#271 Lisa Greensill – Transcript

Fraser Jack
Welcome back to the XY advisor Podcast. I’m Fraser Jack and today I’m joined by Lisa Greensill. Welcome.

Lisa Greensill
Thank you. It’s a pleasure being here, Fraser.

Fraser Jack
Now let’s start with a little bit about you and what you’re doing. Tell us about what you’re doing and what you’re doing at the moment.

Lisa Greensill
So I help financial advisors to make over their marketing message and websites. And I do that using a little tool called Story brand.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, amazing. And is it just you in the business or

Lisa Greensill
it is just me in the business? I work with contractors to help me execute on the strategy?

Fraser Jack
Yep. Wonderful. And this wonderful word that we hear every now and again, called copy, which, you know, means words on a page or words on a website?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, it does. So that’s really the messaging is, I guess, another way of saying copy. It’s how you bring your ideas to life, on your on a website and your marketing material. And what I’m all about is helping that copy speak directly to advisors, Dream clients, so they can attract the right people to their business.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, amazing. Amazing. Now tell us, let’s go back in time, tell us about your journey. Where did you start out and how did you end up here.

Lisa Greensill
So after during the uni thing, business degree, I started out in marketing roles in the tech industry when it was boom, which was heaps of fun. And worked in Australia and over in the UK did the backpacking thing, the working backpacking thing in the UK, and enjoy the tech industry. But to be honest, I never really felt like it was my place because I didn’t really understand the mechanics of it because it was so technical. When I got back to Australia, I got a job at a&p and doing in the licensee in the Queensland branch. And that’s where I got to help lots of financial advisors across Queensland with their marketing. And as soon as I got there, it might sound a little bit lame, but I just felt like I just loved it, I felt like I was in my place. The advisors, or the advisors I’ve got to work with was salt of the earth. And I just enjoyed working with them. And it was so working a&p That my now husband back then is just boyfriend actually got advice from a financial planning practice, which to be honest, we wouldn’t be where we are today without that advice. And I but I ended up working for that financial planning practice, and then gone on to be one of the biggest practices in ANP. And that was incredibly fun. And I learned a lot there. We ended up moving to the coast had kids. And it was at that point that it was hard to juggle the marketing role in a growing practice. So I decided to do my own thing and started freelancing and then have done did that for many, many years, in 2020, so the kids were sort of more grown up or had more headspace. And over those years as they were growing up, I didn’t really have a lot of headspace was very reactive with work. And in 2021 of my clients actually introduced me to storebrand. And all that at this point, I was feeling a little lost in my career, and I needed some direction because other kids are older, it’s now time that it’s time for you lay so it’s time to invest in yourself. storebrand just sat, I’ve just loved it straightaway. So I went on and got certified. And then I’ve now gone on to launch consulting business, which I did earlier this year. And it’s been a whole lot more successful than I ever anticipated that it would be so yeah, I feel like I’m incredibly blessed. Because I found my thing. It’s taken me a long time to find it. But I found it. And and I just love it because it lights me up. And I see how it wants my clients up when I sort of see how it all starts working.

Fraser Jack
Brilliant. Yeah, that’s a that’s an amazing story. And what I love about that, Lisa, is that you actually got financial advice. And one of the one of the huge benefits of people get of headphones advice is they understand the value that it adds to consumers and clients and their ability to be able to say, well, they actually you know, I did this thing rather than I just say something or you’ve actually lived it and experienced it. Yeah.

Lisa Greensill
Well, absolutely. I’m and early on in our early on now relationships, I can’t I won’t even marry them. And so he got us on the same page around money values. And like money has never been something that’s caused friction, because we’re on the same page. We share the same values. But it was decisions back then that honestly, we wouldn’t be living where we live. living our life. We wouldn’t have been able to buy the block land to buy this to build this house back then had we not had the advice. So I do believe in what financial advisors do.

