Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Jorge Villar Founder of the Marketing Advisors Into Millions Program

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Jorge brings over three decades of experience helping financial advisors grow their practices through structured, data-driven marketing strategies. His work has focused heavily on seminar and workshop-based approaches that create consistent opportunities for advisors to connect with qualified prospects and build long-term relationships.Learn More: https://www.marketingadvisorsintomillions.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-jorge-villar-founder-of-the-marketing-advisors-into-millions-program

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with us George Villar, who's the founder of the Marketing Advisors and Demilions program. George, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. Hey, I'm looking forward to talking with you because I followed your work out there and not the whole 30 years that you've been in the business, but for the last year or so, I've been seeing some great things and I'm excited to learn what you're seeing in the industry where you help your advisors succeed. You've spent 30 years helping advisors get in front of the right people. But I wonder if you've noticed in the industry, if there's any shift in getting advisors in front of the right people, similar to what Dr. Robert Cheldini teaches.

is in his book, Pre-Suasion. So is there a line between lead generation and what people see about that advisor, like from a credibility or a trust standpoint? Yeah, it's funny. There's a lot of confusion. As you know, advisors get bombarded with opportunities to promote themselves. And the confusion is there's a lot of startups that are doing digital marketing and promising a lot of results and all that with no track record. And, you know, social media is very vague. It's social media, it's not business media. So I do see a shift in the mentality of the advice of thinking it's going to be easier to just sit at home or in front of a screen and generate leads.

And I have to tell you, Mike, in 31 years, the face-to-face still to date. And I've tried everything. You know, I sold my company twice to private equity firms. And they gave me the money to explore it and experiment and buy, add certain, bolt on certain resources. And we tried to digital. And we did successfully attach digital to what we're doing for 31 years. But I do see, like you're asking me, I do see a different mentality that the advisors have to

go back to reality, which is you have to get in front of people when they're asking. You're asking it for their whole life savings. You know, so I hope to ship Hallmark, if you prompt Hallmark on chat GPT and ask Hallmark, ask him, what is more proffer for Hallmark? the digital side or their printed cards at the grocery store, at the pharmacy, whatever, at the CBS or Walgreens. And clearly, by far it tells you on the print side. So it's a little bit of that still insisting where advice is kind of missing the point

that traditional media still works really well. You know, let's carry that one step further and say, hypothetically, the hallmark digital side of things might help amplify and keep them in the story, but then they still want to go and touch that card to buy that card. So similar with an advisor, I know that you promote doing seminars in person. Let's shake hands and press the flesh. But maybe that digital visibility will help that advisor make the seminars more productive.

What do you think of that? 100%. If you, we talked earlier before we got on this podcast, you have to mix the media to make it work. If you do radio and TV, announce it in your print. If you're doing digital analysis, you have to combine the media to have a multi-channel approach because people are looking at different things. You should be the majority.

If you can afford the budget to be in four or five times in their home through different medias, do that. The problem, because a lot of advisors have a limited budget, so they want to know what works fastest. And I still think that I can prove to anybody that the face-to-face approach in a social environment and a neutral site has been 31 years of success. We do more marketing in that fashion with that approach than anything else that being done in the marketplace.

And the reason is not that I'm pushing it is the consumers like it. It's like Starbucks and McDonald's for years, you know, they badmouthed McDonald's for years on the type of quality of food. It's still successful because the people consume it and they like it. Give the people what they want. You know, it's interesting. Back in the early to mid-90s, I worked at a small, at a local bank in the town I lived in. it turned into a larger bank down the road. But this was the time when internet banking was just coming online.

And I distinctly remember everyone in the branch going, oh, no, run for the hills. Our jobs are going to be gone. Internet banking. And as we know now, 35 plus years later, it's like, no, people bank online and people go into the branch and maybe there's less branches, but people still want that human connection. And thankfully, that is the case because that can be a distinguisher. and that could be something where a lot of times people aren't comfortable doing a seminar, meeting people face to face, shaking the hand confidently, looking someone in the eye.

