Episode Summary
The Out & About Podcast is back with a timely but evergreen conversation. Tiffany is joined by Amanda, Out & About’s copy director, to unpack one of the most nuanced challenges in financial services marketing: how to communicate when headlines feel chaotic and clients are on edge.
This episode focuses on external volatility, from geopolitical tensions to local crises, and how firms can respond with clarity, empathy, and consistency. Rather than reacting to every headline, Tiffany and Amanda walk through how to maintain a steady voice, avoid unintentionally escalating fear, and use existing communication channels to create calm. If you’ve ever wondered whether to send the email or pause the post, this conversation gives you a practical framework to decide.
Key Takeaways:
We break down how financial services firms can communicate during uncertainty with more clarity and care, without rushing to react to every headline.
- Problem statement: Financial services firms often know they should communicate during volatile moments, but it can be hard to know when exactly to speak, what to say, and how to avoid making clients more anxious.
- Why it matters: Clients are seeing headlines about market volatility, inflation, oil prices, geopolitical instability, and local crises. Even if they’re not calling their advisor, those headlines may still be causing unease.
- Real‑life example: Tiffany and Amanda describe a common situation they see with clients: a firm already has a consistent communication cadence, like a monthly newsletter or quarterly market update, and then a major headline hits in between those touchpoints. The instinct is to send an immediate “statement,” but that can feel abrupt or alarming if it’s not part of the normal rhythm. Their recommendation? If you already have a steady cadence, use it. It gives you space to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting in the moment.
- Highlight any surprising or myth‑busting takeaways:
- You do not need to react to every headline. Financial services firms are not in the business of breaking news; they are in the business of keeping clients calm and on track.
- More communication is not always better communication. In many cases, consistency and familiarity do more to reassure clients than a rushed response.
Don’t Miss the ONE Thing You Should Go Do First!
- Remember the power of pause. You do not need to react to anything immediately.
Links & Resources
- Out & About Podcast #13: Which Social Media Platforms Should We Be On? Part II
- Out & About Podcast #12: Best Social Media Platforms for Financial Services
- How a Brand Personality Can Drive Company Culture and Build Trust With Your Audience
Join Us!
- Want more practical ideas? Join the Out & About newsletter for fresh insights into financial services marketing and exclusive downloadable resources.Want more practical ideas? Join the Out & About newsletter to get the downloadable crisis communication checklist and channel guide discussed in this episode, along with fresh insights and templates for financial services marketing.
Transcript
Amanda (00:10):
There's nothing more soothing seeing that your routine hasn't changed.
Tiffany (00:15):
If the flight attendants are suddenly not doing the things flight attendants always do, then you're like, "What's going on?".
Amanda (00:22):
Yep. When they tell them to sit down and stop drink service, I'm like, "Uh-oh." Yes, exactly. It's going to be bad.
Tiffany (00:29):
Yes. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Out and About Podcast, where we break down all things marketing and financial services. So we always say whether you've been in this seat your whole career or you're just handed the social media accounts and told to go, we've got your back. I know we've had a little bit of a hiatus, but we're so excited to bring back these conversations. And today I have with me Amanda, our fabulous copy director. So Amanda, do you want to introduce yourself really fast for those who haven't gotten to hear from you or know what you're all about?
Amanda (01:05):
Yeah, sure. I’m still fairly new to the team. So I'm Amanda Rodhe. I am the copy director. So all things words that are happening for our clients, I’m involved in that. And then my background is a longtime freelance content strategist and writer with a real focus in financial services and fintech. I’m really excited to be here.
Tiffany (01:35):
Those who haven't met Amanda and have been around with us for a while might know I sat in that seat for a while and moved into strategy. I'm so excited to have your experience. We've had such a good time already just bantering and finding new ideas and then covering really great things for our clients. So we have a really fun topic to talk about, and we were just saying that we want to keep this at a reasonable length and we shall see how it goes because there's a lot to cover. And I say that every time, so people are probably like, okay, cool. But I think this is going to be a fun topic. Obviously, if you're listening, you already have seen the title of the show, so you probably know what it's about, but it's funny because it's hyper timely but also super evergreen.
