CFFP #06 How to Use TikTok to Market Your Financial Services Practice ft. Brad Klontz

Show Notes 

In today’s conversation we have Dr. Brad Klontz. Brad helps people master the psychology of wealth and live a life of abundance. He’s also managing principal at Your Mental Wealth Advisors™, Co-Founder of the Financial Psychology Institute™, and Associate Professor of Practice at Creighton University Heider College of Business. Dr. Klontz is also an author of 5 books on financial psychology, including Mind Over Money, Facilitating Financial Health, and Financial Therapy and most recently "Money Mammoth: Unlocking The Secrets Of Financial Psychology To Break From The Herd And Avoid Extinction".  

 

Today we cover money, psychology and marketing.  More specifically, how social selling and the digital marketing landscape has evolved since Dr. Brad entered the business. We will also dive into a relatively new social media platform--TikTok.  Dr. Brad will share some of the tools for crushing content on the platform along with the advantages/disadvantages, and finally a posting strategy that you can use.

 

Show Highlights 

 

• How Dr. Brad turned 2020 into a “win-win” situation. (2:25)

• Dr. Brad talks about the evolution of marketing and why some businesses hesitate with getting into social media. (9:16)

• Why your comfort level can cause you to miss out on opportunities that platforms like TikTok bring and the key to selling online. (11:29)

• Dr. Brad’s perspective on TikTok as a social media platform. (12:41)

• Why TikTok has an extremely “low bar” for content creators. (13:39)

• Dr. Brad shares his number one tip on starting a TikTok account and how to be successful. (16:07)
• Dr. Brad shares his posting strategies and how he got to 260,000 followers (26:56)

 

Resources:

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If you'd like to connect with Dr. Brad, click here.  Check out Dr. Brad’s latest book by clicking here.

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Watch a video clip of this episode on our YouTube channel by clicking here.

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Thanks again for listening, reading, and watching!

 

 

00:00:00

Dominique

Welcome to conversations for financial professionals, a podcast to help. Shape the next generation of financial advice. I am your host, Dominique Henderson, and today's conversation is with Dr. Brad Klontz. Dr. Brad  and I met each other in 20, early 2020. I invited him on the podcast to talk about behavioral finance, because that is his expertise. But as of late, Dr. Brad has been spending a ton of time on developing his social media strategy specifically on TikTok. Today, the conversation is all about how to use TikTok to market your financial services. Dr. Brad  and I talk about the missed opportunity that financial professionals are possibly losing out on when it comes to social media and specifically this platform. We talk about why we talk about some strategies from a macro and a micro standpoint about how you can actually start putting content out there and what it's all about. Are you mission focused? Who are you trying to reach? And do you have a strategy for doing that? This promises to be one of those conversations that you are going to walk away with a greater understanding on exactly what you can be doing to use TikTok  to market your financial services practice. So let's go to the conversation.

00:01:25

Dominique

 Welcome to another episode of the conversations for financial professionals podcast, where we are shaping the next generation

 

00:01:35

Dominique

Of  financial advice today, we have Dr. Brad Klontz. You help people master the psychology of wealth and live a life of abundance. I got that right from your LinkedIn via, in addition to that, you're a managing principal at your mental wealth advisors, co-founder of the financial psychology Institute and associate professor of practice at Creighton university Heider college of business. Woo hoo. I am afraid and alum, you're also the author of five books on financial psychology, including mind over money, facilitating financial health and financial therapy. Most recently money mammoth unlocking the secrets of financial psychology to break from the herd and avoid extinction. The reason that largely you're here, my friend is because I know of all this stuff through your TikTok  account, because you are such a TikTok  savant. Welcome to the podcast.

 

00:02:28

Brad

Thank you. It's I, I love chatting with you, so I'm very happy to be here. Yeah,

 

00:02:32

Dominique

Man, we share a lot of similar interests, a lot of common folk that we know together. Matter of fact, I was just talking to a mutual friend, Sandra Davis. And so yeah, this is really cool. Let me ask you this. How have you been like, we're in a new year? 20 Delta is a hand that most of us would not have expected. Do you have any specific takeaways?

 

00:02:45

Brad

Yeah, I like, I'm just fascinated with, first of all, it's terrible, it's been awful. Like let's just all admit it. Right. And, but what I have this little mantra that I, that on good days, I say to myself, which is where's the opportunity. This is something that I'm constantly feeding into my own mind, so that I can be aware of where the opportunities are. So, with that awareness, I ran across a bunch of opportunities in 2020, and I actually had a fabulous year creating content, exploring some other business models, creating some couple courses. I mean, I've just been throwing myself into, this is the reality we have. So where's the opportunity within this reality?

