Anatomy of a Win: How J. Taylor Davis Built a Business that Grows While He Sleeps Using LinkedIn

Here at McMillion Consulting, we love cheering clients on and celebrating their wins. Our Anatomy of a Win series showcases stories from professionals who experienced a notable business victory as a result of implementing a tool or strategy they learned from our work together.

Taylor Davis is the Founder of DFG Advisory, a top Northwestern Mutual firm. He and his team are the kind of people who always put others first. From the moment you meet him, it’s clear Taylor truly cares about helping his clients succeed. 

When Taylor and I connected, I could tell he was talented. But his online presence didn’t showcase his knowledge or passion. This mismatch between who he was on LinkedIn and who he was in real life began to hold him back from reaching his target market.

“Now, I spend most of my time with high-end executives who are consequential decision-makers in the executive space for the companies that they serve, and we're working on all these complex problems,” Taylor said. “But, that type of prospect does not connect with a sloppy LinkedIn or online presence. They do not connect with a rag-tag outreach strategy that I was using before.” 

Taylor’s business has taken off in the past several years. He’s absolutely crushing it, and I couldn’t be prouder of him! Let’s take a look at the challenge Taylor overcame, how, and what it has meant to him—not just on the business side, but also in his personal life.

The Challenge

Back in 2019, Taylor’s business was far from failing, but it also wasn’t thriving.  He was working so hard, yet he felt like his outreach efforts were constantly met with closed doors.

“You're told all the time that you're going to get no’s, but when it feels like you're only getting no’s, it's pretty frustrating,” Taylor said.

He started feeling a bit down about the future of the business. How was he going to build it, especially in an increasingly digital age?

“I'm in Lexington, Kentucky, and even here locally people meet online, people look you up online, and if there's a crack in the castle, it's an easy out to not meet with somebody,” Taylor said. 

He recognized, rightly, that he needed to do something about his LinkedIn presence. A haphazard strategy just wouldn’t cut it anymore. He was ready to learn and put it into practice right away. 

The Strategy 

Our approach to Taylor’s challenge started the way all great LinkedIn strategies do—with the LinkedIn profile. We took a careful look at how he was showing up and how he might begin to tell his story differently. 

“When a prospect looks at the financial services world we all look the same,” he said. “What [Lindsey] really helped me do was figure out what differentiates me in the marketplace.”

This philosophy—identifying your “only” factor—helped Taylor develop a more curated approach to prospecting. Now, when he sends a connection request or gets introduced through another client on LinkedIn, he’s prepared to communicate how he and DFG Advisory are different.   

Taylor was a model student, applying what he learned consistently and playing the long game. 

“It’s not just a one-time fix, it's not some special medicine that's going to fix it overnight, but it's really a process to slowly evolve into a better version of yourself online. When you can take that to market, you can truly be attractive to good prospects,” Taylor said.

Once he got his profile in a great place, he started focusing on the way he communicated with prospects. Soon enough, he saw results. Big ones. 

The Win 

In the first year, Taylor’s production more than tripled from $70,000 to $220,000. Then, in the next year, he committed to the process even more. This time, production at the firm jumped to $1.8 million. Quite an impressive jump! 

DFG Advisory’s growth has continued in the past couple of years. With tried and true LinkedIn strategies under his belt, Taylor said he feels like he has all the wind under his wings and can keep growing. 

‘The old me would have been sitting here going, ‘Okay, I have a one-month-old at home. I have no consistent new client acquisition strategy. My online presence is not very good. I'm going to have to fight tooth and nail just to make it month to month.’”

After doubling down on his LinkedIn strategy, Taylor said he has peace of mind knowing he has a process in place that works. He finally has the freedom to spend time with his family and still crush it at the firm. 

“Now, I don't really have to worry about it because the machine is consistently working. Whether I'm at a pediatric appointment or I’m home with my son, I know that the machine is working in the background to continue filling that pipeline.”  

I’m so glad I was able to propel Taylor’s LinkedIn wins. Here’s to many more years of growth and supporting consequential decision-makers!

Interested in being featured in our next Anatomy of a Win article? Let me know. I’d love to hear how McMillion Consulting has propelled your business forward. 

Are you ready to level up as Taylor did? Join me for my upcoming free online masterclass. In it, I’ll give you three simple but powerful tactics to attract prospects and win more business. Claim your seat before it’s too late! You won’t want to miss this.