Financial Advisor Website Showcase: Storybook Financial

1. Let’s start with your firm’s story. After all, it is in the name of your business. How has developing your brand really set the premise behind how you all operate?  The story….your story…is what Storybook Financial is all about.…

Financial Advisor Website Showcase: Storybook Financial

Kade Hammes

This week we had a great conversation with Kade J. Hammes CFP®, owner of Storybook Financial for our “Financial Advisor Website Showcase” series blog. This firm serves a unique niche and has a very meaningful story behind the name of their company. From the design process to marketing strategies, find out more about Storybook Financial.

1. Let’s start with your firm’s story. After all, it is in the name of your business. How has developing your brand really set the premise behind how you all operate? 

The story….your story…is what Storybook Financial is all about. When someone comes to me looking for comprehensive financial planning, I spend extra time listening to and understanding who they are and what their idyllic life would be. It’s different for everyone! 

A fair amount of thought went into our brand and service model and much of it stems from my daughter Mila having Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF warriors come into the world knowing they are likely to have short lifespans and they are likely going to spend a lot of time in a hospital. We have been so encouraged by 20-30-year-old CF warriors, many of whom have accomplished more than the rest of us in our entire lifetimes. 

Understanding your personal story helps us know where you are. Uncovering what you wish your story would be, is what financial planning done right is all about!

2.Giving back to the community is a great way to help others in need and go beyond just financial advising to impact others in different ways. Charities supporting Cystic Fibrosis are obviously near and dear to your team. Can you tell us more about your involvement and the impact it has on your community?

My family is only just beginning to get involved with the Cystic Fibrosis community. The CF community is more of a family and an all-around motivated family. When we go in for our frequent appointments, we have a team that meets with us: physician, dietician, pharmacist, nurse, respiratory therapist, and a social worker. These fine people have become family. The CF Foundation has been involved from the very start providing educational materials and connections to others that have gotten the terrible news before us. 

Story book Financial story

Every spring, we participate in the CF Foundation’s Great Strides walk, which is a celebration of all the hard work families have done fundraising. Our team raised over $10,000 this year! The foundation is an excellent non-profit with most of the dollars raised going back into research for finding a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. This year, I am also fortunate to be on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Community Blog editorial board. The blog consists of wonderful articles written by various viewpoints from within the Cystic Fibrosis community.  

We are also doing a smaller fundraiser for Emily’s Entourage (EE). Emily is an individual living with Cystic Fibrosis, who also happens to have rare mutations like my daughter, Mila. 2019 was a wonderful year for Cystic Fibrosis because a life-changing drug came out that helped treat the underlying cause for the first time. Cystic Fibrosis has over 1,900 different mutations and the drug will cover up to 90% of those individuals with Cystic Fibrosis. EE is a foundation dedicated to finding a cure for the full 100% and is laser-focused on helping those with rare mutations. 

While those charities are what we are most passionate about, we also try to help you with your passions. After your first year receiving financial planning services, we will donate 10% of our planning fees to the charity of your choice! It is exciting to see the charities our clients are passionate about. From there, we make sure we are donating a full 10% of our net income typically spread between the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Emily’s Entourage. 

Honestly, my website would look dreadful if not for the Twenty Over Ten team!

Kade Hammes, CFP®  SToryBook Financial

3. Your site has only been live for a couple of weeks now but we love to see that you’re starting strong with a consistent blogging schedule. Can you share your planned content strategy – how do you plan to continue to produce quality content on a consistent basis? Are there certain tools you leverage weekly, monthly, etc. to keep you on track and accountable?

My initial goal was to post something once a day just so my social media and blog looked like there was content there. Now that I have a little established, it’s my goal to blog once a week with the blog shared on social media every Tuesday. 

As for blogging content, I wrote one article from start to finish. While I enjoyed writing it, I would be struggling without the Content Assist provided by Twenty Over Ten. I almost always tweak the articles to match my voice, but tweaking is a lot easier than generating. I’ve also been using Lead Pilot for infographics, videos, and blogs on topics that I don’t wish to live on my website forever.

Storybook financial

4. We constantly stress the importance of utilizing strong calls to action for lead generation on your website, and your website does just that while also playing off of your brand theme using CTA phrases like “Uncover Your Next Chapter.” Can you talk more about how you collaborated with our copywriting team to develop strong CTAs such as this and the other copy on your website?

