How Gabe McManus Helps Professionals Write Books That Win Clients

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, host Pedro welcomes Gabe McManus, a former theater director turned message coach who helps financial advisors, coaches, founders, and business leaders transform their expertise into books that attract ideal clients and establish lasting authority.

Gabe shares how storytelling builds trust, why most professionals underestimate the power of their own experiences, and how anyone—even someone who doesn't consider themselves a writer—can publish a compelling book without spending years behind a keyboard. He also reveals his "Greatest Hits" framework for podcast interviews, explains why authenticity beats memorized scripts, and discusses how books, podcasts, and YouTube work together to grow visibility in the AI era.

Whether you're a coach, consultant, entrepreneur, or professional looking to stand out in a crowded market, this episode will show you how to sharpen your message, share your story, and become the obvious choice for your ideal clients.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabemcmanus/
Website: https://influentialadvisor.com/Gabe/

Transcript

Gabe McManus 0:00

And one of the things is that, you know, the people, Pedro, that come to me typically don't see themselves as writers or authors. And so sometimes there's a little bit of a feeling of imposter syndrome and wondering, you know, who am I to tell my story in a book? I'm not sure that I've got everything there. But that's where I help to show you that, you know, from the things that you do, the way that you help people, the frameworks that you use, that there is an incredible story there that we can uncover. And the other thing is time gets in the way because, you know, we're all busy, you know, meeting to meeting and trying to get through busy days and tired at the end of it. And so a lot of times one of the hurdles is thinking, oh, to write a book, that's going to take forever. I'm probably going to have to, you know, block out weeks on my calendar. But our process isn't like that. It's designed for busy, successful people to that aren't authors, that aren't writers, to talk out the content of their of their book. And so that's where we do sessions on Zoom. And it would be if we were writing your book, we'd have a first session where we would talk about who we were trying to reach. We narrow the focus.

Davis Nguyen 0:54

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, a podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swain, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars. In every episode of the podcast, you're going to learn lessons that took our guests years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is going to give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:38

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Gabe McManus, a former theater director who now works as a message coach for financial advisors at influential advisor media. Gabe helps advisors mind the stories they already tell their clients every day and shape them into a book and a guest podcast tour that builds real authority. His rehearsal method helped prep Paul, his brother, for an appearance on the Michael Kitzeys podcast that generated close to one million in new revenue. He's also the author of Sharpen Your Message, Guest Podcast Preparation for Financial Advisors. Welcome to the show, Gabe. Pedro, so good to be with you here today. Glad to get to talk to you. Great to have you. You know, I'm excited to talk with you. And uh I'm just like thinking about the prep you made for yourself, right? Because that's what you do, man, for a living. Okay. Exactly. Now, before we get into that, I'd love for us to rewind a bit because I'm kind of a comic book nerd myself. You know, I love the first editions, the origin story. So every coach has that moment where they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right? So when was that for you, Gabe?

Gabe McManus 2:59

Yeah, Pedro, I was working as a theater director for years. And so I have an unusual way that I got to working with financial professionals because I did that for years and years. And then, but I had a strange hobby because I was living in Los Angeles, California, and I would go hiking in the hills around my home in Studio City. It's called Freyman Canyon, and I would go for relaxation and listen to books and podcasts on personal finance and investments and financial topics. And I might be the only one from theater, the world of theater, that's going and doing this for fun. But at one point, my brother, he had worked with authority marketing for financial professionals for a long time. And we're sitting in the hot tub one night, and he helped them to write books that they would use to attract ideal prospective clients. And I had a background in editing books, and I just thought this is such a fascinating subject. And what I saw was because I helped through theater to connect to audiences. And I thought, you know, this is a world of stories too, that they help people with these incredible transformations. And I wanted to draw those stories out and to help them to tell stories that would just blow people away and showcase the things that they could do for them. And so that's when I began working for my brother, and that led to going fully into that space. And now it's just it's wonderful because it is still that world of stories that I get to help tell every single day. And uh working with financial professionals because that was my hobby, it became a dream, dream come true to get to work with them just on a regular basis. Interesting.