Fraser Jack
Yep. Now tell me about the excitement around storebrand you said you it was only 2020 when you discovered upon it Tell us a little bit about story brain what it is. And, you know, obviously you went on to become a coach and it but tell us, let’s just start with the basic framework.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, so story brand is a framework to help you build your marketing message, and then go on to build your marketing collateral, like your content and your website. And for me why I love it is because I’m a process person, but also creative. And to me, it brings those two things together, because it takes something creative, like writing copy, but it gives you a framework to do that. So the whole basis behind it is that people are human brains are compelled to take action through story. So if you think about any kind of movie or book, there’s always a similar type of way that works. So there’s always like a hero that wants to achieve something that encounter some problems. Usually someone helps them comes along to help them they make a plan, and they go on to win the day, or maybe not, they go on to fail. And essentially, that’s what the story brand framework is, it’s a filter to tap into the, I guess, look at your business through the eyes of your dream clients, and identify those things like the problems and aspirations of those clients. And I guess the biggest thing is that it’s the client. That’s the hero, not the advisor, which is, I think, a big switch. Yes, he got a ha moment that you usually see. And I guess it really tapped like I heard, I watched a webinar with Carl Richards. And he talks about the advisors being the guide. And so it just works so perfectly in financial advice world.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, absolutely. And, and having been through and I shouldn’t read the book, but I got the audio book and listen to it about four times. It’s just such a such a great, a great piece of content. You mentioned there’s a hero, there’s often a villain and as a mentor, and a guide or, or an oracle or whatever we want to call them. In every single story, I want to take this back to the first word story, out of the story brand conversation because the Dorian brand and we introduce the the advisors brand into this, but take us back through that journey that you mentioned, where a lot of stories are based on and again, we can go back through many different famous movies or great books or great stories. And we’ll be able to see this pattern take us through that pattern.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, so if we look at a typical story, I’m going to do this as the actual seven part framework, so you can see how it works. So the seven part framework, always the story brand seven part framework starts with a character. So for advisors, that character is the client, and they want to achieve something. So in a movie, that would be the main character of the story. So, you know, in a Bond movie, that’s James Bond.

Fraser Jack
Yep. So this is generally that the main character of a movie or a story. And then and being set out in any particular story there is like this person is at this position, and they want to get to this or do something or achieve or overcome something. Yeah,

Lisa Greensill
they want to achieve something. And it’s pretty much out every single story movie book starts is always a main character. So it’s always thinking, Who is that main character? So there’s a bit of a piece before doing this, which I can talk about later. And that is identifying who your dream clients actually are, which is the piece that storebrand doesn’t quite do. So once you’ve done that, and you know who your dream clients are the people you really want to attract your business, you then identify what are they trying to achieve? And this one is actually probably the hot one of the hardest. So sometimes you can, when you’re developing this framework, you might come back to this because the next bit is actually the bit that the problems. So this character has something I want to achieve. And there’s always barriers, challenges, problems getting in their way to achieve that. So if we take that for a financial advisor, it’s identifying what are the problems that people are having as it relates to financial advice. So this is you know, once you start getting advisors talking, this is where the real goal is, because this is where and they start off with broad, usually with broad sayings and then they get a microphone really What’s their problem. They’re worrying that they’re not going to be able to help their kids buy a house they’re or they’re worried their kids won’t afford to buy the house. They don’t they, they don’t know how much they’re going to need to retire. They are supporting their kids so they don’t have much cash flow. Like there’s always you need to be specific about those problems.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. And then when you mentioned that you say the word worried is it often an emotion is it like you know that my problem is is an emotional problem or is it too often tangible?

Lisa Greensill
So by so there’s sort of it breaks up into external problems. So the actual problem and how does that problem make you feel? So it’s like, what’s the problem? The kids aren’t going to be able to afford to buy a house? Because the housing markets too expensive? How does that make you feel that makes you feel worried? Or our money’s all over the place? We’ve got no plan, no structure has that makes you feel overwhelmed. So it’s like the problem and there’s an external problem? And then there’s a internal problem? How that makes you feel?

Fraser Jack
Yeah, I think there’s the understanding that both of those things are important, but you add them together in there, and they make up in the hole.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah. And they help you visualize, like, I think the big, like, this whole process helps to create a visual picture in your mind. And it seems so obvious when you get to the end of it, and you see it on page and you go, Oh, that seems so obvious. But then I’d guess because I do it all the time, it seems so obvious. But when you see that aha moments with advisors, it’s what very rewarding.

Fraser Jack
Excellent. So that’s the first part of it to understand who they are, who the dream clients are, and then understanding that they’re the hero of this particular journey or story that we’re about to tell. And then looking at what their those pain points are, they’re the emotional and the internal external problems.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, that’s right. And then the then comes along the guide. So this guide, and there’s two parts to that the guide can empathize with the characters problems, and main things like you know, empathize, we understand that, you know, the Australian super system is complicated, complicated, complex. And then that’s at that point where they can then show their authority as to why they’re the right people to help them solve their problems and help them achieve what they want to achieve. But that is really the little part and call that authority. It’s, you know, that’s the part where, you know, you talk about your experience, your expertise, you have your logos around the rewards and things like that. That’s really the only part of this where you talk about yourself. So that’s a big shift. Because I guess when you go to one of advisors, websites, it’s very much about them, why we’re so amazing to help you why whether, whereas you need to flip it, it needs to pretty much be all about the client.

