Editor’s note: In this edition of What’s Working Now, an AdvisorRADIO feature in which Horsesmouth members tell us about recent success they have had running and growing their business, we hear from advisor LaDonna Scott, who has built her business by reaching out to small co-ops in her local area. You can hear the full interview by clicking the audio file below. The following article includes edited excerpts of LaDonna’s comments.
Quick Overview
Advisor: LaDonna Scott
Earth, Texas
Years in business: 33
Firm: Scott Financial Services
What’s working now: Finding a niche in local electric and telephone co-ops.
I’m a CFP and I’ve been in the business over 30 years. I have an office in Texas, one in Denver, and I’m about to open one in Boise, Idaho. So, quite busy, and a lot of it is a result of Horsesmouth’s Social Security workshops. We’ve increased our income by a factor of four.
Reaching out with education
I live in a rather small community in Texas. Here in rural America, we have quite a few co-ops within a 60-mile radius. I send letters and Horsesmouth’s “The Baby Boomer’s Guide to Social Security” to the managers at electric and telephone co-ops. In my letter, I tell them that most people are not educated on Social Security and I give them some of the bullet points from the handout. After a few days, I call to see if they want me to come in and do a retirement workshop. Most of them are very welcoming; about 90 percent allow us to come. We don’t go in there to sell anything. We just do the workshop and then people contact us if they’re interested.
Some of the managers have heard of me, some have not. We have branched out to Colorado, which is a little harder to get into because of the unions. We’ve been lucky because we’re in a rural area. But this could work anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a city. Find an industry that is interesting to you or you have connections to. My daughter used to be in oil and gas and her husband still is, so in Colorado we’re going to reach out to oil and gas companies. Find your niche and go after it.
I have found out that a lot of these employees don’t know anything about Social Security—and they’re fixing to retire. So, this is an education program and they are very appreciative. We get very, very good responses on our evaluation sheets. At least from the older workers. I would say that before 59, they’re not really to the point of thinking about Social Security or retirement.
A lot of people in these power plants and co-ops are ready to retire at 62, because they started right out of high school and have been working there 35-40 years. I try to convince them not to, or at least not to take Social Security yet. It’s my job to educate them, because they haven’t considered the details. I use the calculators quite a bit, trying to show them the benefits of waiting until 66 or even better, until 70. I urge them not to take Social Security at 62, and to consider the surviving spouse, but in the end all I can do is educate. It’s really up to them.
Converting to clients
After we present the workshop, we have attendees fill out the form that comes in the Horsesmouth package, which gives us their email and home addresses. We mail a thank-you note for coming to the workshop, and then put them on a monthly rotation of Horsesmouth’s FINRA-approved articles. They start thinking, “OK. These people are in my area. They’re in my age group. They’re meeting our needs.” And so people are just calling us.
When they call me, I look at their whole situation and ask them what they want. Most want to go over the topic of Social Security. I also find out if they’re interested in financial products to roll something into. At this point, I am familiar with pension plans at the power plants. At the ones with unions, they can’t roll their pensions, but if they are non-union, they can. At the co-ops, most of them can roll the pension plan and their 401. So I basically do a financial plan for my clients and show them how they could have retirement income even after 20 or 30 years.
I’ve been doing these Social Security workshops for about two years. Now I’ve even done some at churches and other places. People find out what I do and ask me to come help them. I get referrals. My daughter joined me and we started an office in Denver, and my 62-year-old sister is retiring to Boise, but wants to keep doing something, so we may put an office up there. I love doing the workshops because you get some really interesting questions. Every situation is different, and I have learned a lot about Social Security and how it affects people.
Public speaking
Well, a little more than two years ago, I got a phone call from my daughter there in Denver and she said, “Mom, I quit my oil and gas job. I’m going to work with you.” And I went, “Huh?” And she was making six figures—a young kid making that kind of money. So we had to figure out a way to make money and I said, “We’re gonna have to do something I’ve never done in my life.” That’s how we got started in doing the workshops, because I knew we needed to grow at a faster rate.
I had never done any public speaking, and at first I was nervous, nervous, nervous. But now I enjoy doing the workshops and I enjoy the questions. I don’t quite like public speaking, but I can do it. It’s not that hard. At one school they told me, “You can read it if you have to.” But I’d rather not. And I’ve gotten to the point now where I don’t have to.
If you tell stories along the way, people will remember it so much more. From my first workshop until now, I’ve added in horror stories about people who didn’t know what they were doing. If you don’t have a story, borrow someone else’s. I’ve heard of people who didn’t even start to claim their Social Security until they were 80 years old. They just weren’t educated. I think that’s why the workshops are doing so well. People want to know, and they don’t have time to figure it out on their own.
My advice
Even if you’ve never done any public speaking, you can do this. Find your niche. What do you know? Look at me, how did I come up with co-ops? I used to work at a co-op in my early days. And I thought, “You know, they don’t have anybody educating them.” So, like I said, you go back and find your niche. If you know some other kind of industry, get into it. You have to just find your little niche.
And you don’t have to send mailers and things. Just go out and find companies, smaller companies, that you can do business with. You’re going to succeed, because most of these people are really thirsty for knowledge about retirement. We’ve had great success with them; I enjoy meeting the people and helping them to take that step in life to retirement. I encourage everyone to do retirement workshops.