The Influential Advisor Podcast

Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Bimonthly

The Authority Marketing Platform for Financial Advisors. Built for advisors who want to be known for what they're already great at.Influential Advisor Media helps financial advisors build visibility, attract better clients, and grow through authority rather than cold outreach. If you've spent years developing real expertise and you're frustrated that the right people don't know you exist, this podcast is for you.Influential Advisor Media was founded by Paul G. McManus, host of The Influential Advisor Podcast and creator of The Authority Operating System. Our team has worked with more than 500 financial advisors and helped them generate over $100 million in results through authority marketing. Subscribe if you're a financial advisor who is done being the best-kept secret in your market. Learn more at influentialadvisor.com

  1. 1d ago

    119: Jon Kuttin | Top 50 Most Innovative Voices In Advisor Growth Series

    What role can a book play in helping a financial advisory firm build credibility, strengthen trust, and convert more prospects into clients? In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Jon Kuttin joins Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus for a candid conversation about authority, organic growth, client acquisition, and how financial advisors can use books and media to become more influential in their markets. You’ll learn how financial advisors can: • Use a book to build credibility before the first meeting • Stop relying exclusively on cold leads and chasing prospects • Turn referrals into stronger trust-based conversations • Integrate a book into seminars, CPA relationships, client events, and acquisitions • Differentiate themselves when prospects are comparing multiple advisors • Use stories to show ideal clients that they understand their concerns • Build authority through books, podcasts, YouTube, and other media • Transfer the founder’s ideas and credibility to other members of the team • Turn a book into a playbook for clients, prospects, and employees • Use authority marketing to strengthen existing business development activities • Accelerate the speed of trust during the sales process • Build visibility that continues working even when the founder is not in the room One of Jon’s most powerful observations is that the book does not work because it sits on Amazon. Its value comes from consistently putting it into the hands of prospects, clients, centers of influence, and people evaluating the firm. Jon describes his book as a credibility piece and differentiator. When two advisors appear equally capable, being the advisor who has clearly articulated a point of view in a book can help tilt the decision in your favor. The larger opportunity is not simply becoming an author. It is using the ideas inside the book as the foundation for a broader authority system that supports referrals, seminars, acquisitions, media, team growth, and better client conversations. ABOUT JON KUTTIN Jon Kuttin is a Barron’s Hall of Fame Advisor and longtime financial services leader with more than 25 years of experience building and growing advisory businesses. Since beginning his career in 1994, Jon has been recognized among Barron’s Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors and has also received recognition from Forbes and the Financial Times. In addition to leading his financial advisory practice, Jon founded Kuttin Consulting Group to help financial advisors and financial professionals grow through leadership, acquisitions, professional alliances, recruiting, organic growth, and other strategic initiatives. Over the course of his career, he has helped more than 1,000 CPAs and financial professionals rethink and grow their practices. ABOUT INFLUENTIAL ADVISOR MEDIA The Influential Advisor Podcast, hosted by Paul G. McManus, features conversations with leading voices shaping the future of financial advisor growth, marketing, authority, media, and business development. Subscribe for more strategies on financial advisor marketing, authority building, books, referrals, AI search visibility, advisor growth, and building a more influential advisory business. https://influentialadvisor.com/ Support the show

  2. 1d ago

    118: The Authority Operating System: Turn Your Expertise Into Visible Authority That Attracts Your Ideal-Fit Clients