So I think that becomes a competitive advantage. Sure. And again, I always, I'm on the consumer side more than I am in the advisor side. But that sounds kind of counterproductive, but my success had been focused on what does the senior, 55 year and old, pre-retiree, retiree, what are they need? What are they missing? I filled that gap 31 years ago and it has to stop working because I keep doing that. The advice is what I'm going to change everything. Don't do this.

Don't do this. I want less people. I want to do it at the office. I want to do it at a theater. Do what the consumer want. And they'll tell you if you're right or wrong. Success leaves clues. So looking back, you know, let's kind of move off of channels for a minute because I feel like

what's underneath of the channels. That's kind of like what's the shiny object and what's catching someone's attention. We need to dial that in, of course. But what has changed psychologically about that 55 plus affluent consumer that makes them raise their hand and say, yes, I need that information? What's changed from today compared to 10 or 15 years ago? Well, the response has been the same. Ironically, I don't know it's hard to believe that. But I filled the rules in 1993.

I feel the rules in 2006. And nothing's changed psychologically. I think people are more aware of. of their financial situation by comparing themselves with everything they're hearing. There's a lot more media telling them, you know, don't depend on social security. There's way to invest your money. The insurance companies are working really hard to give solutions to the consumers. The consumers are getting educated, but they still don't have that one person that's going to guide them.

They have a car. They don't have a GPS. Okay. And I think what's changed a little bit also is the consumer now is more aware that they have a problem. Okay, before our parents, our grandparents, they never worried about financials. We had an insurance agent. Financial services would never mention in my house, and we were middle class. Nowadays, I think it's more apparent that there's a problem.

And I study the journey of the consumer that ends up at the seminar. If you go backwards, it's procrastination, fear of sharing their information with somebody they don't even know, an embarrassment. How can I'm able to have financial advice? I'm embarrassed. There's people that don't go to the dentist because they have bad teeth. that people don't go to the doctor because they don't feel good.

I go, it's counterintuitive, but that's what people do. It's the size that builds up. There's two things that build up when you're 55 years and older. You can start getting concerned about your physical being, your medical situation,

and your financial situation. And nowadays, people go to the doctor more than ever and people go to financial life more than ever. They're looking for solutions faster than our past parents and our grandparents. They sat back. They didn't do it.

They're more proactive now. So going out to reach them, it's successful because, yeah, you're bringing them to you because they're really in the need. And maybe the messaging just needs to shift a little so that the advisors gives the message of, hey, look, it's not your fault. It's not a matter of where you are compared to other people. It's a matter of how much money do you have now compared to how much money you had and how much money you need. Don't look at other people. Don't be embarrassed. So let's go ahead and work with what we have, amplify, optimize what we have and make it work for you.

And then that kind of speaks to that inner fear that you mentioned. I teach reciprocity. Dr. Chaldini is a big fan of what I do because my reciprocity was for your time at a neutral place, you're going to have dinner because it's 6.30 at night. And it's a very positive thing. And then the persuasion part obviously is like, I can help you. I have empathy for you because I know what you're going through. My parents didn't have a financial advisor. I did this because I became an advisor because my parents had no money. Everybody has a story that had some pain in the past, whether it be medical or financial. There's pain in the family. And generations. We bring that to the press it now, and we became who we are to solve things that we saw we were kids. My parents had a problem with money, so I found a way to solve that by getting financial advice in front of people like my parents and help them. So there's a psychological business happening behind this. Anybody can print the mail like that. That's easy. People copy me. There's another company doing the mailing. Good. What's underneath all that? it's very important psychologically.

Dr. Chaldini explains it very well in his book. Reciprocity is very important. Some advice would feel like, oh, I'm paying for somebody's food. Well, wait a minute. You're asking for their life savings. Wouldn't it be kind of nice to meet socially first and get to know each other and show some generosity? That's what my program is built about.

Built around that. And guess what? There's going to be the plate liquors, the whatever percent of people. Okay, we know that. Let's just move on. But let's talk to the people that feel like, okay, I spent my time. this person bought me a dinner. I'm going to at least listen with open ears and ask some questions.

