We talked with Angela and Elyse about:
- Return on investment (ROI) versus Return on the moment (ROM)
- How to align your events with business goals to build impactful and meaningful relationships
- Why you should cater to the needs of your ideal audience
- Their Event Emergency Kit Checklist
About Angela York and Elyse Stoner:
Angela York and Elyse Stoner are the co-founders of Event Advisors, a company dedicated to transforming event strategy within the financial services ecosystem. Angela brings decades of experience in advisor and marketing implementation as well as event planning. Her journey spans over a decade of in-house roles and another decade as a consultant. During the pandemic, she met Elyse Stoner, marking the beginning of their collaboration. Angela’s extensive background in the wealth advisory space, combined with her passion for creating meaningful and strategic events, has been instrumental in their joint venture. Elyse has a rich background in sports entertainment and higher education marketing. Her experience in strategic marketing led her to question the purpose and strategy behind events in the financial services industry. Her strategic approach, coupled with Angela's deep industry knowledge, has been key to their success. Together, Angela and Elyse bring a unique blend of skills to Event Advisors, offering event strategies that are purpose-driven and aligned with business goals. Their mission is to elevate events in the financial services industry, ensuring they are not just events but strategic tools that deliver value and drive business success.
Featured Resources
- Angela York in LinkedIn
- Elyse Stoner on LinkedIn
- Event Advisors on LinkedIn
- Event Advisors website
- Emergency Kit Checklist
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- The Role of Marketing and the CMO in Today’s Financial Services Industries with Nick Richtsmeier
Full Audio Transcript:
Lauren (00:04):
All right, well welcome. Excited to have you both here with us today.
Angela (00:08):
Thanks for having us.
Elyse (00:10):
Great to see you.
Lauren (00:11):
Well, we are going to be talking about events, probably no surprise for folks who are in the wealth management community. I'm sure these faces are familiar and specifically around why events, events with purpose, and so on and so forth. So I'm going to pass it over to you two, just to share a little bit about your background, how you got into the space, and then we'll go from there. So Angela, do you want to start us off?
Angela (00:35):
I do. My background is decades of advisor marketing and implementation in the world of marketing plan invitation and event implementation. And I did that in-house for over a decade and then was consulting for another decade. Fast-forward to the pandemic, Elyse and I met and we started colliding and comparing event planning. And back in the day, strategy wasn't really a piece of the event planning implementation in the advisor world and Elyse's background was all event strategy. So when we met it was chocolate and peanut butter. We’re better together because now we bring event strategy to the finserv ecosystem.
Lauren (01:29):
Love it. And Elyse, how about for you? Love to hear a little bit more.
Elyse (01:33):
So yeah, I was not born and raised in the financial services market. My background is in the sports entertainment and higher education marketing world. When I was in college and trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had heard about this cool thing called sports marketing. And I spent about 10 years doing that, promoting rodeos and concerts and working for a Division 1 athletic conference where we put on basketball tournaments and everything was very strategic. You knew who your audience was, you knew how you were marketing to them. And when I kind of got out into the big wide world, I would go to these events and go, yeah, I'm not the right person to be here. What's the deal? So I started thinking about this whole idea of the event marketing strategy. And like Angela said, when she and I met, I was like, I know folks in financial services do a lot of events but why did they do them? Because their coach told them to or they're—
Lauren (02:39):
—supposed to check in the box.
Elyse (02:41):
Yes. Exactly. And just the conversation evolved into this strategy and understanding why and understanding who you're doing the event for and talking, and we'll talk more about this, but talking to them in the channels they use. And really when we came together and created Event Advisors, it's being able to share Angela's experience in the wealth advisory space, my experience in strategic marketing, and really helping everybody in what we call the finserv ecosystem — have events that have purpose, that actually have their own sets of goals and are tied into their business strategy so they don't get a bad rap anymore. We love events. We hate that people say they're expensive and they hate them.
