How ANY Finance Professional Can Explode Their Wealth

This video is for any accountant, enrolled agent, CPA attorney or financial advisor that wants to transition their practice to tax advisory or even simply add advisory services to their practice. And in the off season, typically the fall is the time to do it. Now, my name is Mark Kohler. I'm a CPA attorney, best selling author. I've been in the tax and legal industry for almost 25 years. I've done my 10,000 consultations and I've cracked the code on advisory services. I'm going to give you eight steps today on the big picture. The plan of converting your practice to advisory, creating better job satisfaction, having a more lucrative practice and impacting the lives of thousands, thousands of business owners that have families themselves that need advice, that want tax advisory. You know this, this is the holy grail of being a tax and legal or financial professional. I can't wait to share this with you. And I know you're going to have some major takeaways. And before we jump into these eight, I want to remind you that this is my eight. I think there could be more. I think this makes sense. And also we could take eight hours to go through this. So I'm going to hit the highlights, tell you really what you need to do. There's no hide the ball. But I also point out the fact that I've been teaching this for now over two years to a tribe, a community and my tax advisory network. So I'll tell you more about that later. But I know there's a lot here, so don't get overwhelmed. It's okay. I'm going to hit the highlights and I know you're going to walk away with some action items now, number one, it's mindset and belief and I can't emphasize that enough now. As I said, I've been in the tax and legal industry for 25 years and starting to believe in my own product, my own service, my own capabilities. That was hard too. I know what it feels like being in that conference room or on that zoom call and you're trying to provide value and you're nervous, you're scared, you want to earn their trust and you start giving away services. You start working harder and putting in more hours and not billing for it and you start to question your own skill set. You maybe have some imposter syndrome and we can wallow in that for a long time and it can hold you back. It held me back for a couple of years as I was just a new accountant and lawyer trying to really understand my, my, my worth as a Tax and legal professional. And so this is a, this is a real deal that we have to confront and we have to be able to look inward and say where do I need to work on myself so that I can go to that next level Number two is we've got to learn the new content, learn the new strategies. And I know this is hard for some of you to swallow. I'm a CPA in a journey. I, I do CE courses every year. But be honest with yourself. How many of those CE courses really teach practical, street smart strategies that move the needle for our clients? I think back to the bar exam and my CPA exam and a master's program in law school. Did I learn the strategies that really impact my clients? How to use reasonable comp with an S corp, how to put family members on payroll. How to self direct a Roth IRA or a 401K. How to write off auto or travel in the most creative manner. We don't learn that. We don't learn that in school. And CE courses are so watered down and regulatory, it is critical. We're in a community and a tribe learning strategies that again really move the needle for our clients. Over the last 25 years I have tried to collect every possible strategy I could that would really impact my clients. And I've created modules and sections and a certification program. And let me just tell you a few of these that I think you really need to be open to learning. Maybe some new concepts, maybe something in asset protection, estate planning, cryptocurrency, real estate strategies, small business tax write offs, self directing retirement accounts, that's just to name a few. There is so much to learn out there and we have to realize sometimes it's not going to come from a mentor down the hall or a CE class at a chamber of commerce one weekend. We've got to seek these strategies out in a community and a tribe that wants to learn cutting edge strategies. As we learn these strategies, that's the content that will allow us to deliver advisory services. Number three, we are going to have to adopt some new engagement letters. Right? I'm going to get practical with you. We've got to understand how to price advisory services. Now advisory services are typically a monthly fee that's budgeted out for the client, which they love. Then it would include quarterly meetings, would include maybe tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll, outsourced CFO services. Whatever you're putting together for the client, it's going to have a total and you would divide it by 12 months. And in a perfect world they start May 1, and in the April of next year, tax returns would be all done and the client runs off into the sunset. Now, it's not always going to be that clean. So we have to have a dynamic pricing model. We have to have engagement letters that allow us to charge more when a client shows up with more stuff on our doorstep. I've been there. I know what you're going through. So I know it can sound overwhelming because pricing for advisory