    You do not need another marketing tactic. You need a system. If you are an accomplished financial advisor, consultant, attorney, tax strategist, or other expert professional, chances are your biggest growth problem is not a lack of expertise. It is that too much of your expertise is invisible. It lives inside client meetings, private conversations, and your own head—where prospects, referral partners, search engines, and AI tools cannot fully experience it. The Authority Operating System shows you how to change that. At the center of the system is a focused book: a documented point of view for a specific audience. But the book is only the foundation. Paul G. McManus shows you how to turn that book into a repeatable system for building visibility, familiarity, trust, and authority through: Referral relationshipsProspect follow-upAudiobooksPodcast appearancesSpeaking and mediaContent and videoSearch and AI visibilityTeam alignmentYour own authority platformThe goal is not to become famous, post every day, or add more marketing work to an already crowded calendar. The goal is to become known for something specific by the specific people you most want to serve—and to build a system your team can help execute so your authority is no longer limited by your personal time. Over the past decade, McManus has worked with more than 600 financial professionals, from advisors managing billions to experts just beginning to build momentum in their markets. That work has helped generate more than $100 million in client revenue. He has also used the system on himself. Each of his first three books generated more than $1 million in revenue—and each performed faster than the one before it, not because he became famous, but because he became better at building the system around the book. Inside The Authority Operating System, you will learn how to: Turn your expertise into visible authority. Clarify what you believe, whom you serve, and what you want to become known for. Accelerate the speed of trust. Give prospects a way to understand how you think before the first meeting. Make your marketing compound. Stop running disconnected tactics and start building assets that reinforce one another over time. Transfer trust beyond yourself. Help clients, referral partners, your team, search engines, and AI systems understand and communicate your value. Create leverage instead of more activity. Build a marketing system that continues working even when you are not personally pushing it forward. If you have not written your book yet, this book will show you why it should come first. If you already have a book and are asking, “Now what?”, this book will show you how much more it can become. Your book should not be the finish line. It should be the foundation. The ultimate goal is to build a business where your best thinking travels farther than your calendar—and where you can confidently say: My marketing runs on AOS. Learn more at https://influentialadvisor.com/ Support the show

  3. 6d ago

    117: Jon Randall | Top 50 Most Innovative Voices In Advisor Growth Series

    What keeps successful financial advisors from scaling beyond a founder-dependent practice? Dr. Jon Randall, founder of XFA, shares the psychology, systems, and strategic shifts that help advisory firms overcome growth constraints. In this episode of The Influential Advisor Podcast and our Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Dr. Jon Randall joins Paul G. McManus to discuss why many financial advisors become stuck around $1 million to $1.5 million in revenue and what it takes to move from advisor to entrepreneur and CEO. You’ll learn why the founder’s capacity often becomes the biggest constraint inside a growing firm, how holding on to every client can limit service and growth, and how building the right team creates more time for leadership, business development, CPA relationships, and acquisitions. Dr. Randall also explains how financial advisors can: • Identify the constraints preventing their firms from growing • Make the transition from advisor to entrepreneur and CEO • Scale from approximately $1 million to $10 million in revenue • Transition client relationships without an abrupt handoff • Avoid giving new advisors only the firm’s smallest clients • Hire team members without expecting them to behave like founders • Segment clients according to revenue and service needs • Create more capacity for referrals and strategic growth • Track revenue per client and revenue per team member • Use books to build authority and communicate important ideas • Prepare for a coming wave of financial advisor practice sales One of Dr. Randall’s most powerful ideas is that founders may unintentionally hurt clients by refusing to let go. When the founder is involved in every meeting and relationship, clients may receive less time and attention than another advisor on the team could provide. The goal is not necessarily to stop serving clients. It is to become more intentional about where the founder’s time creates the greatest value while building a team that can gradually take on more responsibility. ABOUT DR. JON RANDALL Dr. Jon Randall is the founder of XFA, officially Extraordinary Financial Advisors, a coaching and consulting firm that helps financial advisors identify growth constraints, improve profitability, build stronger teams, and scale beyond the founder. After beginning his career as a financial advisor in 1999, Jon rebuilt his practice in North Carolina and began teaching other advisors how to grow. He later sold his practice to focus fully on advisor coaching and combined his industry experience with research in performance psychology and the theory of constraints. He is also the author of The Extraordinary Financial Advisor Practice. Learn more about Dr. Jon Randall and XFA at XFA.coach. ABOUT INFLUENTIAL ADVISOR MEDIA The Influential Advisor Podcast, hosted by Paul G. McManus, features conversations with leading voices shaping the future of financial advisor growth, marketing, authority, media, and business development. Subscribe for more strategies on financial advisor marketing, authority building, books, referrals, AI search visibility, advisor growth, and building a more influential advisory business. https://podcast.influentialadvisor.com/ https://influentialadvisor.com/ Support the show

  4. Jul 31

    116: James Pollard | Top 50 Most Innovative Voices In Advisor Growth Series | Influential Advisor Media