 

00:03:41

Dominique

No, I think that's wonderful. I, I don't know if this is a Chinese proverb, but it's like the same symbol for chaos is the same symbol for opportunity. It's like where there's chaos, there's also opportunity. Which I think is a good segue too, because what I want to talk about today, we know that you can go with the best of them on the financial therapy and the behavioral finance front. We'll link to that previous episode that we talked about before, in judging risk tolerance. I'm pretty sure we'll overlap some subjects with that, but I really want to talk about, how to market financial services, and what maybe financial professionals can be thinking about using some of these platforms, specifically a platform such as TikTok, which, I don't know if people know this term, but about organic reach is incredible, for this platform. I want you to kind of dive into that and I think the way I want to kind of set that up though, is how do you believe did take me through the evolution first? How do you think marketing has changed from like winning you and I got in the business versus now, like kind of opine on that for .

 

00:04:44

Brad

Yeah. I mean, I, I'm not, I wouldn't consider myself an expert in marketing, although I probably am from, outside perspectives, but I feel like there's been a big hesitation to get into social media from the compliance side of the business. We're always slow on that side. Because when you talk to your compliance office about doing anything, you say, Hey, I, can we talk about, and then they say no, because that's how they get paid and that's how they stay alive. That's, they're much happier if you do nothing.

 

00:05:16

Dominique

Can I say something parenthetically though? okay. I do agree with that notion largely I think let's call it Tim cases or seven or six, or maybe even more than that eight out of 10 cases are like that. Would you also say that compliance officers, in a, let's say you're managing a thousand or 1500 or 10,000, registered reps. You also have to manage to the lowest common denominator too. Right? So you have to say no, almost right, because you got Joe knucklehead over there, that's going to be doing something. Whereas you got all these other people that would be following the rules, but then you've got the Joe knuckleheads.

 

00:05:51

Brad

No, it's absolutely true. Unless you're making it crystal clear, you're not going to have any recourse in terms of saying, Hey, didn't, you weren't supposed to do that. So, it's nothing but love and good vibes for your compliance officer, but just understand their job is to keep your business around, and to make sure that you're doing right by society and taking care of people. And so that's their mindset.

 

00:06:13

Dominique

No, I would agree. They, they got that the mentality of the can't sink, the battleship, it only takes one person, to be, somewhere on the SCCs radar or the state, it's securities advisor and that one headline tanks, the whole ship. So I get it.

 

00:06:29

Brad

It does, it does seem to be like a shift though, where more and more people are on social media. I mean, that's what LinkedIn is, by the way. Like, if you've ever put a post on LinkedIn, it's the equivalent of doing anything on TikTok or Instagram or any place else, frankly. I mean, you're putting yourself out there. It's these, it's essentially a website, an app. I think it's hard to find advisers right now who aren't involved in social media.

 

00:06:53

Dominique

No, I, I think you are right in that. I think one of the things that I've always admonished or strongly encouraged, the advisors that I work with too, is making it personal. There's nothing wrong with crossing the lines. I think maybe you can, of kind of speak to this, those maybe what advisors probably perceive or financial professionals as a whole perceive as a gray area, right. Where I don't want to talk too much about my personal or I don't know how that may fill into fit into the narrative of what I'm, whatever I'm trying to, offer from a financial services standpoint. Do, do you think there's a gray area or do you like, this is all me, this is all Dominique, this is all Dominic. Like, how do you view that?

 

00:07:37

Brad

I look at it, like if I have a client in the office, who's just walked in more of a traditional introduction. I might not just lay out my entire life story like that I don't think they really want to hear that, but I think in terms of social media, I think the more that you can talk about yourself and be yourself, the more likely you are to attract clients who are exactly the ones you want. I feel like social media does throw yourself out there in a broader context in the world. I think it's actually to your advantage, frankly, to talk about some of your interests and, more personal information about yourself, do you have kids? Do you like tennis? I mean, what is it you're into because people will, they're looking for ways to connect. Like how do you stand out from every other advisor? And some of that personal information can be really great in terms of attracting people who frankly, you probably want to work with anyway.

 

00:08:27

Dominique

No, I love that. I love that. You're saying that because I think what advisors and financial professionals may think about, they may think about the cell first versus the connection first, because there is no cell without the connection. So I'm glad you said that. I think the opportunity that is potentially lost, if you don't wait out onto the dance floor of social media, is that, people don't get to know the non-suited up button up person that is behind all of us. Right. There is a, whether we actually physically wear a suit and tie or not, there is a more conservative side to what we do. That's what I think consumers view us as, but when we show, spending time with our significant others or whatever that may be, that does offer another perspective into who you are. That's what clients like you said are connected to.

