If you’re an independent advisor building a practice the right way—conflict-free, relationship-driven, and not reliant on referral programs—you’ve probably felt the same tension Thomas Manetta described on his podcast, Behind the Curtain Finance:
You know organic growth is the most durable kind of growth… but it’s also the hardest to do consistently—especially when your scarcest resource is time.
Thomas runs Manetta Wealth Management and spent the last year doing the long-game work: building content, finding his voice, and launching a podcast. What he didn’t have was a scalable way to consistently reach the right people with that content—without turning marketing into a second job.
Then he ran a FINNY campaign that changed the trajectory of his pipeline.
It led to a new ~$5M household relationship he says he never would’ve met otherwise—and it also helped him build something arguably more valuable: a compounding engine where the right prospects keep seeing him over time.
“It’s already led to a $5 million household that I never would’ve met.” — Thomas Manetta
The hard part about organic growth (even when you’re doing everything right)
Thomas wasn’t starting from zero. He’d already been building leverage through content—specifically his podcast. But content alone doesn’t guarantee distribution, and distribution alone doesn’t guarantee the right audience.
What he needed was a repeatable system to:
- Find a very specific niche of high-fit prospects
- Reach them with authentic messaging that sounded like him
- Connect in a way that compounds over time, not just one email at one moment
- Do all of it efficiently, without spending hours researching, list-building, and chasing follow-ups
And as he put it, time is the commodity you don’t get back.
“They’re saving you time, which is for me the most valuable commodity that I have.” — Thomas
The “game changer”: LinkedIn + content + personal outreach
Thomas had used FINNY for a while, but the moment it really clicked for him was when FINNY added a LinkedIn layer to outbound.
“The real game changer for me was when you added LinkedIn.” — Thomas
Why? Because email can spark awareness, but LinkedIn creates repeated exposure. Even if it’s not the right time today, the prospect keeps seeing you—your perspective, your content, your expertise.
Thomas described it as a compounding loop:
- Send a campaign to the right niche
- Convert some of those prospects into LinkedIn connections
- Publish consistently
- Stay top of mind until a real-life trigger happens
- Then the prospect reaches out—because you’re already “in the room”
“All of a sudden I have 500 people… they’re constantly seeing me.” — Thomas
What Thomas ran: the exact audience he targeted
This wasn’t a spray-and-pray list. The campaign was tightly defined:
- Age: 45–65
- Role: C-suite / executives in tech
- Location: Bay Area
- Wealth: $1M+ net worth
- Audience size: ~371 households
“They were executives in tech… that was just the broad demographic for that particular campaign.” — Thomas
The big shift: from AI-generated emails to Thomas’ authentic voice
Thomas’ first campaign leaned on AI to draft the emails. It worked—but what happened next worked better.
With FINNY Success (Zach Drake), Thomas decided to make the outreach fully personal:
- A series of three emails
- Written in his own voice
- Including a link to his podcast content
- Paired with the ability to connect on LinkedIn
“For me, I like to highlight my authenticity… Let’s make it all personal.” — Thomas
That authenticity—combined with distribution—was the difference.
“I was so blown away with the change from when it was AI generated to me writing it personally.” — Thomas
The results: attention, connections, and a $5M household
From the transcript, here’s what Thomas saw in one campaign:
- Email open rate: ~93–95%
- Click rate: ~15%
- LinkedIn connections gained: 43
- Content engagement: 20 clicks to his podcast
- Outcome: 1 new ~$5M household relationship
“My open rate is like 95%… we were 371 households.” — Thomas
“The click rate was like 15%.” — Thomas
“In this last campaign, I think I got 43 connections.” — Thomas
And the conversion happened fast.
After the first email went out, the prospect connected with him on LinkedIn and messaged directly:
“He connected with me on LinkedIn… sent me a message… ‘Can we have a conversation with my wife?’… two days later, I got on a Zoom call.” — Thomas
Thomas also emphasized what made the timing work: the prospect had just experienced advisor disruption.
“He had a meeting with an advisor, and the advisor got fired. And so I happened to have caught him at that absolute perfect time.” — Thomas
Thomas relayed what the household told him:
“You just happened to have caught us at the right time.” — Prospect, shared by Thomas
Why this approach compounds (even when prospects don’t convert immediately)
The $5M household is the headline—but the engine is the story.
Thomas pointed out that even if only a fraction of people convert right away, the long-term value is in building a high-fit network of people who keep seeing you.
“It may not be the right time for them, but they’re constantly seeing me… When life happens… maybe they think of me.” — Thomas
He described what this looks like over time:
- 43 new high-fit LinkedIn connections in a month
- Do that consistently
- Now you have hundreds of niche prospects regularly seeing your content
- When a life event hits (job change, exit, divorce, liquidity event, advisor dissatisfaction), you’re the person they remember
That’s what an organic growth engine actually looks like in the real world.
The part that matters most: time saved
Thomas’ reaction wasn’t “wow, cool marketing metrics.” It was relief.
Because most growth strategies work if you have unlimited hours. The problem is you don’t.
“Any other strategy out there would’ve taken so much more time.” — Thomas
And the biggest unlock is that once the campaign is live, the system runs while you keep doing what you’re best at: advising, creating, and building trust.
What he’s doing next (the simplest part)
Thomas isn’t reinventing the wheel each month. He’s repeating the same motion:
- Pick a niche
- Build a personal sequence
- Embed content
- Run email + LinkedIn together
- Let it compound
“We’re gonna do the same exact thing… over and over. And I’m gonna keep doing it every single month.” — Thomas
The takeaway
Thomas didn’t “hack” growth.
He did what the best independent advisors do:
- He invested in content
- He stayed authentic
- He defined a clear audience
- And he used FINNY to turn that into a repeatable, compounding system—without giving up his time
“This marketing machine… is compounding month after month after month.” — Thomas
