This article is part of the Know Your Niche series on how advisors choose and build specific client bases. The rest of the
It seems like every financial advisor these days has a podcast. But few have their own radio show.
Alex Lundgren, an advisor with Tree City Advisors of Apollon, has one. And it's led to a niche serving employees of Micron in her hometown of Boise, Idaho.
Despite having started out mainly
Eventually, callers became clients. And they brought their coworkers in with them.
"Once you understand how the retirement plan works, how the stock options or restricted stock work, because you've seen enough of the plan documents, you can get really well versed at this," Lundgren said. "And if you do a good job for the people you work with … you can get quite a great referral network."
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Lundgren estimates that she has 187 households on her client list today, with 30% of them Micron employees. Another 20% work at some of the large hospitals in the area. Today, the drive-time show is just once a week for three hours on the weekend — and it's available as a podcast, too.
Financial Planning spoke with Lundgren about how she built her niche and any advice she has for someone hoping to do the same.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Financial Planning: A large part of your client base is Micron employees. Your husband worked there. Was he a way into those first clients?
Alex Lundgren: He worked there for 27 years, but not many clients came from him, honestly.
We do a radio show, and at that point, we did it five nights a week during drive time. So if something happened that was out at Micron that we knew about, or if the stock moved, or if the market was just crazy, we would discuss those topics and invite people to reach out with questions.
We got people that came in as potential clients, and they are the ones who actually
FP: Tell me more about this radio program.
AL: In the earlier days, it was "Idaho's Money Show," and it was just truly in this valley on an AM station, and we would go from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and it was pretty much live. That's it.
We still have the program, and now it is a Saturday only. We do three hours at a stretch because we have multiple markets we're in, and so depending on which hour they pick up live, we might be in Chicago, we might be in California, we might be in Pennsylvania. It varies. It's now called the "Real Money Pros."
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FP: What kinds of things did you talk about when it came to Micron, and how did that translate to clients?
AL: Right now, Micron is at record highs. We in this valley watched it hang around at $7 or $8 for years, and then it went to $30, and then we got really excited if it crossed $100. As it's moved into new territory, we can have discussions around tax strategies with restricted shares,
And then what happens is we do get people who reach out to us from having listened to the show, or their buddy listened to it and said, "You should ask these people things," and want to discuss their personal situation.
FP: Are there specific issues that Micron employees face that you've built expertise in that helps you serve them? Things that other clients or prospects in your area don't deal with?
AL: I think the biggest challenge is if they want to do something that isn't just sell the stock — to understand that they can move it without selling it, and also to understand that it's no longer restricted if it's vested. They think their only option is to sell and when to sell, and so the hardest part is understanding that there are options.
Micron does not allow company stock in their 401(k) currently, so we can't do some of the cool things you can when the stock's in a 401(k). But we have other employers in the valley who do. What I have found over time is if you have a large employer in your area, whether it's a hospital, whether it's a Micron, whether it's a Ford processing plant, whatever it is, you need to be up to date on how those benefits work.
Ask some of your first clients to get a copy of the summary plan description for the 401(k) to see what stock benefits they may have. Do they have the ability to buy company stock at a reduced price, even if they're not going to? And then really making sure that you know those things lets you develop into that marketplace and target them specifically.
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FP: Do you have a lot of competition for those clients? And if so, how do you stand out?
AL: We always kind of joke that with investment advisors and realtors, there's one on every corner. You have to find the one that you work with best. There is always competition from whoever is custodian of the 401(k). If they're the kind that make an advisor available to employees, that's always something you fight against a little bit. But in some ways, that's actually positive because maybe they don't have a great experience, or they get a really blanket answer to their question instead of personalized advice. So sometimes that can work in your favor.
FP: What advice would you give to someone wanting to build their own niche? Other than getting an AM radio transmitter.
AL: I would say build it around the clients you enjoy working with, not what just seems to be something that would make sense as a niche for you.
A lot of people told me for a long time, "You've got to focus on women, business owners and women business owners."
Those are great clients, but they're not the fun ones for me, right? It doesn't matter what somebody else thinks your niche should be. Look at your clients. Who do you like working with? That's your niche.
