Client Retention Strategies Through Rare Experiences

SUMMARY

In this episode of The Rare Advisor, Aaron Grady welcomes back Steve Phillips, Chief Practice Management Officer at USA Financial, for a deep dive into the concept of the Ideal Client Event. Aaron frames the conversation around the ongoing challenge advisors face when building their ideal practice—specifically, how to identify, honor, and replicate their very best clients. He sets the stage by distinguishing organic growth, achieved through advocacy and introductions, from traditional marketing and seminar-based growth. Advisors often ask: how do I drive advocacy inside my practice, and what are the best ways to do it? This leads to the heart of the discussion—using the Ideal Client Event as a powerful tool to celebrate, connect with, and inspire an advisor’s most valued relationships.

Steve shares the origin of the Ideal Client Event, tracing it back to 2016 when he first developed the idea within the early days of Protocol. The concept grew out of a focus on client classification and the realization that only a small fraction of households—often 5% or less—could be considered true advocates. This sparked the question: what would happen if we gathered those advocates together, in an exclusive setting, with messaging tailored specifically to them? Over the years, the model evolved into what is now known as the Ideal Client Event, a distinct experience that emphasizes advocacy, exclusivity, and celebration. Steve emphasizes that this is not a traditional client appreciation event and not a “bring a friend” gathering. Instead, it is designed solely for a select group of identified ideal clients, with the purpose of deepening relationships and inspiring advocacy.

Aaron and Steve spend time unpacking the “what” and “why” of the event. It is not simply a dinner or reception—it is an intentional experience that creates a sense of community among the advisor’s most valued clients. The exclusivity is key; rather than a large, generic event with dozens or hundreds of attendees, the Ideal Client Event usually involves a small group of 15 to 25 people. Clients look around the room and realize they are part of a select group, which reinforces the value they bring to the firm. Aaron notes that this helps solve a problem many advisors encounter: conveying to clients how important they are to the practice. While it can feel awkward or forced in a one-on-one meeting to lavish praise on an individual client, in a group setting it becomes natural and powerful. Clients recognize that they are part of something unique, and they begin to associate with others who share the same respect, trust, and appreciation for the advisor.

The conversation then turns to the ultimate purpose—the “why.” Steve explains that Ideal Client Events are about more than appreciation; they are about advocacy. Advocates are different from simply “good clients.” They are the ones who naturally promote the advisor’s work, wave the flag for the firm, and willingly make introductions. These clients are rare, but they have a multiplier effect when properly engaged. By honoring advocates in a special way, advisors reinforce the qualities that make them ideal and encourage them to replicate themselves by introducing others. Steve uses a rhetorical example: what is one of your best clients worth to you? If that client duplicates themselves just once as a result of the event, the return on investment is more than justified. Aaron adds that the act of celebrating relationships in a tangible, elegant way—through a dinner or polished gathering—creates top-of-mind awareness and a deeper bond that cannot be achieved through cards, gifts, or generic touchpoints alone.

Another key element discussed is how to define who qualifies as an ideal client. Steve and Aaron distinguish between advocates, or AAA clients, and aligned but not-yet-advocating AA clients. Both groups belong at the event because the difference between them is often just awareness and communication. Many aligned clients simply don’t know how to make introductions, and when the advisor shares the right message, those clients begin to act like advocates. Aaron emphasizes that advisors who haven’t formally classified their clients can start simply by identifying the top clients they would love to replicate. The point is to create a circle of excellence and build community among those clients, which naturally encourages advocacy.

From there, the conversation shifts to the “how” of executing an Ideal Client Event. While there are different formats—casual receptions, happy hours, even unique experiential events like chef’s tables or river cruises—Steve stresses that the very first event must be highly intentional and elegant. Most often, this takes the form of a formal dinner with a carefully designed invitation, often styled like a wedding invitation to convey exclusivity. The advisor’s message during the event is not about markets, products, or business updates. Instead, it is focused on celebrating the clients and articulating what makes them ideal. Steve describes how a brochure or handout, created as part of the advisor’s brand, helps communicate these attributes in writing. This is not a list of asset minimums or revenue thresholds, but instead a set of character traits and values that define the advisor’s best relationships—qualities like gratitude, purpose, and humility. When clients read these descriptions and realize they are being honored not for their money but for their character, the message resonates deeply. This written reinforcement sets the advisor apart from competitors who may also have “favorite clients” but have never formalized or communicated what makes them so.