Fraser Jack
What’s the really interesting part? Isn’t it from? If something is about me, then I’m much more likely to engage with it. Like I’m thinking that a website here if it’s if it’s kind of just referring to me all the time, I’m, I kind of feel like, I have a bit more like interest to this site than I do just if it’s talking about something else?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, well, I guess as humans, as much as we don’t want to be around. We’re inherently selfish, right? So we want to not win. And we’re getting bombarded with 1000s of messages a day. So we want to know, and this is Serbian language, but how businesses or services can help us survive and thrive. So how are we how are businesses going to help me make my life better, easier, make me more money. And you need to tell them that as quickly as possible, because they need to conserve calories doing that, because we just don’t have time to process and guess. And, you know, work out cryptic messaging, like it’s you just got to be really clear, like literally punch people in the face with what you’re trying to say and how you help them. And if you think about it, and you think about yourself, when you go, you know, you our intentions, then so small as well, like you, you need to grab people’s attention really quickly. And he’s all about tell them how you can make them survive and thrive and do it in the quickest way possible to help them conserve calories.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, I love the way you say, Save, conserve calories, because you’re right, it you know, thinking takes a lot of energy.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, it totally does it. And it’s also like, you don’t have time to kind of try to work things out. Like if, if, you know, in a lot of cases, advisors do get their businesses based on referrals. So but I would say, anytime I’m referred to someone, there’s, this is what I do, I go and google them, check out the Google reviews. And then I will go on their website, and I’m super judgy. So they’ve got a crappy website. I’ll judge their business on that. Just like I would judge if their office looked sloppy, messy, dated. It’s sort of this it’s it’s the same thing.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, it’s definitely the website is definitely the first point of contact before people reach out and say hello. So I’m assuming obviously here in the scenario here, we’re talking about the adviser being the article or the guide. And as you mentioned, there as you know, you need to show empathy, but also show authority. Is there anything else the advisor needs to do in that space?

Lisa Greensill
This is where they can also use things like case studies, testimonials, things that show you know authentic way. They’re really authentic ways of demonstrating this authority, but things like the awards. And you know, that’s really positive about the experience, number of years I’ve been in the industry, but case studies testimony at the very least testimonials, because it’s one of those case studies, if you just, you know, they’re a bit hot, they’re a bit more juicy to create, but testimonials that are authentic testimonials, always help.

Fraser Jack
So that’s very much around the Who Who are we, then, you know, what have we done before? But what about the how do we actually help?

Lisa Greensill
Yes. So that’s where we introduce in that story as well, you can talk about how you help, but also what I missed talking about, there was also the why I think that it’s really important that you get your why you do what you do, in that when you’re trying to build your authority, because I think people want to understand why you got into doing financial advice in the first place. And if there’s a story to tell behind that, that always helps to build connection. But in terms of what they do, what you need to do is make it easy for people to see how easy it is to work with you. So that’s where the guide gives them a plan. So I’m just referring back to the story brand seven part framework here. So at this point, the character has problems the guide comes along tells them, we understand we empathize with the right people to help you. And this is how we’re going to do it. And this isn’t where you show your entire end to end process. This is where you break it up into three, maximum four steps. How do people engage with your business? And that’s literally what’s the first thing people need to do to engage with your business. And don’t make it confusing in terms of a website. It’s, you know, shedule, a call book a Zoom meeting, what’s the first thing people have to do, to engage with you make it obvious, don’t make it what and use it throughout the site. So people know, I want to work with you, this is what I do. The next thing is, tell them what you’re going to do wrap up everything you do, which is hard, you know, and put it into the next step, which you know, for financial advisors, she’s gonna make a plan with credit strategy. And then the third one is what is the outcome of doing all this. So you know, it’s like, you can enjoy life without having to worry about your money. So it’s kind of wrapped up the entire process. And sort of in through, it’s simplified it a lot. But it’s still created a visual picture in the clients mind. And if you put an entire process like I know, and you can, if you really want to on your about page, but say on your homepage, and you put that entire like process, people just could, if they’re new to financial advice, it could scare them away. Yeah,

Fraser Jack
it’s interesting, interesting. When is that? Because when I think about nice three, easy step process, we sit with you we get all you know, we get to know you, then we go away, and we create strategies and make recommendations. And then we put all that in place, and then we help you manage your ongoing, it might be like that simple. It’s a simple thing. But then, if we simplify it too much, is there a concern in some of the people that you work with hid that? Or if it’s so simple? Can I charge a lot of money for it?

