Growing an Advisory Business to Six Figures in Just Two Years with Paddy Delaney

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

podcast, clients, work, people, niche, service, paddy, business, episodes, terms, potential clients, book, called, informed decisions, tribe, successful business owners, alastair, started, blog, years

SPEAKERS

Alastair McDermott, Paddy Delaney

Paddy Delaney 00:00

So I remember hearing that and I said, right, I’m not going to be I’m not going to be in the 85%. I’m going to be in the 15%. And just committed to it needed to happen every friggin week and the kids got to bed. You know, it was a case of late nights. It was a case of early mornings. It was a case of it was hard graft, and it’s still hard graft still need to make time for it. It is work, but it’s work I love doing.

Alastair McDermott 00:32

Hello, and welcome to Marketing for Consultants. This is the podcast that helps independent consultants and subject matter experts to get more clients without having to beg for referrals or make soul-destroying cold calls. Before we get into today’s episode, I wanted to check in with you briefly. We’d love to answer some listener questions on the show. So if you have any questions related to marketing, positioning, lead generation or anything else that we discuss on the podcast, You can email us at podcast@marketingforconsultants.com or you can even record it as a voice message for us to use on the podcast. And you can find that at marketingforconsultants.com/question. So if you have any suggestions for guests you’d like us to have on any topics you’d like us to cover, or if you just have suggestions on how we can improve the podcast and make it better for you, please contact us. So again, you can always email us at podcast@marketingforconsultants.com or recorded as a voice message for you asked us on the podcast at marketingforconsultants.com/question. Thanks, folks. Now on with the show. I’m your host, Alastair McDermott and today My guest is Paddy Delaney from informed decisions. Paddy has a hugely successful podcast. He has grown his business to six figures in two years, and is just a very interesting guy. And I’m really excited to have this episode ready for you to listen to. Paddy believes that the financial service industry has it all wrong. It focuses on selling products, often at the expense of individual clients. He’s trying to shift that focus back to the individual. He is very deliberate in being totally independent, having no sponsorship affiliations, or any links that might inhibit his freedom of speech, or recommendations or interactions with clients. His podcast informed decisions launched in 2016 and it’s now at over 200 episodes. Paddy as an independent financial advisor can you give us a bit of background about what it is you actually do?

Paddy Delaney 01:36

Yeah, so um, with 15 years experience working in the financial services world on all sides of it, I now run an independent financial advice firm called Informed Decisions, where we specialise in working with successful business owners who really want to take their financial planning seriously. They’ve probably already accumulated significant assets, retirement sums investments, and they want somebody that’s going to help them over the next part of their journey, essentially. So that’s who we are. That’s where we work with no, we hope. And in doing that, I also create a weekly podcast, Alastair asked on a on a blog. So that’s kind of my background.

Alastair McDermott 03:15

Excellent. So you have built in a fairly short period of time, you’ve built a six figure business. And what I was really interested in is that you’ve actually only been in business for two and a half years now, huh?

Paddy Delaney 03:27

Yeah, two and a half years.

Alastair McDermott 03:29

But I’ve been talking to you, you know, for the last four or five years. I know you’ve been running the podcast. So you actually started the podcast, and the blog while you were still in corporate employment insurance? Yep.

Paddy Delaney 03:43

Yep. So I worked with one of Ireland’s most reputable and largest insurance companies for for many, many years as an advisor, you know, selling product the old commission wrote, and then as a trainer to other financial advisors, a recruiter of financial advisors. So I saw all sides of the business there, I guess, ultimately, yeah, I saw that, for me, the traditional way to financial advice is done in Ireland, at least is not always client centric, not always client focused. And that never really sat that well with me. So as a way to call out the Bs, and as a way to educate people in plain English, I started blogging about personal finance matters, that is relevant to people, right? It’s not and with no, no selling intent behind that. It was just to share ideas and share insights. Right, I call it exercising a creative muscle, which it was, I started doing that Yeah, I started doing that while I was in corporate employment with the with the consent of my employer, obviously. And just that grew and that grew and people got in touch say, Hey, I really like your style. I really like what you’re talking about and how you how you think about this stuff. Can Can you help us at a time I couldn’t because I was working for another company. So that got me thinking and that got me planning to step out and and establish informed decisions to the Central Bank of Ireland and to you know, really go about it properly.