Aaron and Steve highlight several best practices. The advisor’s remarks during the event should be short—often no more than 20 minutes—and focused entirely on celebration. The use of the “shoot your trailer” approach, which communicates the advisor’s philosophy and process in a personal, story-driven way, can be especially effective when paired with the Ideal Client brochure. The event should not feel like a sales pitch, and there should be no bait-and-switch with products or services. Instead, it is about gratitude, exclusivity, and elevating the client experience. Over time, once the foundational event has been hosted, advisors may expand into more experiential formats, but the first event must set the tone by clearly articulating the message of advocacy.

Steve points out another important outcome of Ideal Client Events: they help competitor-proof a practice. When clients are explicitly told that they are valued and recognized as ideal, and when that recognition is written down and reinforced through consistent events, it creates loyalty that cannot be easily disrupted by competitors offering lower fees or different products. The message becomes part of the client’s identity, and they are far less likely to leave for another advisor. Aaron adds that consistency is crucial. Just as you wouldn’t tell your family you love them only once, advisors cannot host a single event and then move on. Advocacy must be reinforced over time. Year after year, the group may grow as more clients are elevated into the “ideal” category, but the core message should remain consistent.

The episode closes with Aaron and Steve emphasizing that advocacy is not automatic—it must be earned and nurtured. Advisors invest heavily in inorganic growth strategies like seminars and marketing campaigns, but they should not overlook the organic growth that comes from empowering their best clients to advocate on their behalf. Hosting an Ideal Client Event is one of the most effective ways to create community, celebrate relationships, and inspire introductions. For advisors interested in implementing this strategy, Aaron and Steve mention the availability of a best practices checklist that covers details like invitations, name tags, and handouts. Ultimately, the message is simple: when the why is clear, the how becomes easy. Advisors who understand the purpose of Ideal Client Events will find that the logistics fall into place, and the results—stronger relationships, increased advocacy, and sustainable growth—speak for themselves.

TRANSCRIPT

Aaron Grady, Advisor Consulting Director at USA Financial - Welcome back to another edition of the Rare Advisor. I'm your host, Aaron Grady, and with me again today is Steve Phillips, the Chief Practice Management Officer for USA Financial. Steve, it's always pleasure to have you. Thank you for joining me again today.

Steve Phillips - Brother man, I am so excited that I just keep getting invited to come back. So it's another good day. Thank you very much. True.

Aaron Grady - You haven't gotten banned yet. So the reason I asked you to come back today is not too long ago, you and I had a conversation and actually we did a rare video talking about ideal practice and the idea of building an ideal practice. And the idea around ideal practice started with a more deeper seated concept of ideal client. And through that conversation, we touched on a few things, but we really didn't dig too deep. There's an element of running an ideal practice of ideally where do my clients come from? ultimately, how can I, a best practice would be as if I could grow organically. And we talk about organically, that's through introductions, referrals, word of mouth from my clients. And so the question always comes from advisors is how do I do that? What are some of the best practices? And so today I wanted to have a conversation with you around a topic that I know is near and to your heart, an idea around what we call the ideal client event. And how can that be used inside of a practice to help nurture relationships, but even more so to help continue to grow organic growth and drive advocacy inside of a practice. And so with that, I'll kind of toss the ball to you. let's talk about set. So let's talk about what is an ideal client event.

Steve Phillips - Well, it's a great place to start and it's something that just by the title really gives you an idea of what it is. And, you know, this is something that's been near and dear to my heart. I actually sort of put the very first Ideal Client event together in 2016, which was right after Protocol was born and before we all really got rolling together. And it took a while to develop it, but it's the concept of it. It's really an offshoot of one of the most important components of our coaching approach. And that is identifying ideal clients and we talked about client classification and all the things that are important there. But then the idea of how do I honor them? How do I share with them who they really are? What makes them ideal? And so early on we had this and we recognized also that most advisors, think that we were, you know, we're in an event we ask, you know, how many households do you have? You break it down, customers, clients, advocates. And we were finding that most advisors would agree that 5 % of their household total or less, 10%, 5 % were actually advocates, which really kind of elevated this idea, what if we got them together? It's a small group. It's an exclusive group. What if the message was different? What if it was pointed right at them as very philosophical, very emotional, all this type of thing? And that the early days when I was kind of sneaking in to see how this was going, it really resonated. Over the years what we've done is really focused on the communication to these special clients in this special event really matters. And as you know, it's evolved quite a bit. And then of course there's follow up and so forth of what you do with the clients. But the event is an event for ideal clients.

