Stephanie has always had a passion for helping others invest in quality nonprofits and social ventures. As the founder of Impact Finance Center, she is able to direct fundraising efforts from organizations to interested philanthropists.

Spotlight Summary

With a background in real estate investments and private equity, Stephanie has a unique perspective on the dollar. In this interview, Stephanie speaks on the concept of full spectrum capital and the gap in financial literacy within nonprofits. Her company, Impact Finance Center, partners with community foundations and associations to educate investors on ways to make their dollars more effective and beneficial to their causes.

Resources 

• Colorado Impact Days
• Impact Finance Center
• Stephanie’s LinkedIn

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please visit Stephanie’s website.

Thank you for watching our latest On Purpose interview. Make sure to share this feature on your social media, and stay tuned for our next guest!

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from Financial Services Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends by signing up here: 

Audio Transcription

Lauren Hong (00:03):

All right. Well, Stephanie, it's so great to have you. Thank you for taking the time to be here. I'm looking forward to hearing more about you and your business. I was just reading a little bit more about your bio and actually really had fun looking at your LinkedIn headlines. So I want to hear a little bit more about all that, especially the systems entrepreneur piece, the dancer. Before I try to attempt a proper introduction, I'll let you share a little bit more about your background, who you are, and I’m looking forward to hearing more about impact finance.

Stephanie Gripne (00:35):

Fantastic. So great to be with you, Lauren. My name is Dr. Stephanie Gripne. A lot of people call me Dr. Steph. I have been working in the financial markets since I started my real estate investing career back in 2000 to 2005 when I was a graduate student. My dad came to live with me and we developed an affordable housing program, helping families going through medical bankruptcy, and I just loved doing transactions. So I stepped away from a career in natural resources. My master's degree is in mathematical ecology and my PhD is in forest economics, but I decided I wanted to do transactions and deals. And so hundreds of deals later, I've lost track, I’ve probably done 300 to 500 transactions. I first did deals and a lot of it started with conservation real estate and funds.

Stephanie Gripne (01:29):

And then I joined a $100 million private equity fund. And so I went from what most of us do, doing individual transactions. I was like, wait, that's not enough. I want to do more. And that's funds. And then I was like, wait, funds, aren't moving enough money. And I want to fix the system. So I was recruited to be a professor at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business in 2012. I was the director for the initiative for sustainable real estate and a finance professor. I also had a position within the University of Colorado real estate validation. And that's where my journey started in the last chapter. And I just asked myself, why isn't somebody moving? All of these amazing human beings who have access to resources are intelligent. They're mission aligned, and the money's stuck and what's why is it stuck? And I came up with a couple of hypotheses of why it was stuck and a big part was what we call non- conflicted and investor education, people who would provide individuals and organizations with investment education from an organization that wasn't trying to raise the funds to become your investment advisor. And so that was my bet back in 2010 to 2012. And I've been doing that ever since.

Lauren Hong (02:54):

And then with that bet, is that what spun off Impact Finance Center or more about how that got running?

Stephanie Gripne (03:04):

Yeah. When I was a professor from 2010 to 2012, I realized quickly it wasn't the real estate. That was interesting. It was the innovative financial thinking we were doing. And now it's only recently in the last year, I've realized I'm actually just the restoration of college, just in the financial markets, which is really combining my natural resource background with my financial day-to-day job. And I realized a couple of things. We don't think about a grant dollar or if you're in a Fortune 100 company, a marketing dollar, a corporate social responsibility dollar, and an HR dollar or a research and development dollar as having a financial return. We think of it as an expense. And when in fact the financial return is negative 100% loss, which means when we coached the Walton Family Foundation to do a negative 50% return investment for $500,000, I can make a case that that's an above market rate investment at 50% versus giving your money away at negative 100% loss.

Stephanie Gripne (04:11):

And so this concept is what we refer to as full spectrum capital, that we actually have enough money to do what we would do if we would instead of me personally taking a dollar and donating it over here, a dollar of investing it with a friend and lending money at 2%, a dollar that I would invest in the stock market instead if I didn't break those dollars up into three different organizations, but kept them for one organization, I would take a dollar at negative 100%, a dollar at two and a dollar at 6%. That would be $3 at a negative 31% return. And that's the return we need to do the deep impact work to solve our wealth gap and help build community wealth, then grow wages in this country while kind of healing our environment at the same time. And so I think of myself as basically, if money is like the river is flowing, as my ecology background would say, I'm helping that flow from getting stuck and keep flowing.

Stephanie Gripne (05:15):

So I learned that there was full spectrum capital learning, there needed to be nonprofit entities teaching this work that we're trying to get something from somebody, then that these people with money and organizations are really smart. But they're in T-ball. And right now, when we ask them to write a $250,000 check to invest in affordable housing in Kansas City, they've never written a check like that before. That's like asking you and me to go and start swinging as a Kansas City Royal in the batter’s box at a 95-mile-an-hour fastball without ever having gone through T-ball. So we realized there was a deeper T-ball that's learning by doing this full spectrum capital and that the teaching should be non-conflicted. When I had those three ahas, I remember the sinking feeling and I thought, wait a minute, every entrepreneurship center in the United States, every university needs one of these, this curriculum, otherwise you're just building one side of the marketplace and then you'd take a step back.

Stephanie Gripne (06:17):

And you're like, wait, every university needs these classes and curriculum, and this mindset shift to save themselves. And then you take a step back and you realize individual money is organized and YPO loans and community foundations, and there's all these associations of money. And you realize everybody needs this curriculum, but at the time there were only 15 centers in financial innovation and impact investing. And that's when I realized, okay, let's create a nonprofit, which really starts off as a multi-university academic center. So we'll create a community asset of classes, online, in-person, one-on-one small group learning, and partner with universities and other associations of money. So we could bring that education to them.

Lauren Hong (07:02):

Very good. Is that related at all? So I noticed you have a number of clubs as a part of Impact Financial Center. Is there a little bit of a direct relation to that work or is that separate?

Stephanie Gripne (07:13):

Yeah, absolutely. So in Colorado, we built what we call our first marketplace impact from 2016 to 2018. And this was, I'll be honest, a midlife crisis project. A big foundation and university had come into Colorado because we had two billionaires locally who wanted to invest and they told us we didn't have shovel-ready projects. We didn't have impact investments, projects, non-profits, small businesses, startups, and funds that were investor ready, and they call that a capital absorption problem. And I had done a couple hundred deals at this point and I thought they wouldn't know a deal if it's right next to them and then pulled a chair and sat next to them. And so I convinced my team and 34 people to form a steering committee. And we came up with a three-year goal to catalyze $100 million locally and good things happened. There were projects. We ended up with non-profits, small businesses, startups, funds, and co-ops; it got a little out of control as a community project. We did 200 education events in person.

Lauren Hong (08:23):

Holy smokes. Wow.

Stephanie Gripne (08:24):

After 70 of them, we would rent out a big hotel. I literally almost went personally bankrupt cause I'd put all this stuff on my credit card. And then we would do a three-day education event, which we called Colorado Impact Days. And we would literally set up 60 to 100 investment opportunities like a farmer's market. And we activated about 85 investors over three years. We brought existing investors to the table and we would just introduce amazing people raising capital and having money to invest to one another. And after three years, we lost count. It's probably $300 to $500 million of capital. We proved that more money flows if you focus on activating investors and creating the farmer's market. And after that, several of our amazing non-profit lenders and CDFIs, which are community financial development institutions in Colorado, they were like, wait, you're done with the pilot after three years?

Stephanie Gripne (09:30):

I was like, yes, we're done with the pilot after three years. And then I'd still have to raise this money. And we're like, we're not an investment bank. That's not what we do. But we realized we could take a bodega out of the marketplace and have the CDFI advise and non-profit lenders, which we call our main street lenders, create investor clubs that were supposed to be in- person. And then the pandemic hit. So we kind of went from an in-person farmer's market at a hotel to a Sears Roebuck catalog online. And so the investor clubs are essentially bodegas of a larger subset and we ended up having the federal government call us supplementation membership organizations. When the pandemic hit, we got calls asking if you can help us raise capital.

Stephanie Gripne (10:15):

And so if a governor calls me and says, what's the one thing I can do to get money flowing, most people think the answer is to start a fund. And we're like, nope, first thing create a marketplace, but a small one, a bodega or a big one, impact days. If you can only do two things, Kansas and Colorado have 100,000 to 200,000 millionaires, you need to go identify them, educate them and activate them to invest in Kansas and Colorado. Because 1% of wealth in Colorado is $5 billion. If we could teach people in Kansas and teach people in Colorado to invest in Kansas and Colorado, we have plenty of money. And then the third thing is only when those investors are so happy with the abundant joy of seeing the marketplace, they're like, wait, there's so many good things to invest in. Then you build a fund and a rapport out of investor demand, not out of a hope and wish that we had that investment capital.