Alastair McDermott 05:01

Right? So you actually started without intending to deliberately started like a personal brand?

Paddy Delaney 05:07

Yeah, exactly. People Yeah, people might or might not believe that. But yeah, it was exercise and creative. Most of it was something that I really cared about. Right. And I enjoyed writing about, I enjoyed talking about it, I got a boost from doing it. And that is why I still enjoy doing it on a weekly basis for years later to 1206 podcasts later, you know, 165 blogs later, I still enjoy doing it. I get a Bowser.

Alastair McDermott 05:34

Yeah. And I think a big part of that is is you send driven when you talk about, you know, that client focus, and that a lot of the stuff that’s out there is not client focus. That’s like a mission for you.

Paddy Delaney 05:48

It is, yeah. And like I have it as my tagline on LinkedIn is, you know, making a positive difference in financial services, which really, you know, might sound a bit near. But that’s really what I’m about that is, if I boil it all down, yes, I want to earn an income. Yes, I want to, you know, prepare for my own retirement. And yes, I want to have free time to spend it to treat kids and my wife, and so I want to work on my own terms. But if we can also do that, as well as making a positive difference in the world, and educating people and helping people avoid mistakes with their finances. I am bloody delighted with that.

Alastair McDermott 06:20

Right. Okay. Can you tell tell us a bit about your business model? Like, what are the services that you sell? How do you package them up? products or services? How does that work?

Paddy Delaney 06:31

Yeah, so look at traditional financial advice in Ireland, right? You sell a pension to somebody and the insurance company that you whose product you sell, pay you a commission, right in the back door that the client doesn’t see client has no idea. And often those commissions are really, really significant. And invariably, the client pays for that commission, through fees and charges in the product that they bought from you that they don’t even know about. That’s the way it is right? And that for me, does not and did not sit well, not saying it’s broken, or it’s terribly wrong. For me, it didn’t feel right, and much more about transparency, and everyone knows what everyone is getting paid, and what services are being delivered, right. So right, that’s a long winded way of introducing the rationale and my rationale for establishing what is called a fee only service. So if you if I do a master plan, which is a deep strategic planning, Second Opinion analysis forecasting for a client about their investment and retirement income plans, they pay me a fee for that master plan. Okay. And that’s a significant fee of, you know, three $4,000. And that’s changed dramatically over the two and a half. Okay, the type of client we now work with tends to have a half a million euros of invested assets already. So it is quite a niche area, where we use very, very specific planning tools to help clients achieve really good outcomes and get really good clarity, and ultimately have somebody that is on their side that is working with them that is not trying to sell products to them to generate commissions at the back door really not what it’s about. It’s about professional service fee for a very, very valuable service.

Alastair McDermott 08:12

Okay, so is that your entry level products? Did the master plan your entry level product service?

Paddy Delaney 08:17

Yeah. So over the, over the course of the last two years, through reading through talking to existing clients, talking to new potential clients, through talking to people like yourself, I’ve become more and more aligned with this approach of becoming quite niche, okay, on determining who you work with, who you want to work with, what value you can bring to them, and what is a fair and reasonable price to charge for that service. And for me, I found what I like to think is a cohort and a group and a demographic of people that I really love genuinely love working with, and knowing more about and really helping in bigger picture. And in terms of their bigger picture financial needs, and that having a need and a desire for this type of

Alastair McDermott 09:01

Well, it does. There’s another another person that a business coach of mine and somebody who I’ve interviewed as well on podcast, Jonathan Stark, and he boils business down to helping people you like, get stuff that they need or get stuff. There you go. Right, as he told me, you like, get something they want.

Paddy Delaney 09:24

Big time. And I think that’s also important and, okay, we’ll probably touch on afford the services and their price point and the type of client I work with has changed dramatically over the two and a half years that you know, that we are delivering this service formerly, and we’ve now landed on, you know,

Alastair McDermott 09:42

What, like, what was it? What was it originally?