Pedro Stein 4:26

You know, you're not the first person I talk from the entertainment industry, and one thing that always caught my attention is the storytelling thing, you know, and how that can can connect with multiple industries. I'll give you an example. One of the first times I was watching uh a doc series from Dirty Dancing, you know that that classic movie? And one thing really caught my attention is when they were looking at the resumes from uh the the actors and the actresses, and they were, you know, doing all the things in the background. And they usually they tend to add certain aspects. They were very like, what do you do? Can you can you ride a horse? And I'm thinking, what does that have to do with uh with a job? You know, and they start asking questions and they have a full section of different stuff that they can do, and just they they just throw it out there. So it was like, dude, 10, 20 years down the road, I'm thinking I'm a career coach, right? And I'm looking at people looking at the storytelling, the background of what you can do, you know, that is not just under resume, the basics. Do you see how the entertainment industry is a little bit far ahead because they're like, I'm not sure if they want to be a jack of all traits, you know, if they want to understand exactly about the story of the person, but do you see like how storytelling is connected to the industry you serve today?

Gabe McManus 5:45

Yeah, because Pedro, how do you differentiate yourself in a crowded marketplace? And that's where, you know, the first question you asked me is my origin story. So many times when people get asked that, the people that I'm working with, if it was left to just you know what they were thinking, they would just read off their resume. It would be dry, it would be something that didn't really hit people hard. And so I start with the same question. When I meet with somebody, I say, tell me how you got to where you are today. Tell me the story. And it's not just, you know, the business story. It a lot of times goes to their family life, the things that they did to accomplish, you know, and and all of a sudden there's these connections. You can truly see the story behind them. And why do that? It's because people want to feel a connection. People want to feel trust building. And that's where what my brothers always practice and what I've found working with him is that if you can do that, if you can connect with people, and then if you can build trust, that when they come into first meetings with you, they come in pre-sold. They don't have to find out who you are. And so that's, you know, like you said, the entertainment industry, that's what they do so well is to tell a good story. But now for the financial professionals and the others that I work with, other professionals, set founders and CEOs, to help them find those gems from their life that really just it's gold in their life that they can utilize to build that trust with people.

Pedro Stein 7:01

Isn't it wild, Gabe? Like thinking about it, right? I worked in corporate, right? Banking consulting firm here in Brazil, Ernest and Young. And um when we join a corporate setting, it's almost like we're suppressing our true selves. We're trying to fit in a box. It's like multiple certifications, ROI, KPIs, blah blah blah, whatever, ice, right? And then down the line, the irony is it sounds like as you're you're almost like getting back to the origin story for those guys who forgot who they truly are because they are fitting, trying so hard to fit in a box that right now they're in front of you and they're like, Who am I? Do you feel like that happens sometimes? Like they forgot like the origin story at all.

Gabe McManus 7:49

I think you're a hundred percent right. And just the way you describe that, Pedro, that you go to work for a corporation and then you're trying to fit in and you're you know going into the same mold as everybody else, but that actually that is the way to get lost in the marketplace. You know, it's not differentiated at all. And sometimes, you know, I mean, that's one thing we run into is you know, we have to make sure that, you know, compliance is approving the thing so they can use this. But we tend to write our books, the financial professionals is an outside business activity. Now it's personal branding, it's not just that corporate boxed-in view of themselves, but the personal brand is to share all of those things that are so important from their life that somebody can connect to. You know, if a person, I have three teenage daughters. If somebody says in their story that, you know, they have daughters and they're raising the decisions they're making to help help them to make solid financial decisions. I'm tuned all the way in that I'm thinking about, you know, I want to hear every word that they say. And so that's where, you know, we find from the person's personal experience and the stories of the clients that they've helped, because now people identify with it. They put themselves in the shoes of the people that you're sharing stories about. And they say, Oh, yeah, I'm facing those problems, and I want you to help me to get to the same successful outcomes, those transformations that are going to make a difference in my life, too.

Pedro Stein 9:06

Okay, interesting. Now, back to business before I got into another rabbit hole. Okay. What I would love to understand is that you're you're coming from a theater director, right? You're around two years into game with the business and your brother. But can you walk us through how that looked like when you started, right? Because in the early days for a lot of coaches, it starts with I'm helping people, I'm giving advice here and there, right? I'm testing waters to eventually, hey, you know what? This is a real business we're building around this, you know. And I'm not sure what validated that. Was it like the first paying customer? Was it like the first invoice? When you guys realize, okay, this is the real thing. You know what I mean?