Lauren Hong (11:16):

Do you mind just speaking a little bit more about investing specifically back in states? You know, Colorado or Kansas, what's the thinking behind that?

Stephanie Gripne (11:28):

Great question. I am still a geeky academic at heart. And so in sociology, we break the world into a community of places. And so there’s a geography, a community of interest and a community of identity and interests could be regenerative agriculture, sustainable forestry identity could be women, people of color indigenous as example. I think what's also interesting in what we learned and I'm a recovering economist also in my earlier days, is that if you would have given me a list and right now a list of a thousand people who could be the first impact investors in the state of Kansas or in Colorado, I would have gotten an F minus on that test, because the first 155 people who've stepped up to invest in Colorado in different communities of interest were not the people I would've thought would stood up and raise their hand.

Stephanie Gripne (12:32):

So I learned I couldn't predict who the early adopters were. And then when somebody calls me with 10 million, a hundred million, a billion dollars and says, Stephanie, can you educate us on impact investing? I also have a difficult time predicting where they want to start because we have over close to a hundred tools across your governance, your philanthropy, your direct investing, or your public investments. And so I have to ask them back. What are you thinking when you say impact investing? Are you talking about evaluating your investment advisor and upgrading your governance and doing investment beliefs and evidence-based decision, education evaluation? Are you talking about your public markets and impact with ESG? Are you talking about direct investing in Kansas or actually trying to make your philanthropy more efficient? And so what we realized when we were in Colorado is we didn't have a bench, a deep bench in any community of interest, place or identity.

Stephanie Gripne (13:34):

And so a lot of people suggested Stephanie, just pick the environment or just pick early childhood to start the marketplace; don't be so big. And I said, the problem is, let's say Lauren, you had this awesome tech startup to help out women and children. The thing is in Colorado, two or three of your investors might invest in you because you're a woman-led startup. Because you're a technology startup, two or three of my investors might be interested. You could say you're supporting children. We didn't have 20 deep in any one of those. And so we needed to kind of build the big tent to find what people said they were at before they showed up at the hotel and said, oh yeah, I want to do women in social justice. And then they get excited about those opportunities when they're there.

Stephanie Gripne (14:21):

And so, it's interesting that I oftentimes get asked questions from social ventures about what the investors are looking for, as if it's dark chocolate or milk chocolate. And I have to remind them that you yourself are this incredible unique piece of chocolate and a box of chocolates. You're the caramel nugget, dark chocolate salted one, and your friend doing something similar as the cherry chocolate, but guess what, the investors are the same way. And so the best thing for all of us in Colorado, Kansas, around the country to do is really get clear on what type of chocolate we are in that box of chocolates and communicate that out to the world. So the social venture chocolates can find the investor chocolates and vice versa.

Lauren Hong (15:04):

Yep. That makes a lot of sense, aligning purpose and all of that. So I'd love to hear a little bit more, because you're doing so much in this space. And you've been able to really move the needle in different ways. What do you feel like is something that you're doing, that you've already done and you're in the process of doing, that you feel is perhaps disrupting the industry or is kind of challenging, maybe the status quo, how things have been done in the past.

Stephanie Gripne (15:32):

That's a great question. There's a new service tool. We're rolling it out right now. We referred to it as a philanthropic opportunity scan and we piloted this three or four times, but we just did the first one with the Gilson Family Foundation. And I'm excited about this because one of the more difficult conversions we have to get people excited about investing is donors. And people get confused about us a little bit. If you're an investor, you're thinking, oh, they're helping donors become impact investors, but we didn't do just as much work with investors to make them impactful. You know, it's having you look at both sides of the equation, but the cool part about the philanthropic opportunity scan is that the math and the money can sometimes get overwhelming to people and confusing. And so in this case, we're really talking about making your philanthropy more efficient from a source and use analysis.

Stephanie Gripne (16:29):

So you can say, Hey, program officer, Hey donor. Just tell us what you love and what you give to. And they might say something like partial scholarships, school facilities, economic development, and hospices, then you say, okay, you're giving that young, amazing person an $8,000 scholarship, which is awesome out of your negative 100% money. When they have a $70,000 student loan at 10% interest, you know, you've had a tax incentive since 1969 to give that student a $78,000 student loan at 1% out of your donor advised fund or foundation, you'll get 101% return plus a tax deduction. And you'll save that student more than the $8,000 you're giving them. And I think 50 to 100 percent of our philanthropy could be restructured to make the nonprofit better off. And the foundation learning about leaving the donor better off is a really rich learning opportunity to onboard a whole cohort of people that might say, oh, I don't do that. I'm a donor, they're investors. And so we're super excited about that new tool that's coming out.

Lauren Hong (17:38):

And what's the timeline on that, that project?

Stephanie Gripne (17:41):

It's live and going well. We just did our first one yesterday. And so it's a simple process and we're a nonprofit, so we make all of our tools and structures available to everyone.

Lauren Hong (17:56):

Congratulations. That's very exciting. It's exciting to hear about, too. And then, what makes you the proudest to be able to work in this space and to do the work that you do?

Stephanie Gripne (18:07):

Oh, that's a great question. We do our work. We spend 85% of our time teaching those with resources how to invest in the product, people leading projects, non-profits, small businesses, startups, and funds to save the world. And so the most heartbreaking thing I do is we hear from 50 to 100 of those people a month and saying, can you help us raise money? And we say, oh, we, we have a pro bono two hours a month and we'll help you as much as we can, but how we help you is by training and activating the money to do this. And so that's a long-term play. And there are a select group of amazing leaders all over the country, such as Anasa Troutman in Memphis, or Ricardo Rocha in Denver, Colorado, or Christina Hollenback with the Justice Capital Initiative.

Stephanie Gripne (19:03):

And these are just extraordinary human beings. Anasa, for example, she wrote a musical for Martin Luther King's 50th anniversary, and then local community members asked her if she would stay and actually find a way through some miracle to purchase the store at Clayborn temple and continue Martin Luther King's vision and dream of doing community wealth building. So when you get to support somebody like Anasa and kind of continue the arc of history in that way and her story in that way, it's pretty extraordinary. You can, when you're in Memphis, among civil rights leaders, and leaders in the religious community and the creative community, and you just, I'm getting chills right now. And I think about it, it's just you're doing your part to help weave together a new path for history.

Lauren Hong (20:04):

Yeah, that is so powerful. And I love to be able to hear it from you firsthand as well. So, you can tell you're passionate about it and, just hearing the narrative, not only of the work that you've done, but how all your background, you know, all blends together as well. So, with that, teaching and being a part of so many projects, what do you do to just stay sharp, to be able to stay relevant with everything going on?

Stephanie Gripne (20:30):

This is interesting. The pandemic was really good for me. I used to live on a plane and the pandemic forced us to be still. And for me, I'm starting to write three books, I'm teaching myself to play piano. I'm doing a lot of road biking and cycling and doing a race this weekend. I love partner dancing. That was the heartbreak for me during the pandemic, not being able to partner dance, but I've been able to go a couple of times as the pandemic got better. I think getting out of my mind and getting in nature and moving my body are key to staying sharp. And I should also give incredible kudos to the others in our space that are system entrepreneurs, that could be raising a billion dollar fund and making a lot of money. And we're choosing to fix the system. And whether that's Todd James of Full Spectrum Capital Partners or Lindy Limbus that realize impact and pledge and investor flow. And I count myself as extremely fortunate to be able to work with some of the best minds of our time that are working to fix the system.

Lauren Hong (21:47):

That's wonderful. And you didn’t answer my question about the dance piece. Where did that fit in? 

Stephanie Gripne (21:57):

It's funny because it wasn't until I took a CEO test, the Birkman, and I actually went to school for science for 12 years for my undergrad and graduate degree. And in the Birkman, science was one of the lowest scoring aptitudes I had, tied for first was persuasion and tied for second was music and service. And I didn't really identify as being musical. I was the scholar athlete jock, and in high school and college, I kept at three sports and I joke that I didn't even know where the trials were for drama or theater or anything else like that. And, after taking that test, I was like, I do love these. And I started writing songs and I'm a white girl with no rhythm and it didn't matter. I just love partner dancing so much that I started doing it, three to four nights a week and getting good at it. And it remains my great passion. And I do love giving talks on stage, which is a lot like acting and drama. So I've been very fortunate in my 40s to discover something that was, I think, always in me, but I didn't realize. 

