How automated authenticity and communication efficiency with Next Level Income can level up your noticeability.

Jim James: 0:00

Hello, and welcome to this episode of the UnNoticed Entrepreneur. My name is Jim James, and today I'm joined by Chris Larsen, who's in Asheville, North Carolina. Chris, welcome.

Chris Larsen: 0:09

Thank you. I'm excited to be here, Jim. I love, we're so far apart yet we're right here together. It's wonderful.

Jim James: 0:14

Yeah, I love in podcast is bringing people from around the world together. It's kind of an audio, an audio tourism, isn't it? We're getting to wander around and meet wonderful people. Chris, you run a company called Next Level Income. You know, this is a show about how entrepreneurs get noticed. So, we really want to hear obviously about your business, but we really want to hear is how have you got noticed? And interestingly, you're talking about automating authenticity. So, let's talk about how you automate authenticity, especially in something as sensitive as financial industry.

Chris Larsen: 0:46

Yes. So, I've, been in sales since I was about 12 year olds, 12 years old Jim. I spent 18 years in the medical device industry. So, I was working with surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, going in the, OR, and the outcomes that we saw were for patients. So, it was very important, you know, so I think, obviously finances are important, very sensitive topic. But I would say, you know, my pedigree is, is coming out of the, OR where you're dealing with something that's even more important, which is health. Back then it was, it was working one-on-one with a very small group of, of quote-unquote customers and I was working with like five to 10. And it was very easy to be authentic, and to have these one-on-one conversations. But, during that process, I was always, I'm an engineer by training, I was always seeking to systematize different parts of the process, so, that we could have the best outcomes possible. The most consistent outcomes possible to make sure the equipment's there, all that. So I took that, take that same structure and I say, okay, how, you know, how can we apply that to an audience, you know, for financial, you know, in the financial realm investing in those sorts of things. And as you mentioned, one of, one of the things we talked about is automating authenticity. Now this doesn't mean being inauthentic, but if, if you're working with 10 people, a hundred people, a thousand people, how do you remember special occasions? How do you make sure that you're, you're you're impacting someone's life in a way that is important to them? First thing's first, communication. So, you have to start out with communication. I start every relationship with an investor with a one-on-one call. I had a call just a couple of weeks ago. And you know, this, this investor in her husband said, "Wow, like you still do these calls like with every single person that you bring on board?" I said, "Yeah, I'm still, I'm still doing that." And that's about two a day just to give you a perspective. I take notes. So, I use HubSpot, which is a CRM. And I make sure that I have, I have different things who referred that person. You know, are they, are they married? Do they have children? You know, what, what is the 'why'? Why are we having these phone calls so that I can go back, and remember, you know, what, what is important to that person? So that we focus on that. And again, this isn't being an authentic, if, you know, if, if you step onto a used car lot, and the, or a car lot, and the salesperson is trying to sell you a sports car. And, you know, you're like my wife and I 10 years ago, when we were looking for a minivan, it it's that, that sales, person's not going to be successful because he doesn't know the why for the reasons that were there. So, that's how we, that's how we start out with communication. Making sure that we pinpoint those things that are important. And then, having system to make sure that we're communicating consistently on an effective basis after that.

Jim James: 3:31

Okay, so let's break that down. So, first of all, you've got, presumably you've got a, a set of questions. Have you got sort of a template? can anyone answer those questions, or is it only you, Chris, that kind of does the onboarding with clients?

Chris Larsen: 3:45

Yeah. Great question. So, I have, I've kind of a funnel that I've built at this point. So anyone that comes into our community, whether that's, you know, they, they, joined the podcast list, whether they're interesting are coaching, whether they're interested in learning more about our investment opportunities, there's a separate form that they fill out. And just a very short form, typically takes a couple minutes. So, that we have that information so that when we get on a phone call, we're already there. They're also provided with information before we get on that phone call as well. But for instance, you know, for, for a strategy session and I might have with a coaching client, it might ask what their number one goal is for the, for the year. You know, any obstacles that they're facing. And, you know, also talking about any, anything that's working or not working for them, so we can start to figure those things out.

Jim James: 4:29

If we can just move up, up the funnel a moment though, Chris, cause you talked about, you know, once you're on the call with them, these are the things you want to find out. Most of us have a problem putting leads into the funnel. How are you getting those primary leads into your business?