can seem like a moving target, but that's okay. Embrace it. You adopt those concepts in your engagement letter and you communicate that with transparency to your client. I like to teach and give my advisors different engagement letters to choose from, different provisions to choose from, different times of the year where a client might be onboarded, which will change the pricing model for the next three months, six months, nine months, or 12 months. So as we learn the strategies that we're going to deliver through advisory services, we need to make sure we're onboarding the client with the right engagement letter expectations and pricing. It's doable and not overwhelming, and you can build in the protection for yourself and for your client. So it ends up to be a fair exchange. Now, over the last 25 years, I've had to figure this out too. Sometimes I didn't charge enough and I ended up providing more work than I really bargained for. But I've learned from it and I've been working it in our community and tribe to all of us improve on the way we approach our pricing, so that ends up fair and equitable for all the parties. Number four, identifying the ideal client. This is an important part of the process. You got the right mindset, you've learned all these strategies, you've got a great engagement letter, you nailed the pricing, and now who am I selling this to? It's not for everybody. We need to make sure and find the right clients that are going to engage with us for these services. Now, before I show you a slide and maybe some characteristics of an ideal client, let's maybe talk about what's not an ideal client. Maybe that corporate employee with a W2, no rental property, and a brokerage account is just going to be on an island. There's nothing I can do to move the needle for them. They don't have a side hustle. They don't have a small business. There's no real estate to play with it. There's just nothing to really plan for. I'm not going to pitch them advisory services. Now, if I want to keep them in a bucket and say I'M going to do your tax prep every year or provide a little consultation once a year, that's fine. But I already know that I'm not going to really impact their lives. So I'm not going to feel good about it. They're not going to feel feel good about it. And it's going to create an odd relationship. So we want to find those ideal clients that are going to benefit the most from advisory and where we can really shine. So check out this slide. Here's some examples. A small business, a side hustle. They have rental real estate. They have a10.99 of X dollars or more. They have goals to buy real estate. They have goals to leave their day job. They're trying to build wealth. They have additional income from a farm, Etsy, Uber, Turo, Waverly, ebay, whatever. And I love a client that has a day job in a small business, a day job and a rental property. Now I've got something to work with. Now I can start impacting their life with real tax strategies and real wealth building principles. They're not just there to save taxes, we're there to help them build their legacy, their American dream to build wealth. That's where an advisor really starts to create a relationship with that ideal client and you start enjoying and loving your job. Number five, onboarding and delivering the service. We gotta have a system for this. We can't just say, oh, I just got this new advisory client and then just shoot from the hip hoping it's gonna work out. It starts with onboarding. Now, I'm gonna talk here in a moment about converting our current compliance clients over to advisory and onboarding new clients. But let's make sure that we have a system for this. Your engagement letter is gonna be that framework. If we go back to that, you're going to tell the client, we're going to meet monthly, we're going to meet quarterly. I'm going to provide the following services. Here's what you're going to pay monthly. You want to have a good calendaring system where your staff knows when you're reaching out to the client. These appointments are preset. Possibly you're going to maintain a file for this client so you pick it up and run with it every time you meet with them. You want to make sure that all of these things are worked out so it doesn't create more stress for you. It actually sets you free. As I've been in my practice for years, that's half the battle. I want to make sure I'm using my calendar to make sure I follow through with my deliverables so that I wake up. There's my schedule for the week. Oh, yeah, I've got to meet with Tom and Mary again. I met with them three months ago. Perfect. They've been paying monthly. It's time to have a review session. And in this process, I know some of you are like, well, what am I going to talk about in these meetings? This is why I love my 70 to 80 different strategies that I teach with my advisors, is because you're going to have so much to talk about, they can't wait to pay you for next year. One meeting might just be about their estate plan, their legacy plan, with their children. It might be a business succession planning meeting. You might bring in some asset protection concepts. You might want to talk about helping them get out of debt. Do they have a college savings plan? What are they doing for the kids or the grandkids? What is their plan for tax deductions this year? Their reasonable