Lisa Greensill
No, I don’t, I don’t find that because behind this, I mean, this is a this is a marketing tool to help people engage with you. So then once they engage with the business, that’s where they demonstrate their value. So really, what you’re doing in a marketing perspective is peeking people’s interest, it’s at that awareness stage, and it’s building enough trust or authority that people will go on to contact you. So then you can prove your value there.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, we’re understanding that where we are in the in the cycle of purchasing or the cycle of decision making. We’re really at their very first part where we’re going, oh, you know, it’s easy for me to keep going, it’s there is no hurdles or obstacles in the way I don’t have to think too much. It’s very simple and clear.

Lisa Greensill
That’s exactly right. Like this isn’t going to be hard. And it’s what we’re trying to do is get people to contact us. That’s the whole thing, because that’s the first part of you know, once you get an advisor on the phone, that’s where they’re going to engage with people at a more personal level. But this is trying to get them to take action to contact you.

Fraser Jack
Just trying to work out where we’re up to on the in the brand framework. So we’ve we’ve introduced ourselves as the guide, or sorry, the advisors have introduced themselves as the guide. And and you know, showing that empathy is shown that authority show them that they have a plan to get the the hero which is the client with the need to be what’s after that.

Lisa Greensill
So after that is we call them to action. So this goes back to and I keep bringing it back to the website, because I think that’s the easiest way to talk about it. And for people to visualize. Visualize, what we’re talking about is that so there’s two call to actions. There’s the direct call to action. So that’s the what’s the one thing you want, ultimately want people to do? And that’s that shedule a call book a Zoom meeting. If it’s a course that you’ve created, you know, it’s enrolling the course. But also some people might not be ready to do that. So they’re looking for a little bit more validation. So that’s where we introduce in storebrand talk the transitional called Action, which is like, you know, your lead generating PDF, like your, you know, the checklist or an e book around, you know, one advisor, which was he, he’s done a cash flow playbook, which talks about his signature of cash flow framework and teaches people about that. And it could be a quiz, or it’s just something that gets people a little bit closer to contacting you helps you build trust and authority. And it gives people some other binding, and helps you to still stay top of mind.

Fraser Jack
So the transitional call to action is just a one step closer.

Lisa Greensill
It is. So with that transitional call to action, the best way to do it is to have that transitional court action. So I like the ebook, the checklist, and then after that, a nurture email campaign so you can still stay in their inbox and continue to educate, build trust, like it’s not a it’s it’s really about trying to be familiar. Get, you know, get them to get to know you in a non salesy way to ultimately get them to take action and do that direct call to action, which would be scheduling a call?

Fraser Jack
Yeah, yeah, no, I like the non salesy way, point of view, just continually adding a little bit more value a little bit more value here and there and keeping people I think that no, like trust always comes in, you know, that can and that and that trust can be built over consistency of just delivering small, beneficial pieces, whether it be a podcast, or a newsletter, or something, something something ongoing.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, that’s right. Like anything like the webinars or podcasts or anything that helped that you’re using as your main, you know, way to establish your authority, that’s your way to get people on your list. So from a marketing perspective, you’re getting them on your email list. And just a note on that I generally like to, for people to give away their email address, it’s like them giving away $10. So it has to be valuable, like it’s no point being just something up there for the sake of it. I like to do things that advisors can actually use in their business. So things like checklists, things that they can use, also in their client experience. So then it’s got a double whammy. So like self evaluation tools, those type of things to help I just create a run with a client and it’s called a no regrets checklist because he does sort of head and heart financial planning and it helps people and helps you kind of show the breadth and depth of your services in a non salesy way, and helps people say where they need help in a non salesy way.

Fraser Jack
Well, mazing. Now, what’s the difference between the trends transitional call to action and more of a direct call to action?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, so the transitional one is the lead magnet, or that thing that people give their email address away for? and direct? Is that actually taking that step to booking your appointment? Or it might, you know, they might have contacted your office? That’s the direct call to action that is going to get you in front of them?

Fraser Jack
Yep. So should they have both of those options available? So somebody wants to go direct?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, sorry, at the very least the direct call to action. So if they’re, you know, an something that advisors can do straightaway, after listening to this podcast is go to their website and see, is it clear what the next step is, and you know, contact details are fine and everything like that. But taking control of your diary is something that is, you know, game changing for your business. So if you can get people to actually lock in times, that’s even better than them just calling your office and you know, randomly, but just make it really clear. What do we want? What action do we want you to take next?

Fraser Jack
Yeah, so there might be a, you might have a Calendly link or something to a book a 15 minute phone call on your website, then it goes directly into your diary?