You know, I want to ask you about this. I've recently heard that you made the point that bigger cases often come from stronger positioning, not simply a better illustration. That makes me think about exactly what you just said about story, because I think that better illustrations can kind of get into Charlie Brown's teacher, you know, and techno babble and people like, oh, numbers and graphs, I don't know, but give me a story. Because facts tell, but stories. How does that correlate?

Listen, I have a book in front of me. I could just show it to her. And this is some of the heaven in front of me. I didn't even ask me his questions. I built my program in 1993 based on storytelling. PowerPoint did not exist. When I heard PowerPoint, like back then I heard PowerPoint, you know, I thought it was, you know, hey, you know, like I forget the name of the guru,

he says, you know, have action and point it. And I said, George, what are you talking about? I said, what's PowerPoint? Then they show me and go, wait a minute, that might be a detriment to what I created because my thing is be passionate in front of people at a neutral site socially. You're not selling. They're getting to know you that evening.

Show empathy, make him likely and trust you. It was that simple. Nothing's changed other than PowerPoint's got very complicated. What do you mean you have 45 slides, Mr. what are you doing? 55 slides and charts and all that. So to your point, I think it's getting to, you have to explain things to people.

Storytelling becomes critical because when you tell your story, you're thinking of their story. Okay, when you talk about your family, they're not their family. It's all psychological. The 45 minutes I teach people, forget the mailing. That's just part of the program. It's when you get in front of people, I already broke down the barriers with the mail.

I got into a tent, call in, get dressed at night, drive the car there. I've taken that anxiety, dropped some of the barriers. You as an advisor, you have to continue dropping the barriers when they get there. And afterwards, and that's how you make money. Forget about the play liquorers. Who cares? If you can pay half of them to come every seminar, do that. that because a filled of room dynamic.

Fill the room. Both a lot more business, period. Yeah. That's an excellent point. You know, and I know we could go on storytelling for about the next two and a half days. You know, and we know that.

But I think that sometimes people don't, yeah, well, I just don't know how, but it's, it's just like men typically use analogies. You know, it's like,

oh, well, it's kind of like, and in marketing, it's called the kind of like bridge. And when you're explaining something like, oh, you know,

like RMDs, that can be really hard to understand. or sequence of returns. But it's kind of like, and then you could break it down into a nice little story or an example or a simple thing. And wasn't it Einstein that was known for saying if you can't explain something to a nine-year-old, you don't understand the concept well enough. Very well.

And that is very important for the advice to take responsibility after I fill the room and whatever dynamics I used to fill the room, you now have the obligation to understand these things, to learn how to present the people and not worry about the negatives that's in the room. When you market to the masses, you're not going to have everybody agree with you. Look at football players, song, song, I hate that movie. Really? As long as a lot of people like McDonald's and they make money, who cares? What about the food? Hey, we need that salad bar to the McDonald. No, you don't. You sell hamburgers, stick to it, be the best at it. The advisors are confused today.

They're thinking that something doesn't work because something is out of whack with what they think. If you sell real estate, sell what people want to buy and not what you want to buy. Same thing in marketing. 50% of the people come to your seminar are interested in talking to you. I know for 31 years and I have the ROI. The ROI is 100% to 500% who cares about everything else. Focus on ROI and I teach that. So let's talk a little bit more about your program marketing advisors into millions.

And I know it's based on the seminar concept. But like you said, it's not just about the mailing and getting them in the room. It's about the methodology behind it. What is the first thing that you find that you have to overcome and reteachie? to an advisor that goes, yeah, but... Yeah, the food really bothers them that people eat their food and leave. It goes, weddings do that. People go to your weddings and they eat the food.

They'll give you a gift. Like, people go to conferences and they line up to eat the food. You know, we celebrate food in holidays and reunions and get-togethers and ceremonies. Dr. Chaldeen said, there's no accident that the food became part of a lot of things. Look at the hotels now. They're giving you breakfast in the morning complimentary. Why do you think psychologically? Casinos.

And I see rich people on the fifth floor, the executive floor, filling their place up with food. When I know they're wealthy because they're the fifth floor, which is the executive floor of the hotel, that it costs you three times the amount of money. You're a member. Look, you have to be reciprocity is very important and you have to understand that you have the gift to receive.