comp, Their rental property? Are they doing a 1031 exchange? Are they buying more crypto? The list is endless. Well, that's going to be a part of your deliverables. It's going to be in their file. You're going to have checklists. I have a comprehensive checklist that I love and I give to all of my advisors. So they have a framework of things to talk about. Because when they're a little nervous and scared and the client's there, we want to take away that fear so that we're listening, we're connecting with the client, because that connection is really what the client's paying for. Do you know, half the time the client, they don't even remember what you talk about. They just remember how they felt and when they feel safe with you and they feel like you have a plan and you've got their back, it's priceless. They will want to be an advisory client for years to come. So these deliverables and understanding that it's going to be okay, and you're going to have plenty to talk about, what you're going to rely on in this process. Now, number six, I was talking about onboarding the deliverables. Let's talk about the onboarding or the converting of current clients, those clients that maybe we're already doing compliance for. For those of you that are doing tax prep, maybe you're providing just financial services or legal services now you need to convert them over to advisory. I want to give you a couple of tips on this. What I love is doing First, a year end tax consultation meeting that you do not do for free. You reach out to your client with either a phone call, an email, a letter and say it is critical. We have a year end tax planning meeting. Let's get together. I've learned some new strategies. I've just gotten recently certified with some strategies that I know will move the needle for you. I have no problem saying if I don't save you in taxes the cost of this consultation, I'll give you your money back because I know you're going to save them taxes in that meeting. It's a no brainer. You find $1,000 in write offs, you just saved them 300 bucks. You find them 2,000 in write off, you might save them five, $600. So we want to charge them a reasonable fee for maybe five to $750 for a year end tax consultation meeting. Provide some strategies that move the needle, maybe even build them a trifecta. If you've followed me before, you know I like to build a visual diagram of what the client's future looks like and give them actionable tax and legal strategies. And you may bring in a lawyer, you may bring in a financial advisor. You're their quarterback, that's what the advisor is. You don't have to do it all. Now in that year end consultation in which you're going to wow them, guess what? You pitch well, Tom and Mary. I am now providing tax advisory services to enhance the services I'm already providing you. What I'd like to propose is we meet quarterly. Let's implement everything I just talked about. Let me show you the tax savings just approximately that you're going to have. By the way, let's work on your asset protection and your estate plan and your business succession plan. Let's talk about your investments in your Roth IRA or 401k. Now you're not giving investment advice, but you're telling them, let's save more, let's stay out of debt, let's be smart with our money. You can give that advice all day long and then bring in team members to help enhance what you're doing. So that's tip number one. If your current clients do a year in tax planning consultation and pitch your advisory services for next year. Second tip, if you are providing services in the spring, maybe you can't get with them before the year end and you're doing tax prep in the spring, maybe you're having a legal consultation, a financial planning session, do your normal dog and pony show, whatever you're normally Charging for. But then you tell them, I'd like to finish this meeting or include with this meeting a plan, a planning session for next year, a comprehensive consultation where I build you a trifecta and a game plan for the next one to two years. I need to charge for that, but I'm going to wow you. And I know I will save you that, at least in taxes. Now, I know the client. I've had it happen to me before. The client goes, well, you should be providing all that with my tax prep anyway. No, your tax prep does not include that. Not anymore. We have a new policy here. We do tax preparation and tax planning. If you just want tax prep, that's cool. Drop your stuff off, come pick up your tax return. But if you want to have a strategy session, going to move the needle. I'm going to save you a ton and you're going to pay for that. And it's okay. If you don't want to pay for it, you can go somewhere else. It was great serving you because people, you will have a line out the door when you start providing advisory services. And the clients that you kind of want to see go away. Either they get on board or they go away. So the tip number two in there is with your current clientele, when you provide your next service, add on a comprehensive consult charge, maybe 500 to 750 again, promise them that you're going to provide tax savings in it. And then in that comprehensive consult where you flex your muscles and show them how cool you are, that's when you pitch the advisory services for the rest of the year. Pro tip. Don't just call up your client and go, yeah, I'm