Lauren (03:33):
I get it. I really appreciate the background you bring. A lot of times we'll talk about how we're zeroed in on this financial services world but there's so many other amazing things happening in the bigger community and like you said, sports and other spaces out there to be able to take those best practices and pull them in. So tell us a little bit more. So you met during COVID. What was kind of the spark for where you are today, is it different kind of pre-COVID to post-COVID, and what led you to really form the entity you have?
Angela (04:07):
Well, I'll jump in there, Lauren. So I was working in the space of marketing plan implementation and event planning implementation for mostly local advisors, wholesalers, and some broker dealers. When the pandemic hit, as we all know, all events shut down. So at that point I started working with colleagues I knew across the country and advisors they worked with to help them navigate the landscape and not come to a complete halt but shift their event planning to virtual event planning. So I started working with advisors around the country to determine what virtual events made sense for their client base so they could stay connected to their clients during the pandemic. So that included your virtual wine tastings, game night, craft night trivia. As we all know from back then there were hundreds of different virtual options. And at the time that Elyse and I met, I was working in that world trying to help advisors navigate how to share the new message, how to execute a great virtual event.
And I was learning about strategic events because as we talked a few minutes ago, strategy really didn't play a big part in the finserv events. Of course, we always paid attention to who we wanted to invite, where we wanted to have it but we didn't go one layer below that, what you do with strategic event planning. So when Elyse and I were talking about event strategy and I was trying to do these virtual events and at the same time as we progressed through the pandemic advisors were asking, okay, we really like these virtual events because we are now reaching some of our best clients who aren't in our geographical area. But now that we're starting to open up, we'd like to do in-person events; how do we redo our marketing plans and our event calendars? This was a big reset in the finserv community because for so long we just kept rinsing and repeating and when everything came to a halt, it was, wait, should we re-look at this?
And how do we re-look at this and how do we integrate these new event tactics and strategies? So fast-forward, we joined forces and started working with advisors to create strategic events and strategic marketing plans where you're really looking at the business goals, looking at the event goals — they tie into each other — and then create the event based on those goals and the ideal attendee. So you look at where are they coming from, do they work, do they not, work in those little details so the event speaks to them. How do they like to receive their invitations? It's really about the ideal attendee, not about the host, the advisor, or whoever's planning the event. So that's how we started to work on these events. And then Event Advisors was born and we work with advisors around the country, wholesalers, and broker dealers.
Lauren (07:36):
I love to hear that. Here at Out & About, we often like to talk about how we want to make sure that everything that goes out, like a social media post, for example, you can connect it to the bigger picture, the why — you're not just doing to do, right? So I definitely resonate with a lot of what you're saying too, it's that you're doing this in a purposeful way and it's aligned with a bigger picture objective. Could either of you or both give some maybe a mini case study example or two that would help to narrate for those who are listening a good example of a strategic event? What does that look like? How does it differentiate itself from maybe just an event like a happy hour or what have you? I'd love to hear a little bit more about a case study.
Elyse (08:22):
Okay. I think we can give you two. I mean we could give you a whole bunch but we'll give you two.
Lauren (08:27):
Yes, please.
Elyse (08:29):
The first one is actually the very first partnership Angela and I worked on. It was an advisory firm in Texas, and they conceded that they needed to do a virtual wine tasting event, and they had three of their advisors who were teaming up and they're like, we know we need to do this thing but we have no idea how to do it. So Angela had contact with the vineyards in Northern California and again, the whole shipping wine to people's homes and all that good stuff. But what we talked about and what I came in to say is why are you doing this?
Well, we need to connect with our clients. And then we talked about which clients they wanted to connect with, sort of almost made an avatar of those people so we could think about them; literally we talked about how many squares, how many Brady Bunch boxes do you want on the screen because do you want to be able to see everybody? Is this something that maybe is a multiple choice night, right? We're doing three of these and people get to choose which night they do because it was virtual and you're giving them some flexibility. So it was a conversation along those lines. One of the places we also thrive and we know is a pain point for a lot of our clients is follow-up.