(02:21):
So we're going to talk about crisis management but also just when to communicate, how to communicate through tough stuff with your clients. So this can be global geopolitical crises all the way down to local flooding in the street your firm is on, what the market is doing — just how do we communicate in tougher times — even just market volatility, which by the word volatility means it goes up and down. Things are changing, but sometimes things kind of dip a little bit and then the headlines freak out. And when do we communicate and how do we communicate? So as we're bringing the podcast back, we're always starting with a sort of burning question, what's hot? And so that's what's hot because right now as we're recording, it's the end of April and it's been an April.
Amanda (03:21):
Sure has.
Tiffany (03:23):
There’s a lot going on out there. So do you have any initial thoughts, Amanda, about all this and what precipitated this conversation?
Amanda (03:33):
Yeah. I think we've all seen the headlines. Obviously, if you’re in financial services, you're well aware but even if you're not, your clients who might not be the most involved in what's happening in their portfolio on a day-to-day basis are seeing these headlines about oil price spikes, what's happening with the Strait of Hormuz, inflation, tariff back and forth. There's so much going on, even the AI conversation is separately aside from geopolitical news. And it's normal for people to see all that and get kind of panicky. So even if you're not hearing from people, it's very possible they might be feeling it internally. And so what makes marketing and communications different in times of volatility or uncertainty? And how do you strike that balance between being proactive but not putting out communications that accidentally incite fear?
Tiffany (04:36):
Exactly. Yeah.
(04:38):
Yeah, exactly. By the way, Amanda has provided so many details. If you see me going over something here, it's because I have so much good copy from our amazing company director. But yeah, that's exactly the question I think on the table, the burning question. So I feel like the whole point of the podcast is to bring you into our conversations with our clients. And this is a lot of what we've been talking about. Some of our clients are like, "Oh my gosh, we've been so busy. People are calling every day." And other clients are like, "No one's called. Does that mean it's on their minds? Is it not on their minds?" And again, by the time this goes out, who knows where the conversation around all those things you just mentioned — oil and Iran and all that — who knows where that will be? Who knows what's coming next?
(05:23):
We don't know. And that's the tricky part. And I think the struggle is just to lay it out — for a lot of our clients, a lot of people listening, you financial advisors, your job is to sort of level, keep the study calm waters. I'm trying to think of the right metaphor but it's all just the peace and the calm, that's your job: we've got you covered. Everything we're doing when we're communicating for clients is about confidence and peace. And how do we say that without saying it all the time? Trust and steadiness and all of that. So then these things come up. And like you said, how do you communicate? How do you know when to communicate without causing more chaos? Because I think sometimes in the firm, our thought is, look, we've seen worse. We've been through bigger things.
(06:22):
This is not a big deal. The whole purpose, maybe that's not the right word, but the reason advisors advise is because they're like, we've watched the market do what the market does for all this time. This is why we're advising you. We can't predict the future but we've seen what's happened. And so we're trying not to react to the headlines.
Amanda (06:50):
And it's easier said than done because you're also dealing with just the behavioral aspect of how humans operate. We all know rationally looking at the numbers, don't pull out of the market; you'll miss those best days. This is something you can say to somebody but that doesn't change the way they feel.
Tiffany (07:09):
I know. And also there's the next layer down. So there's like, okay, we don't time the market, da, da, da, da. But it's like also, well, I was going to retire next year. Should I wait another year? There's the next level of, well, okay, but what about my finances? Okay, the market's cool, that's fine. But now will I still be able to afford to send my child to college in four years or whatever? Is that getting messed up? There are specific questions. And then there's the geopolitical, wars and all those things. But then there's also, again, like I said, weather events. We have clients who have worked through wildfires and hurricanes and all of those. And so then how are you communicating again, the next level of like, okay, so next year's going to be fine but what about next week? What about insurance and all of that?