doing advisory services now. It's going to be 10 grand for the year. You're going to pay me 800amonth. They're not going to buy into that. It's not going to work. You go, mark, your advice sucks. They're not going to go buy advisory services. That's right. They're not going to go for that phone call. You bring them in for a consultation for maybe 5 to $700 and show them some strategies, give them a plan. And then all of a sudden they're like, oh my gosh, I need you to help me implement this plan. You pitch advisory services. See, advisory services come after you have a chance to show them what you got, and they're going to pay for that consultation. This is how you convert. Now let me show you a slide here too. This is an important one. I like this one as we go through this transitioning process because again in this off season, this transitioning can be very, very powerful. Look at your old approach. You might be 60% compliance or what your regular services might be with some accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, advisory might be 5% of your business. Now in the short run, we're going to start to transition. It might take a year or two to start converting 60% of that compliance down to 45% and upping the advisory to 20%. In the long run, I want more than half of your practice advisory compliance. We whittle down, we got accounting and payroll in there in this example. But I've seen advisors in my program within two years be completely advisory and triple their income with fewer clients and their job satisfaction is up off the chart, people. It can be done and it's exciting to convert those clients over. Many of them are waiting for the opportunity to work with you. They're waiting for your phone call to do this comprehensive planning. Now number seven is our new leads. We're going to get out and start marketing ourselves. I have a network where I send all of my leads that come in through social media and speaking engagements to a network of certified advisors. You're going to up your game on with your own social media, your own blog posting. You might adopt a new podcast and start producing some more content that's advisory related. You're going to open up this whole new world to maybe some speaking engagements locally or around the country. You're going to narrow in on a niche. You're going to be looking for that ideal client. Here's how you bring them on board. It's a two step process. I want to go to the whiteboard for this one. Step one is the client comes on for a discovery call. Now this discovery call is going to be booked through calendly on a link on your website. It could come through a QR code at a speaking event. It could be an email you send out, it could be your website, it could be social media. Maybe it's a blog you wrote. You're going to try to get people's attention. It's called reach. You're going to reach out there into the ethos and start teaching people. And you're going to say, make an appointment for a discovery call. This discovery call is for free. It is not a free consultation and it's not a call you take. This is where you're going to train team members to take that discovery call and sell. Drumroll. A comprehensive consult. You are going to have appointments scheduled for you with your sales team putting clients in a comprehensive consult that you might be charging $500 to $2,000 for. I don't know. You get to choose. But in our law firm right now, we have six team members taking discovery calls all day long, making appointments for 12 lawyers. The lawyers do not take a discovery call. We let the team member describe how great they are, what they're going to receive in a comprehensive consult. The client pays in advance for the comprehensive consult, gets on the phone with the attorney, and they flex their muscle. They build them a trifecta. They give them a checklist. They give them great tax strategies and other things they need to implement. And tax advisors are doing the same thing. Financial planners are doing the same thing. They're getting into that comprehensive consultation for a fee and providing a strategic plan, a picture, a trifecta. They're going through a comprehensive checklist, and then in that meeting, they pitch advisory services. See, people aren't just going to call your phone number and go, oh, I'd like you to charge me for advisory services. No, they're going to call up and go, I want you to do my tax return. I want some financial advice. I need an llc. Great, let's get you on a phone call with the right advisor. Let's help you get that accomplished. And they pay you. Now they're invested with you. Now they want to see a payoff of what they paid you. They're willing to have a relationship with you. Now you get to show them what you got. And in that comprehensive consult, you're now delivering all these killer ideas and strategies that need implementation. The advisory services is the implementation. They can't say no. They're like, oh, my gosh, I love your strategies. How much am I going to save? A lot more than you're paying me. Okay, let's go. And they pay monthly for that. It's affordable for them. It's a budgeted. It's a budgeted item in their business. Nine times out of 10, tax deductible. Because your ideal clients have businesses, so there's fees to you or tax deductible. Pen drop. Right. This is beautiful. The client's