 

00:09:16

Dominique

So I love that.

 

00:09:16

Brad

No, that's great. If you feel weird about selling on social media, if this gives you a bad feeling inside, I just want you to honor that feeling because it's a terrible idea to sell on social media, by the way, I mean, it's just the absolute wrong thing to do. Because people really get turned off on it really fast, but social media, the opportunity there is for you to sell yourself and to provide content that's helpful, that's useful. That's engaging. What you want to have is people think of you when they think of that problem, eventually that they run into in their financial life. They think of you as somebody that they know they trust. I mean, there's this weird psychological phenomenon where we feel an intimate connection with people on social media. It's something really to be curious about and this step back and think about this.

 

00:10:01

Brad

Like, if I've watched 20 videos of yours, I'm going to feel a special connection to you. It's, it's the K person brain. It's like, if I'm staring somebody directly in the face and listening to them, my brain says, this is somebody, and trust because our brains have not evolved to the point of social media where we realized actually this person doesn't know you at all. What's so fascinating. It creeps into your subconscious that there's this connection. And it happens. It happens to all of us on social media, and there is the opportunity for you to feel a connection and have other people feel connected to you and feel a sense of trust and connection.

 

00:10:33

Dominique

Let's double click on that for a second. Cause I want to park right there. I think you bring up a lot of good points and I'm loving the fact that you're bringing the behavioral science part of how humans just interact. I think this may be lost on some financial professionals. That's why I want to dig in because the more video content you create, whether yours there's one like, or no likes or 1500 likes, you're still building that connection because people are seeing you more. They're they're getting to know like, and trust you like Ziglar says, so I wonder to your point earlier, or maybe not, is it a sell so much if you are just connecting with them, right? Like, what is your opinion about this whole notion around selling? Cause I know some people feel a funny way about that word. What, what would be your thoughts about it in the context of making that consistent content and connecting with people? It seems like the cell has patterns naturally.

 

00:11:29

Dominique

That's my opinion.

 

00:11:29

Brad

Yeah. That's my opinion also. I think direct sales and sales on social media always feel bad. Like they do. Like if you want to give away content that's actually the culture of social media is giving away content, giving away information. I think that you got to think about what is it you're selling. And in my opinion, you're selling yourself. You're selling yourself as the expert, as this incredibly helpful person. If people don't have to look really far, all they have to do is click on your profile to find your website and see exactly what you do. It's not like you're hiding that in any way, but you want people to be attracted to you based on this incredible value you're giving to the world. They're going to find you if they want your service. Absolutely. I agree. I agree. So let's pivot here because,

 

00:12:13

Dominique

People listening to this at this point are probably like, okay, so like what is TikTok as opposed to Instagram or Facebook or any of the things that I'm let's call it, I'm more, they're more normalized or are they more familiar with kind of give us a, a macro breakdown of like really what TikTok is as an information platform or social platform, before we kind of dive into the weeds of maybe strategy.

 

00:12:41

Brad

Yeah. I just see TikTok  is just the next big social media app. I don't see it as a whole lot different from Facebook, from Instagram, from Myspace, do you still have a MySpace account, but you take it as back it's just the next thing now what's interesting. It has its own culture, which is really fascinating. You have to approach each one of these social media apps and websites as a culture. Like you really have to understand the culture. It's a totally different culture. All of them are by the way, but what TikTok  does it's you gotta think short form video. This is punchy stuff. It's 10 seconds, 15 seconds. You can go as long as 60 seconds. I think the average one that really hits is around 10, 15 seconds long. And, it has a lot of incredible in-app editing tools. The thing I love about Tik TOK is that the bar is so incredibly low on production value that there's like literally no excuse.

 

00:13:39

Brad

What's so fascinating about the entire platform is highly produced. Content is sort of shown there. What people want is they want to see you in your living room. I'll be honest. They want to see you in your bathroom. There's a line, there's a lot of content that has been created where people are standing in their bathroom in front of the mirror. Essentially they're looking at their phones, staring at the mirror, looking back at themselves. It's unbelievable. People have created millions of viewers based on that, but that shows you the intimacy people want to see you in your natural setting. They don't want to see a studio. They don't want to see a bunch of production.