Paddy Delaney 09:46

It was originally, you know, kind of a quarter of that in terms of the initial analysis. The price point is around 1000 euros, you know, the the annual length the annual fee that we may charge somebody for the ongoing service and the ongoing financial planning and guide And support and all aspects of their finances. You know, we’re kind of in and around, you know, €1,000 a month — or €1,000 a year — I beg your pardon. And, and really was only after six months or so on reflecting on this and looking at it and saying “Hold on now, this is – it’s not going to work in order to get where we want”. To get there going to need 300 clients and then I can’t deliver the service.

Alastair McDermott 10:21

Right, right.

Paddy Delaney 10:22

That’s what I want to deliver. I can’t not know these people deeply and help them deeply. So it was a case of Okay, what do we need to charge? Okay. And how many clients can we actually work with realistically, and service properly, and know very well, and have frequent calls and touch points and advice and a deep planning we do and then work out? Okay. This is this is our number. This is where we need to get it. This is how many clients we can service.

Alastair McDermott 10:46

Right. So you pick the number and, and and work back from there. Yes. How many clients? What is an ideal number of clients for you?

Paddy Delaney 10:54

50.

Alastair McDermott 10:55

50. Okay, cool. Yeah. And even then that that sounds like a relatively big number. I mean, it depends on on how much ongoing work there is. Yeah, that’s a good number.

Paddy Delaney 11:06

Yeah.

Alastair McDermott 11:07

So you have basically 4x to your price since that since you started,

Paddy Delaney 11:13

Essentially, yeah. And we’ve totally changed the service. And we’ve refined what we do. And we add, we add so much more value than we did at the outset to new clients, but also the existing clients.

Alastair McDermott 11:25

Create more value because you’re charging more.

Paddy Delaney 11:27

Absolutely.

Alastair McDermott 11:28

Right.

Paddy Delaney 11:29

So we reinvest truckload, back into business support in terms of the services that we provide in terms of the events that we put on for clients now. It’s it’s constantly evolving, but yes, we’re putting it back into the business.

Alastair McDermott 11:41

Okay. Okay, cool. So, tell me about the podcast. So this was exercising your creative muscle, and you decided to start a blog and a podcast? What was it that attracted you to do that?

Paddy Delaney 11:54

They remember my first blog post I ever wrote was actually on LinkedIn, I think LinkedIn had some sort of a, forget what it was called, it was LinkedIn pulse, or something like this rate, kind of write blogs, loved it, got some nice feedback. And I was like, okay, that could be interesting. And then looked at setting up my own blog, again, research and talking to people like yourself, how do we do this friend of a friend helped me build the first website, you know, WordPress, get some blog and gone. And it was, after a few months of that, I became a big fan of podcasts. And in particular, Pete Matthew in the UK, who runs meaningful money, which is a phenomenally large success in terms of podcasting and financial planning, spoke to a few times, and basically figured out how to go about doing podcasting. And thought about what I want to do, what difference I want to make, how do I want to approach it. And I remember Pete telling me actually so petty, don’t start a podcast, unless you’re totally and utterly committed to it, and you’re going to feel you believe you’re going to really enjoy it. Because he said something like, 85% of podcasts don’t get past episode eight. So I remember hearing that. And I said, right, I’m not gonna be not going to be in the 85%. They’re going to be in the 15%. And just committed to it, and made it a habit needed to have it every friggin week. And the kids got to bed. You know, it was a case of late nights, it was case of early mornings. It was a case of it was hard graft, and it’s still hard graft still need to make time for it. It is work, but it’s work I love doing.

Alastair McDermott 13:23

Right. And have you found the podcast making a material difference in terms of the business?

Paddy Delaney 13:30

Hugely, it makes a difference in several levels, right from personally, it has made a massive difference in my own education, my own knowledge, my you know, being sharpened to topics that we deal in on the aeroplane, you know, retirement planning for business owners, self administered pension schemes, platform, investing all that niche area, that’s all we do, right? We don’t do protection. We don’t do mortgages, we don’t do any of that stuff. We specialise in this area. So by doing topics, by doing episodes on those topics, it forces you to stay on top of changes in those in those areas. But also, it makes you think a bit deeper about and that’s what a lot of us self employed people don’t get time to think about what we’re doing that much some podcast forces me to think reflect, look at what we do, the services that we provide, and make sure that our clients get the best outcomes at all times. So yes, changes that. The business ways it has been. I would say the business wouldn’t be a quarter of what it is if it wasn’t for the podcast.