Lisa Greensill
Absolutely. That look, that’s the absolute perfect, and that’s what I have on my website. And most of the advisors that I’ve worked with issue have on their websites,

Fraser Jack
because that might be that’s obviously the first step in the process. One, okay, so we’ve got the call to action, what after that,

Lisa Greensill
so then they work with you, and you do all your amazing stuff with them. You help them to build their plan, you give them clarity, give them direction. So what does that result in? It’s either going to so if they work with you, what is what does that look like? What does success look like? So you talk about then, you know what, what does life look like once you’ve worked with us? But then you also want to define so I’m doing I’m actually moving my hands here because I’m looking up to define success. And then down is like what terrible things could happen if you don’t work with us. So you know for a planner that works In the retirement space, it could be where you run out of money. You braid divorce, you know, you end up divorce, because you arguing about money, and it’s really getting down to the not trying to, and try to be as specific as possible in this way. This is why if you before you do this process, identify your dream clients, this is a whole lot more effective. Because the clearer and you can be and more specific you can be, the easier it’s going to be to connect with people through your marketing, because it’ll speak directly to them. And they’ll feel like they’re part of the story, it sort of draws them in, you know, when you go to a website and you feel and you go, Well, yeah, they get me, this is the perfect fit for me. So we want them to self identify as when they come to your website, you want them to self identify as your client, they get me I get them, this is gonna work.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, that’s a, it’s a, it’s a really great way of looking at self identify. I just want to go back to this, this outcomes based directional conversation where you’re saying, Okay, so there’s two directions, you maybe a fork in the road, or that sort of thing, we if you do work with us, you could end up like this. If you don’t work with us, you may end up like that. That’s the direction now that you need to take. Do you want to take the blue pill? The red pill? Do you want to take the the left fork or the right foot? These are these? This is where that this is where they end up?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, which door do you want to go through? So if you know if you it’s trying to create that picture as well, and you try not, you don’t really focus too much on the doom and gloom, but it’s it, you need to identify it there because people do need to and people are generally more reactive to do like doing things to avoid failure. People don’t want to fail at things. So they’ll generally do things to avoid failure even more than success.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, this is a wonderful motivational technique I see is like, you don’t want to you don’t want to be bankrupt. Oh, and you do want to be really well off. Okay, great. So it’s kind of like that the you don’t, and you do and, and some people will be motivated away from being in a negative position more. So even just to get them moving. And then and then eventually, you want them to be heading towards a positive. But sometimes people are influenced by the positive as well.

Lisa Greensill
That’s right. So that’s why you look at, you identify both and use that in your messaging. And it becomes really effective even when you’re going beyond what I do with clients. But if you’re going to write a blog post, you can write it just on a failure or just on a success. So you’ve got your framework done, you’ve got this kind of on a page. It’s the basics of your messaging. And then you can use that to create so many pieces of your marketing material beyond your website.

Fraser Jack
Yep. Now I really, really like to self identify as a client coming to I think it’s a very simple way to visualize it. Now, you mentioned before understanding your dream clients, and how do you go about that with people.

Lisa Greensill
So I’ve introduced a step in my process, it called the brand spark. So it’s a workshop I do with clients to find out as much as I can about their business, their why because I really, really like to understand their why. And it’s interesting, because quite a number of advisors that I’ve done this with this year come in a little like they come in, and they’re quite, I guess, disillusioned by the industry a bit kind of worn out by everything that’s happened. But once you go through, and you ask them then why. And I’ve kind of got goose bumps, because you just see their eyes light up. And it’s like, they remember why they got into this in the first place, and why they do it, and why they still work through all the challenges. But what I also do, and this is where they really get excited when really dig deep into their dream clients. So I usually get advisors to do three. And, and it’s not just broad. So usually they start off broad, or they’re between 40 and 60. I know, I want you to identify, and I want to be able to build a picture in my mind of an actual person. So I think who is your best client, if you could replicate them over and over and again, I want you to tell me about them. And so then we go through and we identify, you know, the demographics. And then we go through like the that sort of stuff. And then we go through and we talk about their personality traits. Then we go through and talk about the goals and aspirations not only as they relate to money, but just in life in general, because I just want to understand who are these people? And then what are the problems they’re trying to overcome. And generally on this I use and, and whiteboard, online whiteboard. And usually problems we have so many problems that I get so excited about because if they’ve got lots of problems, we’ve got lots to work with. And then we look at like I I basically look do the storebrand framework that I’m not they’re not aware of it, but I’m getting them to identify Okay, so what does success look like if they work with you? What does failure look like? What I’m trying to do here is get things in their words, because I understand financial advice so I I know Generally, but it’s so interesting because I’ve done this with so many advisors this year. And all they’re all of them are different. And so what that means is I can get their authentic words and the way they say things and the way they would be talking to their clients to then use that in their messaging strategy and on their websites. So it’s digging deep into those dream clients. And so then what you end up with is, I have a really clear picture, because then I you the way when you ever you create marketing or anything, you should write it to one person. So what I’m trying to do you same with those create this one person that we’re trying to speak to. So they feel like they’re part of the story.