 

00:14:13

Dominique

Let's pause right here, because I've worked with, I don't know, I've probably consulted hundreds of advisors and we talk about a term. You just use production value, right? Because there is a certain Polish that let's say a video on your website, talking about your financial services and how much AUM you manage will be different from the content that you put on TikTok . What I've always told advisors though, is before come up with an idea about what needs to go on your website and you hire a crew and you blah, and do all that kind of stuff. Wouldn't it be nice to kind of know if that idea is going to even fly by testing it out on social media. You only need a phone to do that. Like, do you agree with that? Like, cause I think these platforms have a really great testing mechanism, like a trying mechanism when you kind of think about maybe refining some type of precious metal and all the draws burn off, like your message can get a lot better if you hone it by social proof.

 

00:15:13

Dominique

Like, do people even resonate with one idea that you have thrown out on TikTok  or one of these other platforms before you do a whole lot of production value with your website? Would you agree with that?

 

00:15:22

Brad

I think that's brilliant. I absolutely agree with it because the great thing about TikTok  and some of the other social media platforms is you're going to get feedback almost immediately on whether or not this is resonating with people because the algorithm doesn't lie.

 

00:15:37

Dominique

Explain that, unpack that because all these platforms have their own algorithm, right? So just for kicks and grins, so YouTube, which I've kind of made my home on is it's all about video views and it's watch time and everything else, desert it's pales in comparison, comments likes all that kind of stuff. That's great. But video views watch times. That's the biggest thing. Long form content is a better idea, especially if you're giving really helpful stuff. Whereas it sounds like it's the opposite on TikTok.

 

00:16:07

Brad

The opposite on TikTok , the same metrics apply though. It's all about watch time and it's all about views. It, but essentially the attention span is so much lower there because of that one minute, barrier. So it's gotta be punchy. It's gotta be short. I mean, it's really been an exercise for me on how to deliver like, viral content because it's not going to go anywhere unless you grab somebody in the first one to three seconds. I feel like on YouTube, you have more like you have 15 to 20 seconds to grab somebody. Right? And so I think it's a very different and I feel so much more pressure putting out a YouTube video when it comes to production content too. Like it takes me for a four minute video on YouTube. I'm going to say five hours to write it, to edit it, to, put it in B roll, whatever I'm going to do there.

 

00:16:56

Brad

What's so fascinating about TikTok  is I'll make six videos a day in an hour.

 

00:17:03

Dominique

Because you're just really just shooting on your phone and it's just, stream of consciousness type of stuff.

 

00:17:09

Brad

You're shooting on your phone. It's incredible. And there's, that's what I love. I love the low barrier. It just takes away all of your excuses. Like just write down all of your excuses right now about why you're not producing content and they're all erased when it comes to TikTok. Nope, you actually don't have to do your hair. You don't even need to leave your bathroom and all you need is your phone. So get on it.

 

00:17:30

Dominique

No, I love that. I love that. That kind of dovetails into maybe why you chose that platform to kind of, really build, a following there. I think one of the key things here is, as an, as a financial professional, there's a lot of things that we do afraid we take tests, afraid we, get licenses, and are afraid. We talk with clients. This just seems like another barrier of things that you do afraid, and you put yourself out there. I'm wondering, what have you noticed from just a mental barrier standpoint that may keep people from moving forward with this? I know we kind of went up, went over this a little earlier, but I'm just trying to think maybe with your talks with peers or whatnot, they're like, I don't really know. Cause that's my my market's not on there or whatever. 

 

00:18:19

Brad

Yeah. So, I mean, you obviously have to think about what persona you want to put out into the world. That's something to think about, right? Like who are you on social media? And it's not like you're pretending to be somebody else. I mean, you all have various roles. Like I'm a very different father than I am professor. Like, so you have to just think about who you are on social media and not only that, but on which platform, like, I'll be honest with you. There's 99% of the stuff I put on TikTok. I would never put on LinkedIn, are you kidding me? Like my Dean's going to see that stuff. And so.

 

00:18:53

Dominique

I don't know,

 

00:18:53

Brad

If he is, I'm very scared right now. So, so you've got to think about like the culture, like, what is it for me though? I gotta tell you it goes beyond that. Like, so I actually feel like on a deep philosophical level, like I'm here on earth to do something and I don't really care. I have this avatar onTikTok  that I have in mind. This is somebody that I deeply love and I care about, and I'm going to try to connect with this person, whatever it takes, if I have to do like a silly like dance, if I have to do something like that, I don't care. Like I I'm so mission focused on TikTok  in terms of trying to give a certain message to this person that I care about on there, that a lot of that melts away. I that's actually been my hack for overcoming my ego around giving speeches around doing podcast interviews, media interviews, television, the whole deal is what is my mission? And my mission as you mentioned, is, it's to help bring hope and healing to the world.