    This interview featuring James Pollard is part of Influential Advisor Media’s Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, hosted by Paul G. McManus. The series recognizes leaders whose ideas, platforms, and work are shaping how financial advisors build trust, attract clients, and grow their firms. James Pollard is the founder of The Advisor Coach and host of the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast, where he has created more than 370 episodes focused specifically on helping financial advisors build steadier, more predictable growth. Since 2015, his podcasts, newsletters, articles, training programs, and marketing resources have helped more than 50,000 financial advisors attract clients and build more profitable businesses. Known for rejecting short-lived hacks and empty marketing promises, James teaches advisors how to earn attention and trust through stronger positioning, relevant messaging, consistent visibility, and a substantial body of work that makes them easier to know, trust, and choose. In this wide-ranging conversation, James shares how he went from helping one financial advisor with marketing to building The Advisor Coach into a scalable media and publishing business with newsletters, products, articles, and the Financial Advisor Marketing Podcast. You’ll also hear why effective advisor marketing begins by entering the conversation already happening in a prospect’s mind. For retirement-focused advisors, that often means speaking clearly about retirement income, replacing a paycheck, and reducing the fear of running out of money—not leading with technical planning language prospects may not yet understand. A major theme of this episode is trust. How can a financial advisor build trust before the first meeting? James explains why a substantial body of work—such as a book, podcast, YouTube channel, newsletter, or specialized client track record—can demonstrate expertise before a prospect ever speaks with you. He also explains how appropriate personal disclosure can reduce intimidation, create rapport, and make advisor marketing feel more human. James shares real examples from his own marketing, including why posts about strength training generated inquiries, how non-financial content can communicate discipline and status, and how private financial advisors can begin revealing more of themselves without oversharing. The conversation also covers one of the most important questions for founder-led advisory firms: What should you outsource? James argues that financial advisors should not outsource the creation of an unproven marketing strategy. Instead, they should first discover what works, document the process, and then delegate the maintenance of a proven system. This episode is especially useful for financial advisors, RIAs, wealth managers, advisor marketing professionals, and founder-CEOs who want to attract better-fit clients without relying on generic content or interchangeable marketing. Learn more about James Pollard and The Advisor Coach: https://theadvisorcoach.com/ Learn more about Influential Advisor Media: https://influentialadvisor.com/ Subscribe for more conversations about financial advisor marketing, books, media, authority building, and AI search visibility. Support the show

  5. Jul 24

    115: Marcus Ranger | Top 50 Most Innovative Voices In Advisor Growth Series | Influential Advisor Media

    What separates financial advisors who consistently grow from those who stay stuck? Marcus Ranger, who leads a business unit of more than 1,200 independent financial advisors, shares the marketing strategies, systems, and mindset shifts he sees driving advisor growth. In this episode of The Influential Advisor Podcast and our Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Marcus joins Paul G. McManus to discuss why financial advisors are in the marketing business first—and how the best advisors build intentional systems for attracting ideal-fit clients, generating referrals, creating authority, and growing their practices. You’ll learn why niching down can accelerate financial advisor growth without forcing you to turn away opportunities, how to build a client experience people naturally want to refer, and why giving clients valuable information to share may be more effective than simply asking for referrals. Marcus also explains how financial advisors can: • Build repeatable marketing systems instead of relying on random tactics • Choose a niche and become the go-to advisor for a specific audience • Use books, podcasts, video, and content to build authority • Create a systematic approach to generating more client referrals • Reward referral behavior in a meaningful and repeatable way • Identify centers of influence beyond CPAs and attorneys • Build a differentiated client experience • Think like a media company in the age of Google, ChatGPT, and AI search • Use client testimonials and social proof more effectively • Build internal and external marketing strategies that work together • Stop becoming the bottleneck in your own growth One of Marcus’s most powerful ideas is that an advisor’s real product isn’t simply a portfolio or financial plan—it’s the client experience. And when that experience is combined with a clear niche, strong positioning, valuable content, and an intentional marketing system, advisors can create a business that attracts more of the clients they most want to serve. ABOUT MARCUS RANGER Marcus Ranger is an experienced financial services executive, advisor, coach, and business leader who leads a business unit of more than 1,200 independent financial advisors across 10 western states. After building a successful advisory practice, Marcus transitioned into executive leadership with a focus on helping financial advisors build stronger businesses, develop scalable systems, improve their marketing, and multiply their results. Connect with Marcus Ranger on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-ranger-9050702/ ABOUT INFLUENTIAL ADVISOR MEDIA The Influential Advisor Podcast, hosted by Paul G. McManus, features conversations with leading voices shaping the future of financial advisor growth, marketing, authority, media, and business development. Subscribe for more strategies on financial advisor marketing, authority building, books, referrals, AI search visibility, advisor growth, and building a more influential advisory business. https://podcast.influentialadvisor.com/ https://influentialadvisor.com/ Support the show

