The Secrets to Making a Stellar First-Impression with Patrick Durst

Voice Over (00:01)

Welcome to the FAST Podcast, your go-to source for financial advisor strategy talks, hosted by me, Candace Byrnes, the Lead Creative Designer on the marketing team at White Glove, and with me, I have Dean Thurman, Cofounder of both White Glove and Invest Wise Financial. Join us as we dive into valuable insights from industry experts, providing actionable tips to accelerate your success. 

Candace Byrnes (04:21)

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the FAST Podcast with myself, Candice, and Dean. Today we have a great guest to bring to you. We have Patrick Durst. He is a certified financial planner at Front Range Financial with extensive experience in constructing income -generating portfolios, in addition to sustainable retirement portfolios for pre -retirees all around the country.  

Dean Thurman (6:49)

Well, I am especially excited to have you, Pat. Thank you for joining our podcast. I am excited because financial advisors like me always want to improve their skill set and something that I have struggled with in the past is how to turn cold or warm leads or prospects into actual clients. I know that you and your partners there at your firm are really good at it because you have done radio shows, seminars, and other things.  

So, I am really excited to learn more about how you meet initially with clients and what that leads to.

Patrick Durst (07:25)

Yes, absolutely, Dean, and also, Candice, thanks for having me on the podcast. I am excited to be here. Certainly, you know, everyone is trying to figure out how to get clients in the door. We have tried everything under the sun. So, I am happy to be here and just talk about some of my experiences.

Candace Byrnes (07:45)

Yes, absolutely. We can jump into it. I do want to start with seminar marketing. I know that we always try to not make it about White Glove, and we stick to that, But I know that you have quite a bit of experience with seminar marketing, correct?

Patrick Durst (08:05)

Correct, yes!

seminar marketing is something that our firm has done since day one.

Day one for us is early 2018. That is when I went from being an employee to an owner and trying to find your clients, getting away from a steady paycheck.

Seminar marketing was something that I always felt would be a good fit for myself personally. And yes, it has been something we have stuck with consistently and still continue to this day.

Dean Thurman (8:35)

Patrick, a lot of people do seminars, radios, or other types of things. A good third of them, if not half, give up after a year or two and they say, it is just not working for me.  

How long have you been doing this type of marketing and why does it work for you and your partners?

Patrick Durst (08:52)

Yes, I guess we are going into our seventh year of seminar marketing.  

I will say too though, it is going to be very dependent on your personality. Any strategy can work for any firm, but it is about what you are comfortable with, right? So, if you are the type of person who does not want to get up in front of a group of people to share a message and then get a little bit salesy to be like, hey, you got to come in and sit down, then seminars might be challenging for you. From my background, before I decided to start a planning firm, I was a wholesaler. So, you know, public speaking, getting in front of a group, that is something I had to do every week anyways, so it was a very natural progression.

Dean Thurman (9:46)

You know, one of the things that I have to tell myself before I go and speak in front of a seminar, really, whether it is a White Glove seminar or a corporate seminar, this is a saying in our industry, “people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Even if you are standing in front of a crowd and, you know, you are going through PowerPoint, you are doing a really good job, and you feel like you have relayed the information really good, that does not always lead to new clients.

I wonder what your perspective is on that. You mentioned your charisma or your personality getting up in front of a crowd. How does that translate to getting people into your office and having that free-flowing conversation that a prospect might lead into being a client?

Patrick Durst (10:37)

Yes, that is a good question. I think it kind of speaks to the evolution of how we conduct our workshops over the years too, because in the earlier days, it was just so ingrained into me of like, you got to nail the presentation, and it's just got to be absolutely perfect, and you got to have your stories at the exact right time and all that stuff.  

There was a lot of energy that went into that, and I think it is important. You should do a good job if you care about it, and you want all the people there to get good information and feel like it was worth their time. If they feel like you are there for any other reason that is not helping them get their questions answered then at the end of the day, yes, they are not going to want to talk to you further. They are not going to really want to make the appointment because they are like, well, this person is in it for themselves. I do not know if they are really the right people to help me, even if they are the subject matter expert or whatever. So yes, you have to be doing it because you like to do it and you really want to help that person.

Candace Byrnes (11:42)

A really interesting thing that Dean and I had talked about, gosh, this was like a month or two ago now, and I would be curious to hear what your perspective is or what your strategy is.