 

00:19:52

Brad

That's my mission. I run everything through that and then my ego melts away. That's, that's,

 

00:19:58

Dominique

It's actually a good segue. I want to talk about, let's talk about TikTok  micro strategies. Like if somebody is listening right now and they're like, okay, I'm buying in. I think I can do this. Let, let me start to think about some tangible steps where I can use this specific social app to start to get my message out. I think you provide a really good blueprint. Let's kind of unpack that. Have a mission that basically you see how you're impacting the world as a financial professional, whether that giving comprehensive financial plans or building investment strategies or whatever that is to whoever that is. That is a very first, a good, very first step. What would you say is kind of next, or maybe something from Dr. Brads  blueprint of how you create content?

 

00:20:45

Brad

I would say have an avatar in, so by avatar, I mean, who is the person on the other side of this phone, who's going to be watching your content? Who is that person? What do they care about? What are they worried about at night? What do they love? What do they, and so I, by the way, I have a different avatar for each app, essentially because they have different audiences. I'm speaking a different language, I'm talking to a different person. I think that really helps that is if there's anything that I could pin my success on TikTok , it's probably that, like, I have a very clear avatar in there. Somebody I'm talking to, it's not in frankly, it's not my typical multi-million dollar wealth management client. Although much of it applies, I have a very specific avatar and the more specific it can be about who is this person you want to talk to, it just really helps you get really clear about the message you want to deliver.

 

00:21:35

Dominique

Yeah. Cause I think, one thing I've been guilty of, in the past and even now, right, is getting a little lazy with the different cultures across social media, in that I post the exact same thing one platform and another, and I start to get a little, savvy about that, which is you change the, some stuff is, one-to-one but very rarely nowadays. To your point, if you have an avatar in mind, that's a specific message to that particular avatar in that community, based on the culture of that platform. Your posting strategy on TikTok, though, from looking at your profile seems to be, like you said, up to six times a day, and I don't know that works on like a LinkedIn or anywhere else. Can you kind of speak to that about the amount of times that you post in, like when you post and things of that nature?

 

00:22:25

Brad

Yeah. So I agree with you. I think it's very platform specific, but I've also seen a undeniable correlation with the amount of content somebody puts out and the impact and the reach, like you just can't separate those two things. If you posted six times a day on LinkedIn, I can guarantee you within one year, you're going to have way more action, way more views, way more followers, et cetera. Now, now granted, you're really going to have to dedicate yourself to that, right. I mean, because that's a major strategy and about two years ago, that's what I did. I essentially said, I'm going to spend an hour or two a day on social media. I started, we're talking to financial planners here, right. So I actually have a spreadsheet. Okay. Where I, I track all my numbers for the last two years across my social media platforms, because I decided I'm going to put some energy into that.

 

00:23:14

Brad

I'm going to put some energy into growing those platforms. And so, yeah. The more content you produce, the more action you're gonna do.

 

00:23:20

Dominique

Yeah, no, I think so. What I'm hearing from you is have a mission because it starts always with your, why I would agree, have an specific avatar that you are targeting. Then, I guess with that, you got to learn the nuances of the community dynamic or the social platform dynamic. You gotta be, I would say you got to start tracking your metrics. I think, cause that just talks to the strategy. Cause you're, these are for, this is forethought, right? You're not like maybe there are some stream of conscience and stuff that you're just doing, but do you have a social media content calendar? Like on this day I'm going to post this particular thing or around this particular thought that you do that too?

 

00:24:00

Brad

I don't, I don't at all. Yeah. I, I have a target where I'm trying to post three to six times a day on TikTok. I try to take one of those posts if they're relevant and push it over to Instagram or LinkedIn, that kind of thing.

 

00:24:15

Dominique

Okay. Okay. Having a strategy, whether the accountant is planned out or not is still part of what you would agree or recommend for people to have.

 

00:24:28

Brad

Yeah, absolutely. Like I have a plan in mind, like what are the platforms you want to focus on? And I think it's a good idea to pick one primary and then maybe two or three secondary. So you're going after maybe three platforms. You have a primary and a secondary, because it can be really tough to hit all those at once. But yeah.

