Diana Cabrices is the founder of Diana Cabrices Consulting and the wealth industry's first Chief Evangelist, helping firms establish a strong brand presence to attract and retain clients.
In this episode, we dive into Diana's journey into brand evangelism, the importance of building relatability as a financial advisory, how to both scale trust and drive better client engagement in a digital world, and how to do all of it compliantly.
Please enjoy our conversation with Diana Cabrices.
The Investipal Podcast is produced by www.investipal.co. Past guests include Peter Lazaroff, Douglas Boneparth, Jamie Hopkins, Tyrone Ross and many more.
Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/investipal | www.linkedin.com/in/cameronhowe/; Twitter: www.twitter.com/camhowe16 | www.twitter.com/investipal; Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@camhowe16 | www.tiktok.com/@investipal; or Instagram: www.instagram.com/investipal/
Find Diana Cabrices at:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianacabrices/
https://www.youtube.com/@dianacabrices
Diana’s Compliant Online Reviews Template: https://wealthtender.com/grow/online-reviews-playbook/
00:00 Introduction and the Role of Brand Evangelists
02:07 Differentiation and the Importance of Dynamic People
04:00 Relatability and Authenticity in the Wealth Industry
07:39 Client Engagement in a Digital Strategy
13:48 The Power of Client Testimonials for Referrals
Cameron Howe
Hi everyone. Welcome back to the InvestPAL podcast. Diana Cabrices is our guest today. Diana is the founder of Diana Cabrices Consulting and the wealth industry's first Chief Evangelist, helping firms establish a strong brand presence to both attract and retain clients. Diana, thanks for coming on.
Diana Cabrices
Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to have this conversation.
Cameron Howe
I guess, you know, maybe as a good starting place, what is a brand evangelist and how exactly can they support the wealth industry?
Diana Cabrices
Yeah, so it's a great question because a lot of people hear the word evangelist and they immediately think, okay, this is some sort of religious cult kind of thing. And that's not what my goal is here in the space, having launched a fractional brand evangelist company.
The term evangelist, yes, has some religious roots, but in the secular world, it's very much your advocate, somebody who's passionate about the product you're selling, but also the problem that you're solving, and goes out into the marketplace as your, I like to say, charismatic torchbearer, and lights up the market with your message.
They do it in a really fun and engaging way that maybe you as a company don't necessarily have the time to do on your own, or maybe you don't have the resources or human capital. I always say the CEO struggle is real, right? My clients are tech companies in this space, so wealth tech companies, FinTech companies, and CEOs are busy. They are raising money, working on their calendar, and trying to run the business.
So I found this opportunity to come in and say, hey, well, I'm really good at doing this stuff. I'm good at fresh positioning and creative marketing and doing it on video and audio and going out and speaking on stages. Let me do this for you. But at its core, a brand evangelist is someone who's passionate, who amplifies your messaging, and again, does it in a fun and creative way.
Cameron Howe
Yeah, very interesting. And I know, you know, one of the key themes we like to talk a lot about with our clients is around how community is so important now. Like, you know, every product essentially does the same thing and how do you end up differentiating yourself? This is more with, I'll call it retail investment firms out there. But curious to pick your brain on, you know, besides the community aspect on why brand is so important in the industry now.
Diana Cabrices
Well, you said it perfectly. The problem that firms are facing right now, whether you're a wealth management firm or you're a technology or solutions provider, is this sort of commoditization of what you do, the saturation in the market. And so how do you stand out? How do you become the pink crayon in the box of black crayons, if you will?
I think that, again, putting dynamic people on the front lines is a really good way to do that. But also, instead of just selling all the features and the product itself, you're focusing on the transformation. So it's definitely, hey, here's why this is important to you, whoever that end client looks like, if it's an investor for wealth management firms or if it's an advisor for tech solutions, here's what that end transformation looks like for you.
Here's why you need this in your business. Here's the struggles you're facing now. And here's our product. And then you can talk about the features. A lot of firms lead with services and features, but we should be instead leading with transformation. People don't buy information, they buy transformation.
So having, again, dynamic people who can do this well, who can speak well, who can write well, whatever that looks like for you, because a brand evangelist isn't just a great speaker. They might be a really great writer who can write killer blogs and killer copy for your website or any other areas where you're showing up in your go-to-market strategy and they're doing it in an engaging way that people want to stop and say, well, what is this? I want to listen to this or I want to read this.
Cameron Howe
Okay, very interesting. I know you talk a lot about the reliability factor. I'm curious if you could elaborate on what that means and how that relates back to the brand of that wealth firm.