(08:06):
So where do you want to start? Where should we start? How do we communicate? How do we know when to communicate?
Amanda (08:14):
I think when we've been talking about it internally, we're just talking about that idea of everything being a balancing act. You're balancing communication with silence. When do you want to speak up about the volatility and when do you just want to let it ride? And then there's balancing care with action. You don't want to seem flippant. You don't want to rush to put out a statement that you're going to regret later. So you want to tread carefully but you also don't want to be passive when you should be saying something. Similarly, like balancing action and alarm, you don't want to say something that might spark fear unnecessarily. It's like that famous thing of if you say to somebody, "I don't want to freak you out,” but the first thing they're going to do is absolutely panic.
Tiffany (09:06):
Understandably.
Amanda (09:07):
So, it's about framing what you're saying as something that is more positive, something that doesn't feel like I don't want to freak you out. And then balancing your plan with reality. If you have a cadence established, you have posts that are already ready to go out, being cognizant of what you have already lined up and how that might be impacted by what's happening in real time. And do you need to adjust what you already have planned? Is it still appropriate, etc.
Tiffany (09:46):
Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about the schedule, because I think as we're talking here, it seems like this may be way too, maybe this is just way too pragmatic, but trying to figure out when we should communicate, how should we communicate? If you already have some good plans in place, I'm already thinking, especially with market volatility and we were talking oil prices and all of this, if you're already putting out a note from the chief investment officer or a video from them or just a market update — for a lot of our clients it's a quarterly statement of some kind from the firm — if you're already doing that, that's a really nice cadence. The clients are expecting it. There's enough time that you probably don't have to say something in those in between times.
(10:45):
So you've made a quarterly statement, wrapped up what you need to talk about, and some war starts somewhere halfway in between that one and the next one. You still have four weeks, six weeks, before the next one's coming out. This is what I'm trying to say. So you don't have to rush it. So if you have that nice cadence going, you can feel like, okay, well, that will just wrap up in our next market update so you're not feeling rushed. And the same with everything. If you're already doing some sort of weekly social media post about something or you're already in a cadence of a monthly newsletter going out to all your prospects and all your clients with some kind of commentary from the firm.
(11:38):
Again, that's a nice little place to just know that's where you're going to drop it. And yeah, you don't have to feel like you're scrambling. And then like you said, are we causing more alarm? If everyone's used to the town crier on a regular basis, then the town crier is not so scary.
Amanda (11:57):
Exactly. Retaining that consistency can be a source of calm in and of itself. There's nothing more soothing than seeing that your routine hasn't changed. So if you expect to see something in your inbox as a client from your financial advisor every other week and it's still coming despite headlines, there is that sort of like, "Well, they're not worried, so I'm not worried." It's like when you're on a flight and you start to go through turbulence, and if the flight attendants look calm, you're like, "It's not a big deal. We're going to make it.”
Tiffany (12:38):
"But at the same time, if the flight attendants are suddenly not doing the things flight attendants always do, then you're like, "What's going on?".
Amanda (12:45):
Yep. When they tell them to sit down and stop drink service, I'm like, "Uh-oh." It's going to be bad.
Tiffany (12:52):
Yeah, it's about to get real. So yeah, I think that's maybe the biggest takeaway right now so far is just have a communications cadence, then you're ready for whatever you need to throw out there. Because I was just thinking, imagine the flip side, if you get an email from your advisor who never emails and it's some official email that's a statement on the war and wherever, they're like, "What? What is this official statement?" But if you're just used to that, then it's just part of the cadence. All right, let's get into the nitty-gritty here about the I don't want to freak you out. I think that's brilliant. I want to dive into that a little bit because I know I just shared something recently on social media about something similar. We don't want to start a conversation by framing the negative. We don't want to get them there already emotionally and then try to pull back.