 

00:26:16

Dominique

Talk about, talk about having that primary or maybe that hub. I think that's kind of key because I think at least with the conversations that I have financial professionals are like, yeah, I'm fine with doing this. It's just, it's just so overwhelming. Well, I mean, because there's Twitter, there's Facebook, there's Instagram, there's YouTube, there's blah. It's like, well, pick one hub where you can maybe have your let's call it cornerstone content or whatnot. As you said, push them out to those other two or three that are kind of minor in tertiary with maybe segments of it or split up content or whatever. I mean, if, I guess if you pick TikTok , you may have to think about some longer form stuff because of the time limit. What, what would be your thoughts on that?

 

00:26:56

Brad

Actually my best, LinkedIn content happens to be TikTok videos because they're pretty right. And they're punchy. Right. So yeah, I absolutely agree with that. And, and you just need to have a general philosophy, like how many posts do you plan on doing a day? And I know, and I'm, as I'm saying this, I'm just imagining the listener going with all these mental blocks to doing this, right. You're going to look like a fool. You're going to look, people are going to judge you and it's like, look, your first videos are your worst videos. Like they're just absolutely the worst and you're going to have to get over that hump. I would suggest that you make terrible embarrassing content right now versus three years from now. So get embarrassed right now. Get it pumping out now, because three years from now, you're going to be in a much better place.

 

00:27:40

Brad

I'll tell you this, I actually, I think I posted, Oh my goodness. Almost a thousand videos last year on TikTok. All of oh no, just on TikTok. Yeah. I think it was in the 900 range. I'm going to tell you what, like they are way better now than they were at the beginning of 2020.

 

00:27:59

Dominique

Wow. Okay. Let me just unpack that for somebody that is cause I'm big on numbers. For somebody that's out there, if you posted a thousand on just one platform, that's roughly 20, which the math is about two to three a day. For all of those out there dislike does just, can't do one. I mean, there's inspiration for you, but I mean, let's talk about something that I want to park on real quick. Went over this before, but I want to unpack this because you brought it up a couple of times. The actual talk track that is going on in your head when you're putting yourself out there and you're making a thousand videos is man, I'm gonna do this. Whether people like it or not, this is my mission. I'm focused on the person that I can help. I may look foolish. I may not do everything right.

 

00:28:49

Dominique

I'm gonna make some mistakes. At the end of the day, I'm going to check this thing off as done because I actually did it as opposed to, I don't have the right phone. My compliance department's going to say whatever, maybe talk about some of the self-work or self-awareness personal development that maybe needs to take place with that person. That's repeating that in their head.

 

00:29:14

Brad

Yeah. You got to get over yourself. I mean like it, one way to look at it is, that is like the most devastating form of self-love and ego adoration. It's like, look, you can't really love yourself that much. Right? Like, it's almost egotistical for you to be that worried about it. It's like, who are you? Yeah. Right, right. It's like, so for me, anyway, that's kind of where I go with it. I'm giving you my own mental tricks. Like, the other thing is like, how dare you? Like, all right. Here's the other thing, how dare you? Honestly, I am so upset if you're listening to this right now, and you are a financial expert and you are letting the financial conversation be had by all these people who know nothing about it. If you want to know what got me onto TikTok, it's this, my nephew showed me TikTok.

 

00:30:04

Brad

And I started flipping through there. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was seeing day traders, selling day trading, talking to me about all their returns, talking about this incredible thing. This is the way to make money. I got so upset. I got so angry. That's why I started creating content. I'm like, there's an entire generation of people here who are falling into this trap. And I was stunned. I couldn't believe it because I thought that kind of died away in the nineties. When the tech bubble, I couldn't believe that it was back in full force and I sat there and I saw all these people and I could picture them all being incredibly hurt by this misinformation. So, psychologists do this all the time too. Like they're not very good at speaking to the public. They're not very good at making things understandable.

 

00:30:46

Brad

All the best-selling self-help books are written by non psychologists. Some of the information they give out is just, is terrible and harmful. I'm just going to say that, come on, man, I need you. I need you on these social media platforms, sharing the truth, educating people if because you're not doing it. Other people are doing it. Guess what? There's an entire generation of people are consuming this content and getting all this misinformation because you are too afraid of being judged by somebody.

 

00:31:15

Dominique

Wow. I think, that deserves an a man because I resonate with that so much. I think there are a lot of us that, Andy Andrews has this very great quote that says that the whole purpose of analysis is to come to a decision like weigh the pros and cons, to the, to your point, you're qualified, especially if you're like a CFP. I mean the amount of stuff that they dump into our brains during that education process, good could power a whole career of content creation. The point is I think you hit a lot of nerves there because it, they essentially, it is just being afraid of how people may judge you and think of you, let me ask this was some of this, fervor and, maybe some inspiration for money mammoth. Cause I want to talk about that next. I mean, this is, I think from a standpoint of truth versus falsehood or untruth, this what you just said in the last, 30 seconds or so is definitely something that this new consumer financial services needs to hear.