Alastair McDermott 14:32

Okay. Okay. So very, very,

Paddy Delaney 14:34

Hugely significant. Like to put it another way I am which is totally unheard of in financial services world. I have never, never called called anybody. I have never ever had to do anything like that. clients come to me because they they can read what we put out there. They they often will have listened to 10 or more podcasts before they even get in touch with me. They will know my approach. They will know what we’re about. They they will, if they’ve got in touch, they’ve decided I like this guy. I’m sure there’s many, many people who think this guy is an idiot. I don’t like them, I’m not going to contact them. And that’s fine. But the ones who do get in touch, generally want to work with us in some capacity. And it’s a case of figuring out, are we good?

Alastair McDermott 15:17

Yeah. They know your approach. They’ve already built about a certain level of trust. And they’re coming to you.

Paddy Delaney 15:23

Because you can’t you can’t do 200 episodes, and you can’t fake 200 episodes. Right? Right, because there’s a lot of hours to spend with somebody. So if you’re a fake, and if you don’t know what you’re talking about, if your intent isn’t positive, that’s going to come true, people are going to cut that out.

Alastair McDermott 15:40

Okay, so I want to go back and and talk to you about you mentioned earlier on about becoming niche. And that was one of things that you did, he talked with the cohort of people who you like working with, who is that niche.

Paddy Delaney 15:53

So it’s it’s business owners, typically 45 to 50, successful business owners, a lot of engineering, technically minded, curious people. And I tend to get on very well with those type of people, they typically will have had a financial advisor, or they’ll have had schemes and pensions and investments of various sorts, then they typically want to been delighted with the advice they got, or the advice wasn’t very proactive, or it was non existent at all. And they’re looking for somebody to guide them, as they really ramp up their retirement planning as they prepare to exit their business essentially. So it’s those type of professional consultants that are really good at what they do and notice stuff and need and want to pay an expert to help them with regards to their financial planning.

Alastair McDermott 16:41

Right. And do you do you talk about that niche on the podcast and on your website?

Paddy Delaney 16:45

Try to, yeah, and the website is constantly evolving. So we try to get that message across pretty clearly could be clearer. Right? So look at your website, for instance, is very, very clear what you do and who you do it for. So I’m not I’m not in I’m not in your league, Alastair, in terms of that clarity, but it is something that we’re working on the whole time and working into keen to get out there.

Alastair McDermott 17:08

Yeah, I think it is difficult when you have a group of I mean, depends on the way that you specialise. But when you have a group, where you can’t find a collective term, for all of them together, it makes it a bit more difficult. Certainly successful business owners with a technical engineering background, you know, that that is quite specific. It’s just there’s no kind of collective term for that. So yeah, I can understand your different verticals. Because it helps you.

Paddy Delaney 17:38

Yeah, yeah. So it’s, it is? It’s a very, very interesting question. And, you know, at the same time, you know, nation is terrifying for us, right nation is really, really terrifying people because, you know, the thoughts of cutting off potentially 90% of your potential clients, by niching, down one avenue is like madness, but the more I do it, and I’m not saying I’m doing it massively, but the more I do it, and the more I think in that way, the more I actually really enjoy doing that. We are, but I do believe that when we commit to an expertise or an avenue, it gives us confidence. But it definitely does give us more technical expertise. And people will find this.

Alastair McDermott 18:21

Yeah. Okay. There’s, there’s so many ways we can go now. So let’s just talk about the the podcast from and you’ve gotten to 200 episodes, you’ve been doing a mix of of solo episodes, and interviews. Is that right? Right. Yeah. And so and you’ve had some, some really super guests on there. So you’ve gotten to 200. What’s, what’s the plan?

