What happens to the role of the financial advisor when AI can handle more and more of the work happening behind the scenes? In this episode of the Top 50 Most Innovative Voices in Advisor Growth series, Paul G. McManus sits down with Matt Halloran, Chief Evangelist at Zocks and the self-described human voice of AI in the advisory industry. Matt has spent more than two decades coaching financial advisors. He argues the industry is asking the wrong question. The issue is not whether AI will replace advisors, but what they will do with their time once technology takes on more of the invisible work around client meetings. You'll learn how financial advisors can: - Use an AI assistant to take on Michael Kitces's "invisible work": meeting prep, live transcription, follow-up, CRM tasks, and updates into planning and tax tools, so the advisor can stay face to face with the client - Explain a privacy-first approach to note-taking: Zocks listens and transcribes in real time, with no stored audio or video, because high-net-worth clients do not want a recording that could be used in a deepfake - See why many advisors still hesitate: not the features, but giving up control. Matt's trade-off law names five things you always trade: time, talents, treasures, relationships, and control - Put the time back to work. He cites about 10 hours a week of admin returned, roughly a week a month, and asks whether that time goes to a more deliberate enterprise, a niche, a book, or a life outside the office - Meet a client who walks in with an AI printout without getting defensive. Be glad they are engaged, ask what prompt they used, and answer the question they actually asked - Treat judgment as something you show, not something you claim. Matt pushes back that judgment is the byproduct of connection, understanding, and empathy, and that AI can sound decisive while facing no consequences and trying to please you - Stop using AI like a junior-high band playing "Three Blind Mice." Challenge it, including telling it to prove your own research wrong, instead of accepting garbage-in, garbage-out answers - Turn speed into trust. Matt tells the story of an advisor, fourth of four meetings, whose sample plan, next steps, and summary email were in the prospects' inbox before they got home. They hired her on the spot. The other three firms still had not followed up - Query the whole book of business the way a longtime assistant once did, such as who talked about Roth conversions last month or who had a child or grandchild in the last two years, then ask AI better second- and third-level questions about how to open that conversation - Choose, on purpose, between building the enterprise and running a lifestyle practice, and notice the "no man's land" in between. Matt's unpopular point: more money will not fill a one-dimensional life, and time is the one resource you cannot make more of - Build influence over years, not from one viral post. Niche down to successful independent advisors, say yes so you can practice, and remember that the most influential people he knows are the kindest - Accept that influence repels as well as attracts, and get comfortable in your own skin. Most people who want to be influential want to be liked, and that is where they stall - Accelerate reach with what Matt calls OPA, other people's audiences, and what Paul calls borrowed trust at scale: podcast swaps, local media, and stages, practiced long before a "Super Bowl" appearance - Start creating without a production team. After a client meeting, record a short phone recap of what you talked about, keep it clear of investment advice so compliance can approve it, and post it where your ideal clients actually spend time - Treat comments as the new gold. Matt says interacting on other people's posts, not only publishing your own, is what gets you seen, and that pre-retirees with a large 401(k) are often on Facebook, not LinkedIn Matt's clearest point is that what will separate you from the advisor down the street is your humanity, not your tech. Your tech is there to support your humanity. Face to face, listening, engagement, empathy, and understanding are what AI cannot replace. Features and efficiency, he says, are becoming table stakes. The question that remains is what you do with the time you get back. ABOUT MATT HALLORAN Matt Halloran is Chief Evangelist at Zocks, where he describes himself as the human voice of AI in the advisory industry. He has worked in practice management and financial services for more than 20 years, starting in the industry in 2006, and holds a master's in life coaching. He has also worked as a therapist and coach. He has written three books, including The Social Media Handbook for Financial Advisors (Bloomberg Finance, 2012), and is writing a fourth, The Trade-Off Law. He delivered a TEDx talk, "Hope, Help One Person Every Day." With co-founder Kirk Lowe he built ProudMouth, an influence-acceleration firm, and hosted about 500 episodes of the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast. On the episode he says he has coached about a thousand offices, appeared on about 1,500 podcasts, and was voted the 10th most influential person in financial services last year. His stated mission is to spread magic, joy, and love, and to help advisors use AI to get their time, and their humanity, back. WHERE TO FIND MATT HALLORAN Matt asked listeners to find him on LinkedIn. He said that is where he actually is: he answers every direct message, he is the one commenting, and he spends about 90 percent of his time there because that is where advisors are. He did not give another URL on the episode. 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