And this particular post-event. Yes, yes. Post-event follow-up. And this particular client, we spent a lot of time talking about that because what we felt was you've got everybody in their squares and they're tasting wines and they're getting educated and you talk about how you want to connect with them. We created a full follow-up strategy for them to not only say thank you and all the things we know we're supposed to do but we talked about the wine and we used the wine as what we call the positive emotional memory and said, we know when you reach out to your attendees afterwards, don't ask them, did you like the wine, yes or no?
Which was your favorite? And if you didn't have a favorite, what is your favorite wine? So you're able to capture some information that you can go ahead and put in their database to use in the future for an anniversary, for those wow moments. Just kind of a nice little twist. The other side of that twist was one of the issues the client had too was our advisors hate doing follow-up. Like, the event’s over, they don't want to do it. So we came up with what in the industry is called gamification.
Again, we'll be stereotypical, it was an advisory firm that was mostly male in Texas. So we basically said, how about a scoreboard and put it up. Some of these folks were still coming to the office. Put it up in the office and keep track who's making calls. My initial response was you could do a Starbucks gift card for the person who hits the marker the fastest. And the advisor was like, our advisors like bourbon. I'm like, bourbon sounds good. We like bourbon too. So really kind of leaning into that and they were able to connect with these folks and continue conversations and get really good information they've never really thought about when they would simply just say, y'all come and we'll have a little party and send them on their way. And then Angela, go ahead. Angela has a great example of another client who was struggling in a post-COVID manner and she can go ahead and tell the story.
Angela (12:45):
So we had a client who really wanted to reach their top A clients but when we sat down with them, they couldn't pinpoint a geographical area where these top clients were. They had some here in Southern California, they had some in Orange County, they had some in LA, they even had some in San Francisco. So to do an event, a large client appreciation event, and expect people to come from the different areas, it's not likely. So they had put a stop to that idea, they're going, we can't have one because we have clients everywhere.
Elyse (13:32):
Just so common these days.
Angela (13:33):
Very.
Elyse (13:33):
Exactly.
Angela (13:34):
And so we sat down and said, well, we need to have a different mindset because yes, you can have a client appreciation event. It doesn't need to be like the advisor next door, upstairs, down the street; it doesn't have to be a 100-person summer party, whatever it might be. So we actually sat down with a map of the different areas and had them dot the cities and the areas their top clients were in. And what we did is we created a model. We started with San Francisco because that really had the biggest cluster. And we looked at this map, physically looked at the map with the dots and considered traffic times and schedules and came up with an event and a location that would work with everybody.
Lauren (14:32):
Figuring all that out, my goodness.
Angela (14:38):
So then what we did is we figured out where we wanted to have the event but what type of event? So we brainstormed and talked through the characteristics of the households of these clients, and you're going to think all we do is wine events but this was a common interest. They liked fine wine, they liked great food. So we came up with a small intimate wine pairing dinner up in Northern California. We had 10 people, so we're not talking large, we're talking very intimate because that's where this cluster was and everything from the personnel invitation to the follow-up confirmation to when they walked in and were greeted and sat down and who was seated next to each other. And it wasn't a sales pitch, there was no business discussed at all. It was just coming together, deepening that relationship, creating the community between the other clients.
And we were told the restaurant actually had to ask them to leave; they were shutting down. They had such a good time. They were there well past 11, and I think they started at seven. And it was just this great experience. And the sommelier had given them a gift to let them track what they liked about each wine, what they didn't like about the wine, to help kind of spur some ideas for maybe future travel. So they left with this whole package and this positive emotional memory we touched on earlier, that really created such a great experience, something they can talk about with their friends and with the advisory firm for years to come. And it's just, again, it was a positive and strong return on the moment. It was a success.
