Vinay Rathod urges caution against the rise of financial influencers, or ‘finfluencers,’ whose high fees often mask an absence of real expertise.
Earlier this year the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) published a press release addressing the rise and increase in influence of the financial influencer – ‘the finfluencer’.
A well-timed press release, as we increasingly see the impacts of the self-labelled expert more and more when speaking with our clients.
It appears almost inevitable now that if one is not able to succeed, they can re-label themselves as a coach, mentor, guru, or one of the many other self appointed titles which seem to bear little correlation to actual expertise.
Before my inbox is flooded with hate-mail from the many genuinely great coaches and mentors out there, understand that this article is not about you, but about those who claim to be like you, without any of the battle scars of gaining experience and expertise.
Distraction from facts
I have always been very sceptical of ‘young experts’ – that is those who have little practical experience in an area they claim expertise. They often appear from nowhere, with very exciting sounding claims, un-natural levels of positivity and enthusiasm – this is, of course, to cover up that gaping hole in substance and knowledge they have almost convinced themselves isn’t there.
The showmanship, if this were the course they were marketing, is something they clearly do have experience and talent in. But we must not confuse the ability to distract from facts as something tangible and worth paying for.
There is a great list of books which can help any motivated individual to improve in any professional area one could wish for (and many personal too). One point I will allow the fake expert (fexpert?) is that they can collate other people’s work and sometimes regurgitate it very well.
But this is often where you find it end… their knowledge is not from experience, but regurgitated self-help quotes (often powdered with glitter and empty promises).
Now a few years into the rise of this new phenomenon, if you look closely you can see the posts get fewer likes (if we look and discount the many suspicious empty foreign profiles and self-liked posts). Engagement is down, and the echo chamber of the ‘fexpert’ and their cult have been discovered, and no surprise we see very few to no recommendations for these individuals on dental social media – so they market harder.
Why then do we not see any complaints or reviews from angry dentists who are thousands of pounds out of pocket? Because the intelligent professional who realises they have been sold a dud… feels a little embarrassed. They don’t want to tell anyone and show the world they were conned.
How much do they charge?
I challenge you to find out, without having to engage said fexpert in a well-rehearsed time-share-esque sales pitch. You won’t find their prices advertised anywhere, however I know of fees between £8,000 and £120,000 a year – the larger is not a typing error.
One hundred and twenty thousand pounds a year. Invest this wisely with regulated advice from an experienced IFA (Independent Financial Advisor), and you’re quite possibly already a millionaire at retirement – 30 years at 5% annual growth compounded is already over £500k.
That statement above is already more valuable than the entire content of the course provided*.
How to spot a finfluencer
Dentists who invest both in themselves and their money are easily led astray, if not cautious. Here are some things that might help you to navigate the coach park more safely:
- Are they formally qualified?
- If so, how long have they been practicing what they claim expertise in?
- Can they provide tangible evidence of repeatability, consistency and longevity in the area they claim expertise?
- Are their years in said area sufficient to correlate to expert status?
- Do they spend too long marketing? Surely experts are busy being experts – how do they find the time to post so frequently?
- Are associated companies/people they refer to/recommend subject to receipt of financial reward – and have they disclosed this? (We know of at least one platform with heavy commercial involvement and bias that is hidden from the members)
- Do their lifestyles correlate to their claims?
On the last one, do remember vehicles are easy to finance and helicopters easy to photograph next to and Amex points upgrade you to business class (yep, few actually pay for business class). Houses and tangible businesses are less easily obtained as they are either very expensive to buy or robustly assessed to borrow toward.
Financial success and possession of wealth are often mutually exclusive to boisterous displays of wealth – if they are trying very hard to paint a picture to the audience through dramatical displays, it’s probably false.
‘Please subscribe to my course to get richer‘
I did mention the target of this article are those with the prefix ‘F-‘, the finfluencer and the newly coined ‘fexpert’. Many genuine experts exist and provide fantastic value to practices, principals and associates all over the country.
But genuine experts don’t sing and dance like the showmen – they are not the ones with sponsored adverts on your feed or weekly marketing emails littered with emojis enticing you to change your lives.
Many clients have often asked why I don’t run any type of course. Having served the dental community widely for over 12 years has resulted in hard-earned expertise in a number of areas, but often experts practice what they preach and we’re just far too busy doing what we do to have the time to put a course together – even one built on genuine experience.
But you can find me on many of the respected and commercially unbiased dental-social media pages – and if I see an area I am proficient in, you won’t see a ‘dm me’ response. I’ll answer for free for all to see – we all benefit as a community after all.
*No proof of this can be offered even if you ask – just trust me. Yours, the finfluencer.
For more information on financial solutions for dentists, visit vrfs.uk.
This article is sponsored by VR Financial Solutions.