Fraser Jack
I love, I love the one person avatar, give it give it a name, give it a yes. Now give it a personality. So you can absolutely relate to and I love the way you mentioned that when you’re working with advisors, you’re looking for their words, to provide that authenticity. When a client walks into the office, they they go, Ah, I recognize that from the language on the website.

Lisa Greensill
I’m glad you said that. Because it’s true. It’s no point having. I mean, you go to lots of devices, and I might look fancy and wonderful, the girl he’s moving things and they sound super corporate. And then they walk into the office and they’re not. They’re really like laid back and humble. And they’re the clerk, you’re on their language. And it’s it’s a mismatch. So what you’re going to feel like is when that person by the time that person takes that action to contact you. They feel like they already know you. And there’s no surprises.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, and you’re right. There are a lot of you mentioned the word corporate II there are a lot of corporately, I think a lot of people think that their website that professional sounding or the professional, you know, text is the way to go to start with and of course, that’s, that’s probably the worst thing they can do.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, I think you just need to be authentic, authentic, and it’s not even about and I think, and I used to get caught up on there. So I totally get it, you know, trying to use fancy words to look impressive. It’s not about that it’s actually being at, it’s actually being clear, just clear, because if you confuse you lose, and that’s just something we say like storebrand land, you just, it needs to just be clear, it doesn’t need to be cute or clever, like, people don’t have time to decipher cute and clever messages like it needs to just what do we do? How do we do it? How are you gonna make my wife better?

Fraser Jack
Yeah. Now the other thing is, too, is that I see that this is the length of the information that’s on there. Often there is just so much information on websites. And you know, they’re filled with long paragraphs of text ELLs about the amount of information a length of

Lisa Greensill
yes, that’s clutter. So I’m a minimalist, I’m a minimalist at home. So like you see my office, people come into my house and go into staff, but I can’t deal with clutter, it hurts my head. So it’s the same that goes for a website only have on there, the stuff that really speaks to clients break it up into sections, people scan your site. So a little tip is the story, you should be able to tell your story just with the headings, right? So because people, I mean, I pain over every single word of a financial advisors website, the chances of anyone other than them, and, you know, maybe a couple of months reading every single word are slim. But there will be people that are going to read bits and pieces of it. So it has to tell the story in sections. So the first step is make you know your headings, do your headings tell a story. So even like, instead of saying, what’s the next step, don’t waste that heading saying that make that like something else that’s more engaging, that tells your story, break it up into sections, use things like icons. I think another really important thing is to use images of yourself, your team. And I love some advisors website, and I don’t have any at the moment, but I know that there’s some of the x, y and y as a world that do that have client pictures. So you know, that’s even better. It’s your stock photos are fine. You know, make sure if you do use them that they’re not cheesy, and that they were thought out and that they are reflect the reflect the qualities that you’ve talked about with you in building your dream client profiles. But look, I I just think authentic photos, get rid of the clutter, lots of whitespace. And that doesn’t need if you want to like the thing is with the main pages of the website, you want to tell the story about your why and how and who. And then you can use your blog to demonstrate your authority as opposed to in the content pages of your website.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, nice. Wait, wait until they go looking for it. That’s right. I like the idea of treating it like a minimalist type scenario and less is more. Definitely. And I love the way you say don’t waste space. Don’t waste any space in the hitting with too many words.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, don’t like just try to say things with the least amount of words possible. It actually sounds easier. It’s actually harder than it sounds electronic say things, in the least amount of words can be quite tricky. I guess that’s why you get what made help. But

Fraser Jack
what’s the saying? Don’t? Sorry, sorry, it took so many words are a long paragraph to explain this, I didn’t have time to make it shorter.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, I was trying to think of that, that quote, if something like that, and it’s so true, because if you try to, it’s like, you can brand down easily and come up with lots of words. But then let’s try to make it as succinct as possible. It’s even just like going through and get someone else to look at what words could we take out. But the big tip is people scan websites. So make it easy for them to be drawn into the story even through like through things like the headings, and like broken up into sections. So you know, if we can break it up into you know, three steps, you know, if you’re talking about the value, like the website’s broken up story, beyond the story, brand seven part framework, they’ve got a website framework. And so, you know, with that, with the value proposition, break it up into three main values, which is sort of a success, the three, what’s the main, the three main successes?