Diana Cabrices
Yes, so it's the relatability factor. And I actually just gave a keynote presentation on this very topic. And it does tie in beautifully with my entire business model, but also just what we're talking about here in general with branding, right? How can advisors be more relatable in their businesses?
The relatability factor is really coming down to this is a relationship business, right? And at the end of the day, people buy from people. They don't buy from businesses. So that is so important for an advisor to position themselves front and center and be accessible, right? Relatability is about accessibility. It's about driving emotional connection. It's about being completely authentic and allowing people to kind of get a sneak peek, if you will, into your life or behind the curtains of, hey, I'm a human. I really care. Here's why I care.
And that can be done in all sorts of way, right? Humanizing the brand, video, audio, also storytelling. Like here's my story as an advisor and here's some photos of my family. So getting a little bit personal there.
I break down the relatability factor into three Cs. I'll just share that with you quickly. So competence, it's really about how easy you make it for people to work with you. You should be showing your competence, for example, your website, which should be really easy to contact you off your website. I still see advisors using forms on their website. That doesn't seem very competent and it's not accessible.
And then you have character, which is the second C and this is your brand's personality. It's how you show up on your website. It's how you show up in your marketing materials. Are you using video? Are you driving emotional connection there? Or is it just all text, which is kind of hard to emotionally connect to.
And then the third C is confidence. And this is about how much you as a financial advisor believe in yourself, but also how you share that belief with the world. You have to brag about yourself a little bit because people don't know how awesome you are, but it's also what other people are saying about you too. So a bit of your street cred there.
Cameron Howe
Would you recommend an advisor to establish like a vlog, like a behind the scenes on a day in the life? Or is that too personal?
Diana Cabrices
I love that idea. In fact, that is like, I have a list of ideas that I keep on my Google Drive and that is one of them is sort of a behind the scenes video strategy where you could absolutely take a video. If you've got a team, maybe it's in the office, like a day in the life of the team or a day in the life of this advisor, showcasing what kind of is going on behind the scenes.
For example, being a financial planner. My goodness, there is like so much information and strategy and planning and writing that goes into that building a financial plan. So what is a sneak peek into what building a financial plan looks like or the team? You know, each day you have a meeting where you're collaborating on how the markets are looking and you're having conversation about client experience and how you're going to do intentional things for your clients this quarter.
And again, like all of that could be on social. I think advisors get afraid of maybe unveiling the curtain a little bit. There's also the compliance piece that is always going to be looming over an advisor's head, but you can get creative and still be compliant. I love that idea.
Cameron Howe
So when you talk about that, so the advisor, you know, unveiling a little bit about themselves, I'm curious to pick your brain a little on it. You know, like we see in this industry, a high degree of professionalism, you know, like suits and ties and the demeanor that comes along with that. Do you think that they have to become a little bit more vulnerable to their audience and open up and remove a little bit of that? I'll call it that suit and tie aspect.
Diana Cabrices
When it comes to like physically what you're wearing with that suit and tie, I don't think it requires removing that to be authentic. In fact, I think it can be really relatable because people with money will relate to somebody in a suit, right? And maybe people who aspire to build more and more wealth and they're looking for that kind of help, they'll find an advisor in a suit to be more relatable for them.
That's actually, relatability, when you start to really strip it down, is like, who also do we want to be in the future? And how are we seeking out these influencers that we follow online? Because they live these lives that we eventually want to live ourselves. But I do think it doesn't all have to be professional, dare I say, a little bit stuffy, like what other advisors are doing.
If I'm an advisor, I'm posting photos of my family vacations, for example, and I might even write a little post about it and what was challenging, like going to Disney with my family. Like you want to pull your hair out as a parent. And at the same time, I'm trying to balance my clients and making sure they're happy. And I'm still a financial advisor. And so like, it's kind of this balance and it's just being really genuine because we are all, you know, a lot of us are parents, right? Or a lot of us have done the Disney trip or we understand the struggle of making money and building wealth while also trying to balance our personal life.
So I don't think physically it's necessarily stop wearing the suit and post a photo in your gym outfit. But I do think it's like go and share information or share photos that aren't just you in the office.
Cameron Howe
Okay, very interesting. And the one point you had before around the client engagement aspect, we talked to a lot of advisors who have moved a lot of their book, I'd say, to an online relationship. Do you have any advice on how you can keep that client engaged with a more digital strategy versus having them come into the office and meet you?
Diana Cabrices
Yeah, I mean, this could be a long list. So I'll try to keep it simple. If you're running a fully digital business, I think that a differentiator would be picking up the phone, even if you're running an in-person office. At the end of the day, data shows investors feel their advisors don't communicate enough. So when you're fully digital, I think it's even more important to every now and then pick up the phone, just call and ask how they're doing. It doesn't even have to necessarily be about a business objective.