Paddy Delaney 18:45

So we got to 200 there in November? And yeah, I guess I was asking myself the question, where’s this going? Where’s the podcast going to I just keep going to 400 to 500. Right? what’s the what’s the end goal. And I’m a fan of having an end goal. And I’m a fan of ongoing challenge. So, and I’m also a fan. This may sound a bit cheesy, but what I’m giving back, right? I’m supporting those that are less fortunate. So rather than it being a money grab, what I decided to do was to make make the podcast accessible only to those that join the tribe. So the tribe is anybody that signs up for the podcast at all episodes after podcast 200 are accessible to tribe members only. So for like, what is what is a really small fee to be fair, an annual fee of 61 euro, and it can access and will access all future episodes. So we’re six episodes into that new tribe. Yeah. People said to me, how do you are mad you are going to obliterate your audience by 90 plus percent by doing this because in reality, maybe 5% of people you might convert over to a paid paid subscription. What for me? Again, it’s it’s part of, yes, we’re gonna give 50% of all income from the tribe, to charity that the tribe members are going to vote on. That’s fine, right. And that, to me is important to subscribers, that might not be what we are doing more so than that is we’re creating a group of people that are really into this, right, that are committed to engaging in this, that we’ll have on as guests that we will do ask me anything episodes, there is more interaction, it is me getting closer and adding more value to the people that want to come on the journey. Rather than just create more, create more content.

Alastair McDermott 20:38

Yes, you’re building a, a stronger, smaller, stronger, more tight knit community around.

Paddy Delaney 20:47

You use the word community and I retired about the idea of and I looked into the research the idea and spoke to people about building an actual community, for me, that would that will become another job that was going to be another, you know, two days a week to manage a community and do all that needs to be done in the community. For me, that wasn’t going to make sense. So it wasn’t part of what I wanted to do. But it was definitely about creating this tighter knit cohort of people that are into this and that want to go into journey.

Alastair McDermott 21:14

Right? Okay, how many? So you’ve just started this, how many people have put their hand up and said that they’re interested in?

Paddy Delaney 21:21

So they put their hand up by signing up? So we’ve got approximately 100. Now on board in the tribe?

Alastair McDermott 21:27

Yeah. Okay.

Paddy Delaney 21:29

Which is which? I mean, for me, again, I’m thinking about it from there. What are we going to give to the charity here? What is the charity group going to get out with? What as well as as a core to people that are engaged in it? Yeah, I’m humbled by that. I think it’s super kick on.

Alastair McDermott 21:44

Yeah. So given that the podcast is not now is not updating permanently? How can you build this new try? Yes. What What have you thought about in terms of building, build, you know, continuing to get more people

Paddy Delaney 21:57

That’s the, that’s the challenge. Right? So, and again, when I set up the tribe, and look, if I go into these things with my eyes open and sent, this might work, this might not work, right? So we’re not wedded to anything. At this point, essentially, it is right. And there’s nobody gonna die over it, we’re not going to lose a fortune over, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s an experiment. So some people say, you know, we’re looking to put out some of your podcasts accessible to everybody and public. And then those ones, you can plug your your private feed, you know, the tribe, which for me, that kind of, kind of, it’s not very, it’s not very, it’s not in line with my values. Like, fundamentally, I’m, I’ve always been, this is how we’re rockin with it. If you’re interested, great, we’d love to have you, well, I’m not going to try to sell you up the road, not going to try and influence you and, you know, play games to try and get you on board. And I totally get why people do that. And it makes sense. And maybe we’ll revert to that. But for now, it was case, look, this is what we’re gonna go. If you’re if you’re into it, let’s have a grown up. Because, again, we have I guess, we have people that have been listening for quite a while that are into it. And it was those type of people that I wanted to bring on the journey, ultimately, and new listeners who will listen to who will find the podcast today. And they they will listen to your podcast 197 9899 and 100 or 200 and say, Oh, actually, I joined the train. So you know, the existing podcast feed will feed the tribe as well.

Alastair McDermott 23:27

Yeah. Okay. Interesting. I definitely want to check back with you, in six months or a year. See how this experience? Yeah, for sure. Some people would say it’s a very brave choice. It’s a this is a forum. It almost feels to me like it’s super, super nice. So, yeah, very interesting. Very interesting.

Paddy Delaney 23:54

So like, we definitely have we’ve, you know, the the audience has gone as far away but 90%. Right. So it’s it’s a significant change. And put again, I love a challenge. It’s something new, I would have regretted it, if I hadn’t tried it. So I’m open to that, you know, like, I don’t believe in sticking to the status quo. If I did, I’d be still working for the big corporate company that I worked with still doing the same thing as I was doing. That’s not what

Alastair McDermott 24:20

Yeah, absolutely. Let me ask you about failure, though. Because clearly you’re, you’re not I don’t seem to be a very risk averse, like you’re you’re willing to embrace possibility of risk.

