Jake Falcon's Retiring Right Became the Front Door of His Wealth Advisory Firm
“It was worth every penny. I already want to do another one.”
Jake Falcon · Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
Jake Falcon is the founder and CEO of Falcon Wealth Advisors, a Kansas City firm that manages about a billion dollars for high-net-worth individuals and corporate employees across 35 states. After two decades in retirement planning, he still could not find a book he trusted enough to hand his clients, so he wrote his own with Scribe Media and turned it into the front door of his practice.
Why a Wealth Advisor Wrote His Own Retirement Book
Jake has specialized in retirement planning for 20 years, and he reads every new retirement book that comes out. The problem was that he never found one he could confidently give to a client. Either they were dated, or they were pitching annuities and products, or there was some piece of advice he did not agree with.
“I couldn’t ever find a book that I was confident in giving to my clients saying, ‘Hey, here is what you should read as you’re approaching retirement.’”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
So he wrote the book he wished existed. Not a sales pitch, but a plain-English guide to the questions people should be asking as they approach retirement. He is not a full-time writer, and the path was not obvious to him at first.
“I was really impressed by the simplicity and the directness of [Scribe] and how streamlined everything was and how I could pick and choose.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
The Book Became His New Business Card
Jake hands a copy of Retiring Right to every single person he meets with on a first meeting. He does not think of it as a product to sell so much as the clearest possible statement of what he stands for. His philosophy on retirement planning is now in black and white, so he does not have to reintroduce himself every time.
“You can think of it as a more robust business card, a deeper website […] to me, it’s the new website.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
The book gives him instant legitimacy and separates him from other advisors, but its real value is who it attracts. Falcon Wealth Advisors is selective, signing 50 to 100 new clients a year and politely turning away people who are not a fit. The book lets the right clients find him first.
“I don’t want to convince someone to work with me. That’s not aligned. That’s painful for me and it’s painful for them.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
A Prospect Found Him Through the Audiobook, With No Advertising
Jake also recorded an audiobook with Scribe Media. He runs no ads for it. Recently a prospect on the East Coast, far from his Kansas City office, found it on Spotify entirely on their own.
“They listened to my audio book on Spotify and I don’t do any advertising for the audio book. They just stumbled across it.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
By the time they sat down together, the prospect already knew his firm, his philosophy, and what he stood for. There was no time spent explaining who he was. The conversation went straight to the deep work of their plan, which is exactly the kind of self-educated client Jake most wants to serve.
“They already knew everything about me and my firm and what I stood for […] we were able to get much deeper because I didn’t have to spend time explaining who I was.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
He Thought It Was Polished. Then Scribe Edited It.
Jake is more of a talker than a writer, so he did not start with a blank page. He recorded a series of podcast episodes made specifically for the book, had them transcribed, and then edited from there. He had even hired an editor to clean up the manuscript before he came to Scribe, and thought it was ready.
“[Scribe] helped me edit it to make it way better than it was. I thought it was polished when I gave you it. And it wasn’t at all […] It’s a much better book now because of that.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
A couple of years after publishing, Jake says there is still momentum behind the book and that he feels like he is just getting started with it. His advice to anyone thinking about writing one is that the reason matters more than the revenue.
“I don’t think someone should engage with Scribe if they’re only doing it to make money. I think that’s the wrong reason to write a book.”
— Jake Falcon, Founder & CEO, Falcon Wealth Advisors
For Jake, the payoff was never a single number he could track on a spreadsheet. It was legitimacy, alignment, and a tool that keeps working long after launch, and he is already planning the next one.
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