[Estimated Reading Time: 22 Minutes]

Molly Balunek, Co-Founder of Endeavor Wealth Advisors, joins Lisa Crilley Mallis on the 25th Hour Podcast. Molly has over 25 years of financial planning experience and serves on many boards, committees and associations.

Lisa Crilley Mallis is a time strategist, recognized for providing practical solutions to everyday productivity challenges. Lisa is a published author and speaker who also delivers training courses in the US and abroad.

Together, Lisa and Molly discuss Molly’s business transitions over the years, her learning experiences, and talks through how she builds meaningful relationships.

Maximizing Time By Building Relationships Transcript

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Welcome to The 25th Hour Podcast, where successful business owners talk about the magic of creating a 25th hour every day. I’m your host, Lisa Crilley-Mallis.

We’ve all been there. Your calendar’s in great shape. Your to do list is done. You are totally in the zone. All the balls that you have in the air are being easily juggled. And then something changes and all of a sudden chaos reigns. This is the podcast that will help you learn to up level your time management strategies so you can get back in control of your day and make an extra hour, your 25th hour, a reality every day.

Welcome. Today my guest is Molly Balunek. Molly has practiced as an advocate for successful financial management for over 25 years. She’s found that striving to help clients make smart money decisions begins with building a foundation based on understanding what truly motivates each client and the individual core values and beliefs which drive their goals. Welcome Molly.

Molly Balunek:

Thanks Lisa. Glad to be here.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today. We’ve known each other for years. We were just catching up before we started the recording, and I’ve seen your business transition a little bit over the past couple years. And so I’m excited to hear what you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with time. It’s so easy to get to the end of the week and realize that you have no idea where your time went. As you were building your business and where you are now, what were some of the things that you did to make sure that you stayed in control of your time?

Molly Balunek:

Well, it’s different now than it was in the beginning. We’ll talk about the beginning, which is more interesting anyway. In the beginning, when I was building the business, I spent a lot of time strategizing, developing a target market, identifying who is my niche, what sort of clients I wanted to serve, and then developing a plan to meet more people like them. And that was really where it started. And I had informational meetings with people who knew me well, before I met you, you would have been one of them, and asked them what they liked about the way I interacted with clients, what they liked about the services I provided, what made it stand out.

And what they helped me identify was that most of the clients who I was working with at that time were women and women in different stages of their lives. Some of them were widowers. Some of them were young professionals. Some of them were divorced. But the identifying characteristic was that they were all women who were in charge of their own money.

And then you think, well, how do I find women like that? And I read the regional newspapers, the business papers, went to all of the women’s networking groups and participated in just about anything I was asked to do so that I could meet more women and I gathered information. I asked them questions about what they needed from a financial advisor, how financial advice played into their lives and gathered a lot of data at that time.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

It sounds like you spent a lot of time when you were building your business doing research and then meeting people that hit a certain criteria that you gathered from your research.

Molly Balunek:

Yeah.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Okay, good. And how did you fit that in with and run the business?

Molly Balunek:

Well, my business was brand new, so I didn’t have a lot of clients that I had to take care of at that time. When I went out on my own, which was in 2010, roughly… it’s hard to think back that long. 10 years ago, when I started on my own, there were a handful of clients who followed me from my previous firm. Those were the people I started with. And so let’s say it was 10. I can’t remember how many it was.

Well, servicing 10 clients, it doesn’t take 40 hours, so it was easy at that point. The clients always came first, but once their work was taken care of, I still had ample time to go to women’s networking events, to participate in the networking events of my community and profession, which includes a couple of groups called the Financial Planning Association, which is my contemporaries. And there, I could ask for guidance and support from people about what worked for them. And the Estate Planning Council was another primary group for me, still is, and that is related professionals, attorneys, accountants, financial planners, insurance professionals, philanthropic professionals. And we all work with the same types of people. In addition to learning more about in continuing education, I was able to build relationships with people in my community.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

And so now fast forward a little bit, because your business has changed a little, what are you doing now to help stay in control of your time? How things shifted?

Molly Balunek:

Well, I have a lot more clients now, closer to 70, so there’s a lot of growth over that time period. The client work takes most of my time, but one of the things that’s interesting in the way our time evolves is that… I was talking before about the network of professionals, related professionals, accountants, and attorneys. Well, in order to provide comprehensive service to my clients, I frequently have the opportunity to speak with their attorneys and accountants about matters that affect their finances that have a tax implication or an estate planning implication, so I’m able to maintain those relationships and not all that many certified financial practitioners do that. It’s a way to be able to kill two birds with one stone. I still participate in those groups and work to build relationships in the community in other ways. It’s a slightly different way in which the time is spent, but it’s very, very similar methodology.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

If you were to… say you were to counsel someone who’s new into the financial planning profession, and if you were to say, “Here’s my advice. Do this, do this, do this when you start make sure you do these things, whatever they may be every day or every week,” or something like that, what would you recommend?