  6. Jun 30

    114: John Pavelka on The Power of WHY — Aligning Your Wealth with What Actually Matters

    A client came in with statements from more than ten different financial institutions. Her parents had passed away within six months of each other. The paperwork took nearly a year to sort through — and she later told John she never had the proper time to grieve because she was so buried in the chaos they left behind. That story drives everything about how John Pavelka runs his practice. After nearly 30 years in financial services, John has built a model around one question most advisors never ask deeply enough: What's important to you — and why? In this episode, John shares the frameworks, client stories, and hard-won lessons behind his book The Power of WHY: Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth. Gabe and John cover the difference between building wealth and giving it purpose, the emotional traps that derail even sophisticated investors, and why the flip from saver to spender is one of the hardest transitions a client makes — and how John helps them make it. About John Pavelka John Pavelka, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, CEPA®, is the Managing Partner of The Cities Private Wealth Group, a private wealth advisory practice affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services in Bettendorf, Iowa. With nearly 30 years of experience in financial services, John leads a 15-person team that manages close to $700 million in assets. His team has been recognized on the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list from 2023 through 2025. He is the author of The Power of WHY: Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth. What We Cover Why the firm's guiding question — "What's important to you?" — goes far deeper than it sounds, and how John keeps peeling back the layers until he reaches the why behind the whatThe four-bucket strategy John uses to give every dollar a specific role — and the story of a client who walked into a meeting worried about a roof, a wedding, and a 20% market drop, and walked out hugging himWhy successful people so often feel disconnected from their wealth — and what John calls the "brother-in-law syndrome" that quietly derails even savvy investorsThe emotional wall between saving and spending in retirement, and why some clients need literal permission to book the trip or fly first classWhy John calls estate planning "an act of love" — and the statistic that 34% of millionaires don't have a willHow proactive tax planning (not just annual returns) saved one client over a million dollars in taxes his daughter would otherwise have inheritedResources Mentioned Book: The Power of WHY: Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth by John PavelkaConnect with John Pavelka Book Website: thepowerofwhybook.comFirm website: tcpwg.comEmail: team@tcpwg.com Support the show

  7. Jun 25

    113: Rise. Rule. Repeat. — The Championship Framework That Changes When You Win with Matt Knoll

    Matt Knoll walked into Baylor in 1997 and told the local paper his goal was to win a national championship. The reporter laughed out loud. At the time, that reaction was fair. The program hadn't won a conference match in eight years. The courts were slanted. There was no bathroom, no equipment room, no stands. Twenty-two seasons later, Knoll left with a 510-150 record, 13 Big 12 titles, and Baylor's first team national championship. The hard part wasn't getting there. It was learning that the way he led to get there would stop working once they arrived. In this episode, Matt joins Gabe McManus to break down his three-phase framework, Rise, Rule, and Repeat, and explain why the leadership that carries a team from nothing to something can quietly undermine a team already capable of winning it all. He shares the moments in his career where he got it wrong, how he figured out what needed to change, and what he now brings to coaches and business leaders who are trying to push through their own ceilings. About Matt Knoll Matt Knoll served as Director of Men's Tennis at Baylor University for 22 seasons, retiring in 2018 with a career record of 510-150. Under his leadership, Baylor won 13 Big 12 Conference regular season titles, eight Big 12 Tournament championships, and the 2004 NCAA National Championship. A three-time National Coach of the Year and six-time Big 12 Coach of the Year, Matt was inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. He now works as a leadership consultant and coach and is the author of Rise. Rule. Repeat.: The Champion's Framework for Building and Sustaining Elite Teams. What We Cover Why Matt saw opportunity in eight slanted courts and no bathroom when nobody else did, and how he framed that vision to recruits from day oneHow he raised over $22 million by connecting donors to a community vision before the program had earned any national recognitionThe "Leadership Gremlins" concept and the season Matt's own coaching nearly cost his team a championship from the inside outWhat championship coaches across football, swimming, and wrestling taught him about when to push and when to let goThe PPH framework (Professionalism, Pride, Heart) and why his team kept it a secret while ranked number one in the countryHow to know which phase your team or business is actually in, and why misreading it is the most common leadership mistakeResources Mentioned Book: Rise. Rule. Repeat.: The Champion's Framework for Building and Sustaining Elite Teams by Matt KnollConnect with Matt Knoll Email: matt@mattcanola.comLinkedIn: Matt KnollSupport the show