Gabe McManus 9:51

Right. No, it's a great question. And my brother had been doing it for a while, Pedro. So, you know, the the business was there. When I answered it, this is several years ago. I think it was one of the first financial advisors that I worked with to help tell the story in a book. His name was Steven. And Stephen, he had started off as a teacher, and so we had that connecting point because I'd come from the world of education as well. And he had this teacher's heart. And what I was was the guy with the questions because he said, Gabe, you're every man as far as you know, the people that are coming in, because you are the right demographic, you know, in my early 50s, and you know, thinking about the same thing with teenagers in the home and thinking about retirement and how am I going to pay for college? And so I think that was the validating experience to me is realizing that I am similarly positioned to the people that they are looking to attract to their practice. And so I had all the questions. I had, and also the desire and the curiosity to know. And so that's one thing that, you know, I brought with me from the world of theater is you have to stay curious. You have to want to, you know, explore the stories that are being told. And so when we had such a wonderful time talking out the content for his book and getting that published. And so I think I built on that from there, just more and more keeping curious, wanting to, you know, help people find their unique angles. And I've worked with, I mean, my collectively, we've worked with over 600 financial professionals to tell their stories in books. I've worked with a large portion of that. And the funny thing is, is that no two, no two stories are alike. That it's always different, it's always unique because we're finding their particular angle of the things that they do and the stories of the people in their practice that you know come to these wonderful financial outcomes. And so that's what keeps it fun, fresh, and inspirational for me every single day.

Pedro Stein 11:40

Okay, interesting. Okay, now let me ask you this after you joined, right? And the the past two to three years. Yeah. Did it change who you guys started helping? Because I know it's financial advisors, right? But I would love to understand if there was an evolution to it. Like the what if people start changing or you're trying to serve a different demographic right now, and who you serve today?

Gabe McManus 12:04

Yeah, we it's definitely the majority is financial professionals, which I love that. But Pedro, then the fun thing is that I get referred to different people. I've talked to a national championship-winning tennis coach from a Division I university in the United States to an asset protection attorney that through his stories scares me every single day because you know, people build these incredible businesses and their financial lives. And then he's telling me how quickly things can be torn down and taken away. And so, you know, talk about stories that motivate you to action. And I've worked with personal trainers, I've worked with business coaches. And so that's the fun part of it is that, you know, it's always these unique stories and these unique opportunities to get out there and to tell. And so I would say that it has been broadening. And then the thing that's also broadened since, you know, I've been on board with my brothers as business partner, is it doesn't stop with the book. That, you know, you write a book and then what are you going to do with it? Because you don't want that just to sit in your office and look pretty on the shelf. But instead, you want that to get out there, that messaging to get out there to people to attract your ideal clients back to your practice. And so that's where we work through our book marketing program to make sure that we don't leave any opportunity uncovered, that we maximize the effect of the book through strategies that bring successful outcomes for getting the book into the right people's hands. And so that's also a lot of fun to get to help people do that. And so they really get that book as a foundational layer and then see all the incredible opportunities that present themselves once the book is in place. Interesting.

Pedro Stein 13:37

Okay. So let's pretend, Gabe, that I am one of your ideal client profiles. Let's say I'm one of those financial advisors because that's your bread and butter. Yes. And I'm thinking out loud right now, they seem like a great demographic because they tend to forget who they are. They're very, you know, numbers oriented. So let's say I'm one of those guys. Okay. First of all, how would I be able to find you, you know, marketing-wise?

Gabe McManus 14:00

Yeah. You can find me at influentialadvisor.com forward slash Gabe G-A-B-E. That's the way to find me. And uh that my book is there, sharpen your message. And Pedro, that's what I do. I help people sharpen their message, whether it's for the book, whether it's for going on podcasts, and so they can share their message more broadly for creating content for YouTube, which is a great place to be right now. The intersection of Gemini and AI, Google AI searches and Google searches, you know, that's what we're talking about, is raising visibility. That, you know, like, how do I take, you know, if it's Pedro, if you're my client, how do I take your best ideas and then create it in the polished version of your voice in a book? And then once we have that, and so it says exactly what you would want to say to your ideal clients if it was your best day, that's what we get in the book. And you said it exactly the way you wanted to say it. Now we want to share that with the world. We want people, you know, to raise your visibility. And so that's where we go to work at that point, making sure that each of those opportunities is there. And so when people, you know, right now for financial professionals, 25% of people searching are going to AI, putting in chat GPT and saying, Who should I work with? Because it has context about who you are. And so if you put yourself into Chat GPT, what comes up? That's where we take a look at that. And then we say, Okay, now we recognize the opportunity, flooding signals there, so that way you get to the forefront and so people can find you and your best ideas. That's what I would help you to do. Interesting.