Molly Balunek:

Well, Lisa, I’ve never really been good at the every day or every week thing, like my time management professional friend, but it is to make the effort, to be the one who reaches out. And so part of what I spent a lot of time doing in those early years was when I’d go to a female legal professional networking event and I’d meet three or four interesting people, usually more than that, but there was always people you feel like you have a good conversation with, and then I’d email them and ask them to meet for coffee or lunch. But coffee is more… people are more willing to do that.

And then we’d meet for coffee and we’d spend 45 minutes getting to know each other, which for me, it was me asking them about their businesses. How are you successful? Tell me what sort of clients you serve and how you manage that? And then they ask questions about me too, but I would try to deflect everything back to have them share about their business. And then I did some event planning too, which we may talk about in a few minutes, so I’d invite them to my next event. And often people that I met in that period of time would come because they were curious. Nobody was really doing what I was doing with the women’s educational finance events that I hosted. And so then the relationship was kind of built. And some of them we run into from time to time. Some I’ve gotten to know better over the years. Some I’ve lost touch with over the years. That’s just the way it happens.

“I really care about my clients.” 

But make the effort. When I contacted them by email to ask for a meeting, instead of saying, “Hey, let’s meet for coffee.” I would say, “Let’s meet for coffee. I’m available on these three dates. Does Panera in Independence work for you?” And it’s much harder for people to push you off and defer the invitation. And I’ll tell you, nobody does that. Even now, people say, “Oh, sure, let’s meet.” And then you have to say, “Okay. Well, let’s meet next Thursday at 3:00.” And it’s hard to say no. And people say, “Yes.” And then they get to know you. And then they understand that I’m sincere. I really care about my clients. I’ve really find a lot of value in the professional relationships I’ve built in our community, which makes the work very satisfying.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. And what I love from a time management perspective, as you’re sharing the story, it’s one email to them and one email back. Instead of 15 emails back and forth, you’re like, “Let’s meet. I’m available on these dates and how’s this location?” And then they’re coming back with a, “Here’s my date. Location’s good.” And you’re done, instead of that back and forth, back and forth where… I have a client who used to hold open on her calendar four dates. And she’s like, “Well, just in case they can do this one or in case they can do that one.” I was like, “Oh no, listen, let’s narrow that in. Let’s make that a lot quicker. One there, one back or worst case, use an online scheduler.” I said, “That way you’re not keeping it all open.”

Molly Balunek:

Those online schedulers are awesome. And I’ve appreciated being on the receiving end of one. I haven’t started using them to schedule meetings, but I think that there’s so many cool tools that have come out. And the one out, one back just makes a big difference. If I’m giving more than three dates, it’s because I’m trying to have one morning and one afternoon and one mid day. But if they’re gone, they’re gone.That makes me look like I’m in demand.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. Absolutely. And you are. I mean, you’re a professional who’s great at what you do. You absolutely are in demands. I’m always so excited when I hear how people have built their businesses and doing it in a way that’s very relationship oriented, instead of that throw spaghetti on the wall, throw my business cards out, you’re in a networking event and you see someone’s slinging business cards pretty much all over the room. You’re like that’s not really maximizing your time. You figured that it out in a fairly formulaic way that doesn’t feel formulaic. But you identified here’s where my people are, here are the things I need to do to connect with them, here’s how I can connect with them and then here’s how I can follow up. Tell me more about your women’s events that you were holding back when you first started your business.

Molly Balunek:

Sure. I had established a group called Women With Goals and it was a community conversation group. That’s not quite the words that we used at that time, but the idea behind it is that women like to learn from each other, so that when bring a group of women together, and I would host a guided conversation, we’d bring them together. I’d present the conversation topic, which was not a seminar. It wasn’t a presentation. It wasn’t a lecture. It was here’s what we’re going to talk about today. And then it ended with two or three questions that could start a conversation. And then I’d shut up. And if there was a lull in the conversation, then I would try to pull people back in.

The largest group I had was probably 30 and the smaller groups were maybe 5 or 6. And I think more than 30 can make it hard to have a conversation with the whole group. But I would set up the room in a circle if possible, or with smaller clusters of seating that was in a rounded space, so that it made people feel included. I didn’t push anybody to comment, but generally speaking the women, because I tell them what the topic was in the invitation, so they knew what they were coming into. And usually, the conversations were really, really thoughtful. And we’d share some food and some wine. And I usually made it… I think I made it at like 5:30, although I’ve come to think that for many working women, a 4:00 time is lot is good because they can skip out of work a little bit early, but they’re not shortchanging their family too much. And I have hopes of reinstating this group, once the restrictions are lifted, so we’ll be working in that.