Chris Larsen: 4:47

Yeah. So, first off, I wish I could say that I knew what I know today when I built this funnel out three years ago. Cause I kind of just piecemeal everything together. I came up with my book, and the podcast, and I didn't do this consciously to create like a quote unquote sales funnel, or a lead funnel. I did it because I wanted to curate information to help people shortcut the process that I took towards, towards financial independence and learning the things that I know. But now today, you know, the key is building, you need to build a platform. So, you know, depending on what your business is, you know, obviously social media is a great, very inexpensive way to build a platform. You know, we use LinkedIn, because we're working largely with a lot of professionals, high-income earners, those sorts of people. Some people prefer Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, that's not, I don't, I don't really know much about TikTok, but I know it's out there. So, you need new people to notice you, first off. You have to have a platform. Number two, need to provide value to people on that platform. So, you need to provide content and information every day. I'm putting up native content, you know, content that I've created. These are my podcast, I've, I've written, it's going up there. But then I also, I'm reading, I love to read, I read a ton of articles. I'm kind of a data guy, cause I'm a engineering nerd from, from school. And, I share that information with some commentary. So, hopefully I'm providing that value. Richard Wilson, who is the second guest on our podcast, he said, "Hey, give away 80% of what you do." And, you know, he says, "Giveaway 80% charge for 20%." So again, if you go on our website, people, you know, people are like, how do you make money, you know, with our website? I mean, it largely doesn't, it's not there to generate a profit. It's largely there, provide value. Once you have a platform. Once you're providing value. You need a way to engage people. A lot of people call this a lead magnet. So again, I did this kind of backwards, but I wrote my book. If you're listening, go to the nextlevelincome.com click on the book link. You can download a free copy if your overseas. I'm in the United States here, you get a free audio book, a free ebook. If you're here in the Continental US I'll send you a book. After you, after you put your information, you can see my process. You're going to get a daily email, talking about what we do, and inviting you to have a call with me at the end of that. So, now we get to the process of people engaging in, and self-selecting and saying, "Hey, this is something that makes sense for me to take my time, and have a call with Chris."

Jim James: 7:06

Wow! Okay. Yeah. So, you say you've built this, and frankly it sounds very organised. HubSpot is the platform of choice. Are you able then to have all these different pieces of content? Your your ebook, your podcast, your newsletters, they all hosted, if you like, on HubSpot, is that your hero platform?

Chris Larsen: 7:26

They're not. So HubSpot, so everything is hosted on the website. So, you know, hubs, HubSpot is our, our, our, our client resource management software. Right. So, we have all our information, so we know, you know, I have my assistant. So, as soon as we make contact with someone she's going to input their email, their name, you know, what they do. And then I'm also, you know, I'm going to take that input from their initial questionnaire. I'm gonna put that in there as well. So, I'm gonna be able to do that. I'm also gonna be able to see, did they get a copy of my book? You know, have they, were they referred to me from somebody? So all that information is there, but everything is really hosted on the website. And then I have, I also have a database where I keep track of any articles, and certain things that I put up there as well.

Jim James: 8:11

So, it's interesting, Chris, that you, you, haven't just gone to one hero platform to do CRM, newsletter, everything. Why, why is that? Why have you used presumably maybe a WordPress website? Is it with plugins?

Chris Larsen: 8:26

Yeah, it's a Squarespace with plugins. But yeah, I haven't, I mean, and maybe that's an area of opportunity for us here, Jim. But, yeah, so we've been using HubSpot for seven years, almost six and a half years. So we've continued with that platform because we have over 6,000 contacts that are in there now. But, yeah, certainly there's, there's more comprehensive platforms that could be used as well.

Jim James: 8:46

Okay. And you raise an interesting point there, which we were touching on before we started recording, which is about, you know, personalisation at scale. And what your doing is, you know, automating authenticity. Chris, how, how do you manage if you've got 6,000 people in your database to remain authentic? Because, you're obviously providing a very personal service. Because each person needs their own financial plan. Don't they?