Lauren Hong (23:13):

I agree it's so important, as you mentioned earlier, to be able to free your mind and move your body, to be able to have that white space, to think creatively and do your best work. So I'm glad you've been able to slip it in a little bit more now that things are, hopefully, continuing on the upward swing. So, is there anything else you'd like to share?

Stephanie Gripne (23:37):

What I will share is this. We teach a lot of couples and brothers and sisters and families, with a lot of resources right now. And I love this analogy. I have a couple that loves backcountry skiing. And, the fact is, if you have resources and you care about making the world a better place, it is now possible to align your money. It's painful. I won't lie. It's like going on a backcountry ski slope, but it is now possible to do it. And so if your investment advisor says, you can't do it, or somebody says, oh, it's this, or this, or this, you need to find somebody else. And if you're open to going on that adventure, as I told this couple I work with, I'm your backend, your speed guide.

Stephanie Gripne (24:27):

And, I'm not sure how we're going to get to the bottom of the mountain, but we've been to the bottom of a mountain a few times, and we're pretty sure we can get there. And so those people who are willing to be bold and take those steps and do it, I know it's difficult. I just suggested out of a large bank this year and have my money in alignment myself. And it's a lot of work. It took me a year and it's completely worth it. It's what will change and heal our communities and our environment and the way that we all want to live.

Lauren Hong (25:02):

Thank you so much for sharing and also appreciate you sharing your narrative and how you got to where you are today. It's very inspirational and I'm rolling back to the website and if there's any other resources, I’m happy to print those out as well,

Stephanie Gripne (25:16):

I'll share a couple with you and thank you so much, Lauren, for doing what you do and taking the time to interview people. 

Lauren Hong (25:22):

Absolutely. And best of luck with the book projects. I look forward to hearing more about those. I know that will feel good, I'm sure. Once you're able to get those out and check that box off. 

Stephanie Gripne (25:34):

Yeah. I don't think I've ever said that publicly on a recording. So it is really nice to have the accountability of doing it. And so for those of you who've written those books, you know it's a journey.

Lauren Hong (25:46):

Absolutely. Now it takes a village. Right. So, well again, thank you. I appreciate your time. And we'll link those resources below. 

Stephanie Gripne (25:56):

Thank you, Lauren. Have a wonderful day.

When was the last time you took a hard look at your brand? The tone of voice. The colors. The layout of your website. Does it represent the future of your financial services firm?

Your company is different from when your brand was first established, but has the brand evolved alongside? Consumers must be able to look at any part of your online presence—social media, logo, website—and understand who your company is right now. According to Action Card, it only takes 10 seconds for a consumer to gather their first impression of your brand. This is why it’s so important that everything comes together to create the perfect representation of your company and why you are the best firm for their needs.

Stay up-to-date with the latest trends

The biggest branding faux pas is to stay stagnant. While you don’t need an overhaul every month, it’s good to analyze your brand frequently to see where change is needed. Your company has changed in the last four years, so your brand should, too! Financial services should not equal a dull design.

• Try using a serif typeface in your website header and a sans serif typeface in your body text for a dynamic feel.
• Use a combination of warm and cool colors for a vibrant and attractive color palette.
• Minimalism is in! Play with the negative space in your layout to see what looks the best.
• Find out what type of websites your target audience visits to gain inspiration and design ideas.

Add flair and personality to your brand

While it is important to stay modern and trendy, it’s also necessary to use individuality to set yourself apart from the competition. Take a look at your firm. Are you classy and sophisticated? Maybe vibrant and energetic? Use patterns, shapes, and the tone of your copy to show what kind of firm you are, and why clients need to hire you.

Helpful tips for a new rebrand

Branding is a complex and detailed process, which is why it is common to hire out the process. If you are wanting to rebrand your financial services firm by yourself, here are some things to look out for.

• Leave behind any preconceived notions. Financial services used to be very conservatively designed, but it is modernizing quickly. Don’t be afraid to explore!
• Pay attention to who your target market is. Make sure the language and images you use are well-suited for the clients you want.
• Use images, but use them wisely. Make sure the images you use show a diverse audience, and especially include your target market. If potential clients don’t see themselves in your pictures, they won’t think they are a good fit. Also, use internal photos when possible to humanize your firm.
• Demonstrate who you want to become. “Dress for the job you want” does not only apply to clothes. Your brand can lead you down the path to the future you desire instead of keeping you stagnant. Make sure your brand can scale with you.
• Be ready for change. Rebranding is an exciting experience, but it can seem intimidating. Don’t hold yourself back by being unwilling to revitalize.

Ready for a facelift?

Whether you’re wanting to change a font or two, or ready for a complete redesign, Out & About Communications can be a branding resource. For more encouragement, check out this video about the power of branding or this blog post with five ideas of small changes you can make to tighten up your brand.

As a sales consultant for TriNet, Kira Frye focuses solely on helping financial services companies create a streamlined process around HR, employee benefits, risk and compliance, and back office policies and procedures.

Spotlight Summary

For Kira Frye, companies in the financial services industry cannot underestimate the power of a positive company culture. Kira works with small to midsize businesses to create a tailored HR strategy and employee support system to ultimately help them grow. To do this, she believes it’s essential to be current in the ever-changing industry by staying on top of trends ranging from cryptocurrency to fintech. 

Resources 

• TriNet Company Website 
• “Top 10 Tips for Creating an Employee Recognition Program”
• “The Secret Recipe for Workplace Culture”
• HR Services Financial Services

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please visit Kira’s LinkedIn page. 

Did you enjoy learning about HR benefits for financial services? Share it with others!

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from Financial Services Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends by signing up here: 

Audio Transcription

Lauren Hong (00:00):

Thanks so much for being with us today. Excited to hear more about your role. And I know you've worked in the financial services space and with a number of different companies, especially in Southern California. So I'm going to actually, before I steal your thunder here, pass it over to you to share a little bit more about your background and your role in and seeing the inside of different financial services companies.

Kira Frye (00:32):

Yeah. And thanks so much for having me, Lauren. I'm really excited to be a part of this blog series. A little bit about me, Kira Frye, I've been in San Diego now for close to seven years and with the company that I'm with now, TriNet, an HR co-employment professional employer organization, about two and a half years. I’ve been solely focused on the financial services industry, which makes me really excited to talk to you because we both kind of work in that same space and we're supporting the same, C level, Gen X, millennial generation, and hopefully helping them achieve their growth goals and their organizational objectives through basically kind of giving different solutions and a mindset that is not traditionally what is in the market. So, something top- of-mind when I've been talking to a lot of the CEOs in this space and around our age is their excitement around our model, that it is different.

Kira Frye (01:48):

It's consolidating multiple vendors for HR, such as your payroll, your workers' comp, your medical benefits and all your benefits all under one house, one platform, one unified solution versus kind of having them siloed. You know, you have a broker for workers' comp, the brokers for medical benefits. And then some of these smaller businesses may not even have an HR person that is certified, and being in California, there are a lot of compliance concerns around that, where the legality in terms of possible employment lawsuits comes up and that could put some of these businesses out of business. So we come in and really provide support. And that's what makes me excited to partner with these businesses here in San Diego.

Lauren Hong (02:40):

That's great. And since we are seeing the inside of a space, do you think that there is anything within financial services that either leadership's doing, or maybe HR tactics that are being implemented that you feel like are really disrupting the industry or on trend to be disruptive from kind of not just the way it is now or the way it's been, but what it could look like in the future?

Kira Frye (03:03):

Yeah, I'm definitely having those conversations, especially in HR. We're seeing so much turnover, not just in financial services, but just in companies in general, but in financial services being impacted by it, I think, due to COVID and people kind of realizing benefits and HR and culture are really important to the employees now. So they're now looking elsewhere. And there's a lot of opportunities and options for people to look at alternatives and with us coming in and being that co-employer and that partner, we get on that Fortune 500 look that some of those large private equity firms have for these small to midsize companies, under a hundred employees. So we really try to enhance that culture, give them those options. Really rich benefits as well as the support on the HR side and employee marketplaces are things that our generation, the millennials, as well as the Gen Xers really appreciate.

Lauren Hong (04:14):

Okay. So if I'm hearing you correctly, then it's also about not just offering someone a package, right, when they're coming on the team, but what does that full company culture look like and how would that be implemented on the HR end? Not just kind of here's the offer, but it's that full client experience, and it looks different because of the pandemic and all of that as well.

Kira Frye (04:39):
Exactly. Yeah. So really being that support and hopefully enhancing the overall, like I said, the culture of the company.

