Why Fighting Online Is Killing Your Income | 959

Most professionals say they want high-net-worth clients.

Then they spend their time arguing with strangers on LinkedIn and building businesses that make them poor.

In this episode, Dave Lorenzo breaks down a real-world case study sparked by a financial advisor who bristled when told that Dave works with advisors serving clients with $5 million or more in investable assets .

That simple statement triggered a public social media argument that revealed two brutal truths most professionals refuse to face:

First, fighting online kills trust.

Prospective clients are watching how you behave long before they ever reach out. When you argue in public, you broadcast insecurity, not authority.

Second, targeting small clients is a business model that caps your income.

A financial advisor managing $100,000 makes $1,000 a year.

That same advisor managing $5 million makes $50,000 for roughly the same amount of work .

Same trust.

Same acquisition effort.

Wildly different return.

Dave explains why working with affluent and high-net-worth clients is not greedy. It is rational.

If you want to volunteer, do it after hours.

If you want to run a business, maximize return on your time and expertise .

In this episode you will learn:

• Why arguing on social media silently destroys your credibility
• How affluent clients think about risk differently than mass-market clients
• Why high-net-worth prospects are often easier to acquire than smaller ones
• How fee-based advisors make more money by serving fewer, better clients
• The hidden cost of being “noble” in your business model

If you are a financial advisor, attorney, CPA, or insurance professional who wants to work fewer hours, earn more, and be taken seriously by people with real money, this episode will challenge the way you think about both marketing and growth.

Stop fighting online.

Start building a business that actually pays.

Listen now.

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Have you struggled with the loneliness that comes with working long hours and solving the dozens of complex problems you face as an entrepreneur?

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Welcome to The Inside BS Show—your daily invitation to step behind the velvet rope and into the room where real business leaders talk strategy, success, and scale.

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Stop getting on fights with people on social media. You gotta stop. There's no upside to getting into fights with people on social media.

Welcome to the Inside BS Show. My name is Dave Lorenzo. It's Tuesday and thanks for coming back here.

We are here as many days a week as I can fit into my schedule today. I'm not necessarily focusing exclusively on getting into fights with people on social media, but today's topic comes from a guy literally trying to pick a fight with me on social media and then backing off. Over the weekend, I posted something on LinkedIn and it said, I told a story.

It was a case study of a financial advisor named Chris, somebody who I actually met, a real person, this week. His average client had about $350,000 in investable assets. And I mentioned that I chose to work with financial advisors who have clients who are north of $5 million in investable assets.

And Chris, the person in the case study, real person, was taken aback and he bristled and he said, well, I work with people who have much less than that, people who have between 10,000 and 150,000, 200,000 in investable assets and I just kind of nurture them along, people in the small business space, people who work for other companies. And I'm okay working with them for five, 10, 20 years until they get to a place where they've accumulated assets that are in the 300, 400, $500,000 range. For those of you who don't know, if you're listening to the show, most financial advisors who are fee-only advisors, most of those people make money when their clients' portfolios increase.

So they get, say, a 1% fee of the assets under management. So if you have $10,000 under management, you're making $100 a year for management. If you have $100,000 under management, you're making $1,000.

So if you have a million dollars, you're making $10,000. As a financial advisor, it is hard to make money and put in the right amount of money and the right amount of effort into lifestyle needs and developing a plan for people who have fewer assets. And it is easier for people who have more assets.

So if you're managing someone's investable asset portfolio and they have $5 million in investable assets and you don't get a commission on any products, you just get a percentage, a 1% fee of their assets under management with $5 million, you're gonna make $50,000 a year for managing that portfolio. If the value of the portfolio increases by 10%, you will have increased their portfolio to $5,500,000 and you will have given yourself a $5,000 per year increase. You will then get 10% of the $5,500,000 and you will make $55,000 as a result of your efforts.

If it goes down, you will make less money. So your interests are completely aligned with your client's interest. It's a good model.

So I talked to Chris. Chris says, I don't wanna work with people who make 5 million or more. I'm exploring this to understand his mindset.

Because for me, I would want to make more money with less effort and if I can target better clients by doing the same work and making more money, because doing a plan for someone with $5 million in investable assets probably takes the same amount of time it's a different structure, but it probably takes the same amount of time to acquire that client. It may take a little bit more time for you to invest because there are different options available. But in terms of client acquisition, giving you their money, you still have to get their trust.

So connecting with someone and developing the trust for a million dollars, $100,000, $5 million takes the same amount of time. I would argue that if you have $100 million, you can try someone out at the $5 million level and it's less risky for you than someone thinking, I only have $100,000 to invest. You're gonna wanna do every type of due diligence possible because your life savings is going to this guy.

Whereas if you have $100 million, you're gonna give five to Joe Schmo, you're not giving them your life savings, you're giving them 5% of your life savings, still substantial, but not as big a risk as giving somebody everything. So anyway, I'm having this conversation with this gentleman, Chris, and he doesn't wanna reach out. So I profile this in my LinkedIn post.

And a guy in the comments gets into an entire argument with me about how it's better not to target high net worth or ultra high net worth people. Just go target everybody because it's easier for you. And you're providing a valuable service to people by helping them learn how to save money.

And look, I get it, in your mind, it's a noble calling to work with people who have no money. As a business owner, you have a fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders. And that shareholder, number one, is you, if you're a sole practitioner.

Your responsibility is to make the most money possible during the time that you're working. That's the purpose of a business is to make the most money possible during the hours that you're working. You need to provide a return on investment to your shareholders.

That's the way I look at business. You wanna volunteer after business hours and teach the poor how to make money? God bless, you should do that. I think that's a wonderful calling.

I volunteer in the hours when I'm not working. I volunteer doing a whole host of things. And that's what I do to give back to the community.

But that's very different from my business. So as a business model, you are to make the most money by providing a return on investment of your time and of your funds. And I contend for financial advisors that's targeting people who have $5 million or more in investable assets.

This guy doesn't feel that way. So he gets into a fight with me, argument, not really a fight, on social media and then he bows out. Two or three comments and he bows out.

Two important lessons for you to take away from our time together today. Number one, don't do that. Don't get into fights with people on social media.

There are people who are reading your social media profile and they are deciding whether they wanna work with you or not. And getting into an argument with someone on social media is the quickest way to turn someone off. So just don't do that.

I engaged with this person to have a dialogue with him and he essentially told me that I was stupid and then backed out, wished me well. And maybe I'm foolish for taking the bait, but candidly, I wanted to spark some conversation in the comments and I served that purpose. I did that.

The second thing is, working with people who have more money versus people who have less money, there's no nobility in you doing things the hard way. You don't get any extra points for doing things the hard way. If you can work with 10 people and make more money for working with the top two than you do for working with the rest of the eight, it makes sense for you, it pays for you to work with more people who are like the top two.

It just makes good sense. So that's the big takeaway from today. Targeting high net worth folks is good business because the acquisition time, the acquisition cost of an affluent client and the acquisition time and the acquisition cost of a mid-market or a lower market client are identical.

So if you're gonna invest the time and the money, go after the better client. And getting into fights on social media is stupid, stupid, stupid. This will serve as a reminder to me as well as guidance for you.

Be sure and join us tomorrow. We have an interview tomorrow on the Inside BS Show. Every Wednesday, we have a brand new interview.

My name's Dave Lorenzo. We'll see you back here again tomorrow.