Pedro Stein 15:26

Okay. So website, even referrals, right? You mentioned, let's pretend I was referred to work with you, or I looked at what you got out there, right? Your website, and I'm like, hey, Gabe seems like a nice guy. You know, I reached out. We go through the sales process. I'm not sure how that looks like. We can speed up that a little bit. We can say there's alignment. Okay. So what can you walk me through how does it look like to work with you? Okay. And the outcomes I can expect. A little peek behind a curtain. No, I love that.

Gabe McManus 15:56

And one of the things is that, you know, the people, Pedro, that come to me typically don't see themselves as writers or authors. And so sometimes there's a little bit of a feeling of imposter syndrome and wondering, you know, who am I to tell my story in a book? I'm not sure that I've got everything there. But that's where I help to show you that, you know, from the things that you do, the way that you help people, the frameworks that you use, that there is an incredible story there that we can uncover. And the other thing is time gets in the way because, you know, we're all busy, you know, meeting to meeting and trying to get through busy days and tired at the end of it. And so a lot of times one of the hurdles is thinking, oh, to write a book, that's going to take forever. I'm probably going to have to, you know, block out weeks on my calendar. But our process isn't like that. It's designed for busy, successful people to that aren't authors, that aren't writers, to talk out the content of their of their book. And so that's where we do sessions on Zoom. And it would be if we were writing your book, we'd have a first session where we would talk about who we were trying to reach. We narrow the focus. We're not going to try to in a short book. That's what we are, the short book formula. And so these are books that are going to be read. It's not the 500-page, 800-page book that, you know, nobody's ever going to pick up and read. But for somebody making an important decision that, you know, they're actually going to get through this material. And so once we narrow the focus, then we have conversations where I ask you a ton of questions and you get to share your best ideas. And then there's a professional writer on our team that is skilled at bringing this together in your voice. And so when you see it, it doesn't feel inauthentic. It doesn't feel like something that AI you put in and, you know, it's really a lot of AI-generated language, but instead, it's your authentic voice. It's something that when you go out and speak on it about on podcasts, that you can really, you know, share these stories because they're yours and the material is yours the way you help people. And so that's the process that we do to help people get to the book. And then I help continue to support and sharpen the message, getting ready for podcasts and for creative content on YouTube. Okay.

Pedro Stein 17:57

Now let me ask you this in a little bit of a more direct question. I would love us because you mentioned something called sharpen the message. Yes. Right? That's an abstract concept. I would love us to give a for you to give me like an example of something that happened with a client that you're like, oh, I sharpened his message because I did X, Y, and Z. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. Yeah, yeah. Because I want to, I want to look at real stuff. You know, I am.

Gabe McManus 18:26

So agreed. And okay, Pedro, I want to tell you about something that I called in my book podcast mode. And podcast mode is when I'm working with a new client getting ready to go on a podcast appearance. We'll start off on the call, and for I'd say two to three minutes, we're getting to know each other, and I'm seeing their true personality shine through and you know, having fun in the conversation. But then I say, here's question one. Let's get to work, ready, go. And all of a sudden, I would see this shift that instead of the real personality being there, all of a sudden it was very careful and tentative and boring sometimes. And I'm like, what happened to the person I was just talking to? And so it's the same thing. That's that's my book, Sharpen Your Message, is how do we keep that personality alive and infused into the things that are being said? And so it doesn't disappear. It's not, we don't want to share a resume or all these technical details. There was a person that I worked with named Morgan. She came to me and she'd co-authored her book. And she said that when we were getting ready to work on the podcast, she said, This isn't my thing. I'm not a public speaker. She said, I'm a numbers person. I like to nerd out on numbers. And so I don't know how I'm going to do this. And I said, okay, let's just get to work and we'll see. But what I found, Pedro, was that as we started to work, and I was helping her to think through the way to share ideas. That's the sharpening your message, that she was, she expressed such care and compassion in the way that she worked with clients and her team did too. And I thought that's something that we can build on. And so we did. She started doing podcasts. She started, I swear to you, there's an identity shift that takes place that when you put yourself out there and when you do that preparatory work and then go and express these ideas on podcasts, that things change. And so within six months, she went from saying, I don't want to do this, to she went on to the biggest podcast in her space. She was growing her business acquiring practices, and now her visibility was raised so high that people coming to her, they already knew what she believed, what her business did. And so there was this alignment that was built in. So she didn't have to convince people of anything. They would come in that same thing, pre-sold, pre-sold, I want to work with you, pre-sold, I want to be your client. And so that's that identity shift that happens through sharpening your message, especially when it comes to the book and when it comes to expressing those ideas, whether it's on a podcast or speaking for a group.