Lauren Hong (04:52):

Yeah. That makes sense. And then is there anything within financial services that you feel like is, gosh, if this would happen, cause you're getting the bigger picture, if this would happen, it would really help to speed up growth for organizations or really help them to stand out, or is there anything you think is hurting organizational growth within this space?

Kira Frye (05:17):

Yeah, I guess on the HR side, I think it's really about improving and supporting employee morale and rewarding the employees, whatever that may be. Some of the things I like to suggest are rewards programs, and those can even be talked about with how we would position our partners we work with. And I think that would really help financial services companies differentiate themselves. Like I like to say, registered investment advisors, there's a lot of those companies, and firms that are actually getting ready to sell and I guess they're selling or staying within the family, but the younger generation and our generation really likes to be complimented and showcase our abilities and what we can do in the space and the industries we're in.

Kira Frye (06:28):

And I think of rewards programs as one to use. I think just having a tailored support system, because every individual is so different and some people are really part of that brand part of that organization. I think that's where financial services can really look to grow. I'm trying to think anything else that I can think of off the top of my head, but that would be the main one I would see and talk about.

Lauren Hong (07:25):

Do you guys help to put together programs?

Kira Frye (07:28):

We have some included, yes. And we can include it in our service model. Yes.

Lauren Hong (07:36):

All right. And then, what makes you the proudest about working for TriNet?

Kira Frye (07:47):

When our company, as a partner, enhances the culture including improving employee morale. This helps the owners, founders, CEOs, of these, at financial service companies anywhere from five employees all the way up to a few hundred, it helps them achieve their overall growth goals because people are just so proud of working at this private equity firm that started with four or five employees. And now they're up to 20 within a year, or a few hundred in the next few years. It just becomes truly synergetic because we’re trying to help them get there. I love talking to the clients that I brought on that say we couldn't have done this without you guys as a partner. So that kind of makes me the proudest, day in and day out, when I hear how much the entire company from employees to CEOs appreciates the partnership. 

Lauren Hong (08:48):

So it sounds like you're not just having conversations about tactical implementation, but what are real strategic ideas that help them differentiate themselves? And how do you implement that across the board if I'm understanding you correctly? 

Kira Frye (09:03):

We want to have those meetings, full conversations, as a consultant in the HR space to really help them achieve those strategic goals that they're trying to implement in the next six months or a year. 

Lauren Hong (09:19):

And you have the benefit of being able to see from an umbrella picture some of that decision-making for a number of companies in this space. So I think that's also a really interesting perspective because not everyone has the fortune to be able to see what you can as it impacts people's day to day and either their company culture or how that company stands out.

Kira Frye (09:47):

I really enjoy that piece of it. Yes.

Lauren Hong (09:49):

That's understandable to hear. Because that's a gift to be able to see that and then to help advise other people on what can set them apart. And I'm sure you've got like a finely tuned ear now, too. I've heard that or that sounds like this or that. I'm sure you align your services with things that can really help them to shine, too. 

Kira Frye (10:17):

Exactly. We try to tailor it to impact their objectives as best we can.

Lauren Hong (10:24):

Yeah. That's fair. And then what do you do to help stay relevant? In this industry there's all different kinds of things that are happening in between fintech or just different conferences or thinking and research. And then not only do you pair that with HR and especially in California, that's kind of a beast. What do you do to make sure that you're advising and ensuring that these companies are getting the really ripe knowledge and information?

Kira Frye (10:57):

Yeah. So internally, our company does do a lot of great webinars, and I know a lot of companies are doing webinars and so are we, so I think that is very beneficial and relevant when the topic is something that the financial services firms are really focusing on at the moment, like a really hot button issue is employment tax retention credits. Employment retention tax credits can be very meaningful to consumer lending firms that are on a growth trajectory and then took a pause right at COVID and then they start growing again because mortgage lending firms, just that industry, is booming right now. So that's one piece and how we provide support. And then the other thing I do daily is I read The Morning Brew to just stay relevant overall and know what's going on because I don't technically always watch the news.

Kira Frye (11:56):

And then, specifically for financial services, I do the San Diego Business Journal daily as well, and Crunchbase, because I tend to focus on private equity firms and venture capital. I really like to know what's going on locally, as well as nationally in the investment space and acquisition space. So Crunchbase has been a really good one for me because of the companies I target here in San Diego. And I see when there's been a close of a fund or an acquisition. I can be very specific in reaching out and being supportive when that happens and hopefully make some meaningful introductions. And I'm trying to think of anything else. Some events I really think are good for our financial services industry and I attend pretty often are from ACG, Association for Corporate Growth. They hold some great events here. There's just a lot of great people to connect with. And I love seeing over and over again and talking and seeing people move from certain financial firms or are still at the same one.

Lauren Hong (13:20):

Excellent. This is really helpful. Is there anything else you'd like to share that you think could be relevant?

Kira Frye (13:25):

I'm trying to think. The only other thing is that the space is always ever changing from cryptocurrency and specs as a way to invest or go public versus the traditional S&P and IPOs. I think there's a lot of great information that has been circulating around those topics. I think that's about it. Technology has always played a role; I think it enhances and it's also disruptive, especially in the financial services space. But from my seat in HR and in this industry, I really want to help as a partner, enhancing the experience side of the business and HR obviously for the employer.

Lauren Hong (14:20):

That makes a lot of sense. I appreciate you sharing that, too. So this has been very helpful. Thank you for sharing a little bit more about your background. And then also, as I mentioned earlier, it's helpful because you do see that  umbrella-level view, and talk with so many different companies in this space. So I think you provide a really unique lens to be able to help guide not just where that company is, but where they want to go from a business strategy perspective. So it's helpful to hear that firsthand. Thank you again for your time today and I look forward to hearing more.

Kira Frye (14:53):

Thank you for having me and I can’t wait to connect again. Absolutely.

Finding clients becomes a lot easier when you know exactly who you’re looking for. Identifying your ideal client, or your target market, and then delving into who they are—their values, likes, dislikes, etc.—is just the first step. Then, it’s time to provide them valuable insight and content to keep you on their radar.

Our experience shows one of the most effective ways to do this is through email marketing.

Why Use Email Marketing to Connect with Potential Clients

In today’s world, emails are a highly valued form of digital currency. They’re one of the best ways to reach people directly. Here are a few reasons why:

• Strong ROI. According to research from The Direct Marketing Association, companies can expect an average of $42 return for every $1 spent. This makes the initial investment into email marketing worth it in the long run.
• Widespread use. Regardless of who your target market is, they most likely use email regularly. Statista found that in 2019, 293.6 billion emails were sent and received every day. You want to focus your efforts on platforms your target market is using.
• Easy to personalize. Your content is crafted just for your audience, and email marketing platforms like Hubspot make personalization easy. Simply adding personalized subject lines and introductions are ways to increase your open rate. According to Yes Lifecycle Marketing, emails with a personalized subject line generate a 50% higher open rate than those that are more general.

How To Build an Email List

Before you can use email in your marketing strategy, you need email addresses for those in your target market. There are several ways to get these. You’ll want to find the best strategy, or combination of strategies, for your company based on your available resources.

• Lead forms. You cannot expect people to just give you their email address. Instead, you need to offer something valuable to your target market in exchange for access to their inbox. A lead form asks a person to provide their email to receive a valuable piece of content such as a free ebook. Whatever the content is, it should provide authentic solutions to a problem your potential clients have. For example, if you’re targeting millennials, you might offer an ebook titled, Start Saving Younger and Retire Earlier.
• Use your network. Look to see what emails you may already have access to. Compile a list of emails from your inbox or LinkedIn account. These could be people you’ve worked with before, former clients, or anyone who might be interested in what your business is offering or the value it provides.
• Buy a list. If you go this route, make sure to buy an email list that closely resembles your target market. Keep in mind these people haven’t signed up directly through your business, so they are much cooler leads than if they came through a lead form or your network. With that in mind, you want to keep your emails relatively short and make sure to highlight some relevant, expertise-based content, not just your own services. Don’t lead with “Switch to my bank to get mobile banking.” Instead, maybe provide valuable information such as “The benefits of mobile banking.”

How To Implement a Successful Email Marketing Strategy

A successful email marketing strategy in its most basic form requires the use of an email marketing platform, clearly defined goals, and providing valuable insight within each email.

Choosing an Email Marketing Platform

A benefit of email marketing is the automation component. You are not going in and emailing your entire list every week or month. Instead, you’re able to pre-schedule messages to be sent out on a regular basis. To do this, you’ll need to find the right email service provider for your company.

Some things to consider when choosing an email marketing platform include:

• What personalizations are available?
• Can I segment my email list into groups?
• What data is gathered and how easily can I access it?

