In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Matthew Halloran, CEO of Top Advisor Marketing. Halloran shares a formative childhood story where his grandfather imparted three guiding principles—be the better man, be a gentleman, and master tie knots—forming his family motto. He explains his business, an international podcasting and communications branding firm for financial‑service professionals, emphasizing that marketing is not a fleeting trend but requires repeated effort and persistence. Halloran offers core business advice: adopt a ‘fail fast’ mindset, viewing setbacks as learning opportunities. He advises his younger self to “follow the wind,” encouraging alignment with life’s natural direction. On happiness, he outlines a yin‑yang trade‑off, stating that achieving any desire requires sacrificing time, talent, treasure, relationships, or control. He recommends Alan Weiss’s The Million Dollar Consultant for its three‑tier service model and Jim Henson’s It’s Not Easy Being Green for personal growth. Halloran cites a Bob Marley quote about shared hardship to illustrate empathy. Finally, he directs listeners to his LinkedIn profile and the Top Advisor Marketing website for more information. The episode is sponsored by Authors Unite and recorded via Anchor.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Matt Halloran with us. He's the CEO of Top Advisor Marketing, so welcome to the show, Matt.
Hey, thanks for having me.
Of course, thanks for joining us. We'll dive in. The first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So when I was about, um, let's see, about 8 years old, I went to visit my grandparents with my brother out in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And my grandfather was a very successful business person. What he did was he sold Universal Pictures in the actual can, back when movies were still physical products. And, uh, it was bedtime, and he was— he called me into the pink tile bathroom. You remember those, uh, pink tiles that were really small, looked like Pepto-Bismol? Yeah. And so he takes his teeth out of his head and he's standing there brushing his teeth. Now this traumatized me massively as a child, uh, just because I didn't know anybody could remove their teeth from their head, and the pink bathroom was making me rather nauseous. But with all of that said, my grandfather looks at me at 8 years old, he says, Matt, there's 3 things you need to know to be successful. Number 1, always be the better man. Number 2, always be a gentleman. And number 3, you have to know how to tie every knot in a gentleman's tie. Now, my family motto— I have two twin 15-year-old boys— is be the better man. And so that's how that short story, that something that happened to me almost 40 years ago now, has still impacted my life.
And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
So I run an international podcasting and communications branding company for financial services, for professionals. And so the most valuable piece of information is, one, it is not a trend to make. So most business owners, what they'll do is they will try desperately to start something, and they'll do it once, and they'll think that if it fails, then it's no good. Marketing and branding are not that way. The best marketing kind of systems or anything along those lines will actually take 4 or 5 times where you'll get up to the plate and you might hit a single, you might strike out, you might walk it, but one does not a trend make.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Yeah, so my, um, fail fast. And, and that's, uh, I think everybody should try to do their best to try new things, uh, and realize that, that failure is an opportunity to learn. It's not, um, the end of the world.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Follow the wind. So I'm a firm believer that the wind will blow you in the directions that you're supposed to head in life. Instead, if you face the wind, you get very, very tired and you don't go very far. So that's something I would have reminded myself of as a young child.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
The key to happiness is to understand that for everything that you want in life, you have to give up something proportionate to that want. There's only 5 things that you can give up, which is time, talents, treasures, relationships, and control. No matter what sort of happiness you want in life, you have to be willing that it is a yin and yang. You're generally going to have to give up something in order to get what you want.
I love that. What's the best book that you've read and what's the number 1 thing you learned from that?
Business book or personal book?
It can be either one.
Actually, uh, so business book I would say is The Million Dollar Consultant by a gentleman named Alan Weiss. Um, and what I learned from it is that you should always have 3 levels of service you provide: something that is not very profitable but easy to execute, your most profitable one which is in the middle, and then you need to have the insane product. And the insane product would be something that you charge out the nose for, that very few people will, will purchase, but it's always something for an upsell opportunity. And, um, uh, It's Not Easy Being Green by Jim Henson is probably the personal book.
Awesome. And what's your favorite quote and why?
Uh, when it rains, it does not rain on one man's house, from Bob Marley. Uh, you know, we're in such a self-centered world, man. Um, I think when people feel like they're going through crap, uh, they're the only ones who are going through it, and, and that's just not the case.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
The best place is probably LinkedIn. If you just type in Matthew Halloran, I will come up pretty quickly because I have lots and lots of connections. Or you can find us at www.topadvisormarketing.com.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on, man. We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor.
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