Pedro Stein 20:47

Dude, this is so so interesting. You know, I had, you know, for people that are listening, don't know, we do a vibe check before the podcast recording, right? So just to to get to know. And sometimes I I've had people in the vibe check. I'm like, dude, this is great. We're having fun, right? This personality is great. And I, okay, let's start recording. And I'm like, woof, they vanish. And I'm like, God damn it, what happened? What just happened? Where was where's that fun person, right?

Gabe McManus 21:18

Exactly. Pedro, that's my work every single day is to send you people that don't disappear once you say, all right, live mic. And it's there's anxiety to it that you know a lot of people you can have when it's just us having a conversation. It's natural, it's easy. But as soon as you say, okay, we're starting, there's a little bit of anxiety. I don't want to say the wrong thing. And so that's where I'm helping people to overcome that. And so when they show up, they share their best stuff. They don't walk away and think, Oh, I wish I had shared this story or that story. That instead they, you know, they give you their best information, Pedro.

Pedro Stein 21:51

Okay. Now I want a tip, just a tip, okay. Yeah. From you.

Gabe McManus 21:57

Yeah.

Pedro Stein 21:57

Uh practical one that you I have. Some right. Lo I'll give a side note here. I worked with a Brazilians on the tech space that wouldn't land jobs in the US market, and they are very nervous about the interview process, right? Part of my tips are reps. You just gotta do it, right? You gotta put the reps in, dude. Uh and one thing that I I say to them is don't just apply for the perfect job. Go for do the reps on the ones that you don't even see yourself working at so much, you know, that it's not the perfect just because you're going through the interview process, right? You're going, you're gonna talk to people there from the US, you're gonna talk about cover life. So you you're gonna internalize a lot of stuff. But what would be your tip to someone that you're is is almost like this? Hey, but you're a you worked in theater, you had like professional actors under you gay, and now you're telling me, a numbers guy, that I need to act here on a podcast. I'm not sure. How what what tip would you give me?