You're asking people for their lives savings to get them 6% on their money, maybe 7, maybe 10%. People brag in the industry. I get people 10% with my investments. I, with marketing or somebody that does marketing successfully, gets from 100% to 500% return on their money. It's a better investment than the stock market. I can't get, you know, George, I don't believe it.

Okay, let's say you get 50% on your money. 40. You give your client 6%. Why this market not makes, they're worried too much about the expenses, and they're not investing in frequency. You asked me earlier what matters a lot. Do it often and get in front of X amount of people a year and the numbers fall in the place almost to a T. You're going to be 50% off of the prediction.

Isn't that indicative of our human nature today and these days given I want everything right now. I mean, I can ask AI this. Boom, I've got it. I can get a text message. I can get a direct message on social media. I want everything right now. and I tried that, that, you know, Georgia's program for one time. And it didn't work.

Well, guess what? And I know we're chuckling about that, but it's, I remember talking to one advisor about two years ago and I said, oh, yeah, you're doing whatever it was. You were saying, how's that working for you? He goes, oh, I don't know. Because I started it six months ago and I've told myself, I'm not going to eat, I'm going to keep heads down and be doing it faithfully for one year. And I was like, hallelujah, good job.

I love that approach. So talk a little bit about that consistency of doing seminar after seminar. and maybe even kind of doing a little after-action report after each one to go, what worked, what do I need to tweak so I can make the next one even better? Back to the psychology. Every diet, every exercise, everything has to be done frequently. TV, you don't run one ad on TV, you don't run one billboard, you don't run one radio ad. Why are you limiting the direct marketing site to do a couple of things to stop?

You know, it's a frequency. You have to do that like anything else in life, okay? advisors never wait long enough to turn the corner, Mike. They'll get a loan for a car. They'll get a loan for a house and pay for 15, 30 years. If they invested that money on marketing on good marketing, it would return 10 types. Refrains the last part of your question. One more time.

I missed that last part. What was it? Oh, just the fact that if you don't keep like an after action mindset of like how Tony Robbins teaches, can I constant and never ending improvement, maybe you need to have a little system in place where you sit down with your team. ago after this seminar what did what worked what didn't work what did we need to tweak for next time well here's the irony about that question and that's what kind of forgot because i got lost in it the advisors failed to realize that it's them that may not have done well at the seminar so it's a

constant analysis with me post-seminar how did you do bill hey only got five appointments something's wrong alarm what do you mean you're supposed to give between i had national averages from two thousand seminars a month and when you tell me you got 20s 20% appointments for the room that night, it should be 48 to 50. So very important what you just ask me. If you're not serious about the follow-up and improving how you present, like a singer, a comedian, they're constantly looking for new content, new material to entertain people. You're doing the same thing.

One thing that seminars do, if you do it frequently, they make you get your stuff together. Because they keep coming. People keep coming to you. Like, wait a minute. I got a better product. I've got a better product. Yes, it forces you to get better because a lot of advisors are, hey, I want to do my business little by little.

I have a lifestyle business and go, no, when you market yourself and people start coming, you got to expand. You got to really know what you're doing. And that post-seminor analysis with a person like me or a person like you, it's very important because 99% of the failures with seminars or workshops is the advisor-centric, the advisors at fault. The people did not like him enough that night to make an appointment. and you're going to blame it on plate liquors to answer your question. And maybe possibly, I'm sure you recommend this video or at least minimum audio, the presentation so you can dissect it later and have the courage to go, how did I do?

And maybe asking someone or a speech coach like, oh, hey, right here, you should have paused a little longer or you should have presented this a different way because too many times, and I know psychologists in the world will, you know, applaud this. You know, too many times people don't take ownership for where they are because they want to be somewhere different, but it's not my fault. It's that person, that circumstance. So that's a huge point that you bring up. And it made me think of this, optimizing the opportunity. So if you've got all the money in the world, you can spray and pray and try to get people in. But if you're going to take the money to invest in putting this seminar together and your time, why not make every single moment and person or household that attends as good as possible? Meaning, do a great job, polish it up, but then you said a word a second ago, follow up. How about the people that registered but didn't show up? How about the people that showed up but didn't book an appointment? You need to have a system in place where maybe the advisor's not doing this because their highest and best use of their time is not following up. But maybe you've got a team member that's doing all of the follow up.