 

00:32:28

Brad

Yeah. I think that it did influence my work on TikTok. First of all, the other thing I get so much hate social media. Let me, let me just explain this to you. Like, it's not like you're going to be sitting you sit back and be received with loving, open arms. It's like, there's a bunch of like angry 14 year olds on that app. Right. They're really gonna give it to you with your bald head and your gray beard and okay. Boomer. So just understand that's absolutely gonna happen. I've just described to you though, my mental strategy for dealing with that. I know they're all 14 year olds who, quite frankly, they might even be 50, but they have this like very wounded 14 year old inside of them. What you're going to notice is that the most criticism and hate you get on any social media platform is going to come from people who have anonymous profiles and have never posted any content.

 

00:33:19

Brad

So understand this. They are, they're really afraid of being judged and they're hypercritical of themselves and they're probably super nasty to themselves. They probably had a parent who was nasty to them. They've internalized this like highly critical nastiness and it's very, confining for them. What they're doing is just projecting that on you. Just understand if you're getting hate from people, that's who you're getting it from. And, and frankly, as a psychologist, I care about those people. I, I feel bad for them. I worry about them. I wanna support them. Anyway, that's your mental strategy for dealing with hate because that those are the people who are doing it, content creators, like if you're actually putting your stuff out there into the world and think about this in your own life, like you're really putting yourself out there. You have a lot of compassion for people who have the courage to put stuff out there.

 

00:34:07

Dominique

No, I would agree. I, and I think, one way that I've kind of mental hack that is when I actually started getting negative comments or posts and things of that nature, or even a thumbs down on YouTube is I realized, man, I must actually be touching a nerve if somebody is disagreeing with this, I think, I mean, from a creativity standpoint, you got to start thinking that if you're putting stuff out there and nobody's saying anything negative, then you may need to push a little harder against the establishment is kind of the way I think about it. One of the parts of what I do is I try to be polarizing not to be off putting necessarily, but just to say, I may have a different opinion or different way of thinking about something than you. Let me challenge you with that, to see how you accept me or not.

 

00:34:57

Dominique

Right. It's a very telling sign that I use with people that I want to bring into my practice or people I want to work with. Because if you, if we disagree on something and that's going to be that off putting for you, that's probably going to be a detriment to our business relationship and we, that we don't want to go there. Right. Right. Absolutely. Let's talk about, the book just like what is the premise of it and in what can people expect when they read the money mammoth?

 

00:35:25

Brad

Yeah. For money mammoth, it was influenced by all the stuff I've been doing on social media. In that it's the first book where I actually put in a lot of, I'd say some basic personal financial planning information. I've avoided that in the past. Partially because I wasn't a certified financial planner for the first few books. I felt like there's a real need for it. Here I've created a bit of a following and I have a bit of credibility with a certain audience. I thought, I would find ways to do it in a totally appropriate compliance way where you're not telling people what to do. This is the other thing too, like you don't dispense advice on social media, like, and if you do that, your compliance office should be very concerned about you. You know, that's not what you do. You don't, I'll get comments all the time.

 

00:36:10

Brad

Like, should I do a Roth IRA? It's like, well, you never say yes to that. I have no idea who this person is, what their circumstances. You find ways to talk about it. The Roth IRAs can be incredible under the right circumstances. You know, I don't know your situation. I can't tell you what you should do. I mean, there's very easy ways to get around the quote advice. Not to get too stuck on that, but for money mammoth, I did include some of that information because I saw such an important need for it. And essentially money mammoth. The concept is around the metaphor of the cave person back during the days of the wooly mammoth. This is the brain that allowed us to survive and thrive in that environment. It's the same brain we have right now that trips us up in terms of our relationship with money.

 

00:36:51

Brad

The whole book is wrapped around that metaphor, looking at your ancestors, looking at your tribe, the influence of the people around your family, your parents, and then getting into survival techniques. It's interesting, we had that whole concept before this crisis happened, but it turned out to be a, pretty apropos just in terms of how to survive a crisis and how to manage and avoid extinction if you will. We put a lot of information on, in there on how to essentially survive these crises. By the way, there's going to be another one, and these things happen. How do you manage it psychologically in terms of making the right financial decisions?