But also if you want to create engagement and you want to create this branding and this vibe because you can't do that in a space, I'm a big advocate for events. And I think that advisors can, even if it's just a really casual zoom where, you know, everybody that joins, it's on a Wednesday, let's have a little bit of wine, bring your favorite type of wine. Let's all talk about why you love this wine so much. And maybe we'll tie a little wealth lesson in there.
So it's like this wine and wealth Wednesday kind of vibe, bring a friend if you want as well. And so you're creating this engagement through this digital event strategy. Also, you know, again, picking up the phone, getting personal with people, making it easy for your clients to get in touch with you when you maybe don't have a physical office. Also very important. I'd still argue it's just as important if you do have a physical office, but being accessible via email, right?
And any other channels some advisors are leaning into text messaging. I mean, that's not every advisors thing and I'm not gonna sit here and say it's the only way to communicate but if you have younger clients, especially This is how they want to contact you They love to text with easier for them that goes back to the relatability factor and the competence piece So maybe texting is a part of it again. The list could go on and on and on but I think It's going to be those same touch points. And if you do have a digital content strategy, making sure all your clients get that newsletter whenever you're sending it out or that video whenever you're posting it could be an exclusive email just for them, for example.
Cameron Howe
So having a strong client base, strong brand presence can end up yielding quite a few happy clients of yours. And we know that referrals are a primary source. I'm curious to pick your brain a little bit. There's the new rules out around client testimonials. What is a compliant way for an advisor to start implementing that, start tapping into that engaged client base that they have developed to be an advocate for other clients?
Diana Cabrices
Client testimonials, as I like to say it are stories, right? Essentially, this is a story that your client has written about their experience with you. And in a lot of ways that is a transformation. It goes back to what we said earlier about how people buy transformation. So you want prospective clients to see what your current clients are saying about you.
I did a presentation the other week for the IARFC. They're the, I believe it's Independent Association of Registered Financial Consultants, a beautiful conference at the Biltmore estate in Asheville. And I talked about this exact topic. My presentation was called Stories at Scale and my thesis, cause I always have a thesis in my presentations. It's something that's memorable. And most people only remember, I think about 7 % of anything that you present. So you always want something memorable was that client stories are scalable referrals that sell.
And what I mean by that is if you get a referral, right, one person is telling one other person about you and that person reaches out to you. And there's a sort of trust transfer going on there. But if you take that story and you digitize it, in the form of a written testimonial and you put it on your website and you put it on social media, now tens, hundreds, even thousands of people can get exposed to that story, so to that referral, right? So it becomes that recommendation. It becomes all the more powerful.
Of course, compliance is so important to consider. I'm actually launching a new series called Testimonial Marketing Minute, where every month I'll give just a quick one minute tip on how to be compliant with testimonial marketing and also, how to have fun and actually get your testimonials in front of a lot of people.
The first video is about the three Cs. This is what we call the three Cs of compliance. If you have a written review, you have to have the three Cs in the four corners of that review, prominent font, the same size font as everything else. It can't be like uber small compared to the review itself. And the first C, as you can tell, I love Cs here. The first C stands for client, is this person a client or not? The second one is compensation. Has this person been compensated for the review or not? Because you can compensate people for reviews. We have some advisors that'll do charitable donations.
And then the third one is conflicts of interest. So I don't know, did you guys go to school together or, you know, did you or have you been friends since childhood? Like those are things the SEC wants you to share with the world. So three Cs, of course.
Talk to compliance. And my last thing I'll say here is technology is really important in this department. Here is why. The SEC marketing rule is so many pages long. It would be really hard for an advisor. It's even hard for a compliance officer to be able to manage those rules while also managing all your other compliance and regulation in your firm. That's really hard.
So I say lean on advisor technology built for the advisor, built for this specific use case, the specific strategy to stay compliant. Obviously, I'm going to give a shout out to WealthTender here. They're one of my clients and I love working with them. And I've learned so much, even just for example, Google reviews, they're not compliant as they stand. The minute you tell clients, go look at my Google reviews, even if you've gotten one unsolicited, you are now out of compliance because they don't have those disclosures. And now you're promoting a review without disclosures.
Technology built for the advisor all the way. I'm a big advocate for that with something so touchy around compliance.
Cameron Howe
So, Diana, with the Google reviews, so you're saying if a client goes and fills out a Google review without you having some sort of dialogue with them, that can run afoul.
