'If you don't have an online presence, that's a lost opportunity,' says literacy champ

Anna Hilberry is excited about the financial literacy education that she’s doing these days and she’d like other advisors to start using more YouTube videos and social media for outreach, too.

“If you don’t have an online presence, that’s a lost opportunity because people make a first impression within five seconds or less. But, if you do it, you can have this controlled first impression where you’re putting your best foot forward,” Hilberry, a wealth advisor and portfolio manager with the Hilberry Group in National Bank Financial, told Wealth Professional.

Hilberry, who practices in Duncan, B.C., started doing YouTube videos a few years ago to differentiate herself as a woman financial advisor in a male-dominated industry. She was working with her dad, who’d been in the industry for a long time. Many of his clients had known her since she was a child and she’d done some seminars and administrative support for them.

“I thought some of our clients, who were older, may have seen me as my father’s daughter and not as a value-added advisor,” she said. “I realized that I needed to develop my own brand so that people saw me as an individual.”

Her father wrote a weekly newsletter, which was very popular with their clients. So, she decided to start doing videos to make herself more widely known and connect with a younger audience.  She remembers feeling vulnerable and taping the first video 70 times and the second 50 times. But she kept going and now has 140 friendly, chatty videos on her YouTube channel. She also gained a lot of confidence from doing it.

The videos are inspired by questions that arise from her life – as an entrepreneur and single mom – or clients, many of whom are entrepreneurs. She focuses on one topic at a time, and ensures they’re in plain language rather than financial jargon. It’s ended up expanding her financial knowledge.

“Whether it’s a newsletter, client email, or video, that discipline of regular content creation makes you better at what you do,” said Hilberry.  “I’m not just reading about something, I’m also thinking about how it relates to my clients and what they’re interested in. So, by the time I read about it, think about it, write it down, and videotape myself, I really know my material.

“So, there have been many times when I’ve done a video on something because some client talked to me about it, and then another client asked me about it. I had the answer right away because I was really prepared for it. So, it’s helped me become better at my job and become a better advisor.”

Hilberry does the videos late at night, after her children are in bed. She usually creates two a week and posts one a week. She then posts them twice – on LinkedIn and YouTube – and she’s had 1.5 million views in the past year. She’s also had many people – from clients to students – reach out to her. While the initial effort meant overcoming her own self-doubt, she said, “it’s been a wonderful experience for me, and I really like doing it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun.”

She said both her clients and new prospects enjoy the videos. 

“It’s been very helpful with connecting with clients and providing a way to send commentary to them,” she said. “But, if we have new prospects, they want to know who I am as a person, so they check me out online. Once they’ve seen all the topics I’ve done, it provides validity and they’re more likely to come to my door – and there’s a little trust built up already.”

Hilberry said she’s already seen her referral and retention rates increase, to the point where she regularly has to turn people away. The Hilberry Group already has $290 million as assets under management and 370 households. It serves a retirement community on Vancouver Island with fishermen, farmers, dentists, doctors, and small business owners who built their own wealth, and it usually requires a $500,000 to $1 million threshold

Hilberry recently won The IFSE Institute Award for Financial Literacy Champion, but she also does presentations for women’s mentorship and other programs. So, she’s keen to encourage advisors to try this literacy technique that she’s found so helpful.   

“Advisors provide a valuable service to our clients that they’re not getting from anybody else, and we really care about our clients. So, doing these videos has been very helpful for connecting with clients because it’s a way to send commentary to them,” she said, noting that she’s happy to share what she’s learned with other advisors as she goes on to interview some of the other professionals that she works with – such as her firm’s financial planner, estate planner, and insurance specialists – to provide more information for its clients and followers.

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“There’s so much desire for online information that you don’t have to worry about competing with your colleagues in the same town. Go for it. Just make sure that you provide good, solid, reasonable commentary and that people understand it, so it can help them.

“So, if you’re nervous about putting your commentary out there, just know that your commentary is going to get better every time you do it. Clients are extremely forgiving about what you’re putting out there. They just want to hear from you, so they’re going to be your biggest fans. And, finally, take a page from the Nike campaign and ‘just do it’. Don’t worry about being perfect. The consistency is more important than being absolutely perfect, so just get out there and start doing it.”