Chris Larsen: 9:11

Right. That's right. And there's yeah, there's different levels Jim. So, I think about my stepfather. Okay. So he's, he's older, he's, you know, struggles with some memory issues, and certain things. And, we were talking earlier this week and it's my son's birthday on Monday and he's, he's looking at his counter. He's like, 'Oh, I need to get a card for, for your son's birthday.' So, it's no different, right? You need a system in place, so that you remember to go through the process of, of contact of communication with individuals. So, at some point you can't do it all. Like, I can't have all the emails, all the conversations. So we put systems in place. This may be my assistant, that's reaching out. That's following up with somebody from LinkedIn. You know, they're sending in an email, like a template. This may be, so, let's say somebody gets my book, and they don't respond. My assistant's going to get a reminder, a month after they received the book to reach out and offer them of a free consultation with me and, and do that. So, you know, these are somebody that obviously has some interest in the platform and wants to do that. And I've had a lot of really wonderful conversations from those emails with people that are getting started. You know, I've a young man, he called me, he said, 'Look, that that conversation changed, changed the life of me and my wife, you know, my life with, for my wife and I.' So, you know, having, having those conversations are yeah, very enriching from a personal perspective. So part of our business is providing investment opportunities. So when we have an investment that goes out, people are busy, right> you know, if you're working and you're a business owner, that's listening today and you work with successful people. Those people are busy. They have priorities, they have families, they're trying to stay healthy, they're working out, you know. They have their own kids' birthdays like I do on Monday. It's like, 'Alright, I gotta remember to get this and do that.' And then they have their clients, and they're running around, they have different opportunities, they're busy. So, if I send an email out and somebody doesn't respond and I'm like, 'Well, man, I remember Jim was really interested in this.' I'm gonna have my assistant send you a message and say, "Hey Jim, did you get this? Did you see this? I know you're busy. You're just wanting to make sure you got this." And then I also send a, a physical mailing out, as well. So, I'm trying to hit people, you know, with all these things. And it's, it's interesting. Cause some people say, "Don't waste your time and money sending me that." And other people say, "Wow! I really liked the fact that you do that." So, you know, you have to recognize that, you know, to be, to be authentic, and to meet people where they are sometimes you need to use different mediums, and that's not always consistent across demographics.

Jim James: 11:46

Yes. He raised a couple of really interesting points there, Chris. One of the issues that I talk about because I have clients all over the world is sending to people at the time that they are open to receive it when it's ready. And you, in the sort of personal finance business, you're probably offering people something that you on the weekends or the evenings, as opposed to during their domain days. So, how you scheduling that content and how do you know when is best for which people?

Chris Larsen: 12:16

Yeah. So, we, we put stuff up in the morning, mid day sometimes, you know, in the afternoon emails. They'll go out sometimes again in the morning, sometimes in the evening,, depending. You know, we also do recordings. So, if somebody misses something they can access it on their own time. We also, we have short form video. We have longer form video, like webinars and different things like that. Personally, I like to read, like, I don't like to watch a video too slow for me. If I can't, if I can't listen to something at one and a half or two times the speed, like I want I prefer to read it because I can get through it a lot quicker. And do that. So, people are different. My marketing guy is a millennial, and he said, "Hey, Chris, you know, I listen to YouTube all the time." I'm like, 'You've listened to YouTube.' He's like, 'Yeah. Like we listened to, like we, my generation, listens to YouTube.' And I thought like YouTube is for video. So, you have to constantly be learning, about different types of medium that are out there. Even if it's not something that you think is important. That doesn't mean, it's not something that's important to a large subset of your customers. And you have to understand that, especially when your customers or clients are like mine, that could be in their mid twenties, and they could also be in their mid seventies. That's a big difference.

Jim James: 13:27

Chris, you've raised a couple of really interesting points there about the avatar. You talked about timing. about adapting the message then? Because, the 20 year old got a long period of time to be saving up, the 70 year old is maybe already dipping into savings. tailoring your messaging along with the content?

Chris Larsen: 13:49

Great question. So, when you start out what I did, I worked with a coach, and we came up with three different avatars. Okay. So we came up with the avatar, that may be the young high-income professional. The avatar that is, you know, middle-aged. That is, so let's, let's start the, the young high-income professional, not a lot of savings. Maybe, maybe single, maybe not married yet, you know, just getting started, they're looking for information and they're looking for a strategy that they can kind of start putting together. You know, number two, you know, middle-aged individual, somebody that has high income, lots of savings, maybe not a lot of debt, you know, they're, they're looking to accelerate for instance, in this case, their financial independence. And then the third avatar that we came up with was the, the retiree, the high net worth low-income retiree. Right? So, my messaging and my articles, always, for all three of those avatars. So, you cycle through and do that. If you look at our podcast, we have young people on the podcast, 23 year olds, 23 year old women. We have, you know, 70 some year old men on the podcast, and everything in between. So, you know, you have to be conscious, again, you know what you're putting out there. And when somebody looks at a podcast and says, "Well, hey! I can relate to this person. That can be very powerful." If you're always having the same types of, you know, content, the same types of guests that you're speaking with, and you're missing a subset, you're also losing out on the opportunity to create a lot of value for certain people.