Remember when we talked about how you enter the room for your seminar? Even though it is the first moment that these people are looking at you or getting to make their own perception of what they think of you. It is almost one of the most important moments in the seminar. Dean had a great point, and it stuck with me of, you know, you can be the person that walks in, and says “oh my gosh, you know, I'm five minutes late, sorry guys, there was traffic.” That can leave people a little uneasy in the beginning, or you could be the person that comes in very strong headed, like, “all right everybody take a seat, let us get started,” that might be good for some of the older generations. then you can also be the person that comes in and is like, “hey everybody, I am super excited to have you here. This is going to be really casual, we are going to go over social security” or blah, blah, blah.  

So, we talked about how even just those three, techniques if you will, well, I do not know if the first one is really one.

Dean Thurman (12:49)

Yes, how different personas are when you get up there and how you can be anybody you want to be, but you cannot be somebody else.

So, Patrick, your persona, when you get up in front of there, like Candace was saying. How do you, how do you first enter the room and how does that give, how does that make you likable?  

Candace Byrnes (13:10)

Yes. How do you present yourself?

Dean Thurman (13:11)

Yes. How do you present yourself? What is that all about?

Patrick Durst (13:12)

No, I get what you are asking. So, I personally think that just this industry needs more humor than what we have. You know? It gets so stuffy sometimes and there is always someone who is going to be a little smarter than you and better at this one thing or something. Also, the people, not to mention that are actually there too, are uncomfortable because they might discuss something personal to them in front of a crowd.  

My personal goal is when I get in, we actually do this thing, and it is a pretty small thing, but I think it makes a difference. Our first couple slides are for a topic that is completely irrelevant to what they actually came for. It could be anything from like, hey, we are here to learn about time shares and how to get a time share in Cabo or something like that. Not for too long, but for a couple of minutes, and people start looking around the room and thinking they are in the wrong place. And then try to be as convincing as possible and then it is like hey it is just kidding guys and then here is who we are.

Candace Byrnes (14:18)

Oh my god. I love that because I would be the person that is like, oh no.  

Dean Thurman (14:24)

Tell us a story. Have you tricked anybody and then they were going to get up and leave?

Patrick Durst (14:26)

So, it has not gotten that far, and the goal is truly not to trick anybody.

It is just to break the ice and be like, guys, we are here, but we do not need to take ourselves too seriously.

Candace Byrnes (14:39)

No, that is super cute.

Patrick Durst (14:41)

Yeah. It just relaxes the room a little bit. Do you know what I mean? Especially if your demographics are in the 60s and 70s or whatever, and they are sitting there, and they show up 30 minutes early sometimes, so they are just sitting there quietly, looking around.

The jokes are important, So I try to start with that and set the tone that this is not that big of a deal.

Dean Thurman (15:08)

Patrick, I want to let the audience know an additional reason we invited you here on the podcast. I do a lot of coaching with a lot of hosts; we have talked to you a little bit. Your closing ratios and the amount of money that you and your partners bring in from all different aspects of your marketing, especially from seminars, is extremely impressive. That is why our audience should really take to heart what you are saying, I certainly am.

You all are killing it. You all are doing a really great job. So, what I have already picked up is making people feel at ease and getting them to like you. It is really hard to not like somebody that is casual, easy going, humorous.

I remember one of our White Glove coaches, Frank Masselli, he talked about how if you do not have that funny bone in you yourself, throw a funny video up or throw a little cartoon up to break up the presentation as you go forward. It sounds like one of the ways that you increase your closing ratio from seminars is to be likable through humor. Would that be accurate?

Patrick Durst (16:17)

Yeah, I think it certainly helps.

I would like to think that that is going to make more people want to come in and see us afterwards. At the end of the day, that seminar is still getting people to that workshop. That is still the top of the funnel activity. Then, it has to be just good enough to be like, “yeah, they can help me,” but certainly humor is a big part of that.

Dean Thurman (16:44)

Let us get into a little bit of meat and potatoes, Patrick.

Whether it is somebody coming from a radio show or a seminar, it is a whole funnel, right? It is a whole relationship. It is a little bit of a dance with this attendee of your radio show or your seminar. How do you set up the one -on -one consultation? How do you set that up during the radio show or during the seminar, so they know what to expect there so that they feel good about coming in, and then once they are in your office, we are going to talk a little bit about what that first one -on -one free consultation looks like at your firm.

