You can't take new things and give them to the majority...
duh
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Ok, let me remember what I said last time:
One email per week - check
Don’t mention any specific solutions until Feb. 20th - sorta check
Focus on solving lead gen - let’s do it!
How to Create Change | Simon Sinek
Today’s post was inspired by this video, I’ll put the video at the bottom if you’re interested in watching.
Here’s the gist:
When marketing your services, focus on early adopters within your niche.
In the video, Simon explains that 90% of new businesses fail because they don’t reach the 15% of market tipping point, they might get to 5 or 10% but don’t quite make it far enough to survive.
To be honest, I hadn’t thought about niches and lead gen for financial advisors quite like this before.
A new advisor or an advisor that’s plateaued and looking to grow… needs to:
Niche down
Focus on the “early adopters” within that niche
Become a specialized expert in solving their problems
Create content that demonstrates that expertise
You can refer back to my last post about how to filter for a good niche for you.
But here I want to think about finding the “early adopters” within your selected niche.
I think this is a good time to ask ChatGPT:
What are some ways to identify early adopters within a financial advisor's niche? Imagine you're a "go-to-market" guru, what types of characteristics or specific filters would you use to find early adopters?
AI output (you can skip over this and go to my summary if you’d like):
To identify early adopters within a financial advisor’s niche, I’d take a structured "go-to-market" (GTM) approach, using a combination of psychographics, demographics, behavioral traits, and platform-specific signals. Here’s how I’d break it down:
1. Psychographic & Behavioral Traits
High Agency Individuals – People who take control of their financial decisions, seek out new tools/resources, and enjoy being ahead of the curve.
Tech-Savvy & Data-Driven – More likely to experiment with new software, robo-advisors, AI-powered planning, and alternative investment platforms.
Status-Seeking & Influential – Early adopters often enjoy sharing their experiences, whether on LinkedIn, Twitter, or niche forums like Bogleheads or tech Slack groups.
DIYers Who Hit a Wall – Those who have managed their own finances but realize they need professional help as their situation becomes more complex.
Risk-Tolerant – Open to new investment strategies or novel planning frameworks.
2. Demographic & Professional Filters
Industry-Specific – If focusing on tech professionals, target senior engineers, product managers, or startup founders who follow financial trends.
Career Stage – Mid-career (ages 30-45) professionals who are hitting major financial milestones (equity compensation, business exits, etc.).
Income & Assets – Early adopters often have disposable income and are looking for sophisticated strategies.
Company Type – Employees at disruptive or high-growth companies (e.g., OpenAI, Nvidia, Stripe) tend to be early adopters of financial planning services.
3. Platform & Engagement Filters
LinkedIn Activity – People engaging with thought leaders in financial planning, AI, or personal finance.
Twitter & FinTech Community – Those discussing financial trends, FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), or new investing strategies.
Subreddits & Online Communities – Active in /r/financialindependence, /r/FIRE, or private fintech Slack groups.
Event Attendees – People attending industry events, fintech webinars, or startup finance meetups.
4. Inbound Signals
Content Consumption – Those reading blog posts, newsletters, or podcasts on equity comp, tax optimization, and financial planning for tech pros.
Referral & Word-of-Mouth – People who were recommended by existing clients who are also early adopters.
Beta Product Users – If an advisor offers a freemium financial tool, the users engaging early with premium features could be potential early adopters.
Would you want a specific playbook on how to target these early adopters in your niche?
Human output:
🔥 I think generally, my summary is that early adopters are solution-seekers.
They’re more actively doing just about everything - they probably read more, take more courses, watch more how-to videos, are more active on LinkedIn… which is great, because I also think generally — more active people are more successful.
So if you pick a generic niche like ER doctors, the early adopters among ER doctors will be the ones more actively reading blogs, posting on LinkedIn, Google-searching specific solutions, etc.
They take control of their future, they’re tech-savvy, they are status-seekers, they’re more risk-tolerant (willing to try new things).
A possible Con to all this is that they probably lean towards DIY, but as they achieve more success, they’ll outsource more and more.
But a Pro is that they’ll probably appreciate your “new, better” tech stack. They’ll appreciate that you’re using Altruist and not Schwab or Fidelity. They’ll appreciate that you’re using the latest and greatest tax planning software.
I think:
Early adopters are more likely to be readers and watchers of content that will help them grow, versus just entertain them.
Back to the adoption curve above, the late majority and laggards are not going to be thinking about how to improve their financial situation, they’re going to be waiting for solutions to come to them… which will take quite a while because they’re not seeking or reading or doing much to find those solutions.
I think all this is great for advisors looking to grow, because naturally… when you start putting your message out, the first people to hear it will most likely be… the early adopters.
But… these early adopters are also probably a lot better at seeing which advisors are focused, can help them… are experts. They may take a risk on a younger or less experienced advisor, but they will be looking for new, cool, better ways to solve their financial problems.
They’re savvy - they’ll know if you’re being lazy and using AI to write your content… but they might also appreciate if you’re using AI intelligently.
Early adopters are consumers of content that will help them grow, and solve their pain points.
Ok, let’s return to my list above:
Focus on the “early adopters” within that niche (this post)
Become a specialized expert in solving their problems
Create content that demonstrates that expertise
On to point 3, if you want to succeed, you yourself need to become an early adopter in finding ways to help your niche. The best content, the best courses, the best advisortech… Become an early adopter yourself.
If you’re reading this sentence right here, GOOD NEWS! You are an early adopter.
Ok, last point:
Create content that demonstrates your expertise
I already started drafting an outline for a book on lead gen for advisors, here are the content ideas I have in order of difficulty:
LinkedIn
Substack
Skool
Book
YouTube
Easiest to hardest:
1️⃣ Start with LinkedIn, start by posting regularly, learn to generate ideas, put them into sentences… how to write good comments, how to get engagement.
This is what the Supergrow for Financial Advisors community is all about. Or take Justin Welsh’s LinkedIn OS course.
2️⃣ Start an email newsletter - I recommend Substack, like this one you’re reading. Substack is free, its easy to use, you can do text posts, video posts, podcasts, live video… Take the concepts you’re learning by LinkedIn posting and turn them into longer-form content.
3️⃣ Start a free Skool community for your niche. Curate books, podcasts, videos, content, create mini-courses… for the early adopters in your niche.
4️⃣ Now you’re in the big leagues… write a book! I’m learning first-hand just how powerful this is, for basically $4, you can put an undeniable example of your expertise into your prospect’s hands. And its really not at all as hard to do as you might think, especially if you’re following these steps and writing regularly already. Probably in my next post I’ll explain exactly how I’m going about it. It’s also not that expensive.
5️⃣ Start a YouTube. I think this is the hardest - to regularly put out video content. Some may jump right to this and do well, but I think most people will need to work up to it. Putting out expert video content for your niche.
Oh, and by the way, I think this process works for more than just financial advisors. If you’re an advisortech founder, a consultant, or some other related business, you can follow a similar path.
TAKE ACTION: Think about where you are on the journey of selecting a niche, identifying who the people are in that niche, identifying the problems they have, identifying the latest and greatest ways to solve those problems, becoming an expert… and while you’re doing all that, figure out where you are on the content journey.
I’m on step 4: www.AdvisorTechBook.com And learning and making mistakes and trying all over again, each and every day.
Until next time,
Joe