Fraser Jack
And what are some of the mistakes you see advisors making?

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, so I guess, their websites are cluttered full of industry jargon, financial terms, and they speak to everybody, which basically means they speak to nobody so that it’s just written to a really broad audience. So you’ll, you know, had a brand spark with someone and going to their website, I thought they basically dealt with everyone turns out, they actually just dealt with retirees. So their website should, you know, and it will soon, because we’re working on it. But basically, yeah, that’s the main thing, they clotted, they’re not reflective, they’re not reflecting the business, there’s no images of the business, there’s this very, all these businesses are amazing. And then websites just don’t seem to reflect that. The other thing is, I see advisors waste money on random acts of marketing, or, you know, the latest shiny object. And it’s, it’s, trust me, I have major shiny object syndrome and have spent hours distracted, looking at the latest email tool or, you know, social media scheduler, or course platform. The thing is, and all that stuff is great. But you need to have the foundation in place. Because otherwise, what’s the point in driving traffic to your website, and you know, you see people I had a client come to me, and I’ve been spending money on Google ads, and social media marketing, it’s not working. So the reason is, is because when people were landing on their website, it wasn’t reflecting what they actually did, or who they actually were helping. So you need to get that right first need to get it’s the strategy. And I guess, it’s like advisors, they have a strategy behind help what they do for their clients. It’s the same with marketing, you need a strategy, you can’t manage your money without a strategy. It’s the same with marketing, you just can’t get success out of your marketing without the strategy and the foundation in place, which, you know, is if you look at it, the message strategy, and the website is really the center of the marketing Universe Today.

Fraser Jack
Center, the marketing universe, I love the random, random acts of marketing, too. I think I’m pretty guilty of that random acts of LinkedIn posting.

Lisa Greensill
Really, like it can work for people. But the experience that I’ve seen is that it doesn’t, it just means that they’re wasting money, they get really frustrated, and they’re not getting the results that they want.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. And resonate with the speak to one person, not to everybody. I think in the past, I was saying to me the other day that, you know, the location used to be the niche, you know, like we were in this location in the suburb, used to be the nation now with, with websites becoming the shopfront. It’s not about where you are, in necessarily, it’s about exactly the niche is more around the person, not the location.

Lisa Greensill
Correct. And I guess it’s the today with technology, it you don’t really have to be the local financial advisor, although even if you are and there’s still advisors that look, people still like to work with people that are local. So it’s but it’s still really important that your website reflects exactly what you do. So this advisor that I was working with, he is a local advisor just wants to work with local people, but he really wants to work with retirees. His website didn’t reflect that to how many people was he missing out on that? Went to the website and went well, they’re not really the right fit because they’re not actually they don’t actually specialize. So it’s just it really is the website whether you’re an online providing online advice or local advice. It’s still an online shop front that needs to reflect your business.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. Are there any other mistakes you see advisors? Me?

Lisa Greensill
I’d say the biggest one is the broad audience side of things is just speaking to a broad audience. And I guess it I guess I’m live and breathe every day, it seems obvious to me, but advisors a technical and they’re not really they understand the technical side of things in their business. But what happens is, I call it the curse of knowledge so that you’re so close to your business, that it makes it really hard to actually, in simple terms, say what you do. So this is kind of I talk about helping advisors overcome the curse of knowledge, because it’s kind of tapping all that brilliance out of their brain and then simplifying it, it’s actually really hard for you to do that yourself.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, it’s the same way as of advisors explaining a strategy or, or product to somebody in there. And they go into all the detail and completely lose people.

Lisa Greensill
Yeah, well, I mean, I guess I didn’t think of that. But they can use they could actually use a story brand framework to when they’re explaining advice, because at the end of the day, their advice is helping people solve a problem.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, there’s a, there’s a whole new episode we can get into. When you when you mentioned earlier that you’re a certified storebrand. Coach, what does that mean?

Lisa Greensill
So there’s, across the world, there’s a few 100 certified storebrand guides that we were we did intensive training with the team, the story brand team in the US. So I did it virtually, because it was during Coronavirus, and did that with Donald Rila. JJ Khullar. So if anyone knows about strobe and listening to this, they will know who those people are. So Donald Miller is the person that started storebrand. So we did intensive training to become certified. And we’ve got ongoing training resources, and we’re licensed to use the framework. So technically, other marketing people aren’t licensed use the framework, they certainly probably do use it because everyone, pretty much every marketing person I speak to is aware of storebrand. And so they use it with their clients, but they’re not licensed to use it to the level that I use it with clients.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. And, and so tell us a little bit about that how you work with financial advisors.