Patrick Durst (17:23)

During the workshop, I feel like two things are really important. The first thing is, they are obviously there for a reason, we make a personal choice not to do the dinner stuff where they have a reason to show up and have a good time and enjoy themselves. We want them to, but we do not want to buy them a steak to do it. We want to keep it to like, “hey, there is no incentive to be here other than you have something on your mind, so let us go to this library” it takes work and effort out of their day.  

In my mind I would like to think that the people who will actually show up to that need some help from somebody that they just have not been able to find out before. When they are there, I feel like after you go through the introductions and who we are and all that sort of stuff, I want to very quickly get through the rules, regulations, changes on tax code stuff, because there is something in their head that is like, “oh, I need to know this stuff,” and they might not exactly know why they need to know it, They just know that they need to know something. So, it is like, here is all that stuff, here it is, nothing is held back, here is your information. If you are like that real savvy, do it yourself person or you have the information and take it and be on your way kind of thing, But I know that the vast majority of the people in the room are going to take that information and they are still thinking the same thing. They are all wondering “how do I apply this to myself,” right? So, I go through all the rules and here is what changed for about thirty minutes and then that is where we make the pivot and I think literally that pivot is: “so how do you actually use this to your benefit?” Then we go through some examples and I always use the most stark one which is also a lot of people that we actually have in that room of just that like really good saver who worked and pinched pennies and put all the money in their 401ks and you know, they got everything they needed and then it is in an IRA or a 401k.  

So, we just walk through, if anyone listens to Ed Slott out there and he is the IRA guru and talks a lot about the ticking time bomb, which is 401ks and IRAs, we just go through that super quick calculation. The rule of seventy-two, it doubles your IRA money every, call it 10 years for the sake of argument. You do not know how they are invested, if aggressive or whatever, but 10 years. If they are coming to you sixty, and then it is going to double one more time and then a little bit more, and then they lose their tax freedom, what does that look like for you? Does that put you in a higher place or a lower place? Is it cheaper to start working on that right now while you still have 13 years? If it is not for you, then let us talk about like, okay, what about for your spouse? What about for your kids who are eventually going to inherit all this money that you never got around to spending and I think what it gets to be the pain why a lot of those people show up. They show up because they feel like they are overpaying on taxes. And then when you can point out that there is a very good probability that they are going to be stuck up in some of those higher tax brackets later on in life, or that half of their money is going to be getting paid out to the IRS in taxes, that really prompts people to take action, but it's shifting from, hey, here's all the factual data to now here's the conceptual that applies to most of you here, and let's work on it right now because the more time you have, the better you can make it.

Dean Thurman (15:24)

I think I heard you use fear a little bit, which is the strongest motivator. It is a very ethical fear because you are keeping them out of harm's way, keeping them away from the IRS and, you know, and not paying more than their fair share, if you will. A lot of people do that. I am a financial advisor too, and everybody I see is paying more in taxes than they really have to pay. And unfortunately, most accountants only look backwards instead of forwards.

Financial advisors, what I heard you say is you are looking ahead 20 or 30 years to keep the taxes and the family to a minimum and get it to the children or charities as best as possible. People are afraid of pinching pennies and then just leaving it to the IRS instead of their kids. You pivot from the actual information to how it impacts them. Then how do you talk about the free consultation? How do you get into that as you do the pivot?

Patrick Durst (16:26)

Yes, you know fear tactics or whatever, I do not mind if someone believes me or does not believe me. The way I look at it, I think it is just factual.

Dean Thurman (16:38)

Well, those facts are scary. I did not mean that you are using it in a different way, but it is very realistic and very scary. People need to know that there is this ugly situation that they are just sleepwalking into if they do not do something about it now and manage that themselves.

Patrick Durst (16:26)

Then the pivot there is just towards the end, and everyone is, we call it a “green sheet” and I think that just came from, we used to print it on a green sheet of paper. So, we have that sheet where it is for feedback, we do this as a free service to the community, but everyone in here too will get this customized report based on your particular situation. And we talk about it a little more in the sense of, now that interest rates are higher and people are getting 5 % CDs and stuff, well, that is taxed one way, but it could be taxed a different way that is a little less expensive for you. We will talk about the conversion question because that is just a hot topic right now. Should I be converting to a Roth? If you would like to do that report, check that box off and we will call you the very next day to set that up.