Aaron Grady - So it's an opportunity. if I was thinking about what is the what, what is this thing? So it's a special event that's not a, it's different than a client appreciation event. This is something different, something special, but it's for a very select group of.

Steve Phillips - Yes. It is and I'm glad you mentioned that it's not an appreciation event in the old sense where we get our clients together and thank them for the business the relationship and so forth. It's very much more focused. The other thing that we found it's not a bring a friend. There are a lot of in the early days of course if you know this we've had ideal clients went I'm an ideal client I'm a friend I want to bring them your friend is not yet an ideal client and of course that's part of our coaching getting into that at a different time but it's your identified ideal clients. And of course, if we've just started working with an advisor or team, it's possible, likely, probably, that they don't really know exactly who is an ideal client if they've not spent the time to do the work on assets, attitude, advocacy, those types of things that we talk about. So it's really very exclusive. And we found over the years that the exclusivity, the feel of looking around the room and going, there's not 50 people here. There's not 30, there's 20 people here, really leaves a mark.

Aaron Grady - So let's take a step back. So we've identified the what. It's an event. It's an opportunity to get your best clients together in a room or a space. And we'll talk more about these particulars and best practices around what happens out here in a minute. But for people that are watching this video and kind of going, what is this? OK, it's an event. But why?

Steve Phillips - Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - Why do I care? What is the ultimate purpose of doing? Look, I could have guys saying, do appreciation events, or I do a summer barbecue, and all my clients show up. What's so special about this? What's the why? Why would I do this?

Steve Phillips - Yeah, and so this is something where you and I can kind of tag team with this a little bit. My answer to that is it's the focus on advocacy. And when you think of the word advocate, it's even better than your best clients. These are the people that wave the flag without, in the early days, without knowing how to do it. These are the people that fit all the categories and they are rare. And the whole what makes it, I know we say an event, but there's, we will talk about this in a moment, whether it's a dinner or whatever it might be, is that we want to, and this is where it really gets key, and I know we're going to get into this in a minute, is that it's your advocates. It's a conversation about advocacy. And these people are actually different than what you might call some of our best clients. This is a whole other level to the point where the messaging is very specific there  about what it takes to be an advocate, that we've recognized this. This is something we've been thinking about as a team for years. And we also, as you know, this is a celebration. Now, I think that's different. I think appreciation events are awesome. Everybody has a great time and so forth. Bring a friend, that's great. All the different types of events we can host. This is a celebration of the very best. And so when you say what, event to honor advocacy. Why? Because advocacy is really what carries a practice into the future and you use the word a minute ago organic introductions best clients duplicating themselves advocates duplicating themselves this event goes a long way to making that happen.

Aaron Grady - I think also for advisors saying, why am going to spend the money on doing this? Why would I want to invest the time, energy, resources involved in my team to do this? I think also in the why is there's purpose in celebrating those relationships. I also think it's, we talk all the time about a big part of

Steve Phillips - Yeah.

Aaron Grady - Advocacy is top of mind awareness and you can do top of mind awareness through, you know, cards and phone calls and lots of different things. But there's something special to be said about hosting an event, spending real tangible resources on something where you get your best clients in a room and there's not 500 people. And you're able to share a message with them that helps them understand

Steve Phillips - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - How important they are to the firm. mean, you and I, we'll talk about the best practices here in a minute, but you and I have had this conversation with numerous advisors that, know, hoping a person understands how important they are to you and the firm sometimes is awkward. Sometimes it's hard to convey that message in a one-on-one setting because you just feel like you're, it almost sounds like it's not real because you're lavishing all this attention on someone. But when you're doing it in group setting and they can look around say, hey, this is pretty exclusive.