 

00:37:25

Dominique

No, I think there's a great setup, especially for the segment of the audience that will be listened to this that are consumers or financial services, because I know that in the last several months, specifically during the pandemic, I've gotten a lot of people come to me and say, Hey, I've had the time to kind of contemplate my future. I've been putting this stuff off so long. Like what do we need to do to get everything in order now? And I think this presents an excellent opportunity for financial professionals and providers or financial services to really connect with people to your point earlier because people are wanting this information. They're not, no one is sitting around saying, I want my N to be bad. I don't want to finish well, people know they need to plan. The, the fact of the matter is not because of a lack of information, but it's usually because of the lack of guidance it's like, because there is so much information and it's like, should I do this? Or should I do that? And the inaction comes in and I think that's where, to your point, your call to action to financial professionals is to, Hey, you have this information, let's guide people to where they need to go, because we're essentially are just facilitators.

 

00:38:32

Dominique

So, no, I love that. Any other resources you have? I know you said you may have a TikTok training course in that work.

 

00:38:40

Brad

Yeah. We've been working on a tic-tac training course, mainly because it's this strange platform. And, I found tic-tac to be actually incredibly receptive to professional content. As a matter of fact, they reached out to me and, asked me to help create more like legitimate financial education content on TikTok, which is, which has been really incredible. I actually see them promoting the expertise from people who are actual professionals who have a knowledge base in certain areas. And that's incredible. They've recognized that there's a lot of misinformation going on. That's more than any other platform that I've ever heard of. It's, it's incredible. Like, I'm wearing a TikTok hat and they sent this to me and I'm on weekly calls with them around creating content that will be useful. As I mentioned, that's legitimate from professionals. So, that's one of the things I've been a huge fan of.

 

00:39:32

Brad

As part of those calls, we're always talking about, best strategies on TikTok, how to get the most organic reach. Essentially yes, we're, I'm creating with a partner, a course on TikTok for professionals on how can we use this and how can we maximize it? And, we talked about this a little earlier too, and it's like, I didn't really choose tic-tac. I would say TOK chose me and what happened. You mentioned this earlier with the organic reach and I had one video, so I'm posting across all these platforms and I had one video go 6 million views. I got to tell all of a sudden you're like, wow, like that's a significant percentage of the us population for that just saw this video that I created and obviously resonated. It was obviously helpful. I think it was that type of organic reach that I just kept doubling down on the content on that platform.

 

00:40:20

Dominique

No. Good for you, man. I'm really happy to hear that. I know you do great work. I know you are also invested in academia and the next generation, which is the reason why I think we resonate so well in overlap in our synergies with what we're trying to do with change, how people view financial advice and financial advisors, period. I no longer in one of the reasons why I created this podcast, candidly is because I'm really tired of at a dinner party. Somebody saying financial advisor in the room clearing like we do way better work than that. The people that do that work, I want them to come to the front and the people that want to get in here and do that type of work. I want them to be attracted to the industry. I'm so glad for what you're doing. We always close with, the fact of empowerment, right? So this podcast is to help, empower tomorrow's financial professionals with tools to serve their clients at the next level.

 

00:41:12

Dominique

And so in that context, Dr. Brad, I would love any word or words of wisdom that you would want to leave with. Tomorrow's financial professionals.

 

00:41:22

Brad

I think it would be this, that just go ahead and get in the game. Like at the end of the day, this is going to sound pretty morbid, but at the end of the day, we're all going to be stuck in a hole with dirt thrown on top of us, and nobody's going to care, I mean like a hundred years from now, and it's like, look like you're on earth here to do something like, I don't know what that is. I mean, the opportunity in the financial realm is like, this is the number one thing that stresses people out like money is the number one stressor. And, in the, in America, eight out of 10 people, stress kills people. I actually see us in this profession as being in a unique opportunity, a unique place to actually heal, like, to actually be a source of hope and healing for people that I that's, the mission that I am really trying to live out in my life.

 

00:42:06

Brad

I see that as a financial professional, this isn't just about returns and making people more money. No, no. You are in a position to help people deal with the thing that keeps them up at night that kills them. So this is the mission I see. If you can just embody that mission, it's so much easier to create content because essentially you're saving lives. I'm not saying that I actually wrote an entire article. I have a very solid argument on how you're actually saving lives by helping people with their financial plans. That's really the way I see it. That's the mission that I'm living in my life and I really want you to live.

Conversation Transcript:

00:42:41

Dominique

Wow. Wow. That's great. I cannot agree more. This has been great, Dr. Brad, TikTok savant. Thank you for spending time with us on conversations for financial professionals. Thank you. My pleasure.