Paddy Delaney 24:38

Right. I am a rational optimist. Okay. That’s how I describe myself. Right. Everything that I do in terms of the investment approach that I take to my own retirement pot, some kids Education Fund, and those of the clients that work with us. We’re rational optimists. It’s based on evidence. It’s based on what has been before it’s based on fact, not on speculation and you know, we will roll the dice and see how it goes, That’s not how we roll. And this is the same. So I guess I’m a huge fan of getting outside your comfort zone. And that was a driving force behind doing the trade as well here, right out of your comfort zone, I think is the best thing that any of us can do, provided it’s not going to ruin you or ruin anybody else are having massive negative impact on you or somebody else. If it doesn’t go, well. Why would you not do it? If it’s something you want to try? And I would apply that to pretty much everything. Getting out of our comfort zone is the best thing any of us.

Alastair McDermott 25:32

So can you tell me about then some time that you’ve done that, and it hasn’t worked out? Have you? What kind of failures Have you experienced so far in business? And is there anything that you learned from those that you can share with us?

Paddy Delaney 25:44

If I was if I was logic informed decisions again, right? I would, I took I took four years to decide to walk away, right. And I always had an inkling that I wanted to do something else, right. I didn’t know what that would look like it took me four years to design what that might look like before we actually went and implemented it. So I’m very, very planful. If I was doing it again, I would niche earlier, I would definitely niche earlier and I would, and this can be hard to do without the experience, I would value I would recognise the value that I bring. And particularly if you’re decent at something, right? Is to recognise that, that not everybody else in your field is as good as you are. Right? Not everybody is as technically sound as you were. And certainly not everybody is positive intent that you might have, if that’s the case, right?

Alastair McDermott 26:40

Yeah.

Paddy Delaney 26:40

And that for me is trust, right? character and competence. If you have both of those recognise that, and I’m not saying that I’m all things to all people, right. I’m not saying I’m the world’s best financial planner, but I recognise the value I bring. I would love if I had had that recognition two and a half years ago. But I do think without experience without doing it, it can be difficult to achieve that clarity.

Alastair McDermott 27:07

Yeah, sometimes you just have a turn in that. Oh, absolutely.

Paddy Delaney 27:13

But yes, it was a failure as I honestly prepared from, you know, maybe some a couple of interactions with with potential clients that didn’t work out. And and the way I deal with that is I reflect on it, and I learned from it might sound a bit cheesy, but I do and I try and say okay, how do I how do I, I take responsibility for it. Right? And I try and improve how I do that the next time. Yeah, and that’s the way I roll typically speak. And yeah, I’m pretty straight up.

Alastair McDermott 27:42

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Okay, so I want to ask you just briefly about books. What is your favourite business book?

Paddy Delaney 27:48

It varies. It varies a lot. I asked people on informed decisions by guest for book recommendations as well. And, and that’s it’s great way of getting book recommendations. But I would say the most recent business book that really got me thinking is one that I first read four years ago, I re read it over the last month. That’s the E Myth by Michael Gerber.

Alastair McDermott 28:14

The E Myth is hands down for me, the number one business book.

Paddy Delaney 28:18

I like everything that we’ve spoken about in terms of how you approach your business, how you think about your business, how you plan your business, how you what type of client to work with, what rent revenue you want to generate, what life you want to live, you know, that book captures it all and helps to give gives you frameworks to think about and plan those things. It’s super fun. So that’s got me that’s got me thinking again, over the Christmas holidays, but okay, where do we go from here? We’re kind of, you know, over halfway towards our client capacity, essentially, you know, business is going well really enjoying it the existing clients that are on love working with them as case okay, how do we get more and more of those really great clients that we love working with? And how do we want to work? What hours do we want to work? What revenue do we want to generate all of those things? And it’s got me thinking and fired up about that for the next year. Here so

Alastair McDermott 29:07

Super. What is your favourite fiction book?