“I had one story that was about the women in my family, the generations of women in my family, which really is fundamental to why I do what I do.”

And some of the topics might be caring for our aging parents. How do we help our aging parents downsize? How do we have educational conversations about money with our children? And then I’d have some sort of information. I would open the event with a personal story that generally included a little bit of my background. I had one story that was about the women in my family, the generations of women in my family, which really is fundamental to why I do what I do. And then another story that was generally about a client that was an experience that I had had where this topic became important and then presented it out. So that made it real and comfortable and unintimidating. And it was really fun. And so then people would bring a friend and then they were on the mailing list.

And then here’s one part that I think is really cool. I don’t know if I understood how cool it was at the time, but looking back. The mailing list grew to be several hundred people. And there were men… well, it’s a women’s group. What are we going to do with the men? The idea behind the men was that maybe they would pass the invitation along to a client or a friend or whatever, but it also quickly came, I quickly came to realize it was to let them know what was going on. Even if they never came, there are people I’m in contact with who still remember that, that that was something that I did and it built the awareness. Molly Balunek’s doing this interesting women’s group and you may want to get to know her, because she does a great job taking care of her clients, but they were never able to come. What I came to realize, and a lot of people who have since taught me this also, is that the hosting of an event is as much about inviting people to it as it is about the people that come.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. And when you look at this strategy from a time management perspective, it’s a one to many, which is so much more effective and efficient than if you were to go and have lunch with every one of those 30 people one-to-one, where now they start to get to know you, you start to get to know them in a larger arena. And then the ones that you click best with, or the ones that you know are ready to have a conversation around their personal financial needs, you can have those individual conversations with them.

Molly Balunek:

And then here’s-

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

And you said you may reopen it?

Molly Balunek:

Well, let me share one more thing and then we’ll talk about that. One other thing that is really interesting about the kind of marketing that I did, which I know is not original marketing, but there will be there… now, it’s been three or four years since I’ve hosted one of those events. Every now and then I’m still going to get a phone call, “I came to one of your events and you were so helpful. And I remember how the other people in the group were happy with your services. And I have a need. My mother just died. And I wonder if you could help me.” It’s long lasting. It’s not transactional. It’s relational.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. Right. It’s about relationships about planting the seeds. A couple of years ago, I had made the goal that I was going to speak once a week for a year.

Molly Balunek:

I remember when you told me about that.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right, because that’s right around the time when we met. And I spoke 40 times in a year and just kept plugging away and was not converting clients at all through that entire year, I think one new client out of that entire time. And I remember thinking there’s something wrong with me, I’m a failure, I can’t do this right, this isn’t my way to market. The seeds planted back then doing it my way, the way that felt authentic to me, pay for, grow and grow and grow throughout. I mean, that was what? Four years ago maybe, five years ago.

Molly Balunek:

Five years ago.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Yeah, five years ago. And I still will get calls, just like you did from your women’s group, I was still get calls from people who say, “I heard you speak at this. And at the time I didn’t need you, but a friend or this, or can you come speak to my organization?” Something like that. But I remember thinking that first year, oh, my gosh, Molly.

“There’s a lot of men who aren’t huge risk takers with their money and they want to work with a woman who has a more thoughtful and deliberate approach.” 

Molly Balunek:

Yes. That was my experience too. It took a long time. But then I’d get a referral from one of the men on my list for a man. Okay. I work well with men too, and especially men who like that relationship and the longer type game. There’s a lot of men who aren’t huge risk takers with their money and they want to work with a woman who has a more thoughtful and deliberate approach. And so it was really interesting, but what I would run into when I was doing it, and I will say non-gender specific people, because it really kind of came from everywhere, but, “So how was your event? How many people did you have? How much did it cost? How many clients did you get?” Yeah.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

What’s your immediate ROI on that event? When you’re building relationships there isn’t… it’s not the immediate ROI. It’s the ROI out over years that you see.

Molly Balunek:

Yes. And we have to pay it forward. And part of what I found so fulfilling about those events and why I want to bring them back is because even if there was no specific business to be earned right away out of that, I was able to help people and give them information that was helpful to them that that might help them with their own parents or their own children or whatever it was there, it was important to me that there be a takeaway that was some piece of knowledge that they could find useful.

And so in the last year, time goes by funny these days, last year, I formed a partnership with a woman I’ve known for many, many years, and we formed a new business together, and that will create success and opportunities for me as time goes on, and that’s maybe a different podcast, but we’ve been talking about what our business looks like next year or in five years. And we realized that this was something that really could continue to be part of our strategy.