It is for one hour. It is no obligation. We will give it to you, and you can be on your merry way. Then from that, we have found that of all those people who tend to show up, half is very typical of those people that tend to make an appointment. Then just through consistency and getting better and better, I mean, we have had it as high as like 80 % of people showing up too. So, I mean half is certainly about as bad as it gets when you do a good job with it.

Candace Byrnes (18:21)

Do you feel like when you started implementing that free report, because that is really cool, because then there is at least something that someone can get out of it before really giving you the runaway for their business.

Do you feel like once you started implementing that into the end of your seminars that it made a big difference for your conversion rate?

Patrick Durst (18:42)

Yeah, so it did, and this just dawned on me. We always had trouble figuring out: what does this report look like? I think in the earlier days, there was one particular piece of software that we used, which worked, but it was not visually appealing. And nowadays if you ask me what I listen to and what kind of music I like. I like podcasts about financial topics, so I learned about this software right when it was coming out and it is “Holista plan.” I think it is getting bigger and bigger now, but that was just such a game changer on delivering that to people because you can just sit there.  

Dean Thurman (19:27)

Let us talk about that, Pat.  

I use “Holista Plan” as well, and we used to use “TaxClarity.” Do you actually show at the seminar on the projector screen there, do you actually show what a report from “Holista Plan” would look like and what they would receive, or do you talk about it conceptually?

Patrick Durst (19:51)

So not anymore, we used to. We used to try to actually do live demos and sometimes the Wi-Fi was good and sometimes it was not. Then we messed around with trying to put a snapshot in the presentation. What we do now, everyone has a folder. I do not think I mentioned that. When you walk in, there is a folder of the sheet. We do that tax cheat sheet, what we call it. I think it is called “key financial data from a horse's mouth.” And then we put an article or two that is just relevant for the time that is branded by our firm. Then we actually put a sample like John and Jane Doe Holista plan report. So, at the end, we will just talk about it, hold it up and say, everyone pull out this report. This is what we will build for you. Then we will give the action items on the second page of things that you can just start doing on your own.

Candace Byrnes (20:49)

I like that because it gives off less of a salesy vibe. I feel like if you have it up on the screen and you are doing more of a demo for somebody, it can come off a little bit more of like, “look at what I can do for you if you work with me.” It is more so just, “hey, here is an example of what we can do. Take it or leave it if you are interested.” I do really like it. There is something there to be said about Just handing it to someone and they can kind of peek through their folder while they are waiting till the seminar starts instead of making it this whole presentation where you are selling this report to them. that is really genius, honestly.

Dean Thurman (19:27)

Yeah, so they have a reason to come in for the follow -up appointment because they are going to get a takeaway and very little pressure with, you know, fully optional to continue with you or go somewhere else or whatever. You mentioned dinner seminars.

I have not done a lot of dinner seminars, but they work really well also because there is that reciprocity there where you buy somebody a steak, they feel socially obligated to come in and see you afterwards. This method that you are using, they feel like they are going to get a report. I think a lot of people that do dinner seminars also hand out some of these types of reports.

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Dean Thurman (19:27)

Tell us, once somebody comes in your office, let us say that you have twenty households that show up at your seminar, and let us say that ten of them sign up to get that Holista plan printout. Seven or eight actually show up in your office, The other two or three, I imagine, continue to drip in. Of those seven or eight that show up, are you closing one of them, two of them? How does that work? And I should say you are out in Colorado. I would like to hear a little bit more about the closing ratios, the average case size, and what that looks like in your neck of the woods.

Patrick Durst (22:44)

A couple of things there. Actually, I think a lot of this has to do with posturing as well, which I will talk about but long story short, are you familiar with that ten -three -one rule?  

Dean Thurman (23:59)

Tell us about it.

Patrick Durst (22:44)

You get ten people in a room, three of them will come to see you, and one will be a client. That is like a pretty accurate rule of thumb no matter what medium you are choosing. radio, workshops, online leads, you just got to talk to the ten people to get three. For some reason, you know, something about what we do or something in the water over here we get like a ten- five- two-Ish and sometimes we are ten- five- three-Ish.

Candace Byrnes (23:37)

Give yourself some more credit. It has to be more than just the water.

Patrick Durst (23:39)

Yeah, I do not know. I mean, as soon as I start to think I am doing something right here, then it does not go so well. You have to stay humble; you know?