Paddy Delaney 29:10

Um, Matter? Matterhorn by Carolyn Melendez. Melendez Matterhorn, it’s actually it’s a kind of a biography about the Vietnam War. It’s a fascinating, fascinating read. I think I’ve read it three times in the last 10 years. Every time we do a clear out here in sandbox two to seven Vincent DePaul. I always hold on to Matterhorn. Everything else seems to go out to Brian O’Driscoll biographies are gone. Paul O’Connell biographies gun. Adrian mo gun, you know, it’s for that matter harness has has lasted.

Alastair McDermott 29:45

Very cool. I will definitely check that out. Is there any any one piece of advice that you’d give to somebody coming up behind you? Young Paddy coming along in your tracks? wanting to do something similar? Is what I think it’s say to them, try this or do this.

Paddy Delaney 30:02

Speaking of books, right? There’s another book there that that from a from if you’re going to be blogging, if you’re going to try and put your voice and put your art out there, right? I’m a big fan of Seth Godin in terms of his philosophies and his mindset around creators and putting it out there and not holding it back. Right, trying to make a positive difference. I really, really, really believe that’s key here for a lot of us, but a separate book. I don’t know mixing my authors here, but is Marcus Marcus Sheridan wrote a book.

Alastair McDermott 30:33

Yeah.

Paddy Delaney 30:33

I think it’s “They Ask, You Answer.” Like, it’s yeah, it’s about content marketing. But fundamentally, it is about empathy. It is about having empathy for your client, your potential client. And to me, I There’s not a day goes by there’s not an hour and a day goes by I would say when I’m not thinking about, okay, what does what does that client maybe need from their existing clients that are already witness, not potential clients? Right? That we’re thinking about that as well, for clients that are witness? How can we make their life easier? How can we help them? What questions might they have? What concerns might they have? What goals might they have? How can we, how can we support that? What else monitor role can we play here? And what I find is that, that forces me, I love this, that forces me to be proactive in the service that we deliver to clients. So and that is quite unusual, I would say in financial services world where we’re badgering our clients to meet us to engage with us say, hey, let’s think about this. Right. And so anyway, that stems from empathy. And I think Marcus Sheridan’s book “They Ask, You Answer” is a really good insight.

Alastair McDermott 31:41

Super, I love it. Patrick, can you tell us where to find you to find the podcast.

Paddy Delaney 31:46

So podcast is on iTunes and all the usual podcast players wherever you get your podcasts as they say, and www.informeddecisions.ie the website where all the blogs, all podcasts up to 200 are all in there. And contact details, details about the professional service we provide all in there.

Alastair McDermott 32:06

Paddy, that’s it for me. Thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate your time.

Paddy Delaney 32:12

Thank you. I really enjoyed chatting with Janice, during the very best look at the podcast, you’re staring at all of this. So I’m sure it’ll go well for you.

Alastair McDermott 32:21

Wow. So that was a fantastic conversation with Paddy and I have some takeaway points in my notes here. So first thing is, and this goes back to something new we Grenier in a previous episode talked about, he talked about the importance of building a platform and audience first, and Paddy is a perfect example of that. So Paddy built his podcast platform, starting while he was still with his previous employer. I know it’s not always possible. And in fact, I’m an example of somebody who didn’t do this. But my takeaway is if you can start to build an authority platform of some kind, there’s no time like the present, regardless of your situation. It’s like the old proverb about when is the best time to plant a tree? Well, the best time was 20 years ago, the second best time is now. The next thing that stands out in Paddy’s story is his niche focus. He talks about all the things he doesn’t do, and how that allows him to think deeper on the things that he does do, and about having empathy for his clients or questions they have or concerns they have, what goals they have, and how we can support them, and how he is able to be really proactive in the service that he’s delivering, all because of that niche focus. And then finally, I really like how he works backwards to figure out his pricing. So he realised he couldn’t handle 300 clients a year at the level of service that he wanted to provide. So we worked out the pricing, he would need to charge per client and the number of clients he needed that to reach his business goals that he had set, and he’s charging enough to do the job properly. And this is like a mantra for me when you have to charge enough to do the job properly. And I see people under charging all the time. And when you under charge, you can’t afford to deliver a premium service and the knock on effects that are huge. So I love how Paddy realise this and he went about figuring out his pricing from there. Thanks for listening. If you like this, you might also be interested in my free seven day email course on Marketing for Consultants that can be found at MarketingforConsultants.com