(13:49):
So do you have any recommendations or how do you want to talk through this? How should we frame things?
Amanda (13:55):
I think it's leading with the core of who you are and what your firm stands for. So if your brand voice and your brand personality is a calm, guiding voice that’s here to create a plan and help you stick to it for the long haul, go back to that. And how does that inform what you're going to say about short-term volatility? It's really core to what you do anyway, so sort of center that in your messaging, which is what we tell people to do all the time. But sometimes when headlines are coming up, it's harder to apply the framework you typically rely on to that headline for yourself too.
Tiffany (14:42):
Oh, it's critical. It's critical. That's why I think you and I were recently talking somewhere about even the difference between voice and tone. So it's okay for the tone if it needs to shift. If there's really something going on, I think again, the wildfires in the backyard of some of our clients a couple years ago or things like that, there is going to be a little tone of things are intense but your voice doesn't need to change your underlying message; what we're trying to communicate every time we talk, that should always remain the same. Yeah, I think that's critical. I could say that over and over — something I always want to preach. I also think starting with the facts is helpful. So again, not leading with the emotion of, yeah, I don't want to freak you out or we don't want to start with, we just keep getting phone call after phone call, just that emotional stuff, instead leading with the facts of, well, the market has been — I don't know, I'm making up things — but the actual facts of oil prices are this or inflation is that or whatever.
(15:53):
And then going on with framing it — this is what we've seen historically, or this is what we're just seeing on the day-to-day, because sometimes obviously firms can see the bigger picture and people are just maybe looking at one sort of marker. So yeah, leading with the facts, starting with the facts, and then you can go into the emotion later.
Amanda (16:17):
Yeah. And then even using those facts as a jumping off point for these are the facts, this is what's out of our control, but what's in our control as your advisors and as our clients, how can we work together to take steps based on the reality we're in right now? Not panic selling but what can we do? How can we look for ways to rebalance things that make sense in this current environment?
Tiffany (16:46):
Yeah. We had a client, we were working on that market update and they said something just, I can't remember exactly how they said it, or they said it or we said it, but it was like our eyes are always on this. We're used to watching these things, we're comfortable watching these things so you don't have to. It was just a really nice way of framing, look, we’re your eyes here. You can go on about your retirement or your life and things with your grandkids and we'll watch this so you don't have to stress about that. I thought that was nice.
Amanda (17:22):
Yeah. That reassuring voice. That's exactly what you want to hear.
Tiffany (17:28):
And it's not to say there's not stuff to watch. We don't want to give a laissez-faire sort of attitude either. It's fine, but it's just we've got you. I also had another client years ago who said, "We'll take the ulcers for you." And I thought, "I hope it's not that bad, but I really like that. We'll hold it in our gut." I thought that was lovely.
Amanda (17:51):
That's amazing.
Tiffany (17:54):
Yeah. What else? I know you're highlighting something over here. Did you want to go into the visual side of things?
Amanda (18:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think I'm obviously the word woman, but the same principle applies across your campaigns, keeping that visual consistency. Don't suddenly start sending out red, bold text —
Tiffany (18:21):
Please don't.
Amanda (18:22):
— emails. Because again, consistency is calming. It's reassuring.
Tiffany (18:30):
Absolutely. Yep. And just showing up the same way all the time. It just shows the business as usual for you. And even when it's not, at least you can give that appearance a little bit, sort of the duck analogy, even if you're floundering, you can just be smooth sailing on top. So what else? I know I have some specific rapid fire questions we're going to get to in just a minute but what else do we need to think about as far as just the emotional side of things?
Amanda (19:12):
I think where the emotion can most effectively be brought in is not to what you write and put out but how you approach your own messaging. It's really sort of centering your own emotional intelligence and thinking about it's your job, but for some people, the headlines they're seeing, and particularly if it's something happening locally, it might be affecting them personally. And so it's putting yourself in your audience's shoes and saying, "How will a client feel if they receive this? Are they going to feel like I'm saying something that might feel insensitive?"