Honestly, my website would look dreadful if not for the Twenty Over Ten team! Yes, I felt it was a lot of money, but they brought my website to life and made it one of the best I have seen. The CTAs are pretty much entirely the copywriting team’s doing. The edits I made were either minor changes to help give it my voice or changes that happened after the team started on my website. Example: I attended George Kinder’s EVOKE conference for Life Planning after I had sent my process to the team.

Storybook Financial

5. When we started the design process with you you mentioned “I’m a calm guy, I hope my page speaks tranquility” and we think that absolutely shines through in the final product! Talk to us a little bit more about how you collaborated with our design team to ensure your vision came to life and what that process was like.

Again, the copywriting team deserves most of the credit. They asked all the right questions to determine what my voice is. I would describe it as my voice but better! I stressed things like I want my website to be quick, simple, and easy to navigate. This was not the copy team, but my process page originally had pop-up windows for each of my services. While they were nice pop-up windows, I did not like how it slowed things. We then tried having it open new tabs. I still did not like it. On the third attempt, I asked that we go to the nice blue buttons seen on our story page with the same logos used on the homepage. The team was not opposed to letting me try and see different approaches.

6. Having a strong social media presence is so important, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic it’s become many people’s go-to communication channels to learn, connect and take a break. We see that you are on Facebook and Instagram, which is great, as we’re not seeing too many advisors adopt Instagram just yet. Can you share what your plans are for continuing to build on your social media channels? Are there certain tools you leverage to help you create and post content consistently? 

Shortly after starting, I jumped on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well. I am working hard right now to generate more social media content and not just blogging. I am utilizing SmarterQueue as my social media calendar. They have given me ideas on the sort of social media post I could be making. It’s just taking a little time to get it set up. 

Instagram is my priority, and my niche is young families in healthcare, and you don’t see too many of them on LinkedIn. Each social media has its own nuances. With Twitter, you can get buried if you do not post frequently. LinkedIn is for professionals and with Facebook, you do not use hashtags as often, so you basically have to boost posts to get seen.

Choosing the right posts to boost is the tricky part, and with Instagram, you can load up with hashtags, but they must be the right ones. You need to have a compelling photo, but it also has to be cropped to a square. If you post a blog, you should check into a “Link In Bio” solution, I use Lnk.Bio, because you can pay a one-time fee instead of a monthly charge. Then to make things less complicated, Facebook and Instagram have a Snapchat style story feature which is what many people are spending their time looking at these days. I always promote my posts in the story but then look for other trending items to share in my stories and on Twitter since Twitter has that issue of needing to post more to not get lost in the fold.

Have I lost you yet?

Storybook Financial

The social media game is not an easy place to jump into, and I know others that join Facebook groups with their niches so that they can be there to answer questions. I also spend time commenting on other peoples’ posts, just so new people might see my name and click it to see my content. All of that can be time-consuming, and that’s why I lean on tools like SmarterQueue to make it easier!

7. As a startup yourself, what is the number one best piece of business advice that you have ever received that you would share with other financial professionals looking to start their own independent business?

If you are thinking of starting your own business and have not yet I’ll share a quote.

There are people less qualified than you, doing things you want to do because they believe in themselves and take action.

Honestly, the hardest part is just getting started and taking that first step.  For those just getting in the game, you should start blogging at a minimum of every other week from starting week one. Then start prospecting right away. Do not worry about your technology stack or spend countless hours worrying about your fee. Getting clients is a top priority and it takes time to get clients! Even if you get a couple right away, do not let up!

8. When it comes to managing your day-to-day at work, what are three tools that you simply could not live without? 

At my prior firm, I developed really good habits with my CRM (Customer Relationship Management). I upgraded from Wealthbox to XLR8 (Salesforce) recently because I live in my CRM to track everything client-related. The next tool I use a lot would be eMoney, as it is hands down the smartest financial planning tool out there. I live in the decision center with clients showing them complex scenarios and choices in the plan. It also has a second to none dashboard for clients. SmarterQueue is my latest obsession as I’m starting to figure out how to keep on top of social media. As a bonus, I love my scheduling software Calendly, as I hate the typical back and forth trying to schedule meetings.

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About the author

Blair Kelly

Blair is a digital marketing assistant at Twenty Over Ten and has a passion for uncovering what drives online traffic and the highest engagement. She follows more animals on Instagram than humans and her greatest achievement is her daughter, Grey.


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