Lauren (16:39):
What I love about that story is through the narrative, you were able to identify the points of friction of like, well, who do I sit next to? Am I going to have an interesting dialog? Was it easy to get to all these kinds of things that were thought through? And as you're reducing the friction, that helps to make it much more seamless for everyone. So it's easier said than done. And then Elyse, I also appreciate the level of personalization you all are adding to those different events as well. And specifically in your story, you were like, okay, the follow-up is key but that personal follow-up is key, and we have to motivate action. And we see this too. You could have the best event, you can have the best whatever it is but if you're not getting people there and if you're not doing the follow-up, then it's going to fall flat. So it's really got to be this collaborative effort. It's like putting together a CRM. You've got to have people who buy into it in order for it to be able to take off just to create maybe a familiar parallel example for those who haven't done events before.
Tell us about, are there any other trends you're seeing post-COVID? Are webinars still a thing in these virtual events? Are you seeing an upward trend and more of these kinds of event examples, the in-person event examples you all describe? What are you seeing in today's day and age if you will post- COVID?
Elyse (18:05):
It's like a pendulum, and first there was the big swing one way — we've got to do events and we've got to bring together as many people safely as we can. And then it was like, ooh, I don't like that many people. They scare me. And then it would swing back to the other side. But what we're finding now is the trends are much more about value versus the things people are doing. We have this philosophy about, and Angela touched on this, when you're doing an event, it's not about measuring ROI, we believe it's measuring ROM, which is the return on the moment. You're creating this moment, which is like a rock in your marketing stream, and you need to set goals for that. And when you're setting those goals for judging the success of that event, one of those goals can be venue. And when we talk venue, venue can be virtual, venue can be in-person, venue can be hybrid, which is a combination of the two.
You can use that to determine whether your event is successful. So we feel like the swing is really more in the bang for the investment, because as we know as marketers, right? Again, it's a rock in the stream. It's part of this client journey. If you're trying to measure ROI, you're really dependent on somebody else taking an action to determine, well, I spent X, I made Y but maybe they're not ready to invest with you yet. Maybe this is an opportunity where it's a client who maybe has some funds someplace else and they need to get to know you better. Is that a goal and are you achieving the goal with that event? So that's more of an ROM than, because again, like I said, we hear this, I don't like the ROI of events but chicken is going to cost a certain amount, and a venue rental is going to be a certain amount. So instead of trying to measure success that way, our model is return on the moment.
Angela (20:33):
I'd love to jump in there as well. You had asked about the trends, and we actually prefer to stay away from the trends, which is actually what I don't want to say, got us in trouble for the decades prior to us implementing strategic events. But for those decades, the natural tendency, at least that I experienced, because finserv is really all I know is we were very trend driven. This advisor did that or wanted to do that, or my coach said shiny object. And so we like to steer away from the trends because it may not be a great fit for that advisory practice or the wholesalers doing an event for the advisor or the broker dealer doing a team-building for their advisors. It really boils down to the business goals. What are the business goals? Are you trying to deepen relationships with female clients?
Are you trying to do generational planning campaigns? What are your goals? And create the event goals based on that and the attendee, the ideal attendee. Who are they based on, the goals? Then you build what type of event is best for that group. Just like in the example from Northern California I had mentioned; they wanted to do a large client appreciation event because they had seen other advisors do that. But when you peel back the curtain and look at that specific practice, it wasn't a good fit. It was a trend but it wasn't a good fit for them. What was a good fit for them is what the attendee wanted, and that was intimate their local area. They didn't want to fly from Northern California to Southern California. So that's really what we look at. Do the ideal attendees, are they not in your geographic area? If so, a virtual event would be great. Do they want small? Do they want large? Do they want after work? Do they want social? Do they want education? That's really what it boils down to.