happy, you're happy, and you've brought them along on a journey. They went from a discovery call, and you're not wasting time on discovery calls. You're not answering the phone. We did a training just last month with our advisors where our entire training was about how to hire their first assistant. But then we went through how to train that assistant to handle their calendar, make Appointments, sell the comprehensive consult, take care of the mail, take care of this service, maybe do some internal bookkeeping stuff, some envelopes. This assistant was paid for within the first three days of the month, every month, because they're making appointments for you to provide paid for consultations, at which point you pitch advisory services. See that machine? Meanwhile, you're converting your current clients. Meanwhile you got new clients coming in the door, people. You're now scaling a business and you're making more money and loving every minute. Now number eight is marketing and training. It's the ongoing steps you're going to take to keep the machine running. It's keeping the car going down the road, staying in the right lane, staying committed to your procedures, your systems, your pricing. The marketing is going to be exciting and fun as you start talking about new strategies that you used to just think about. Oh, there's a strategy of opportunity zones, 1031 exchanges, sale of home exemptions, charitable remainder trusts that I maybe never talked about before, but now I can write about them, talk about them, teach them, and then turn around and do better training for myself and for my staff in my tax advisor network. We're doing two trainings a week nationwide where everybody comes together as a tribe and community. I teach a specific topic one day of the week and then we do Q and A on the second training. We have got to stay sharp. I learned something every week from my community. If you think you know it all right now, as a CPA or attorney, that's not healthy. That's not going to get you to advisory services. Just in today's training we talked about the solar tax credit and then another member of the team brought up the idc, the intangible drilling cost tax deduction or credit, however you want to call it when an oil and gas. Those are real strategies, they really work. Last week we were talking about real estate strategy. The week before that we were talking about crypto people. There is so much to learn out there. And so the ongoing training, the ongoing marketing is I think, the fun part. And that's the eighth piece of this plan. You can have an advisory practice. It takes time. It takes practice and it's going to take time and it's going to evolve and it's going to grow. For some of you it'll happen really quickly. For others of you, it might take a little more time, but it's okay. It's not a race, it's a journey. And the only person you're going to measure that timeline against is yourself. Now, I hope this has been impactful for you. I've loved talking about this. I'm so passionate about it. I really want to change the accounting industry. I want to help so many accountants, rolled agents, CPAs, advisors. I want to help them enjoy their practice, enjoy their career and help so many more business owners in this country that are starving for this information. This is my life's calling and I want you to be a part of that mission. It is an amazing feeling when you sit across the table or on a zoom call and help a client save more money, put it away and build a future they never dreamed of. It's incredible. Please, I need to ask of you to take a look at my Main street tax pro program. 12 modules, 75 plus sections and growing quizzes for every section before you can move on to the next one. There's some accountability here. After all of these classes we have this ongoing training every week. We have semiannual three day conferences, we have a closed Facebook group. We have support material on a dashboard with all the prior recordings. Upon enrolling, you're watching videos that next 10 minutes. You're immediately getting trained and educated on legitimate tax strategies. You're a part of a community and tribe that provides support and resources to each other. Every month we do a business builder training where I talk about building your business and I think in module 13 now we have nine different classes on the pricing, the engagement letters, the finding and closing new clients. Every month we have a mindset call on how to handle the stress of our practices, building relationships with our family, our staff and how to get through tax season without going crazy. The resources are incredible and they are going to help you better succeed. Making more money and creating more job satisfaction. The price is so affordable. Well anyway, I could go on and on and you can see how passionate I am about this. Again, I ask you to please do a demo with one of my sales reps. Come with your pain points, come with your goals. They will help create a plan for you on how you can get involved immediately and get started on becoming a real certified tax Advisor. I'm so excited to have shared this with you. I hope to see you at one of my next events. I hope to see you next week's training. I hope to build a relationship with you for many years to come and I promise you this is the path to true tax advisory services. See you there soon.