Clearly Define Goals

Email marketing campaigns are used for a variety of reasons—driving sales, raising brand awareness, and nurturing leads are just a few. Before you start crafting content and sending emails, make sure the goal is well-established across your entire team. 

Some things to consider when designing your company’s goal for email marketing campaigns include:

• How does our email marketing goal align with our overall business objectives?
• Are we able to easily track and measure progress?
• What is a realistic goal for our target audience?

Creating Valuable Emails

With a platform chosen and goal defined, it’s time to start crafting your emails. This is your opportunity to provide valuable content to your target market. What your ideal client finds valuable will most likely depend on their unique pain points.

Using tools such as market research or surveys can provide you with specific problems for you to address, such as, “I’m worried I’m not saving enough for retirement, and I want more information about how to prepare.” Other times, you may need to infer what your ideal client perceives as valuable based on what you know about them. For example, “I’m struggling with compliance regulations.” This is where knowing your target market inside and out is critical.

With email marketing, not only are you addressing their pain points and building your credibility, you’re staying top-of-mind for when they are ready to seek out your services.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind when creating content for your emails:

• Don’t focus on sales. Always add value to your emails instead of only discussing your services or offering up a sales pitch. This might be in the form of strategy suggestions or practical tips like “How to Modernize Your Payroll Methods.” This content should speak specifically to your target market. For example, if you are gearing your emails toward millennials, you might do a series on “Easy Ways to Start Saving for Retirement in Your 20s.”
• Be interactive. Go beyond the typical newsletter format and engage your reader. Do not be afraid to add videos, sliders, collapsable menus, and GIFs. Data from MarTech Advisor found adding videos can increase email click rates by 300%! You might consider including a video you make in-house that highlights your company culture; a relevant news clip your ideal client would care about (maybe on cryptocurrency or the growing SaaS industry); or a humorous video, such as an SNL skit parodying the insurance claim process.
• End strong. Each email should conclude with a strong call-to-action (CTA). This directs your reader to do something beyond reading the email: book a call, read a related blog post, learn more about what services you offer, etc. Keep the copy of your CTA short and to the point such as “Learn More” or “Schedule a Call.”

Knowing your target market is great, but how you reach that group of people is essential for your company to scale and grow. Developing and implementing an email marketing strategy is a great place to start that growth.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to use data from your email marketing campaigns, read our previous blog, “3 Tips to Using Email Data to Drive Sales.”

A proud San Diego native, Daniel Lozier works for Primary Funding as the director of sales and marketing.

Daniel has spent nearly 10 years at Primary Funding, working in a variety of roles. His current leadership position allows him to help position the company for long-term success by focusing on their team and the client experience. In his experience, Daniel believes total transparency is key in tackling misconceptions in the industry, such as factoring as a cost.

How is your company positioning itself for success long term?

What a great question and certainly something that is always on our mind! There are a number of initiatives we’re implementing to ensure our success over the long term, but to highlight some of the more significant ones:

Investing in our Team

We understand our success is driven by building a team of motivated and enthusiastic people. Knowing this, it’s our responsibility as owners, to create a positive atmosphere where our team feels supported, challenged, and fulfilled. This is something that is top-of-mind on a day-to-day basis. However, a few unique things we do to support this are:

• Really emphasizing work-life balance. Every year we give our employees $1,000 to put toward a vacation of their choice!
• Conducting weekly meetings with each team member. We check in on workload, challenging situations, and areas we can provide support.
• Holding monthly all-company meetings. We collaboratively discuss our goals and strategic initiatives and our progress toward each one.
• Acknowledging the accomplishment when goals are met. We like to treat the team to some unique outing or getaway to celebrate!

Creating a Positive Client Experience 

Our ultimate goal is to help our clients grow and succeed! From the initial onboarding process to years into our relationship, we are always mindful of and looking for ways to support that goal and create a positive experience. We’ve invested in technology to streamline our processes; have structure in place to assist our clients with any of their business needs; and most importantly, we are sure to check in and ask our clients how we are handling the relationship. At the end of the day, we do business with people and we never want to lose sight of that!

What makes you proudest about working for your company or in the financial services industry?

I’m most proud of the fact that our team members all live by and hold each other accountable to our company’s core values (listed below). It’s common for organizations to talk about their core values at orientation day and then seemingly never bring them up again. For us, living by our core values is first and foremost. Our core values hang on our office wall; they are one of the first things you see when you walk in our office, and we are sure to bring them up and check in as much as we can!

Core Values

1. Be truthful and only make promises you can keep.
2. Find ways to improve the company and yourself.
3. Be respectful — treat others the way you want to be treated.
4. Embrace change for the sake of progress.

What is the most unpopular opinion in the industry, and how do you address it?

The most unpopular opinion in my industry (factoring) is the cost. Factoring as a product and its associated costs are often misunderstood and inappropriately compared to traditional bank lending. For me, the best way to address this issue is straight on with full transparency.

This generally requires a collaborative conversation about what factoring is and the problem it’s intended to solve. Some common talking points I find are:

1. Factoring should be used as an alternative to traditional bank financing. I always tell my clients, if a traditional FDIC insured bank (meaning a Chase, Bank of America, etc.) is able to provide you with the capital necessary to achieve your growth objectives, start there. In the event the bank is unable or cannot approve you for the amount necessary, then factoring is a great option. In a situation where a company has been declined by a bank and wants to grow, its typical options are:

a. Borrow from friends and family: This may be viable, but from my experience, when companies are experiencing high growth scenarios, family and friends just don’t have enough.

b. Raise capital and dilute equity: This is time-intensive, intrusive, and in the end can be the highest cost.

c. Use factoring: It is flexible and scalable, isn’t considered debt, and doesn’t require owners to give up equity.

2. Factoring is for everyone. This just isn’t true! First, factoring looks at monetizing a company’s accounts receivable, which means the company has to be selling its product or service to other businesses (B2B sales). In doing so, factoring wouldn’t work for businesses that are direct to consumer, retail shops, bars, or restaurants. Second, factoring is best used when looking to take advantage of high growth scenarios. If sales are flat or declining, factoring may not be the best solution. Third, factoring should be looked at as a cost of doing business and as a result has a direct impact on your gross profit margins. When exploring factoring, it’s important you understand what your margins are and determine if you can absorb the marginal cost.

3. Factoring is too expensive. This simply isn’t true. On average, my clients are only paying 2% to 2.5% of a given invoice. In growth scenarios, this is a nominal discount to pay to grow! Think about this:

If a company gets in front of a new PO/contract but isn’t able to fulfill it because it doesn’t have enough cash on hand (capital is tied up in A/R and inventory), does it make sense for that company to decline the new opportunity or look at factoring (monetizing) a few existing invoices at a small discount (2% to 2.5%) to fulfill the new order?

If you enjoyed learning about Daniel, share this spotlight!

Resources 

• Primary Funding
• PFC Gazette (Company Newsletter)
• “Accounts Receivable Financing/Factoring”
• Get to Know Daniel Lozier
• Primary Funding Facebook
• Primary Funding LinkedIn
• Primary Funding Twitter
• Primary Funding YouTube Channel

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please visit Daniel’s LinkedIn page.

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from Financial Services Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends by signing up here: 

In financial services, the SaaS (Software as a Service) market continues to boom. According to Crunchbase, as of June 2020, there were over 15,000 SaaS companies in the US. With this growing competition, trying to appeal to the masses often means your platform gets lost in the clutter. This is why knowing yourself as a business and knowing your target market inside and out are key.

Start by asking yourself, What’s my unique differentiator? Once you know that, you’re able to pick the right business strategies to reach your ideal client. 

As a SaaS company, your focus is on long-term client retention. You don’t operate on a transactional “one and done” basis, but are looking to build lasting relationships. Traditional marketing doesn’t always work with this model. 

Here are four hyper-digital marketing strategies that you can align to your specific business goals. 

Account-Based Marketing

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) is a unique growth strategy where your marketing and sales team collaborate to “create personalized buying experiences for a mutually identified set of high-value clients.” For SaaS companies with high-ticket platforms, this strategy is especially useful. 

With ABM, you aren’t starting with lead generation. Instead, an ABM approach focuses less on getting a high number of leads and more on getting the right leads. This is done by identifying the best-fit potential clients for your company. This might mean focusing on local financial advisors or payroll companies that serve businesses with 50+ employees. 