We had been planning our first event in June of this year, and then that got sidetracked by the pandemic, so instead of that, we’ve done a couple virtual client events this year that have been enjoyable and successful as far as staying in touch with our clients and helping them feel connected when we can’t meet in person. We’ll reschedule the Women With Goals into next year and we’ve still got the contacts and we still have the email list, and it’s a function of defining a topic and building some support. Now that I’ve said that out loud, it’s probably not outside the realm of probability that we could do a virtual event.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Exactly where my brain was going, so going there. Absolutely. And I think in my experience, people are craving that opportunity to connect in a meaningful way that isn’t webinar driven.

Molly Balunek:

Yes. It has to be interactive. We did one client event that was interactive where we all had the… it was a Zoom format and there was the ability to ask questions and use the chat room. And then we did another one on a different platform that was more like a webinar and they couldn’t see how many people were on the call and the questions were moderated. And I didn’t feel like it had the same level of connection and intimacy. Even though it was cleaner, it was not as satisfying.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Yes. Yes. I agree. I have been using Zoom since I started my business and it was an easy transition then for me to be able to have groups of people on Zoom. And so one of the features that I love is breakout rooms, because you can put people in small groups, so that people who don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking in a group of 30 may feel comfortable talking in a group of 3 or 4. And so discussion questions can go into breakout rooms and then you come back and then people share back. And it’s just a way to meet new people. It’s harder now.

Molly Balunek:

It is harder. I think it’s great to hear that feedback from you. I participated in my first virtual networking thing last week, where they broke us out into… we had three groups of four and it was fun. It was really fun. And I have an informational call with one of them last week, somebody who’s doing what I used to do. And she reached out to me to share that, so we’ll see how that goes.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Yeah. Oh, I could talk to you all day. And I love how… you thank you for sharing your story with us.

Molly Balunek:

Thank you.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

As you know, the name of the podcast is the 25th hour. And so as you are more efficient and you’ve figured out how you want your marketing to look so it’s not a lot of, like we said, spaghetti on the wall. This is how I want to do it. This is how I’m serving my clients. You become more effective and efficient. You start to gain that, we’ll just call extra time, or that extra hour of the day, the 25th hour. How do you want to spend that extra hour?

Molly Balunek:

Well, after talking with you today, I want to spend it working on refining our marketing plan and not just pushing the snooze button indefinitely for it, but thinking about ways in which we could be innovative and using tools that other folks in our marketplace haven’t been using yet, and the possibility that wow, we’ve may not have to wait until next year to remind people of the personalized service and support that we provide to our clients, and to grow in a time when a lot of people are just kind of hunkering down, which we have been actually. It’s been a good year for us.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. Good. All right. How can people get ahold of you? Where can they find you?

Molly Balunek:

Well, my company is Endeavor Wealth Advisors and our website is endeavorwa.com. My partner is Kara Downing. We have an employee with our firm too. On our website, there’s plenty of information about our business and the services and our backgrounds. And there’s also an opportunity to sign up for or to reach out to us for a 30 minute free financial planning or investment management consultation, where we can learn more about what someone who’s considering hiring a financial advisor might be seeking and share with them a little bit about how we help people solve their kinds of problems.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Fantastic. And thank you for offering that. I think it’s a personal… there has to be trust there. And I find that either whether it’s coaching or financial planning, that’s not something that usually people are just going to Google for and sign up right away with someone right off the internet. There has to be that conversation. You have to feel like they get me and they understand me, so thank you for offering.

Molly Balunek:

Yes. Another thing that people find also in our community, because we’re in Pepper Pike and a lot of our clients are in the greater Cleveland community, is we have those connections where sometimes people will find… they’ll do a web search and they’ll see our LinkedIn profile or they’ll see our Facebook profile and then realize that we have commonalities in the activities that we do or some of the people that we know. That really makes the research a little bit easier. I don’t think people just cold call off Google either, but what comes up when you do that search is a wide range of information.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Right. Absolutely. Well, I’m excited about the Women With Goals. I can’t wait to see where that-

Molly Balunek:

Well, you’re on the list.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Yay.

Molly Balunek:

You’ll know about it.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

I cannot wait. Thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your expertise and your wisdom and for just being you and saying yes to the opportunity to jump on the podcast. Thank you.

Molly Balunek:

I was so proud of you for doing it and really happy for the opportunity to help. Thank you for the invitation, Lisa.

Lisa Crilley Mallis:

Oh, totally my pleasure. Don’t forget. Feel free to reach out to Molly. Take advantage of her free strategy session with your either wealth management or financial planning. And if you want to figure out how to get your 25th hour every day, go to impactivestrategies.com/quiz and take this quick two minute quiz.