Steve Phillips - Yeah. And they do look around. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - And the other thing too is it creates a moment in time where you can share this and get them together and allow them to create a sense of community with other people who already know, like, and trust you. Because the worst thing I would say, Steve, the worst thing that happen is your best clients, you leave them to just hope that they get the sense that they're your best clients.

Steve Phillips - No question. Those, that's such a key point. You said three really, really important things there. Why would I spend the money? I say this all the time. Aaron, you're an advisor. This is what I say to advisors that say that to me. Aaron, think of your very best client. The amount of money that you're managing, the annuities, insurance, products that maybe you've sold. What's that client worth to you? Don't say it out loud. This is a rhetorical question. Think about that client. If that client duplicates themselves one time this year, is it worth the money that you spent on the event? We have a long history now of understanding that multiple of your ideal clients will immediately start to introduce after the event. That was number one. The other thing about cards and gifts and phone calls, and this is part of them, you know what? I'm pretty sure that every advisor in the community where our advisors are putting on these events probably have favorite clients, probably have best clients, probably send cards and do all that kind of thing. This is not that. This is where we've actually defined in words and philosophical and emotional attributes what makes you ideal and we're going to share that with you. It's a whole different, yeah, you know what? The guy down the street that's competing with you, he's got best clients. I he hasn't written it down, what makes them so and shares it with them. So those things really, and people are aware. your clients get a room and go wow you know there's like 18 20 21 people here and look at this i mean it is a different it is a different feel it's for different people we communicate it differently and it generates a different result so I'm glad i don't get carried away about this Aaron and then i just.

Aaron Grady - So, I mean, so ultimately the why, you know, is it gives you an opportunity to create sense of community, to drive advocacy, to create top of mind awareness, and to help your best clients truly understand in a more natural setting how important they are to the firm. And I mean, sharing that with your best clients, I mean, that's...

Steve Phillips - Yeah. You know, the thing that you said too was, yeah, the whole idea of one-on-one, I understand what you're saying there. There's a bit of humility on the part of the advisor to, and we help with the, there's an ideal client brochure that's handed out at the event where it's actually written down and you and your team have done some work here. So your point earlier about, I get that it could be a little bit awkward one-on-one.

Aaron Grady - It goes a long way.

Steve Phillips - and that I have this group of, it's sort of the community of like-minded people. And so I feel differently about sharing that. And it wasn't just one person that we feel strongly about. It was this group that we recognized was just unique for a very specific set of reasons or attributes. So it's, and the few times that I have been lucky enough to actually sit in and watch what happens, every single time. It leaves a dramatic mark.

Aaron Grady - So let's talk about the other two elements, the who and the how. We'll talk about the how, we'll talk about some best practices, but let's talk about the who. We've alluded to, or we inferred, or implied, I should probably say, to other people to infer, who is, or what are ideal clients? Now, in the Pareto methodology, sometimes the ideal client gets focused as narrow as it's your advocates.

Steve Phillips - Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - These are clients that are aligned with a firm, they have the right attitude and qualities, and they're out there advocating. So we would call them AAAs. And you and I have had this conversation. I would expand that concept to the next layer down, which would be your AA clients, which have the right alignment with a firm, assets, revenue. They hit the right threshold to be in that group, this elite group of clients, and they have the right attitude and qualities. Because really, truly,

Steve Phillips - Now, yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - The only difference between those two groups is one's out there waving the flag and the other one's not. And so why wouldn't you want them, I mean, because quite frankly, we've had this conversation a lot with advisors. If you had nothing but a client base full of clients that have the right assets and revenue and you love working with them, maybe they're not waving the flag. Well, we can work on that part. So speak a little bit about

Steve Phillips - Right, yeah. Yes. You know, when you first suggested that, I know that you and I disagreed a little bit. I think that you were right about that. The double A's are advocates. And here's the thing about it that we find often, it's not that they don't want to introduce, they really didn't know how. And so when you had made that point clear, it was obvious, it became super valuable to our advisors that were hosting these events, that these two groups really are one and that, you know, when we start communicating, how and to your point the why then we got more results that.

