Diana Cabrices (0:00): The prohibition is over. Russ Thornton and Ayad Amary were the first two wealth care advisors to take advantage of the new SEC marketing role and begin growing their business with SEC compliant testimonial marketing. So are you ready to join them? I'm Diana Cabrices's chief evangelist at Wealthtender, the industry's first SEC compliant online reviews platform for advisors. And today Russ and Ayad have joined me to share why they're so excited about this new opportunity, along with Brian Thorpe, founder and CEO of Wealthtender. Now, you may be wondering why is this such a big deal? Well, it's because we know just how impactful online reviews and client testimonials have been to professionals in other industries where trust is a key factor people consider when choosing who they hire. For example, studies show that one of the very top factors that consumers consider when hiring an attorney is whether or not they have positive online reviews. So we know online reviews accelerate the trust building process and they establish a very emotional connection that results in more introductory appointments getting scheduled and more prospects turning into clients over time. So if you decide not to make online reviews part of your marketing strategy, then perhaps a nearby advisor or one in your niche with those positive reviews is going to be more likely to get the call. Now, today you have a once in a lifetime opportunity to get the head start, get a head start on this proven and powerful way to grow your business with testimonials. So let's kick off our questions. Russ, I'm going to turn to you. You were among the first advisors in the country who jumped in the opportunity created by the SEC marketing role to begin inviting your clients to write a review sharing their experience. Now, can you share with the audience why you are so excited and why you were so excited to get started?

Russ Thornton (2:15): Yeah, thanks, Diana. I guess I'm an early adopter. It's funny. So Brian and I had been in conversation months and months ago when the SEC was first kind of laying the groundwork for compliance approved testimonials. I went to my compliance team at WealthCare, who's been great, by the way, and is always very willing to work with me and our other advisors. But at the time, I think it was still kind of a a temporary exploratory period. And so they said, let's put that on hold as soon as we got through the I don't remember the exact date, but as soon as we got through the hurdle where it was kind of a widespread and more accepted practice, I went back to them specifically with Wealthtender's testimonial process. And they said, they said, not only do we not only we are OK with the idea of testimonials, we really like Wealthtender's approach where it's very thorough and kind of documents everything throughout. And so and so here we are. And and just to give you a personal example, like this weekend, my wife and I have some work to do. One of the things on our ever expanding list of stuff to do around the house is to clean and stain our deck and not to overthink it. But, you know, just use this example. I mean, we've been looking at different stains and different cleaners and looking at online reviews. And, you know, who likes this one or who doesn't like that one? And so use the example earlier, Diana, of people using online reviews to evaluate attorneys. Everybody's familiar with Yelp and Google reviews to evaluate restaurants and all kinds of goods and services. Why wouldn't why wouldn't someone like myself or someone like you or other advisors utilize testimonials to help people make a more informed decision, a more informed big decision? Because we're talking about their money. So I think I think what you said is key earlier, which is it can help build and accelerate trust. And I've experienced that personally. So that's why I have been and continue to be excited about the use of testimonials with the help of Wealthtender.

Diana Cabrices (4:27): That is awesome. And I love how you brought in your own personal experience. I think that's what it all comes down to is us putting ourselves in the shoes of consumers as we are in other parts of our life and the experience that we go through when we're looking who to hire. So, Ayad, I'd love to turn to you. You quickly followed Russ getting started and have since gathered testimonials from several of your clients. So let's pose the same question here. What excited you the most about this opportunity?

