fix, which is how to create a cult brand. It's written by a friend of ours named Rob Howard.

[00:23:51] Matt Halloran: One of the things he talks about is, is they refer to it as pick-a-fight, which is what you're saying is standing up for something like you. If you are this person, if [00:24:00] you love, and in fact we've got a new, a new client they only work with, they're, well actually it's not, they only work with, their passion is horse racing cuz they live in fricking Kentucky or something like, right.

[00:24:11] Matt Halloran: And so, and they have horses. Right. And so they decided to start a podcast about, Horse racing right now. They're financial advisors and they're very successful financial advisors, but they're not talking about Roth conversions and 401ks. Now they sprinkle that in there, right? But what they're talking about is what they're passionate about, and that can be that niche. If you're the tax guy who specifically really works really well with

[00:24:36] Matt Halloran: small business owners who are closely held families – see, it's those next level questions that you find out. Oh my God, I really do have a niche and I really do need to lean into this a little bit more. Okay, so here's my favorite question for you, Adam. What should I have asked you that I didn't? 

[00:24:53] Adam Cox: I guess maybe advice for other people who are hesitant to get started.

[00:24:58] Adam Cox: Like what? What would you tell them? And I think I would, I think I would tell 'em a few things because I think that's a lot of people, I think a lot of people are struggling to grow their firms or grow, grow their business, and so they're looking for ways to do that. Right now all anyone wants to talk about is buying and selling advisory firms and combining as a way to scale growth.

[00:25:18] Adam Cox: So I would say, number one, we talked about this, but stand for something. And so whether that's your niche, whether that's the people you want to work with, whether that's the type of firm you want, [00:25:30] whatever it is, like find that thing and run the flag up. Secondly, I would say find an avenue that feels good, but not too good.

[00:25:41] Adam Cox: So podcasting, video in particular, uncomfortable for me, but I don't know, I don't even know if it's a real saying, but someone said the other day, and I loved it, said nothing grows in your comfort zone. And I feel like that all the time cuz I'm an introvert, I'm a perfectionist. This stuff is not comfortable for me.

[00:26:01] Adam Cox: But a lot of great stuff comes from it. And so I am willing to continue to do it and try to continue to get better at it because I see what comes from it. So if, if you are a great writer and that's what you love to do, or you can just flip on the videos and just kick videos out, do what you find to be most comfortable.

[00:26:22] Adam Cox: And the last thing I would say is give away your content. I originally was thinking when we started on this journey, like we needed to throw everything behind a paywall or, you know, get people's phone numbers or email addresses. And I've, I've, again, this is like, the more you do it, the more you learn and the more you listen to people like you who have a different perspective to say, oh, okay, maybe you should just give it away and maybe that will come back to you tenfold.

[00:26:47] Adam Cox: And that's what we've experienced. And then just, just start. Just just go. 

[00:26:52] Matt Halloran: The idea of giving everything away. But I was really resistant to that when I met my business [00:27:00] partner, dude, I fought him tooth and nail on that, right? Because it was, you know, this is Matt's secret sauce. He's like, dude, there's no secret sauce.

[00:27:07] Matt Halloran: There's Google. And this was seven, eight years ago when I met my partner, and I'm so grateful for that. And in fact, I thank him regularly for one, just being an amazing business partner, but two, helping me see the light when it came to all of that. And, and we are really trying to shine that light, Adam, with, with, with financial services professionals, cuz.

[00:27:27] Matt Halloran: They want you, they want the personality. They want to know that there's somebody that they can like, know and trust when it's convenient for them, not when it's convenient for you. And that's what content marketing's all about. Well, okay. If anybody wants to reach out to me, I don't know, talk to you, learn from you.

[00:27:43] Matt Halloran: I don't know, become a client of the bank. I mean, I don't really know what the call to action is here for you. But if somebody does want to know more about what you're doing, 

[00:27:51] Matt Halloran: where should they go?

[00:27:52] Adam Cox: I'd say the easiest thing to do is find me on LinkedIn. So Adam Cox on LinkedIn and if you've seen this video, you'll recognize my picture and otherwise you can go to the bank's website at The First National Bank, Sioux Falls.

[00:28:04] Adam Cox: And then I would also encourage people to, to take a look at our show. Common Cents On The Prairie is the name of the show and it's C E N T S and it's on YouTube. It's where we can find podcasts and take a listen, watch it. And we are always looking for other ideas and ways to get better. And so just to engage with us.

[00:28:23] Adam Cox: I love talking about this stuff. Again, you know, my career has been weird. Here I am, I'm on a marketing podcast. [00:28:30] Wouldn't have imagined myself doing that a long time ago. So, but I love to talk about this stuff and I'm always willing to help other people and to try to get other advisors, and other firms to, to lean into this.

[00:28:42] Matt Halloran: Please, everybody, make sure you check the show notes for all of those links because so many of you are probably still thinking, I don't, how does he do this in the bank structure? Go, go look, go look. Check what their social medias. Connect with Adam on LinkedIn. You know, make sure that you're listening to the show and hearing what he's saying because it's compliant everybody.

[00:29:02] Matt Halloran: It's compliant. It's okay. There's so many things you can talk about. You're not giving yourself the opportunity to really talk about that. All right, Adam. Well hey man, I thank you for being on the show. Thank you for saying all of those super freaking smart things. I've got sound bites for days from everything that you've said.

[00:29:19] Matt Halloran: I'm going to use this in the sales process. We'll make everybody listen to this show and you know, thank you very much for really, and, and I don't know if people really understand, one of the greatest things about being a content creator is you're educating people who might not otherwise get that advice.

[00:29:36] Matt Halloran: And so, you know, financial advice only was for the wealthy for a really, really long time. And when you start creating content, you start being able to educate more and more people who will someday potentially call you up and say, I dunno if you know this. I've been listening to your show, I've implemented 90% of what you said, but there's that 10% I know I can't do and I'd like you to be my person.

[00:29:56] Matt Halloran: That's really truly what great pull marketing does. [00:30:00] People come in, they're pre-sold, and they're ready to go. Adam, thank you very much for your brain. Thanks for everything that you're doing for your community, and thanks for being on the show. 

[00:30:07] Adam Cox: Thanks so much for having me, Matt. Appreciate it. 

[00:30:09] Matt Halloran: Listen, if you want to go ahead and just get ready to record it, if this is the podcast that finally puts you over the edge so that you're going to start your own damn show finally, after the years and years of us saying the same thing.

[00:30:19] Matt Halloran: You do not need to hire somebody outside to do it. You can do it yourself and you can do it for free in the PodRocket Influence Academy. Go to podRocketAcademy.com. We've got everything there that you need to know to start your own show, to write great content, create a content calendar. It's all there, and it is for free.

[00:30:35] Matt Halloran: PodRocketAcademy.com. For Adam and all of us here for the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, this is Matt Halloran. We'll see you on the other side of the mic very soon. Thanks for listening to the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast, brought to you by ProudMouth. If you want to know more about how you can be your own loud, visit us at ProudMouth.com and sign up for the PodRocket Influence Academy. Through courses and office hours led by professional podcast producers and digital marketers, you will learn everything you need to know to become the trusted subject matter expert you are meant to be.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.