Aaron Grady - And you hit the nail on the head. These are the people that, so we can say double A's, we can say triple A's. Ultimately, what it is is these are clients that you want to replicate.

Steve Phillips - That's correct. That's it. Boil it right down. That's exactly right.

Aaron Grady - Yeah. And so if let's say someone is watching this video and they're like, hey, well, I haven't done the classification. I haven't defined who's an advocate. You could easily just say, who are my top clients that I would love to replicate? If I wanted to host an event like this, that's the simplest form of how you could draw a circle around them. So let's talk about the how. Let's talk about some best practice around this. Now, would you say in

Steve Phillips - Yeah, good.

Aaron Grady - You mentioned a couple of things. So could you do these as dinners? Could you do these as receptions or happy hours? What kind of event are we talking about?

Steve Phillips - I originally started the idea of the ideal client reception. You remember in the early days that we did that and I liked the idea. It was casual. liked that. And skilled advisors would be able to communicate the message to a room of people that were kind of having a happy hour. That evolved into dinners, which as you also know, I wasn't in favor of in the beginning, but it makes sense to me that there is, there's a sort of a different kind of vibe when everybody's in the room together. Not that it's quiet. But it gives the advisor a couple of moments to really communicate and reach the people about why we're there together. We still have advisors that'll do reception type things, that's great. We have people that do dinners a lot now. We've had advisors that I think we didn't really do kind of a bus tour of an ideal client of sorts. And you could do that type of thing. But I think that the very first one has to be super focused. Super intentional because if you're communicating to the bit to this group the very first time what makes them so I think it's important to have Kind of a captive audience for lack of a better description And here's the thing that I'm probably going to lead me to this it was really this is one of my favorite things to coach to and The Pareto had Pareto had laid it out the significance of an ideal client, but they didn't have a piece or brochure. So we actually we actually created a brochure, a handout, if you like the word brochure or handout, that speaks to the brand that we do for our advisors, their process, and right on the facing page, page three, you open it up, there's a description. It talks about we don't want to be all things to all people and the foundation of the things that we coach. But we talk about attributes. What makes an ideal client an ideal client? It's not like half a million dollars of assets or more never comes up. In fact, the advisor communicates that our best clients we don't identify by investments alone. It's by character and qualities and oftentimes the advisor will say our best clients turn out to be people just like us. They have gratitude for today and aspiration for tomorrow. They have a sense of purpose in their lives. They don't take themselves too seriously. There are all kinds of things that advisors use and we guide them through that to define in a meaningful way who this group is and what I can tell you without really getting lost on this track is When I sat in and even when we're not sitting and you and I hear it a lot When people read about themselves that you've said forget the money We believe you're these kinds of people and we're gratified by the relationship that Resonates you can see it on people you can hear their reactions the introductions that they make You know, the whole idea is if you're going to duplicate, you said a duplicating best clients. Well, I'm not asking you to ask your friends about money. You're this kind of person, respectful, gracious, whatever. Probably, likely, you associate with people that are like you. When you're thinking, I'm an ideal client. My friend Aaron, same kind of person as me. Maybe he's an ideal client. I should make an introduction. And it's probably the most focused. Coaching that we do because you can't get it wrong. It has to be believed in your bones. You've done the work to define this and when you communicate it, it sticks. So I'm way ahead of you because you were going to ask, don't like, can you give something out at the event? You're going to talk about the brochure and hand it out.

Aaron Grady - Yeah, so, but I love the idea as, and actually I want to talk about two things. want to talk about, so if we talk about best practices, are there any, are you handing stuff out? Is this, is this show and tell? Is there a presentation? Is there a PowerPoint? You know, let's talk about the nuts and bolts. I do love the concept though of the ideal client brochure because there's elements of this conversation. Sometimes it is a little hard for an advisor to share.

Steve Phillips - Okay then.

Aaron Grady - Let me bullet out all the things that I love about my best clients, this, this, this, and this. But putting it down on paper in a beautiful handout, allow people to read it for themselves and internalize it is, plus that, yes.

Steve Phillips - Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. It makes those things tangible. can't just say everybody says, you know, we love you and you're our best client and you're our favorite. You wrote it down, man. And so to your point, this was something and the collaboration with you over the last many years about how to really perfect this has been helpful because early on, I don't know how I felt about handing things out or how we would hand them out. The brochure is obviously necessary. The other piece I think

Aaron Grady - Nice platitude. Yeah.