Gabe McManus 23:00

Yeah, acting lesson number one today, Pedro. I would say that it's I would I call it your greatest hits. So my tip to you or to anybody listening is today you're gonna start working on your greatest hits. You know, if you go to see your favorite band, you're gonna listen to the whole album. But man, it's those greatest hits that you really want to hear. And so how do you create that? Because what I hear is people say if they think about memorizing talking points and you know, to get ready to go on a podcast, oh, I've got to memorize something. I'm never gonna do it. I would hate that. It's tedious. Nobody's gonna do that. But it's telling stories that you can repeat. And so I believe rehearse, this is how I helped my brother Paul when he had his big moment on the Michael Kitz's podcast, is that I said we're gonna rehearse till you can't get it wrong. And I don't know what questions you're gonna get asked, but we're gonna talk about the things that are nearest and dearest to your heart, and we're going to make sure that we go over those enough time. So we worked for two weeks straight, an hour, hour and a half a day to build those greatest hits. And then when you get asked in different formats, different shows, different, you know, clients ask you that you've got those go-to's that you can use that you can rely on. And the origin story is a great place to start. That's my tip is to take your origin story and tell it it could be two minutes. It doesn't have to be long, but it has to be meaningful because when somebody's listening to a podcast, I mean, you said that vibe check that if I'm at listening to a podcast, I'm at the gym or I'm doing dishes or I'm in my car, and I will change quickly if I get bored. I don't want to listen to something that's going to just take my time and I'm gonna focus on what I was doing. I want to be stopped dead in my tracks. I want to be stopped cold and in the things that somebody's saying. So an origin story that's gonna hit somebody hard like that, something you're gonna share that's meaningful. And so everybody should do this today. Go out and tell your origin story to somebody. Or even better yet, because maybe you don't have somebody to listen, get your phone out and do a voice memo or record a video of yourself saying it, and then listen to it back. This is where I get into this idea, Pedro, of edutainment. It's the combination of the educational things you want to share, but the entertainment value that you can bring. And that doesn't mean you have to be funny or or you know, too entertaining. This is just about being real, authentically, you. And so listen to it back and see was that entertaining or was it boring? And you'll you'll hear it if you have it on a video, and then you start to make changes. Think about the people that are in it, the characters, the dialogue, the things people say. That's one thing when you're talking about things from your practice, numbers people too. You're helping people that come in with problems that have things that they're dealing with. And so, how did they express it to you? Write that stuff down. And how did you help them? Write that down too. What'd you say that made a difference in their life? It's so important because when we're writing your book, I don't want to have dry technical data that nobody's gonna read, that they're gonna stop turning the pages on your book. I want to have stories that motivate them to action that they see themselves in, and the dialogue is gonna be super supportive of that. And so that's that's my tip for today is begin creating your greatest hits one at a time and build on that. And then when you have these opportunities that come up, that you're ready to go because these are things that are close to you. And so it's not trying to memorize anything or do things that are tedious, but instead, these are things that you can share on a regular basis, and you build on that. You start with the greatest hits, and then the greatest hits begin to grow.

Pedro Stein 26:20

I love that, man. This sounds almost like a backstage episode, right? Because we do send an email prep, right, with questions and all that. And I had people at the end of the episode, they were like, But you didn't access asked X, Y, and Z, right? I'm like, here's the thing, buddy. The questions are to put you in a zone. Yes. It's not necessarily that we're gonna ask all those questions because there is a flow to it. But for example, if I'm gonna add to the question like what you invested in your business, your origin store, it doesn't mean we're gonna get all the points. It's just about to put you in a frame of thought, right? Like you did with your brother. You rehearse, but you don't know what question is gonna come up sometimes. So you rehearse, put him in a good zone. So he's gonna get its stories to connect, and then he's gonna flow, he's gonna have the flow, right? So love that, love that. Okay.

Gabe McManus 27:12

Well, and that's that's an old improv technique, too, that I think is so important when you're on a podcast, Pedro, that the question is the jumping off point. But when you have those greatest hits that are close to you, that somebody asks a question, yes, you begin to answer it, but then you start to move to the things that you can move quickly to the things that are meaningful that will bring out your best ideas. And so, and as when I I host a couple of podcasts, the same thing. I have a question list, but that's a jumping off point. What I want to see is where the conversation will take us, because I don't want to be locked in to something that's just on a sheet of paper. Instead, I want to have this spontaneous and natural and free-form conversation that's going to lead to incredible places that will draw people in.

Pedro Stein 27:53

Exactly. It's the difference between a script and agenda. If you have the agenda, that's where we use this on this podcast, by the way, is that we want to create leverage for our intent. The script is more boxed in. That's not what we want, right? What we want is to have a great conversation. If we're gonna throw it out the script out the window because that's not delivering a great conversation, so be it. We're gonna talk about stuff that we want to talk, you know? If the conversation's good, it is.

Gabe McManus 28:21

Exactly. You have to be open to inspiration of the moment. That's what I always say. And so the practice and the rehearsal, it's not to lock you in or box you into certain ideas, because some people say I don't want to be boxed in. It's to free you, really, because when you have those greatest hits, you're not concerned about do I have stories to share? You've got stories, but now you feel free to share just what's coming to you spontaneously during the course of the conversation.

Pedro Stein 28:44

100%. It's almost like you're not that I did this back in the day, but let's say I haven't examed more or I haven't studied. Okay. And then I'm gonna get to a white paper and gonna add some notes there. Let's say that happen.

Gabe McManus 28:59

Okay, but you seem to be very familiar with this technique.