Once you’ve identified this target market, here are some ABM approaches to consider:

• Use an account planning template. This is a great way to make sure your marketing and sales teams are on the same page and the overall plan aligns with your business goals and initiatives. Hubspot offers free account planning templates for download.  
• Attract high-quality clients. Since you aren’t appealing to the masses, this requires a different approach than traditional marketing. For example, instead of relying on email marketing, you might ask a leader from your ideal client’s company to be a special guest on a podcast, video series, or blog.
• Nurture relationships with prospects. This is an essential part of ABM and it will be done over a number of months, or potentially years. You’ll want to focus on providing personalized content and interaction. We suggest always communicating one-on-one when possible. This can be through email, texting, phone call, videocall, or in person. 

Paid Ads    

With these, you’re creating digital ads geared toward your target market. The ads should use the keywords your ideal client is searching to make sure you’re reaching those quality leads. The goal of paid ads can vary from brand awareness to lead generation. Whatever the goal is, you need to drive traffic to a specific place such as the “Book a Phone Call” page on your site or a landing page to get an email address.

There are several different approaches you can take to do this:

• Social media ads. Unfortunately, studies have found organic content is no longer favored by the algorithms of platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Now is the time to capitalize on paid ads, as they tend to rank higher. To get the most out of your ads on social media, make sure to set the parameters such as demographics and interests. For example, if your target market is millennials who live in San Francisco and are business owners, make sure those are the people your ads are geared toward. 
• Retargeting ads. These are intended to reach previous visitors to your site who did not take any action (such as booking a discovery call). When that person is on a different site, a relevant ad for your business will appear. It reminds them of your business without having them actively search for it. Platforms like Mailchimp and AdRoll are perfect for running retargeting ads.
• Pay-per-click (PPC). This approach to online advertising involves you paying only when a user clicks on your ad. These ads appear on search engines like Google when users type in keywords relevant to your business. An increasing number of businesses are leveraging PPC ads due to their success rate. According to WordLead, people who click on a PPC ad are 50% more likely to make a purchase when compared to people who click on an organic search result.      

Regardless of the type of ad, remember that everything needs to be aligned back to your business’s strategic objectives. 

Lead Generation Funnels

Creating a lead generation funnel is a key component of your overall  marketing strategy. 

This is your starting point for your interactions with most potential clients. It’s helpful that lead generation weaves into other strategies we’ve discussed, such as ABM or paid ads.  

Right now, emails are the most valued currency in the digital marketing world. Your goal is to get the email address of potential clients with the hope of “funneling” them through to purchasing your platform. 

As you start creating your own lead generation funnels, here are a few components to remember:

• Clear call-to-actions (CTAs). On your website and in your ad copy, these are written directives to encourage someone to take an action. Make sure all your CTAs are straightforward, such as “Start Your Free Trial Today” or “Subscribe Now.” They should clearly express what the person is doing while creating a sense of urgency. 

• Lead magnets. These act as a way to attract ideal clients and move them through the funnel. In exchange for their email address, you’re offering something of value (a downloadable resource, free templates, how-to video, etc.). Just make sure your lead magnet addresses a specific pain point of your target market. For example, if you’re targeting insurance companies that are struggling to digitize their sales pipeline, you might create a download addressing that issue. 

• Drip emails. Once you have the digital currency, your focus should shift to staying top-of-mind. Your potential client most likely won’t buy right away, but you want your business to be what they think of when they’re ready. A drip email campaign is a great way to do this because it provides a steady stream of valuable content to subscribers.  

Sales Cadence

When you have a sales team, this strategy works extremely well. It involves your team coming together, looking at the annual calendar, and designing a sequence of touchpoints to align with major events, such as industry conferences. You will start with the very first interaction and plan out a sequence until the prospect hopefully becomes a client.

As you build your sales cadence, here are a few pieces to include:

• Plenty of touchpoints. Traditionally, experts have said it takes about eight touchpoints to make a sale. Between COVID-19 and an increasing digital landscape, we’ve seen the number rise to 10–12 or more. Each touchpoint allows you to build trust and credibility with a potential client and process them through the sales funnel. 
• Variety of mediums. Your sales cadence should not just rely on one channel. Make sure your touchpoints come from different mediums, including paid ads, emails, and personal phone calls. Determine where your target market is most active and leverage those specific platforms throughout the process. If you target millennial financial advisors who communicate mostly through texting, make sure that’s a channel you include.
• Space out interactions. You never want to overwhelm a prospect by reaching out too often This is why aligning your sales process to a yearly calendar is a great starting point. For example, if you’re targeting local banks that are looking to harness the power of the cloud, you might start your sales cadence a week before a major industry conference. Then, the following touchpoints might be spaced like so:some text
  • Day 1: Send a personalized email regarding the upcoming conference
  • Day 12: Send an email that references the conference and pitches your platform
  • Day 15: Send a follow-up email
  • Day 20: Make a follow-up phone call and leave a voicemail if you aren’t able to speak to someone 

With a proper sales cadence in place, you’re more likely to drive leads through the sales funnel.

As you implement these strategies, remember it all comes back to knowing yourself as a business and knowing who you’re trying to reach. Learn more about this from our previous blog post on the importance of target markets.     

After spending years as an educator and classroom teacher, Kristin Hull launched Nia Impact Capital in 2013. Her goal was to bring activism and impact investing into the public markets.

In her professional and personal life, Kristin is dedicated to empowering individuals, families, and organizations to invest in alignment with their values. The ultimate motivation behind the founding of Nia was to help marginalized populations (women, minorities, etc.) grow their portfolios while investing in the economy they want to see.

Watch our interview below.

Resources 

• “Investing and Working With a Gender Lens” 
• “The Money Doula” Blog Post
• “An Investors'​ Guide to Investing for Racial Equity”
• “Diversifying Investments: A Study of Ownership Diversity and Performance in the Asset Management Industry.”
• Kristin Hull LinkedIn Profile
• Nia Impact Capital Facebook Page
• Nia Impact Capital Instagram Profile

To learn more about our On Purpose guest, please follow her on Twitter or visit https://www.niaimpactcapital.com/.

On Purpose: Growth Trajectory Strategies from Financial Services Leadership

The goal of the On Purpose series is to elevate leadership insight from the financial service industry's best and brightest. We do this by showcasing changing trends in mentorship, business strategies, marketing, and company culture. Stay up on these trends by signing up here: 

Audio Transcription

Lauren Hong (00:00):

So Kristin, it’s really great to have you here. We're excited to hear more about your business and more about your passion as it relates to the space that you're currently working in. So let's go ahead and get started. And do you want to just share a little bit about your background, and we'll go from there.

Kristin Hull (00:21):

Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me Lauren. I'm happy to be here. I am Kristin Hall and I am the founder and CEO at Nia Impact Capital. Nia means intention and purpose. So we are here with intention and purpose, and we build purpose-driven portfolios in public markets, specifically investing at the intersection of environmental sustainability and social justice. And I came to this path with a very strong focus on really wanting to make a difference. I grew up in a trading firm. My dad actually started a trading firm in our garage as I was growing up, you know, as one does in California. And so I had a really early exposure to what it meant to buy low and sell high with high-frequency trading. And yet I went into the field of education because being a classroom teacher felt like an important place to play. It was also a really important place for me to be creative and really understand that change and growth takes place one conversation at a time. And so I'm now full circle. Having sold the family business, I was able to step back and really look at what is needed. And we were able to harness financial markets for financial gain really well. And so now at Nia, we actually have several hats and several lenses. We are harnessing financial markets for environmental sustainability and social justice, as well as financial gains.

Lauren Hong (01:58):

How did you get to that intersection? I mean, there's so many places within that. You could utilize your skill sets within the financial services space. Why that?

Kristin Hull (02:08):

You know, I was starting a charter school in Oakland with a team of co-founders and when we finished buying the building, getting the mortgage, getting loans from the city, working with the city about how to do a playground, adding in, you know, blood, sweat, and tears, as far as labor and building the playground and painting the walls and setting up classrooms. And I had helped work on that project a lot and people looked at me and they said, Kristin, how did you do this? When we were talking about a capital campaign, I realized that I was working with some really smart people. None of them had the financial background I had and I thought I'm really sitting on something. It was my responsibility to share those skills to others who didn’t grow up listening to put-in calls and commodities and options from the backseat of the station wagon. It's hard to just jump into this world.

Kristin Hull (03:09):

And so I thought, you know what, I want to make it easier for women and people of color in particular, but for everybody to be able to get their money out of the bad stuff and put it into the good stuff that will help grow their own portfolios. And then also help people invest into the economy that they want to see, because we really do get the economy we invest into. And so directing our dollars into solutions-focused companies. And in our case, all of our companies have some degree of diversity and leadership. And then we are active with each of our companies to help increase their ability to grow a positive and inclusive company culture. So providing that to the world we felt was really important. And so that's why I founded Nia.