Hey, we saw you get you registered, but you couldn't come. We're doing another one two weeks from now. Would you like to have us put you in for that one? And you don't have to be a great presenter. I have a lot of excuses. Hey, I'm not that good in front of people. Listen, I've never met a top producer. Then spend the money to become a top producer.

And they became a top producer because they practice. Listen, I've done hundreds of speeches. Mike, I do demos like this 30, 40 a month. I still perfected every time. What can I do different? My tone of voice. My dress, my change. You know, how do I look at the Zoom meeting?

Everything matters when you're asking people for their life savings. Like a doctor. Everything a doctor tells you, you're like paying attention because you want a cure, you want some kind of remedy. So whatever the doctor said, you're like, really, whatever he says you're going to do, same thing. The advisors have that power. When people come to see you in a face-to-face audience with people in the room,

the dynamics of safety and numbers start working for you, you have to passionately get across that you can help them. And the audience will vibe that. Believe me, they will know exactly. what your intentions are the way you present. You have to be a great presenter. You've got to be able to connect with people. We teach that.

Have you ever read the book, 212 degrees? I've heard of it. You know what? I've been putting it aside like five other books that I've heard of. So here's the summary of it. And it makes the point you made it perfectly. You could do all the things.

Do the great mail and get people in there. Do a good enough presentation. But it's just, there's that one little tweak and that little tweak. So if you put a pot of water on the stove and heated at the 210 degrees, it's hot. 2011, it's hotter. 2.12, it boils.

So it's that difference between 2 and 11, 212, that last little piece that makes all the difference of the world. You could have done the great mailing, have a great venue, have a great menu, but if you didn't, what, you know, do a couple of these little things, it's going to fall flatter than it should. Maybe not a total failure, but flatter than it should.

It's there's tiny little things that don't disregard them. Maybe it's having a pocket square in your pocket. If that's what George says, works, do it, right? Trust the process. Advice that knock seminars, especially my dinner approach, have not done enough to be able to knock it, don't have the enough data, and they did not do well because of them. And that's the sad part about the business is if you only knew with a little right turn and left turn and a nice you turn, if you turn the corner just enough, it's unbelievable. I have clients

that made me 20 years ago, Georgia, I can't believe it's still working. Again, private equity companies bought me and they go, George, what happens now? They come in and do it and how much is transferred in the industry between consumers and financial services companies. It's billion, I have the numbers, billions of dollars have been transferred with this simple approach that I got lucky enough to develop 37 years ago. And as long as that keeps happening, it's never going to end. The advisors that understand that will join in and be part of this unbelievable opportunity

that consumers are going 30 years later, I still want to go to this. So it's very important that you look at data and you make your self-awareness. How are you doing and attracting people? And when I put you in front of people like American Idol, the stage is set, the music, everything's set. Yeah. And so they need the microphone. If you don't sing, well, you don't pass the round. It's that simple.

Yep. Do your prep work. Be ready and trust the process because the numbers don't lie. Well, George, this has been super, super valuable. If someone is interested in learning more about your program, what's the best way that they can do that and reach out and connect with you? I have a West, we have a website, marketing advisors into millions.com. If you go on there, there's probably another link. We do training in Clearwater, Florida, every other month.

We have 50 advice. Follow the country, fly in. Our motto is, see more people, close bigger deals. We're tied into premium financing and other services. So we do take full responsibility. I'm not only doing the marketing, but trading the advisors, how to handle themselves in front of people. And then when they get wealthy people in front of them, how to handle those type of cases. Mark advice on the millions with the start,

and then my phone will be there, you could call me, I could do half an hour demos, and I can show you how we do that. Perfect. Well, George, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. Thank you so much, my friend. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders.

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