(19:53):
That's obviously not who you are or what you want to project. So really thinking about the potential recipients of your message, a client who might be experiencing this crisis firsthand or have a family member who is. And that's true even for things that aren’t local.
Tiffany (20:13):
That's right.
Amanda (20:13):
If you have family that's in the Middle East right now, you're probably concerned on a personal level about what's happening there. So being aware that your audience is probably diverse, you might have people like that in the mix. And then thinking about what would happen if this email got forwarded to a competitor. How would somebody who already has a negative perception of the financial services industry feel reading this? Somebody who thinks like, "Oh, they're just out to profit on bad things that are happening." You don't want to give somebody ammunition for that.
Tiffany (20:53):
I can't think of any examples among our clientele, which is wonderful. But in other industries, I've seen it where people more in the B2C side are having sales or things like that, because there's a lot of activity or eyes on a certain thing. Again, I don't see that in our field, but it is something to think about. We don't want anything to feel like we are profiting off this or this isn't the time to ask for sales referrals. Again, I've never seen it, so I can't even say don't do this because I just don't know I've seen it among the people we work with because the people we work with get into this to care for people, but it is something to consider. You never know. There's probably some person out there who would think they can sell some insurance today or something.
(21:57):
Yeah. And just anyone affected by the crisis. I think also we're talking here about mass communications, so an email blast, social media, things like that. Obviously, if you have a client who’s affected, I can almost guarantee anyone listening would just pick up the phone and call that person in particular. So that's obviously a different level of communication, but what else? Anything else you want to talk about at a high level?
Amanda (22:28):
No, I mean, I think highlighting that last point you made is really critical too, that there's really something to be said if you’re in a client service, high-touch business. And if you know that somebody, if you know that personal backstory about one of your clients, it's really a lovely thing to do to pick up that phone and express direct concern for what they're going through. It goes a long way.
Tiffany (22:54):
Yeah. It can be hard in a political culture when people might agree with something that's going on around the world or might not agree, but what I have found — I don't know if this is helping anyone listening — but I'll just say, "Hey, I know this affects your family and people you care about, and I just want you to know I'm holding them in prayer and thoughts, holding them close." You don't have to comment on anything that's happening in the world. That's probably something we should have added to this — we probably want to leave politics out unless it's, again, to your brand voice if it makes sense, but there's nothing ever wrong with just saying, "Hey, this is impacting you, so just wanted you to know I’m thinking of you.”
Amanda (23:43):
I think that goes along with the point you made earlier about sticking with the facts. The facts are this is happening. I know you are being personally affected by it. I’m thinking of you.
Tiffany (23:56):
Yeah, exactly. And then of course, as the advisor, if you need anything, if there's things we can do to support, whatever, I think that's really important.
Tiffany (24:16):
I think we covered what we were going to do rapid fire a little bit, but so how do we know where to communicate and what? Oh, and are you going to mention it? Should I mention it? Our downloadable for this month?
Amanda (24:32):
I can plug it.
(24:34):
So we have actually put together a downloadable to address this very question and sort of this topic more broadly, which if you are subscribed to our email list, you will receive it. You can subscribe on our website. So when you're thinking about where to communicate, what to say where, like we were just saying, if you have a point of personal connection to, or one of your clients has a point of personal connection you're aware of to what's going on, a personal phone call or email is really nice. If you're going to send an email blast, that's really appropriate for communicating vital information to your entire client base all at once. Social media is great if you are looking to connect with an even broader community more immediately. So if there is something that's happening in your region and say your team is putting together donations for the local food bank because of something that's happened and you want to kind of put out a message like we'll come collect your donations and drive them down to the food bank, that's a great thing to put on social media.
(25:44):
And then your blog is content that takes a longer view.