Lauren Hong (03:57):

Well, one of the questions I was going to ask was really about kind of checks and balances and measurability, which I'd love to hear more about, but as you were talking about these companies that you've got that you work with, how are you vetting those and how are you determining if they're a good fit?

Kristin Hull (04:16):

Sure. So I developed six solution themes in 2012, and I worked on those really from systems thinking and just really asking the question, what is needed for people and the planet to not only survive, but to thrive? What are we going to need? And it's everything from renewable energy, because we need to stop extracting from our earth and extracting from our communities. We're also going to need healthcare. And at the time I was working on this in 2012, climate change was certainly on the table for those of us who cared. It wasn't everywhere in everyone's conversation or on the news we did that year. Japan had their first cases of yellow fever. So knowing that tropical diseases previously limited to around the equator, that band was expanding. So what did it mean for our entire planet?

Kristin Hull (05:12):

What would this mean? And so really addressing the solutions was really important. So healthcare, education, affordable and eco housing, sustainable transportation. So really just asking what is needed for people and the planet. So that's how we're vetting our companies. We're looking at their revenue sources to see if they line up with the economy and the inclusive world that we want to see. And then of course there's a lot more as far as the due diligence and getting to know them and do they have a team that can execute on these ideas? And of course we know from the research that diverse and inclusive teams can have more revenues, they can have more products based on innovation. That's one of our investment theses as well.

Lauren Hong (06:01):

Excellent. And then with those pieces, how are you ensuring that you're staying on track? That those companies you're staying with are staying on track to align with that mission? And how did you initially define if there would be a good alignment or not?

Kristin Hull (06:17):

Oh sure. So we have a research team. So we're watching, monitoring, listening to earnings calls, and then we also do engagement with every single one of our companies. And so we are reaching out to them, letting them know why we invested, what we're looking for as far as revenues, looking for growth and then asking them lots of questions. So last year with George Floyd events and everything going on in our country, we asked a couple of questions. We said either we noticed you've made a statement about Black Lives Matter, so can you tell us what you're doing both internally and externally in your community to show that black lives matter? And then if we didn't see a statement, we said can you tell us why there's no statement? And can you tell us what you're doing both internally within your own firms and then also in your communities? And sometimes they would say, well, we did make a statement; we put it on LinkedIn. And we would say, LinkedIn is not searchable and we need to see it prominently on your website. We also need to see it on the hiring page because this really matters. And this is part of the world we need to see. We almost coached a lot of our companies into what we thought as investors we needed to see from them.

Lauren Hong (07:40):

That's really impressive. I also love how you explained the meaning of the company that you founded and then how that meaning seems to be a direct alignment with your day to day, but not only that, who your partners are and how you're holding them accountable. So that whole on-purpose piece of it, driven by passion is something you don't see all the time. So I admire and have thought of what you're doing. I’d appreciate you sharing more on that, too. And then, what do you think is the most unpopular opinion in the industry, specifically in financial services, and how are you addressing it, since it sounds like you are hitting some of these challenging issues head on. You're holding some businesses accountable, for example, with the George Floyd incident, and you were specifically talking with them about that. That's not an easy thing to do to be able to hold those businesses accountable, and that may or may not be well-received. What kind of challenges or unpopular things are you seeing that are happening within financial services and how are you pushing up against the grain with that?

Kristin Hull (08:48):

Sure. So there's so many, I mean, we could count them by the day or by the hour. So just being a woman in finance, you know, there's so few of us and then being an asset manager, I don't know if you're familiar with the Knight study. So the Knight Foundation commissioned Harvard to do a study of diversity and asset management and found that women and people of color didn't even make up 1%. So they actually combined women and people of color asset managers to make us show up on a chart. And so combined women and people of color together are managing 1.3% of the over $70 trillion in our industry. And so we're few and far between, and I mean, it kind of says, look what we're invested into, look at the problems that we have in our economies.

Kristin Hull (09:42):

And doesn't it make sense to have just a few more voices at the table, a few more things. So there's definitely discrimination against women and people of color by this industry. So we're kind of bucking up against that and we're showing people that women and people of color can do this work, and can do it well. We're also talking to our companies, as I said, just about sustainability. We're also really investing into a very concentrated portfolio. So really helping clients move away from the index because the index is our status quo. And so meaning to invest in a little bit of everything, we don't want to be investing in weapons or fossil fuels or any of the huge global problems. Why? So we're trying to show that there's a different way to do this. And so that's something we buck up against, because it's still controversial in this country. I would say in others, particularly in Europe now where they're experiencing some floods as part of climate change, they are very much wanting to connect the dots and get their pension plans out of any status quo or incumbent economy and get them into the solutions. And in the U.S. we're still debating the merits of that.

Lauren Hong (11:00):

And then, because you are seeing things on such a higher level, what progressive changes are you seeing within the industry, whether it's on the business side or investment side. Are you seeing a movement of change?

Kristin Hull (11:18):

Well, that’s such an interesting question, right? So many of us in every industry are experiencing the patriarchy. And I think everybody in their own industry thinks they have it the worst, you know, certainly Hollywood, they think they have it really bad. And then when you get to financial services, we know we have it really bad. And so just trying to make it clear that this really is for everybody and that we really do need a balance. And so what is it going to take to move to progressive change? It's going to take more balance, definitely at the decision-making table, who's making investment decisions. Who's able to build investment products and launch them, et cetera. Some of the changes we're seeing, I mean, I would say the financial industry is so overripe for being disrupted that I'm surprised it's taken this long.

Kristin Hull (12:07):

We're seeing some interesting fintech solutions. I would say probably the innovation is still ahead of us actually in financial services. We're seeing a few things and definitely, I guess my fear is that we're not seeing actual change. We're seeing a lot of greenwashing and some relabeling of products from some of the larger firms actually constructing a portfolio of solutions-focused companies, they're renaming and rebranding. And so we're definitely seeing that, but I wouldn't call that progressive change. We need to see more actual portfolios constructed with the end in mind.

Lauren Hong (12:48):

Great. And then, what ways do you feel that you're able to stay relevant with all that's happening in the world and ensuring that your company stays relevant with the speed at which everything is moving?

Kristin Hull (13:02):

Yeah, I think what's actually interesting is that we were probably a little bit ahead. We were a little bit ahead of everybody and now, particularly in the social justice movement, and then also our environmental movement is catching up with us. And so we're becoming more relevant all of a sudden, which is really nice. So I'm making time to put out those thoughts and some of those thought leadership things. I think Nia was the first to put out a guide to racial justice investing. And we did that right after the George Floyd protest last year, because we had been investing that way a long time. So it was up to us to really articulate that and put it out in a guide for investors. I would say, similarly, we need to catch up a little bit, we're redoing our website to really make sure that the ways that we're investing are clear and accessible to everybody. And that will just make us that much more relevant.

Lauren Hong (13:58):

That's fine. This is very helpful. Is there anything else that you would like to share that you think would be relevant?

Kristin Hull (14:05):

Um, sure. I think one of our taglines is changing the face of finance, because we really need it and the world deserves that, and welcoming more women and people of color into this industry, as I've mentioned, we're really also welcoming everybody to see themselves as an investor. If you have a bank account, that money is sitting somewhere and it's invested. Women definitely sit on the sidelines more often because maybe they don't really like what's out there or they're confused, or maybe they've been left out of the conversation. So we're really hoping to be that voice, to get women in the game and to have them use their investor voice, because the industry does change with the more of us involved asking for what we want. So I’m hoping your listeners are all considering themselves as investors.

Lauren Hong (15:04):

Yeah. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time. It's very inspirational to not only hear from you, but then to see the work that you're doing and to be truly living out the company's mission and holding, as I said earlier, partners accountable. It’s like I said, it's rare to be able to see that and also to be able to hear firsthand. So thank you again for your time today. Greatly appreciate it.

Kristin Hull (15:28):

Thank you, Lauren, for having me.

What is NPS? 

NPS stands for Net Promoter Score. Simply put, it is a measurement of your company’s customer service and your clients’ loyalty. Your score is an index ranging from -100 to 100 based on survey responses. 

Why does NPS matter? 

For local financial services companies, your unique differentiator is your high-quality customer service. An NPS allows you to easily gauge how you’re performing in this area. With this knowledge, you’re able to know where to make necessary internal improvements. This improves client relationships and it can also help with employee retention.

We’ve seen our clients use their score to help them scale and grow faster, because NPS is also an excellent resource for referrals. It allows you to identify the clients already most likely to refer you. Now, you’re able to trigger a referral request to the right people.  

How often do I distribute my NPS survey?