Jim James: 15:19

Chris, that's really interesting hearing you say that. Are you kind of going counterculture? Where you're saying it's not about going into niches. Because, one of the main sort of themes in marketing is choose one avatar, and drill a mile deep and an inch wide. it sounds as though you're choosing sort of several avatar verticals at the same time.

Chris Larsen: 15:41

Well, I think you have to be also conscious. Like we have, we have different pieces of our business. So, our coaching business is going to appeal more towards one avatar. Whereas, our investment opportunities are gonna appeal towards a different type of avatar, if that makes sense. So, I think, you know, if I, if I just pulled up. One of those, business, business silos if you will, then it's probably going to be more directed towards one avatar over the other to your point. Some kind of, I'm talking about my business, you know, specifically. So, you have to look at your own, and say, so, for instance, we just, we just, I co-wrote a book with my business partners. This book, is called Money Insights for Sales Professionals. Okay. For sales professionals. This is a, this is to your point, Jim, is a hyper-focused. Niche book, written specifically for people like myself. High-income earning sales professionals that are 25 to 45 years old, and it talks about a specific strategy that we call the investment optimizer. That uses a specific life insurance contract, to allow people to increase 10 to 20percent, the rate of return on their investments. But it is called, Money Insights for Sales Professionals.

Jim James: 16:56

Chris, that's fantastic. And I love the way you're taking different content types, and avatar types, and blending those. Tell us about your podcast, because you've got the book and the podcast. What role is the podcast playing in your strategy?

Chris Larsen: 17:13

Yeah. So the podcast, again, it is there to curate content for people that are learning ways to achieve financial independence. And next level of income strategy is how to make more money, keep more money, and then ultimately grow your money. So, we talk about those three subjects on the podcast, which are pretty broad, right? You know, people like yourself that can help business owners, that can help professionals increase their earning capacity, you know, people that are a certain part of their career. We have, for instance, tax professionals that come on that talk about how to keep more money. Insurance professionals, estate planning professionals to talk about, you know, techniques. So, you don't, you don't give up your money in taxes. You don't give your money away and, you know, as part of a legal, or a lawsuit. Or you don't give your money up, because you were uninsured for instance. And then, we also talked about different ways that you can grow your money. We talk about cryptocurrency. We talk about, you know, people call them alternative, but they're really traditional investments, like real estate and those sorts of things as well. So, you know, if it falls into one of those three buckets, then we're probably going to explore it on the show.

Jim James: 18:16

So, you've got your own show and then you're sharing as well. You've got a strategy for being on other people's show, which I'm grateful you've come on the UnNoticed Entrepreneur. So, hey Chris, what's your strategy then for having both being a host and a guest?

Chris Larsen: 18:30

Yeah. thanks. Yeah. Thanks for asking about that because I think this is an interesting. You, you need to. You know, if you look at David Priestley, we were talking about this before we started today. He talks about you need a thousand like raving fans. You only really need a thousand really loyal clients, or customers to have a very successful like lifestyle, or small business. So you can have a podcast, like I have to say, you know, 2000, 2,500 listeners on my podcast that are consistent. Okay. That's, that's great. How do you grow that audience? And, you know, this is where it's important, I think to cross pollinate. One of my passions, is helping teach children about financial independence. So, I go on parenting podcasts, for instance. And I, and I do things like that. My goal is to be, is to produce a hundred podcasts a year either of my own or other people. So, I usually do about one a week. I do one my own, and I'm usually on one, like, like we are today, Jim, to do that, look, it's wonderful. I learned things from my guests, and I try, you know, I learned things from the shows that I'm on as well.

Jim James: 19:30

I think, you know, Chris, you and I could be talking for hours about business and, and about money. I'm, I'm probably with, you know, at the end of my I'm 55 with two young daughters and still school fees to pay. So, I'm a different demographic al, al together, Chris. So I need lots of help on your, on, on the things that you know how to do. But Chris, if people want to find out more about you, how can they find you?

Chris Larsen: 19:50

Yes, you, you need to kill two birds with one stone. If you go to the nextlevelofincome.com, not can you only see examples of everything that we've been talking about. But, if you get a copy of my book, you also see the email chain. I mean, you can check out kind of the way I've built my sales funnel and follow it. You can also reach out to me directly, chris@nextlevelincome.com. That's chris@nextlevelincome.com.

Jim James: 20:12

Chris Larsen joining me all the way from Asheville, North Carolina. Where I have very fond memories having been to university there in Chapel Hill. Chris, thank you for joining me today on the UnNoticed Entrepreneur show.

Chris Larsen: 20:21

It's been absolutely my pleasure, Jim. Thank you.