(25:49):
Once things have kind of come into focus, don't rush to publish anything on the blog, but when you're able to take a longer view on what's happening, what are the facts and what can we do moving forward is great to put on the blog.
Tiffany (26:04):
Yeah, absolutely. A couple examples we've seen, especially for the blog, are things like local insurance information, how to file claims and things like that, if you're dealing with a local situation, because a lot of that is state by state, sometimes county by county, weird rules and things. And then the other one is escaping me. I know, if you're in an area prone to weather like hurricanes or tornadoes, that sort of thing. Those checklists of what documents you need. In wildfire areas that's a big one. If you're in a place where there's a lot of wildfires, which documents do you need to take with you if you have to evacuate, or things like that can be really helpful. But I think all of those come back to a place of caring about people and the community.
(27:02):
It's not a sales pitch. It's not trying to convince the audience to buy something or work with us. It's just we want to be there to help the community. So I think that's important. We already said this. How do we bring the brand voice in? Or the better way to ask it is how does it get lost in those sorts of external communications?
Amanda (27:29):
I think it gets lost when you rush to put something out when you are not ready. The power of the pause is real because it gives you a minute to come back to who are we, what does our brand do, and how do we want to speak to this thing? And so again, that idea of being flexible with tone when appropriate but keeping that brand voice really solid.
Tiffany (28:02):
Yep, absolutely. And we've definitely supported so many clients through this where they're like, okay, we wrote up the facts. Can you just read through this one more time to make sure it doesn't sound wild or doesn't sound loaded with emotion. Not to take away emotion. Compassion is a real emotion, kindness is real, but to make sure things don't sound overly stressed, a better word. So anything else? Any other questions? No. I know. I should have had a better boom, boom, boom. I should have been like, "Facebook, when do you post there?" But let's just remind everyone about that major step you just talked about — the power of the pause — because it does sometimes feel like we need to be getting this out today. And maybe sometimes I'm thinking of examples where if the office needs to close, everyone needs to work from home and the COVID days, you do have to get an email out pretty quickly, but even there you have 15 minutes, you have an hour.
Amanda (29:16):
And there's a difference between getting out timely information like our office is not open and you can reach us at this phone number versus getting out commentary or something that's more of a perspective. That's sort of the stuff you don't want to rush. You don't need to beat the New York Times News Alert. It's a bad idea. They're in the business of breaking stories. You’re in the business of keeping your clients calm and on their path, so there's no need to feel that pressure, but it’s easier said than done because social media will make you feel like you're behind.
Tiffany (30:00):
Absolutely. But even then, like I said, even if you have to get something out this afternoon, you have 10 minutes, you have 15 minutes, an hour for a colleague to look at it.
Amanda (30:11):
Exactly.
Tiffany (30:12):
Yeah, a trusted colleague or partner, someone who can just read it over and make sure it is communicating what you actually wanted to communicate. Yep. Fabulous. Well, thanks for joining us.
Amanda (30:29):
Thanks for having me.
Tiffany (30:31):
This is the first of many, many, so I’m excited. Well, like Amanda said, we've put together a whole guide on how to communicate. There's little checklists where you can second get, not second guess, what to double check yourself and make sure things feel like you.
(30:47):
And then like she said, a little bit of a guide of where to post what and when and things like that and things to think about from the finance side as far as compliance and all that kind of stuff. So if you're not already on our email list, make sure you join at outandaboutcommunications.com/community. Just drop your email in there. Super simple. We send things out monthly. And honestly, our team is having so much fun coming up with new resources and new ideas, so highly recommend you subscribe..
Amanda (31:22):
That resource library is ever growing!
Tiffany (31:26):
Yeah. We're constantly on the idea train like, let's add this. So definitely hop over there and tune in next time. I can't remember what we're covering but it's going to be fabulous. And again, we're just all about supporting everyone in the marketing seat in RIAs, in financial services. We know it can be lonely but we're here to have your back. So until next time, take care.