Dean Thurman (23:48)

It could be something in the air too. They are out there in Colorado.

Patrick Durst (23:39)

Yes, or the lack thereof, you know?  

Candace Byrnes (23:54)

That is fair.  

Dean Thurman (23:55)

So, well, that is great. I just know from coaching and whatnot and my own personal experience, most people close between six tenths of one person per event up to 1.8 per seminar, per a 17-household seminar. So, it sounds like you are on the average to high average on that. I can tell you take yourselves very seriously, you spend a lot of money on marketing, you know that is an investment in your practice. You are helping a lot of people in a lot of different ways. So, you have that ten- three- two maybe or ten- five- two ratio.  

What is your goal of that first one -on -one appointment?

Is your goal to just give them the plan and then walk out the door? Do you try and set up a follow -up appointment on the spot? Do you ask them to send more information back? Do you run a financial plan? What does that look like?

Patrick Durst (23:39)

There are some things that I need to say in between.

For that first appointment, we try to get them to bring everything with them or sending it beforehand is even better. I know a lot of people get worried like they are not going to want to send me this stuff, they do not really know me that well and all that stuff and it is fine. They do not have to, but if you just ask and you explain why I need this so I can see Your situation and when you get here, we can truly spend the whole hour and go into a deep dive on your stuff.

Most of them at that time will just say fine as long as you have a secure way to send it, they will do it.

The people that say no, they are like: “I am not really comfortable. I will just bring it with me.” Yeah, bring it with you, but if they show up with no documents, we are not going to turn them away.

I already know that meeting is going to be somewhat of a regurgitation of what they heard at the workshop. We can still only speak in generalities to the person because you do not know enough about them yet. Then either have to spend the time interviewing them just to figure out where they stand. We try to get those documents beforehand then we can truly be prepared but the first thing that I always ask anybody when they are sitting down is okay, so you took time out of your day to come to a pretty dry topic. We do taxes and retirement by large, that is our bread and butter, people do not really find that fun, so tell me why you chose to do that and why you are sitting here today.  

Dean Thurman (26:37)

That is so key right there. I just want to stop for a second, Pat, I screwed that up for the first 20 years of my career. I just got in front of a prospect, whether it was a referral from somebody from the seminar, and I just started talking instead of listening.  

It sounds like one of the most important things at the beginning of that free consultation is you ask them why they are there sitting in front of you right now. What were they hoping to learn and get out of this meeting? And then you just kind of zip it and listen. Would that be accurate?

Patrick Durst (23:39)

Yeah, and it is the hardest thing to do. To just say that and then shut up, but that is how we try to gauge how our meeting went. If they talked more than we talked. Some people are more difficult, like they don't really want to open up, they just kind of sit there with their arms crossed and they are like, okay, so what do you got for me, those people, you might have to start doing a little more talking to get them to open up and all of that sort of stuff.  

At the end of the day, you took your valuable time to spend it with me who is a stranger. Tell me why you are here and what help you are looking for. This way we can both leave this meeting feeling like there was something successful here, you know?

Dean Thurman (27:53)

That is such great guidance, Patrick. You ask them a question, and then you just listen. That is really fantastic. What do you think, Candice?  

Candace Byrnes (23:54)

Yeah, no, I am just curious. I mean, this seems like it might be an easy one, but do you record those first meetings? or do you just take notes so that you can then hit it home when you then send that follow -up email to try to close that business?

Patrick Durst (28:21)

Yeah, great question. I want to record my meetings, I really do, and I think it would be fine. I have heard a lot of people who just basically say, “hey, we're a busy firm, we talk to a lot of people, and I would like to focus on talking to you instead of just writing down notes the whole time” type of thing. And most of them would not object, but I personally do not do it. What we do have, we are always trying to develop more talent in younger people who can come in and learn this business. So, we always have someone sitting in on that meeting, too, to be the designated note taker and the follow-up person.

That way really, I can just focus on having a good conversation with that person sitting in front of me.

Dean Thurman (29:07)

I think that is fantastic and you mentioned follow -up. Let us talk about that a little bit more. You have been doing seminars for seven years. What is the longest it has taken somebody to become a client in the sense that somebody calls you out of left field that you forgot about for months, if not years?