Diana Cabrices
So no, clients can unsolicited go and leave you a Google review. The minute you tell them, leave me a Google review, you essentially become entangled into that review. And that's kind of the gray area right now. Like that's kind of the area we're waiting to hear back more from the SEC on is, is this out of compliance or is it not? And to date, they really haven't given the most clear answers, but we're hoping that we'll get them.
But what I was saying is, the minute that you start promoting that Google review, let's say they did leave it for you. If you start promoting that as it stands, it is not compliant because they don't have the disclosures. Yes, you could take those reviews and import them to your website and make them compliant. That's a process there. And that takes oversight. It takes operations. And that's really where the technology should help you. Like a WealthTender, for example. We import Google reviews and there's other tools out there as well. WealthTender isn't the only one, although we were the first.
But that is, it's just a gray area. And I would say, you know, if I were an advisor and I didn't want to face what I know could come from the SEC because they have been putting out risk alerts and they have been getting really serious about cracking down here, then I would probably try and stay away from promoting or soliciting reviews on Google. If clients want to leave it, awesome. But I would stay away from doing both of those things.
Cameron Howe
Do you have any recommendations around like what is an authentic way to ask your clients for referrals?
Diana Cabrices
Absolutely. I actually have a good process for that and I have a cool idea. So, no, it's no more three Cs. I promise there's no more three Cs.
Okay, so the first format is you have to send an email to all your clients simply because the SEC doesn't want you to be cherry picking your top favorite clients. And I have a template that actually I could share with any of your listeners. Maybe we'll link it in the show notes, but essentially you're just reaching out and saying, hey, thanks so much for allowing me to be your advisor. It's been such a joy to help you. I was wondering if you'd be interested in writing a little bit about your experience so that I could potentially help other people similar to you who need my help, right? So you start to kind of connect the dots there for them.
Like, this isn't just about you. My mission is bigger and I want to help other people who need help. And that does something emotionally as well to clients because they're like, absolutely, I want to help somebody else out there who needed help, needs the same help that I needed at the same time.
And so it's a simple email. Like you literally just say that if you're interested, no pressure. You can click this link here and leave me a review or simply hit reply. Like if you don't use a tool, they can hit reply.
The idea that I have around this that I actually is not my idea. An advisor shared it with me and I thought, wow, this is so creative. He sent out an email on his birthday and he basically told everyone, hey, it's my birthday. Woohoo. And there's like a little balloon, a picture of him. And he said, in exchange for, you know, like an actual gift. I can't remember exactly how he said it, but I'm looking, it's like a different way of saying, you know, congratulations are gifting to me this year. I would love if you would write me a review. Share your experience about working with me.
You don't ever want to say like, tell people how your portfolio grew. Like that's definitely out of compliance because it really shouldn't be about investment performance.
And he sent that email out and he was like bombarded by the end of the day with all of his clients like responding and like saying all these really cool things about him. And ever since he shared that strategy I share with other advisors and they're always like, my God, I'm going to try that. And then they'll come back and be like, Hey, I tried that thing. It was fricking awesome. So that for all your listeners, if you're an advisor thinking about getting started with testimonials, your birthday is a great time to ask.
Cameron Howe
I love that because it's part of that, like unveiling a little bit on being a bit more authentic and, you know, asking them for help for a change instead of you being the help center. I love that.
Diana Cabrices
Agreed.
Cameron Howe
Well, then maybe we'll park her there. I really do appreciate you coming on the show today. A lot of interesting tidbits. If anyone's interested in learning more about the work you do about brand evangelism, where can they find you?
Diana Cabrices
So many different places, but I'll simplify it. First off, if you go to my LinkedIn, because I'm going to plug that first, because I'm always on LinkedIn posting helpful content for advisors, just search my name, Diana Cabrices. Obviously, you'll include it in the show notes, but if you're just listening in, Cabrices is cab, like the taxi cab, rice, and then an S at the end, which I know is ridiculous, but that's how you can find me.
I also have a YouTube channel and I upload all of the events that I do. So I host a lot of live learning sessions for advisors. They're engaging. They're very educational and informative. And so you can learn about all the different marketing strategies on my YouTube, which is also my first and last name.
I have an email newsletter list and maybe I can give you the link, Cameron, to include in the show notes as well. But if you want to subscribe to any of my events, where I'm going to be, any of my other marketing tips and tricks, I send out an email as well. I promise I won't spam you, but you can also get to that on my website which is dianacabrices.com and absolutely tune in, learn more about what brand evangelism is, who is it for, and I'm always available if you have any questions.
Cameron Howe
Okay, wonderful. Diana, thank you so much for coming on.
Diana Cabrices
Yeah, thank you for having me. Take care.
Cameron Howe
Bye bye.
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