Ayad Amary (4:55): Yeah, thank you. And thanks for asking me to contribute here. So it's funny, you know, Russ and I signed on with Wealthtender service from the beginning, almost the same time, just coincidentally, we weren't really talking about it. And, you know, Brian, you put up those announcements on LinkedIn, and I think it was one of us was a day apart of the other. And then we just kind of chatted about it afterwards. And so it was only natural we stay in touch, run a similar business model. And when I knew he was getting involved with this, so I got a client randomly from internet traffic that I wasn't, I usually don't get my clients that way, right? It's very difficult. And I asked them why they chose to call me. And the gentleman said, you had a really good review on Google, a good review, which I only had one. And this was before we're really allowed to, it was a random, it wasn't a random, it was a client that unsolicited, she put a review on Google, you know, for me. And so just one review, and he said, Hey, I chose to call you because it was a really good review. And that was like, okay, I have to figure out a way to harness this. Because I knew the rule was coming, the changes coming, I think it was November of last year. So this was a couple months prior to I was over the summer. And then when WealthHender came out with this process, it was only fitting that I took it upon a part of my marketing practice. And you guys just made it really easy to do that. Because it just sounds like a daunting task from the compliance component of it. Because we know everything we touch from a compliance standpoint is there's a process to it, right? So the fact that it was easily packaged in a way for us to roll out, just made it really easy for me to get my head around and say, Okay, I should be able to integrate this pretty simply without too much time and effort on my part. So that's what got me excited about it was, I know it works. Because just like Russ, as a consumer, the first thing you do is go online anymore. And almost any, I mean, if I'm just buying the most random household item, let alone investing serious money in a service, which this is a serious service for people, and they're investing serious money and time into it. Why wouldn't they check your reputation online, whether it's broker check, which is where people used to go and maybe still do. And now it's actual clients that are putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak and giving you either a thumbs up or hopefully not a thumbs down from a review standpoint. So I hope that answers your question. For me, that's what got me excited about it was the potential.

Diana Cabrices (7:36): I like that. And in my mind, I think it's almost an easy button for reviews. I think the compliance side, as long as you systematize it, it can be a lot more simple. And how awesome it was to hear that just that one review is what moved the needle for one of your prospects who reached out. That is powerful. So we'll turn to Brian. Now, Brian, as these positive reviews earned by Russ and Ayad rolled in, how did you begin to see this impact with the presence online there?

Brian Thorp (8:09): Sure. So the benefits really begin immediately. So once Russ and Ayad started to receive that first review, when people are looking to hire a financial advisor and they're looking on Wealthtender, they're going to start seeing those positive reviews right there on the profile page. So now beyond the experience and credentials of Russ and Ayad, they also can see the experience of their clients and really create that emotional connection that's so important. And beyond that, we also have widgets that Russ and Ayad have been able to install on their websites as one way that advisors can display testimonials. So when a prospective client comes to your website, they have that opportunity to read the reviews there as well. And whether it's the widget that we make available that's fairly easy to install with all of the embedded compliance disclosures right there, or leveraging your website provider who can create a carousel of selected reviews, there are approaches that you can take to display those reviews in multiple ways. Now, of course, there are compliance obligations, so it's always important to ensure you not only have the appropriate disclosures, but when you are embedding reviews on your website, you also need to ensure that you have a link for consumers to be able to read all of your reviews. And so we provide that within the widget that we make available, but that's also something important that we can provide you with guidance on as an advisor with your website developer if they prefer to use their own approach. And then one thing I would mention, Ayad talked about that one unsolicited review, I think a very important word there on Google. So one of the reasons we launched Wealthtender is because Google itself is not designed to be compliant with the marketing rule. So unsolicited reviews, reviews that your clients choose to put on any site, as long as they haven't been requested by you to put those reviews out there, that's always been fine. But of course, most people aren't inclined to write a review unless you actually reach out to them and invite them to do so. And what's great on that front, one of the things that we've seen is that there's really what I would almost call pent-up demand, where a lot of advisors we're hearing from, their clients have said, well, why didn't you ask me to write a review sooner? And of course, the answer is, well, we couldn't due to the regulations, and they're really happy to write a review. And so we've seen as those reviews have come in, the vast majority are five-star reviews because, in fact, clients of advisors really like their advisors. So that's just been really terrific to see. But getting back to the benefits for us and Ayad, so once those initial reviews were published on their Wealthtender profile pages, what's really exciting to see is once an advisor has around five reviews, that's when the reviews start to get pulled into Google. So it's sending positive trust signals to Google's algorithm, helping advisors rank higher in search results, and those gold stars start to appear visually on the page as well. So using an example, if a prospective client gets the names of three advisors and they go to do that search on Google, many advisors we know are doing a search for Russ Thornton reviews or Ayad Amary reviews, so the advisor's name and reviews. And once those reviews are on Wealthtender, you're going to start seeing those pop up in the Google search results as well. So it becomes very easy for people to see a preview that they can then link to the Wealthtender profile page or get to the advisor's website where they can see all of those reviews. So powerful not only from a visibility perspective with consumers, but also with the SEO benefits that it provides as well. And the last thing that I would just mention is that when it comes to topics like health care and finance, what Google refers to as your money or your life, they want to be very certain that the displayed results reflect professionals who have not only the experience and authoritativeness to provide potential advice to people that click through to those websites, but also have the trustworthiness. And that's where those reviews can be a really powerful driver of not only visibility inclination by Google to display those results, but again, ultimately with consumers to accelerate that trust-building process.