Steve Phillips - That resonates is shoot your trailer. That's it. And there we have advisors that are very skilled at holding up the brochure and mentioning a couple things, asking their clients pull this out. I'm going to mention a few things in here. We also, if an advisor prefers to do a PowerPoint, we have the brochure on the PowerPoint where they can kind of reference it to their clients. But we definitely stress this is not a presentation in the truest sense. This is not an educational event. These are reference points. And as we, you you and I have talked about, I think the longest presentation ever was about 21 minutes. A focus on celebration. You're here. We are really grateful. It's wonderful. We've been thinking about this for years. Look around the room. These are the people that mean the most to our practice. Thank you for being part of that. We wrote it down. Let's talk about this for a moment. Shoot your trailer is super important and it's not likely, I'm sure it's happened, that your best clients have seen your process and your pillars and so forth.

Aaron Grady - And for people who aren't familiar with shoot your trailer, it's a, you would, as we would describe it, it's a way of sharing your philosophy, your process, how you approach the financial planning around a personal client experience, personal relationship. And it's just a defined way of sharing that. The differentiated.

Steve Phillips - Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah. Let me just throw the terms out there and don't mean anything to miss. But it is, it's a, it's really just a, it's a fold over and it's a very, very powerful piece. And what we're communicating there is this is why we developed and refined our process for our very best clients. Elevating the client experience. Everything that we do for you over the life of a relationship lives here. You've seen it before. But we want to really imprint that idea on you that this is why we are in business. This is what matters. This group is what we're about. And there are two pieces here that communicate that. So it's really not, and we, as you know, if you go, you know, 20 minutes sounds like a long time, but it's not. You and I know that. That's when we do this every single time. But it's not. Hey, let's review the markets real quick and how do we see the future or any of that? There is no business. We speak to that specifically and clients recognize that. This is really different. We didn't start with some nice feeling words at a cool brochure and then we got back to business. There is no business.

Aaron Grady - So let's talk about that a bit as we talk about best practices. So what I've seen advisors and what we coach to with regards to the ideal client event is that this first one, if you've never done an ideal client event before, it is imperative that this very first one is what we're describing here. It is an elegant event, typically a dinner where you could do the reception. We believe that it should be a formal dinner. And the invitation should be, and we don't have to get into the weeds with all the nuts and bolts of the details of it, but there should be a very polished invitation that looks like the wedding style with the foil lined up. Like think about if you got an invitation to go to the Oscars. The whole point is you're imprinting a message to your very best clients how important they are to you and that this,

Steve Phillips -
I think the dinner is appropriate, yeah. Yeah. That's right.

Aaron Grady - Is not a bait and switch that, come here and I want to tell you about my new money manager. I want to talk to you about the new insurance product that now I'm going to pitch to you while you're here having a rubber chicken dinner. This is really about celebrating the unique and special relationship.

Steve Phillips - Yeah, right, right. That's the word, celebrating. Yes, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. And you know, when our brand and marketing team helps with the best practices, the Save the Date says, an ideal evening. The invite is ideal. This is a theme where it's communicated from the very first thought, phone calls, invitations, everything. And that's something that we know, consistency. Yes, very exclusive. And the consistency of the idea all the way through to the presentation.

Aaron Grady - Exclusive, exclusive event.

Steve Phillips - So, and obviously now that the numbers that we've been privileged to help advisors put on, the results speak for themselves.

Aaron Grady - Now, what I've also seen is once advisors have done this very first Keystone event and they've launched the very first one that then they may start looking to, let's make this more experiential, but we're still building community because they're looking forward to it. Do it once or twice a year where your best clients are starting to build a sense of community with the other best clients.

Steve Phillips - Yes. Great word for it.

Aaron Grady - This is the point of bringing those double A's in to rub shoulders with the triple A's, the advocate clients, because they share stories and messages and they start introducing others. They start playing golf together. But now you can start doing events like maybe it's a chef's table or maybe it's a riverboat cruise, or maybe it's a, there's any number of experiential type things you can do. And then, but you, have to set the tone. You have to imprint initially.