Pedro Stein 29:04

So what happens, Gabe, is that the next day, eventually, you don't use the paper because you you you spent time building the the train of thought in your head. So you're like, oh, okay, I already got, I don't even use it, right? But doing the process made you realize and study for the exam. Does that make sense? Sorry, because that's my long-distant cousin who did that.

Gabe McManus 29:29

Yeah, the cousin, exactly. No, but that makes complete sense because and that's why I recommend putting yourself, raising the stakes on yourself. And so putting yourself out there on a guest podcast tour, once you have the book, because it raises the stakes. Now, if I didn't have this, I would always think, well, I'm gonna create my greatest hits. I would never do it, Pedro. But the fact that I started the guest podcast tour for my book, the first one, I was, even though I've written the book on sharpening your message for it, I felt the anxiety of the live mic. It was a 15-minute call. And I was, I thought I can talk for way more than 15 minutes on this. But I got into the room, I couldn't see his face like I can see yours. And it was two instructions. He said, Keep your answers to a minute. This is gonna be fast. Are you ready to go? And I said, Let's do this. And there was a clock that said 15 minutes and it's counting down. I can feel my heart pumping and I'm thinking, I don't want to get this wrong. But that was a motivating factor because then you better believe that before the next podcast I did, I spent an hour or two working, making sure that my greatest hits were there, and I felt so much more comfortable. I felt so much more prepared. And now when a podcast comes up every week, I don't have to do it as much because I thought I'm still building on the work that I've done leading up to this. I don't have to start from scratch every single one. That's the benefit of doing a workup. And if you were able to analyze that, feel free and feel good having conversations like this.

Pedro Stein 30:50

Right. Yeah, what I'm thinking is like that's a rough experience. If you were able to manage that, you can manage a lot of a lot more. You know what I mean?

Gabe McManus 30:58

Yeah. Exactly. And I mean, I could imagine, you know, for another person that they just wrote their book, there was somebody I was working with and he had his first speaking engagement to talk about his book. And he came back and he told me, he said, I I don't think it I got my message out there. It's so good in the book, but then when I was speaking on it, I didn't get a lot of response. There weren't a lot of questions at the end. I don't know that I motivated anybody. And I said, that's exactly why we continue to work to sharpen your message. Because I knew this guy, I knew his book and the story. I knew it was so good and people needed to listen to this. And so I didn't want him to walk away feeling that after these speaking engagements. I wanted him to walking walk away knowing I just crushed it, that everything that I wanted to say, I said, and I because I knew it would motivate people to action. So that's where we continue to work to build those greatest heads. Okay.

Pedro Stein 31:46

Now shifting gears for a second, okay. I'm curious about where you guys are taking all this, right? Looking ahead, where do you see the business going? Are you thinking about scaling, hiring, or is there a next step you're excited about?

Gabe McManus 31:58

Yeah, I think that happens naturally. That the more that we're helping people to build their visibility, that more people are coming to us. And what I'm finding is that there's even more opportunities, like you had mentioned before. So it's financial professionals, but there then there's these great opportunities to work with people from other walks of life. And so helping to tell their stories. And so to me, this is something that I love to do, sharpening people's message with their book and the way they present it and podcasts. And now a lot of it is shifting to short form content that can go onto YouTube because this is something that you can raise your villa visibility so incredibly high and do it every single day. And so I think that's directionally where it's headed. But the book is still the foundational layer, Pedro, because that's where you really capture the best of what you do and the stories and the frameworks. Once you have that in place, then it's the springboard to everything else. And so we're still growing and growing that, helping people to tell their stories in books, but then we're finding ways to leverage that so meaningfully, and so they can attract their ideal clients to their practices and grow. And that's what I'm seeing on a day-to-day basis.

Pedro Stein 33:03

Okay. Now a little bit of a sci-fi thing right now. Okay.

Gabe McManus 33:07

Yeah, good.

Pedro Stein 33:08

Let's pretend we have a time machine in front of us. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And you can go back in time when you you you joined ranks with your brother. And okay. So the thing we we would I want to do is like you can pick a time in between those almost three years you're working with a business. A moment, a specific moment that you're like, oh, this is why I'm doing this, you know? Uh a moment that you felt so fulfilled that explained the entire journey of you joining your brother and all that. What moment would that be?