Patrick Durst (29:25)

Yeah, so this is where I think persistence is just key. I do not mean persistence as I am going to be chasing these people. I just mean like keep doing the marketing strategy even if your results are not that good right now, because I have gotten honest to goodness clients two to three years later after an event. It happens all the time. As long as you keep doing the events, you have to get that momentum. The snowball gets a little bit bigger and bigger. The reality is for the majority of the people that are there, there is a reason. Some of those people are proactive and they are just getting out in front of whatever that reason was, but that event, that catalyst has not happened yet.

If you ask somebody to name an advisor they can call when something happens, they are not going to know one off the top of their head. Most people will just ask their friends or neighbor who may or may not be suited to deal with it. If you went to a class and spent an hour, an hour and a half and then sat down with someone, they are going to remember you. They are probably going to find your folder or card sitting off somewhere that they put for whenever they need it. So yeah, I have seen it, I do not like it when it takes years, but it certainly happens.

Candace Byrnes (30:50)

Do you feel like you ever see repeat attendees at seminars? Because you are saying if you keep having events, then people keep coming to you for knowledge. So, do you have people that register time and time again?

Patrick Durst (29:25)

Yes. The only reason I know that is because we are pretty poor at CRM management, so we will just keep uploading contacts, But yeah, there is certainly a group of people in our zip codes, and I imagine many others, who are just kind of that Vanguard engineer, like I want to do all this stuff on my own, but I also know that I don't know everything. So yeah, we will get people who show up and, you know, probably have gone to like three or four of them and it is on the same topic too. They are just truly there to learn.

Dean Thurman (29:07)

Yeah, we use at our firm, we use the nurture and engage automated drip campaigns and email systems from White Glove. Whatever you use, you just have to stay persistent. Our longest was five and a half years when somebody took seven hours back in the day and then converted into a client. Those are the easiest follow up calls because they have been thinking about it for years. And then they just come in and they are ready to become a client.  

Candace Byrnes (30:04)

They are ready at that point.

Patrick Durst (29:25)

As if you have been thinking about them the whole time, too, and it is like, okay, let us go.

Dean Thurman (32:11)

yeah, you are right. The snowball, just get that, pump primed a little bit and then it just becomes, it just becomes a machine over time.  

Candace Byrnes (32:21)

I know we are running out of time, but I do have just one more question on this topic. Do you use any sort of drip campaign software company, or do you do it all on your own?

Patrick Durst (32:35)

So no, another important thing, I do almost none of this on my own. I am very poor at follow up and dripping on people and all that stuff.  

Candace Byrnes (32:47)

The marketing side.

Patrick Durst (32:35)

Yeah, I mean, that is the exact reason we hire for that. We outsource it.  

Dean Thurman (32:11)

Yeah, that is the way to do it. Our advisors do not like to do anything ourselves.  

Nurture and Engage is great, and there is a bunch of other ones out there if you use them. Who does your phone call immediately following a seminar?

Patrick Durst (33:10)

Yeah, so we have Owen and again, he is a developing advisor, working on getting his licenses. It is just a phone call, what do you think? I noticed you wanted the tax report, when is a good time to set that up? It is not to really get conversational or try to solve their problem on the call. It is just simply, hey, let us get you some time to come in and sit down with Patrick or Lex, who is the other advisor in the office who does this.

Dean Thurman (33:39)

Owen is somebody that is actually registered himself, is that correct?

Patrick Durst (33:42)

He will be fingers crossed.  

Dean Thurman (33:39)

Okay, so you are developing them as an advisor.

Patrick Durst (33:47)

Yes exactly. He is also the one sitting in those meetings taking notes, the majority.

Candace Byrnes (33:51)

I was just going to ask that, is he the one that is sitting as the note taker?

That is almost genius because he is directly involved in the whole thing from start to finish.  

Dean Thurman (33:39)

Yeah, what we have learned is I used to delegate a follow -up phone call to set up the free consultation. We used to delegate that to the office manager or an appointment center that does not have any financial knowledge at all and does not have any real interest in that. We found that did not work very well for us. It is better to have somebody that is kind of involved in the conversations with the clients because sometimes the attendee will ask a question or Owen in your case would know how to ask the question of, to help prepare you for that appointment as somebody has come in and say, yeah, I really wanted to talk to Patrick about converting my traditional IRAs. Owen is going to know what that means. He can make a note of that. So, I really like it.