Diana Cabrices (12:10): Wonderful. Thank you, Brian. That was such a thorough response and a lot of great takeaways there. I actually want to turn it back to you, Ayad. Continuing with you, how would you describe the process of getting started? I think there's a lot of fear that advisors might have around asking for the review. So I'm genuinely curious, what was the receptivity of your clients to write a review?

Ayad Amary (12:34): To me, the fear was not so much how they would respond. It was about just going through the process of asking. So again, Brian sent me this PDF and it has all the steps laid out, which did make it a lot easier because doing that on my own, I think I probably would still not have done it to this day. Yeah. You're always wondering how are the clients going to respond? Do we send them too many emails? Do we ask too much of them sometimes? But I think you got to always fall back on your relationships. If you feel like you're confident you have a good relationship. The one thing I had to keep in mind was you have to ask everybody, right? That's one of the rules of the SEC. You can't cherry pick. And so I was a little cautious in the beginning because I just onboarded a couple of people and then all of a sudden I'm asking them for reviews. That was one thing I was aware of. I'd prep them and say, hey, I'm asking because I have to ask everybody. So you don't feel obligated because you only work with me for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. I mean, numbers-wise, I don't know what the norm is. Rusk had a lot of good success, but I had about five to seven people almost immediately and then a couple more trickled in later. Maybe at the time, it was only about 35 households, I think, at that time, several months back when I first did this maybe six months ago. But I thought it was a pretty good response. And then a couple more trickled in later. But then I always have people that I've completed reviews with thereafter. They'll say to me, hey, I know you sent me that request. I do want to give you a review. I got to get around to it. It's somewhere in my inbox and most of them haven't. But at least they mentioned it and they're intended on giving me a review. So I think my next challenge would be maybe at a certain time every year, a reminder for those who haven't gone through that process. And then, of course, I can include new clients that I've onboarded since then. So I'll probably do that at some point. I don't know exactly when, but that's on my thought. And one thing I've also done, actually, that's been helpful. Whenever a prospect has asked me for information about the firm or some background information, you have a firm, your information about your firm, I will include a couple staple items that I always provide them with. And I've also since then, here's a link to my profile online. It's an advisor directory. And you can also see my certified client reviews. I will put that in the email. And I know, just anecdotally, that has to help people that were just not quite sure of taking that next step. Because in client conversations afterwards, they said, hey, I know you have a good reputation. So that's kind of come from somewhere. And I thought that's been very helpful as well.

Diana Cabrices (15:13): Those are great examples. I think two things that I really liked what you said there. After a client review, it's a wonderful time to bring it up in the conversation again. You just provided a ton of value to your client. And they may or may not have already gotten your testimonial request. But right now and right then is a great time to remind them of that value that you just added, and in return that they could add back to you and your business. And I also really appreciate the how easy it is to share your profile link to Wealthtender. And this is a very established website. There's a lot of great content on there, credible expertise, and that's very visible to anyone who is to go to the Wealthtender site. So I think sharing that link, sharing those reviews, that's an excellent prospecting tool. Russ, I'd love to turn to you. Is there anything else that you would like to add specifically about your experience getting started that might help other wealth care advisors who are considering the opportunity?