Lauren (22:36):
Yeah, so well said. And I think that's really easy to forget because we talked about earlier, it's easy to just do that check in the box. There's a firm we've worked with, and this was pre-COVID but I think the event is a good example. So they're in San Diego, they target biotech executives. They had an exclusive event, no sales, and it was just other biotech executives all with similar sort of job titles or descriptions. And the whole point of it was just to socialize, network. It was a sort of happy hour event but it hit those buckets, knowing your target market, adding value. And like it was mentioned earlier, it's really got to be about them and not about you. And so all of those things, it helps that, it helps differentiate you in the market but I think you just want to make sure, as you all have pointed out, that the differentiation is really coming from you defining what that is first before you just going out and doing something.
Angela (23:35):
Exactly. And events can be used for the different targets you want to deepen those relationships with. So it doesn't necessarily have to be an advisor-client relationship. It could be a wholesaler insurance company with advisors or broker dealers with their advisors. It can be team-building, it can be all of that, and it can also be centers of influence. So if you want to develop those relationships with your COIs, if they're estate planning attorneys or CPAs or whatever they might be where you share the same client, do lunch and learns, offer CE credits, use your wholesalers for content. So it doesn't have to be a Valentine's Day event, a holiday event, an education event. You can mix and match but again, it comes down to what are your business goals and how do you tie those into events.
Lauren (24:30):
Yes. Okay. So I just want to be mindful of time as we're wrapping things up here but I would love for you all to share a little bit about more of this consultancy aspect you offer. I think sometimes when you think event planning, you're like, holy smokes, all the communication ramps up, the event itself, boots on ground, being there if it's a physical event, so on and so forth, all the posts. What is this consultancy piece you offer, and can you tell us a little bit more about that and how that works?
Elyse (24:55):
Sure. So we recognize what we're talking about is a little different. When we say event planning, there's a certain picture that comes to people's heads, and while we both have a lot of experience, it would be a very separate, different webinar if we wanted to talk war stories of what happens at events.
Lauren (25:18):
Yes.
Elyse (25:20):
And we know there's a lot of really good people in the finserv ecosystem who are phenomenal event planners. So what we're doing with Event Advisors is we're actually here to help support those people and maybe help support the people who don't either don't have somebody or they have that person who's HR and admin and the event planner and making sure the plants are watered and all of those things. By bringing our decades of event experience both in financial services and outside of financial services to help people be successful, it's this idea of, we call it collaborative coaching. It's we can do whatever you need us to do — if we need to be researching venues, if we need to be spending some time learning about your ideal client, if it's coaching your team, they kind of have it going on but they're not quite in the strategic mindset, and you want to make sure you're maximizing that ROM.
That's sort of our sweet spot. We have spent a lot of time taking the information we have gathered over the years, and for example, we've put together an emergency kit checklist. Everyone should have an emergency kit. When you do an event that's a little sidebar, we can talk. If you don't call us, we'll talk about that. But we've created this checklist that actually has live links, and you just go in and click on the links and it's everything from a first aid kit to HDMI cables to reading glasses, and most of that stuff is in there because we found we needed it. Somewhere along the way we're here to sort of help people not step in the potholes we've already stepped in.
Lauren (27:31):
I get it. Oh my goodness. We'll make sure to include that emergency kit as well for folks. Any shoutouts? If you could pick one thing from that emergency kit, do not forget at home, what would it be?
Angela (27:45):
Sharpie.
Lauren (27:46):
Oh.
Angela (27:48):
I mean, there's so many different choices. Sharpie is a great one. Rubber band is a great one. Duct tape.
Elyse (27:57):
They're all great. And things like duct tape, for example. You can use it for so many different things. Not only is your banner falling off the wall but you have a black tablecloth and it came back from the dry cleaner and it's got lint all over it. Take that duct tape, turn it inside out. It's a lint cleaner.
Lauren (28:17):
So true. I know if you need to take that tablecloth in a little bit more, you can take that duct tape and just it's like your sewing machine onsite.
Elyse (28:27):
Exactly.
Lauren (28:30):
Goodness. Well, so fun. Thank you both for sharing your experience, your offering, and just a different way of looking at events. So appreciate your time. Thank you for being on the show.
Elyse (28:42):
Thanks so much.