This will vary by company based on the size of your client base. 

When deciding this, it ultimately comes down to the type of relationships your firm has with clients. For example, a quarterly NPS survey makes sense for companies with stable customer relationships such as advisory firms. This allows you to get a more frequent pulse on your clients’ feelings toward you and your company, and it gives you time to make any necessary changes or address problems in the relationship.

For institutions that engage with customers on a more transactional basis, such as banks and insurance companies, annual surveys work well since customers might go a quarter or two without interacting with you.  

How do I distribute my NPS survey? 

There are several options for this. Hubspot has a specific NPS add-on that is great if you’re already familiar with that platform. There are also programs such as Survey Monkey or even Google Forms that are easy to navigate. 

When you distribute the survey, you want to make sure to include a call-to-action at the end. This is a great opportunity to ask clients, especially if they gave you a score of 9 or 10, to promote your company, share kind words on your social media, or provide a referral.  

What should my NPS survey look like?

Typically, NPS surveys are broken down into two parts: a rating question and an open-ended question. The rating gives you quantitative data to track over time, but the open-ended question provides you with tangible customer feedback. How you word and structure each part depends on your company, but we strongly recommend keeping all questions simple and straightforward.

For the rating portion of your survey, the standard practice follows this format: “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?” For those in financial services, you can make the question more specific to you by replacing “business” with “firm” or “wealth management services.”

You also have the option to ask for a rating regarding individual customer service representatives. Start by asking them to select from a pre-created list of employees or fill in the name of the person they worked with. Then, you can pose a similar question regarding how likely they are to recommend this person to others. 

The open-ended portion simply asks your clients for specific feedback regarding their answer to the rating question. This can be as simple as, “Please explain your rating from above.” This is also a chance to personalize the question to your company or the type of feedback you’re looking for. For example, “How can we improve your experience with our firm?”   

How do I figure my NPS score? 

Your NPS score comes solely from the responses from your rating question. You can determine your score using a simple calculation:

1. Determine the number of detractors (those who gave a rating of 6 or below), the number of passives (those who gave a 7 or 8 rating), and the number of promoters (those who gave a 9 or 10 rating).
2. Determine the percentage of detractors and promoters. 
3. Subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters to give you your NPS score.

For example, if you have 10 respondents and 20% of them are detractors and 60% of them are promoters, you would follow this formula: 60%-20%=40%. Take off the percentage, and your company’s NPS is 40. Remember, it’s possible for your NPS to be a negative number, as scores range from -100 to 100.

What do I do with my NPS results?

Once you get the data back and figure your score, you will have a better grasp on what’s going on at the ground level of your company. The results show you how your firm is performing with clients, and you are able to look at the open-ended responses for real feedback. If multiple responses praise your onboarding process, you know to keep that system in place. However, if multiple clients responded that they had difficulty navigating your website, you know it might be time to reevaluate your site’s usability.   

If you format your survey to gather this specific data, you also have the option to look at each customer service representative’s individual NPS. This can be a valuable tool for employee feedback.

How do I know if my NPS is good or bad?

What’s most valuable about your score is that it’s specific to your business and client base. In the financial services world, most of the information out there is comparing big banks or national wealth management firms, which is not necessarily useful information for midsize, local companies.

General NPS guidelines suggest that any score above 0 is “good,” since that means people are more likely to recommend your company than not. Anything above 80 is then considered “world-class.”

You’ll want to look at organizations similar to yours in size and client base to best determine a good benchmark score. Companies such as NICE Satmetrix generate yearly reports that provide insight on a range of markets and industries.

Can I promote my NPS? 

A primary purpose of NPS is to give valuable insight into how your clients feel about your company. However, if your industry allows the sharing of your score, then yes! Share away. Your NPS can be a great addition to marketing collateral. You will want to make sure to provide a brief explanation on what NPS is, since not everyone is familiar with it.

Whether or not it’s included in your promotional material, we suggest sharing your NPS internally, especially if you have a positive score. This boosts employee pride, but it also gives you the opportunity to reach for a higher score. Using existing data, you’re able to set benchmark goals for your company to achieve. 

At Out & About, we help clients navigate how to use NPS and would love to help you do the same!

What kind of methods do you use in your marketing efforts? SEO? Social media? Blogging? There are many different tactics you can use to spread your campaign, but one tool with a clear benefit is email. According to the Harvard Business Review, the average person checks their email 15 times a day! Keep reading to find ways to better use email to reach your prospective and retain your current clients.

Answer Financial Questions Before They’re Asked

Mass email marketing is a perfect platform for sharing answers to trending queries straight to those with the same concerns. Sending a bimonthly newsletter with the latest tips and related blog posts is great outreach that is relevant to your audience. By sharing these contributions, you will be seen as a reliable source of quality information, which can help develop leads and clients. 

Automate Your Emails to Confirm and Remind

One of the secret powers of email marketing is automation. Using workflows, certain actions can automatically trigger prewritten emails to be sent out. One easy example is an email confirming a subscription to a newsletter or service. According to WordStream, 74% of consumers expect a welcome email as soon as they subscribe to anything. Workflow triggers can range from signing up for a mailing list to clicking on a downloadable form, scheduling a meeting with a staff member, and more.

Cue Internal Actions Using Workflows

Prewritten emails are not the only thing that can be achieved through email workflows. Workflows can also trigger internal action, such as sending a notification for a financial advisor to call a potential client who is interested in more information or reminding them to check in on a client on retainer. 

Use Segmentation to Focus on Specific Audiences

It’s important to remember that the person on the other side of the screen is still a human, and craves curated, relevant content. One way of accomplishing this is by segmenting your audience into subgroups. Examples of subgroups can include geographic location, professional industry, age, annual income, and interests—all information that can be gathered with a simple form during signup. If a new tax law is introduced in California, use your segmenting abilities to target California residents and direct them to a tax advisor in their area. This appeals to Californians without being irrelevant to those living in other states. 

Foster Relationships with Valued Connections

Automation doesn’t mean your outreach becomes more impersonal. In fact, automation creates opportunities for customization and personality. Consider sending out birthday emails to clients. This is a great way to make a person feel seen and connected to your company. While this is a simple way to incorporate data, the sky's the limit! Remove people from your lists (or add them to new ones) as their interests evolve and they change age brackets. For example, parents aren’t saving for college after their children graduate, but they might be interested in saving for retirement instead. 

Do You Need More Convincing? 

Clearly, email marketing is a valuable tool for current and prospective clients. Here are even more reasons why you should revamp your marketing strategy to capitalize on email marketing:

• Email marketing meets your audience where they are.
• Email is the most accepted way to communicate with your target audience.
• Email is a great vessel for inbound marketing tactics.
• Email marketing is a great way to collect usable data.

Ready to Take the Plunge?

Email marketing is a valuable tool to reach your target audience, and luckily, there are resources available to get started. Three tools to begin crafting your emails and workflows are HubSpot, MailChimp, and Constant Contact. Offered at various price points with different available features, one of these is bound to fit your company’s needs. Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts on building your email lists and creating newsletter templates.

How do your prospective clients learn how new tax policies affect them? What about the different ways you can help them save and invest? Likely, they get this information from online content created by industry experts, which is where you come in.

As a financial services business, here are four reasons you might be interested in creating custom content for your brand:

• Custom content helps foster organic growth.
• Creating resources increases SEO and leads.
• Quality content improves brand perception.
• Content demonstrates available services to those needing guidance.

Custom content helps foster organic growth

The end goal of creating content should always reflect back on your business goals. When recruiting reliable clients, content creation will help you build trust and respect. According to Demand Metric, content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing. While it’s always good to have a diverse amount of marketing methods, custom content creation should always be one of them. 

Creating resources increases SEO and leads

Everyone wants to be at the top of the search engine algorithms. When your company provides free, valuable resources such as a blog post on updated tax benefits, it boosts your rankings. This means potential clients looking for information can find you. After benefiting from your free help, they will be more likely to invest in your services.

Quality content improves brand perception

When online content creation serves your potential clients, they are more likely to view you as a guiding resource, not an aloof corporation. Furthermore, demonstrating your skills and ability in the financial services field is a great way to set yourself apart as an industry leader and expert in your specialization. 

Content demonstrates available services to those needing guidance

After a life-changing financial event, potential clients may be confused as to which options are available to them. By writing social media and blog posts, you demonstrate what you are capable of in an approachable manner. Custom content creation can serve as your menu of advice and reassurance. 

Excited to get started?

Here are some great resources to learn more about creating your own custom content. If you’re worried about legalities surrounding the financial services industry, this will help you stay creative while following strict compliance regulations.