Candace Byrnes (35:47)

There is something great there too because I just moved into a new apartment complex, which is why this is going to be my example, but every time I would talk on the phone to a leasing agent they would say, yep, come in for an appointment at this time, this Wednesday or whatever. For some reason, I always felt the need to be like, is it going to be you? Are you going to be there? Then if they were like, no, it would be someone else, for some reason I was like, but we already have this thing going. So, it is kind of cool that Owen would be in the room, and he will be there so he can be another friendly person, and does he attend the seminars with you as well?

Patrick Durst (35:24)

Everyone that they have met so far, they are going to see in the office again. They saw whether it was me speaking or Lex because we both do them. They know, they feel like they know us a little bit already. They talked to Owen on the phone, and then they walk in and right off the bat, they are sitting in a room with two of those people. So, I think there is something to it.  

Candace Byrnes (34:49)

I love that.

Dean Thurman (35:51)

We are in the relationship business, right? I mean, that is building that relationship from the beginning.

Candace Byrnes (35:54)

Yes, familiarity is key.

Dean Thurman (35:55)

I know we are a little bit past time.  

Candice always has one last question for our guests.  

Candace Byrnes (36:01)

I do. Yes, so I am going to pivot us away from our like you said, meat and potatoes, part of it.

Patrick, I just have a question. This has been such good advice. I feel like we really covered honestly from the moment walking in the door and now to closing somebody as a client.

Along your whole path in this industry or anywhere but prior or anything, if you knew what you know now back then, is there anything that you would change or is there any advice that you would have given yourself at any point along the way?

Patrick Durst (36:31)

Yes, so definitely just trying to figure it out. You learn what not to do and that is valuable in itself. I would say twofold. For the younger folks out there, I started in this business when I was twenty-two. Okay, so get yourself a mentor. It is someone who has been through it, someone who tells you that it is going to be okay, and you just have to keep going. Also, they just kind of coach you when you feel like you are too young to be taken seriously and all that stuff. If you are young, get a mentor to help you with that. You do not even have to be in your firm, just another person in the community to talk to.

The second biggest part, which was such a hard shift, which probably happened around the third or fourth year, is everybody is not for you. Just because you can make them a client and maybe they are not a good asset under management client, but you could still sell them something and get a little revenue or whatever. Learn when to say no, learn when you do not really see yourself having a good relationship with that person. Do not be afraid to refer them somewhere else you think is going to be a better fit because some of the hardest challenges in this business with my business are those people from those earlier days where you said yes, where in your gut you are like, I don't know that I really should have them. Those are what makes for the most stressful day -to -day operations too when someone else might actually be thrilled to serve them, you know?

Dean Thurman (38:28)

That is great advice and I totally echo it and it is so hard to say no to anybody because it is so hard to get a client in the first place when somebody is willing to be in your practice you want to say yes so bad. It is just like any relationship right? A personal relationship. It is exciting at the beginning and then you are like what the heck did I get into sometimes? We all get smarter as we get through our lives and our professional lives.

Patrick, Candace, and I just want to say thank you very much for opening up a little bit and letting us look behind the scenes at your management firm and how you have grown. I just want to say again, very impressive numbers. You all are really doing fantastic. I love the fact that somebody that is in the middle of their journey right now is willing to share, share to the whole community out there, the FAST Podcast community. And I just have to say Owen is a very lucky young man to be getting into the industry and have mentors like yourself and Lex.

Patrick Durst (39:22)

Well, thank you very much and I appreciate you both having me on here today.

Candace Byrnes (39:01)

Thank you. And again, Patrick, you are at Front Range Financial. Is there a way that anybody could get ahold of you? Email or?

Patrick Durst (39:35)

Yes, if you have questions or want to know a little bit deeper about exactly how we go through the whole process, send an email. It is just Patrick@FrontRangefinancial.com

Dean Thurman (39:50)

Thank you, Patrick.

Candace Byrnes (39:49)

Thank you so much for joining us. This was awesome. This was a great episode. I am excited to get all of this out there. So, we appreciate talking with you, and we hope to stay in contact and talk to you again soon.

Patrick Durst (40:03)

Absolutely, take care guys.

Voice Over  

Thanks for tuning in to the FAST Podcast. We would love to hear from you. Have any questions or comments about the show? You can submit them on our website at WhiteGlove.com slash FAST podcast. The views and opinions expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect those of White Glove or Invest Wise Financial. The content is provided for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered as a substitute for professional investing advice. Once again, thank you for joining us on the FAST Podcast. 

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