Russ Thornton (16:11): I would echo a lot of what he had said. You know, the thing that so appealed to me about Wealthtender's approach to this, which also again seemed to appeal to our compliance folks, was that it's a very thoughtful, well laid out process. And so speaking personally, and what I would encourage others to do is don't overthink it. Like Brian and his team provide you an email template that you can just basically send out to your clients. I did very little, if any, editing to that and just sent it out. So kind of like what Ayad was saying, left to my own devices. If I get too into my head and thinking like how should I wordsmith this or how should I go about this, then it might still be on my to-do list. So I literally just kind of took a paint-by-numbers approach, followed the steps, went through the process, and it's been a very easy and smooth experience so far. And also like Ayad said, I've had several clients kind of mention it to me like, hey, I'm glad you asked. I was happy to give you a review. Or others have said, I know you've asked. I need to get to that and I will. And so I've got a spreadsheet of clients who have posted a review. And for those that haven't, I've already sent out a second round of reminders, which prompted some additional reviews. And I'll just kind of continue to do that every few months. And so it's been a very easy, hasn't been a big lift. And I think the results speak for themselves, which is kind of what we've been talking about throughout this conversation, which is just kind of building the social proof and having more visibility and findability online.

Diana Cabrices (17:59): I like that you brought up social proof. And thank you, Russ, for that response. Now that you have received several positive reviews, can you share a bit about how you're leveraging these client testimonials in your marketing efforts with prospects?

Russ Thornton (18:16): For me, again, not doing anything magic here. I've got a dedicated page on my website where I've embedded the code that Wealthtender provides. And so it literally just lists all of my reviews that I've received there that you can just scroll through. And I've linked to that page from other places on my site. So it's pretty easy to find. In the past, prior to this whole, you know, testimonial approved process from the SEC, I would often get clients and say, Hey, Russ, I like you. I'm interested in working with you. But could you give me references to a couple clients, which I was happy to do, but it always kind of felt a little awkward, because I would have to ask the clients. And I'm always kind of in the back of my mind worried about privacy and things like that. And so now having documented public client approved reviews that I can just point people to just makes that whole process much easier where I can just say, Oh, sure, I'm happy. You know, if you haven't already, check out this page on my website or check out my profile on Wealthtender. So I can't say, Diana, that it's really changed what I've done, but it's certainly augmented and given me more resources. And I've had people, I've had a couple of people reach out to me via my website. And they've referenced the fact that, Oh, I see you've got a lot of positive client reviews, or your clients really seem to love you, which obviously feels good. But more importantly, I think that, again, has maybe prompted those emails or phone calls that I might not have received otherwise.

Diana Cabrices (19:52): Absolutely. And that's that in and of itself as a resource to help people along their own buyer journey. I think that is a huge benefit to having your profile in Wealthtender with those reviews. So, Brian, I actually want to turn to you. And, you know, as we prepare to wrap up this great conversation that I know will help a lot of advisors, is there anything else that you would like to add?

Brian Thorp (20:15): Well, I just really appreciate you taking the time, Diana, to host the call and Russ and Ayad for your time today. And, you know, really also appreciate the feedback that you've shared on how we've really streamlined the process for advisors. A big part of our goal is to let advisors focus on what you do best. We've done a lot of work with the resource that you mentioned, the playbook, the checklist, the templates, to really try and make it as easy as possible for advisors to get started. So for the other wealth care advisors listening to this today, I just want to assure you that you also have that commitment from our team at Wealthtender to provide that support every step of the way, because this really is a once in a generation opportunity. And importantly, too, it's a great way to really bolster your marketing without any meaningful cost involved as well. So being able to unlock the terrific feedback from clients who truly appreciate the time and the value that you provide as an advisor, we're really excited to help you generate a lot of digital referrals from those reviews that you're able to publish online going forward.

Diana Cabrices (21:15): Absolutely. Gentlemen, thank you so much. And congratulations on all the positive reviews that you've earned from your clients, Russ and Ayad. I definitely appreciate you sharing your experience with us. And now those of you who are watching this video, I hope that you're as excited about the opportunity around testimonial marketing. It's a once in a generation opportunity. We'd love to work with you. Gentlemen, thank you again.

Ayad Amary (21:41): Thank you. Thank you. Have a good day.