Gabe McManus 33:40

I think, and Pedro, if if I get that time machine, I want to go back even farther, maybe like 20 years ago, to put into practice all the things I've learned from financial professionals because it could have made a big difference in my financial life. And so, but I think the moment that that comes to mind when you say that is this past spring break, my oldest daughter, she was graduating from high school this year, and we took a trip to Europe and we went traveling around. I wanted to do something good for her high school graduation before she goes off to college. And on a Sunday morning we're in London, and I'm I went to a laundromat, and I'm trying to figure out, you know, how to do everything in London to take care of our laundry. And this couple walks in, and I could tell that they were Americans because I think they pushed on the door, and in London you're supposed to pull, but I just knew right away they were Americans. And we got to talking. They were, I'm from St. Louis, they're from Kansas City. And over the course of the conversation, while the laundry's drying, they we started talking about finance. And they were saying about retirement, they wanted to retire, but they said that they never really trusted anybody because they thought people were just self-motivated, they wanted to get fees or take advantage of them. And I got to share some ideas from a book that I had helped a financial professional to write. And when I shared these ideas, it wasn't salesy or pushy, it was educational, it was helpful. And they were really interested in. I said, you know, if you would like to even talk to the author, I know him and I could make an introduction. And they said we'd love that. And I walked away, and that's where it hit me. So that's the moment because it hit me. And I thought when we were writing that book together, he had no idea how far and wide his ideas would be shared. He had no idea that on a Sunday morning in a London laundromat that I would be talking about it, that somebody would be finding out about him, finding out about his ideas that would help to transform their financial life. And so to me, that's the value and the beauty of the work that we do, that your best ideas get out there, even when you're not there, being shared, being helping people. And so I loved just that experience. It made me love so much what I get to help people to do.

Pedro Stein 35:39

Love that, man. Okay. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with your follow your work, Gabe, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, right? But where can people find you best and connect with you?

Gabe McManus 35:50

They can find me, Pedro, at influentialadvisor.com forward slash Gabe G A B E. And there you can get a free copy of my book, Sharpen Your Message, and my scheduling link is there. I love to talk to people about how I can help them to sharpen their message too. Okay.

Pedro Stein 36:05

Now, I feel the need to highlight some some parts of the conversation from today. Allow me to do so. Okay. First of all, let's talk about the origin story, right? A theater director, the improv and all that, and then moving back to storytelling and understanding. There are multiple industries out there that are based, their foundation is storytelling. Storytelling is the it seems like that big web that connects everything and everyone. Because it's so easy to get bored in a book that is just about, you know, details and numbers and all that. But it's so easy to get interested when we have cer certain stories connecting everything, all the dots. So much easier to to understand things, at least in my perspective, always have been like that. Okay, so there's one thing that really caught my attention is on the Argent story. Now, going to through when you started the the you know the coaching stuff and all that, and you you told you had all the questions, right? You're so curious about, and that was a strong point of yours. And that reminds me of uh a quote that says something like consultants have all the answers and coaches have all the questions, right? Because at the end of the day, if you're naturally curious, if you want to know more about the story of the people you talk to, people will connect with you in such an easier way because you're just showing interest, you're just holding space, listening to them. So there's that. Love that. When we were talking about when I was joining your ranks, right, in the business and being on board, and you mentioned, oh, you gotta put yourself out there, right? The visibility and all what that entails. Really interesting. And the last but not least, I that I really, really like, and you made me got me into a side rabbit hole here was when you mentioned the entertainment plus the educational piece, you know. You gave it a name that I don't want to butcher it right now. You can correct me here right now, please. What was it? Edutainment, just the combination of entertainment and education, yes. The edutainment. Did I got it right? You got it right. Okay. Do you remind me of a physics teacher I had? You know, physics. I hate physics, Gabe. But the way he did it, it was so much fun. Right. Okay. He was testing stuff in front of us, he was showing stuff. Like, he was so passionate too about the stuff he was doing. Like, I struggle either way, okay? But I remember him with care, with you know, and and that leaves the mark when you wad those two. Now, this was just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do, and I appreciate you being here sharing so openly today, Gabe. It was great having you on.

Davis Nguyen 38:47

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business through six, seven, and eight figure years, all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.