  8. Jun 24

    112: Brandon Hayes on You're Not Alone: His CFP Guide to Walking Widows Through Grief and Finance

    She had a million dollars in her account and she was convinced she'd lose her house by the end of the month. That's not a financial problem. That's grief lying. And if you don't know how to recognize it, you'll either rush your client into decisions she'll regret, or lose her trust entirely. Episode Summary In this episode, Brandon L. Hayes, CFP, founder of Compass Financial Group and author of You're Not Alone, shares what 26 years of working almost exclusively with widows has taught him about grief and financial decision-making. Brandon's perspective is personal: he lost his father at 13 and watched a trusted advisor help his family stay financially whole. That experience became a calling. He breaks down why the traditional planning process doesn't fit widows, what grief lies look like in practice, which financial landmines to watch for in the first months after a loss, and how advisors and adult children can support without taking over. This is essential listening for any advisor who works with clients navigating the widow transition. About Brandon L. Hayes Brandon L. Hayes, CFP, is the founder of Compass Financial Group in Evansville, Indiana, where he has specialized in working with widows for over 26 years. His calling began at age 13 when his father passed away, and he witnessed firsthand the stabilizing impact a trusted financial advisor had on his family. Brandon is the author of You're Not Alone, a guide he describes as a ministry and a mission: walking widows through the financial decisions that can't wait and the ones that can, in plain language. The financial advisor who helped his mother through that season is now Brandon's own client. What We Cover Why the financial planning process, with its timelines and checklists, is structurally incompatible with grief, and what advisors can do insteadThe concept of grief lies and why even high-net-worth clients can believe they're about to go brokeThe only things that actually need to happen in the first days after a spouse dies, and why everything else can waitRiver widows vs. root widows: two grief patterns that determine how quickly clients make decisionsHow to uncover hidden benefits including accidental death policies, club memberships, and digital accounts that can add thousands or hundreds of thousands to a settlementHow adult children can cross the line from helpful to harmful, and what healthy family support actually looks likeThe organized crime schemes targeting widows, including a scam that ended with criminals physically walking off a porch with $150,000 in goldResources Mentioned You're Not Alone by Brandon L. Hayes: Amazonynabook.com, Brandon's book website with free resources and chapter overviewConnect with Brandon Hayes Website: www.ynabook.comEmail: brandon@ynabook.comPhone: 800-967-5250Firm: Compass Financial Group, Evansville, IndianaSupport the show

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About

The Authority Marketing Platform for Financial Advisors. Built for advisors who want to be known for what they're already great at.Influential Advisor Media helps financial advisors build visibility, attract better clients, and grow through authority rather than cold outreach. If you've spent years developing real expertise and you're frustrated that the right people don't know you exist, this podcast is for you.Influential Advisor Media was founded by Paul G. McManus, host of The Influential Advisor Podcast and creator of The Authority Operating System. Our team has worked with more than 500 financial advisors and helped them generate over $100 million in results through authority marketing. Subscribe if you're a financial advisor who is done being the best-kept secret in your market. Learn more at influentialadvisor.com

Information

  • Creator
    Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    122
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 © 2026 Influential Advisor Media
  • Show Website
    The Influential Advisor Podcast

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