Steve Phillips - Yeah. Yeah. Yes, for sure. that is, I mean, it's, we probably spend more energy collectively as a coaching team on this to make sure that, and I don't want to say if you don't get it right the first, it's not the end of the world, but it's really, it's very significant in what this brings to the practice. And the other thing we've talked about is competitor proofing your best clients. And if you like to use a build a moat around the castle there. And what I've got a piece in my hand that says I'm a special person, not a favorite or it's written down. So the, I think the outcomes from doing an event like this properly are significant. Now we know that your best clients will actually start to duplicate themselves on a regular basis after this, that there's not anybody else in town that can take them away because their fees are a bit lower or whatever we hear competitors talking.  You're an ideal client here. You're valued. We've written it down. We honor that. And then you and I laugh all the time about the advisors will say, you I did it. I did one. it's what I think we said. I said, really? So do you tell your family that you love them like once and they know it and we're good. We don't have to revisit it. It's just crazy. And then the idea that year over year, what's the goal? That the group might actually be bigger.  And so, yeah, but that's just part of, I think, the uniqueness of the event.

Aaron Grady - And I think you were answering one of the questions I was going to prompt you with was that message, that message standing up in that very first meeting where you're telling your best clients how important they are to the firm and how they are ideal and you're defining what it means to be ideal. It's not a one and done conversation. The question, you mentioned, hey, I've done one, so I've checked the box. It's off to the next thing.

Steve Phillips - Yeah. Yeah.

Aaron Grady - And I love that whole, you don't tell your family, you only tell them you love them one time and never ever again. It's advocacy is an ongoing process. It's earned and people are investing a lot of money in inorganic growth. So seminars, which are important for advisors are trying to grow their practice or other marketing avenues. But we can't lose sight of how do we drive advocacy and advocacy is an ongoing process. It's earned. And so

Steve Phillips - It is. Yes.

Aaron Grady - That message of sharing with people. And I understand I've had this conversation. And again, these are probably some nuances that we don't have to get into today. But I've had this conversation with advisors. I hosted an event at Topgolf for a bunch of my ideal clients. maybe I didn't deliver the ideal client message. And my argument would always be is, even if it's a more abbreviated version, you still want to get up and say a few words and thank your clients, your best clients.

Steve Phillips - You do. You have to. You have to. You have to. And here's the thing that I might sort of wrap with is this, that at times, this is an industry that can be very inconsistent and changing all the time. And so what advisors that practice this sort of honoring other ideal clients, it's a consistent message. It's a consistent relationship. It doesn't change. We might add features and benefits to it, but the idea of sharing with you over and over and over and over is both consistent and unwavering. And it's meaningful to growing your practice.

Aaron Grady - I love it. Well, Steve, I really appreciate you being here again today. For those of you that are on the call, a couple of different things. One, we do have a ideal client checklist that if you want to see a copy of it, it gets more into the weeds as far as what exactly do you hand out, do you use name tags, some best practices around actually executing the event. And then also, we'll do a follow up to this. Steve, you and I talked about this. We'll do a follow up. There's an opportunity to use these ideal client events in a couple of different ways as transitions into other elements of the practice and life events inside the practice. You can use these not just as an opportunity to celebrate your best clients, but also as a transition tool. And so we'll talk about that as well in a follow-up video. So if you like what you've heard today, please like and subscribe. Again, if you want a copy of that best practices checklist,

Steve Phillips - Wonderful.

Aaron Grady - Reach out to us and we'll send you a copy of that. And as always, it's always said, when the why is clear, the how becomes easy. So never lose sight of your why. Thanks again.

-- 

The RARE Advisor is a business model supercharged by Recurring And Repeatable Events. With decades of experience coaching successful advisors, your host, along with other leaders in the industry, discusses what it takes to grow a successful practice. With the aim of helping financial professionals and financial advisors take their business to the next level, this podcast shares insights and success stories that will make a real impact. Regardless of the stage of your practice, The RARE Advisor will provide thoughtful guidance, suggestions for developing systems and processes that work, and ideas for creating an authentic experience for your clients.

The RARE Advisor is also a podcast! Subscribe today via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your preferred podcast listening service for easier on-the-go list