Lisa Greensill
Okay, so I mentioned the brand spark. So the brand Spark is the first part of my process. That’s the workshop, where we find out about their business, their dream clients, and I work out, you know, where we can position them. So the strategy and I provide them with the seven part framework for their marketing message that can stand a line, like people can just do the brand spark on its own. As part of that, I’ll also identify, you know, what are the next steps to take this message strategy, and bring it to life on your website through a traditional call to actions or lead magnet and nurture emails. And then I’ve got packages on my website as to where they might fall into. So then I basically bring their message to life through on their website, lead magnet, nurture email, so then they’ve got the foundation in place to for everything else they want to do in marketing going forward.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. And then that’s a process probably they’ve already got a website, which is just then updating the copy on it. Yeah. So

Lisa Greensill
that’s, I’ve got different services. So one of the services is if you’ve got an existing website, or you’ve got an existing web developer, then I can help you, you know, rejigged the wording on your website.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. So it’s kind of a more more like a not just a teaching, but a doing

Lisa Greensill
it differently execution as well, which is what? You know, I’ve got a client in Canada, and he said he’d worked with coaches before that they didn’t execute. So I execute. That’s my background. And I basically tried to take everything off the advisors plate and make it happen. And then what they end up with is, you know, a website, they’re proud of that works for them, not against them, which I think I mean, it’s hard to measure a website working against you. But if you look at your website, and think if someone’s referred to me and they land on this website, is it representing me the best way possible? And if it’s not, then it needs work, because it’s really it should be selling for you. 24/7?

Fraser Jack
Yeah, you’re pushing into a headwind, I guess if it’s not working for you. That’s right. So what how does your business evolve from here? Like, what? What are your plans for the future? Are you looking at growing or or are you still going to be

Lisa Greensill
I’m going to continue being predominantly me because I just want to work with a small number of clients on in on intensive projects. So I’m moving my projects. Now we’re going to be sort of an intensive model. So advisors We’ll get you know, my service or work with one client at a time. And so in a minor under a month, they’ll have all of this done. So, you know, we don’t go back and forth, I’m building some, you know, really efficient processes in the background in conjunction with another coaching course, I’m not the coach I’m working with. So the process is really efficient for advisors, I want to do more brand spots with advisors, whether they move on to projects, because I really believe that’s where they get aha moments. And it just gives them a lot of clarity around who they are, why they do, what they do, and the clients they want to work with. And I just, I did one yesterday, and it just I love it energizes me, I can see so much value in that process. I’ve got bigger plans for myself, in long term, you know, I’d like to, you know, for more people to advisors across the globe to recognize how storebrand can help them. Because it really, it is sort of the secret sauce. I think for advisors, it works for any industry. But I just think for these industries where there’s so much knowledge in their brains, it really helps to overcome that and simplify their message. Because money, if you look at really what they do like money, there’s very few things in our life that control what we do, then money. So money is so emotional. And if more advisors in the world can help people get control of their money, then I think that I know there would be less stress, less divorce. It’s like a bigger thing, then, you know, just their website, like what they do is they make incredible difference to people’s lives because it all comes back to money regardless of retirement planners, online, your planners, if people can have control of their money, have direction and clarity, it honestly changes their life.

Fraser Jack
Yeah, well said. Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. How can people get hold of you if they wanted to continue the conversation?

Lisa Greensill
So you can jump online to Lisa greenfield.com? And should book a zoom chat? So and then from there we can I’m taking bookings for brand spots for next year.

Fraser Jack
Wonderful. And what those brain brand sparks or call it what I was gonna say brain Spark, the brand spark? Is that is that individual or you doing group sessions?

Lisa Greensill
At the moment? They’re just individual, but that is a really good question that is may come up, maybe something I look at doing in the future, but at the moment, they are individual. And I mostly work with financial planners with one to three planners just because I believe but it’s it’s, it just seems to be where they need things to be need of most help. And I find it’s, you can build a really authentic voice for practice of that size.

Fraser Jack
Yeah. Fantastic. Lisa, thanks so much for coming on the podcast and giving us a great little lesson in what we can be doing with our websites. And I really hope some people reach out to you and take this a bit further. I’d love to see that majority. There’s plenty of websites out there that from financial advisors that you look at, and they’re all in corporate speak. And they as we sort of mentioned before they creating headwinds for advisors to just by by being there. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Lisa Greensill
Thanks for Thanks for the opportunity to chat.