Archive for November, 2011

What’s your vision? Do you have one? This week I visited with a number of financial advisors all of whom were interested in hiring a business coach.  In our 30 minute interview I asked them what is their vision and do you know not one of those advisors could answer that question?  Can you imagine a CEO without a vision of where he wants to take his company?  Without a vision what is the direction you want to go?  If you don’t know your vision you can’t communicate this to your employees and if they don’t know you are a boat without a rudder.

A vision is what it is you want to change or impact as a result of what you do.  Once you know this vision you can then define your mission, your mission is how you plan to do it. From there you can define the goals and steps to take in order to achieve the vision. Let me give you an example.

I know I love coaching female financial advisors, and when I think back I have always been focused and passionate about helping women but the question I asked myself is why?  What is it I’m trying to accomplish?

My vision:  As a female financial advisor I wanted women to become more engaged in their financial affairs, my ultimate vision was to create an environment where women looked forward to managing their finances. My mission was to inspire and engage women in the process in a way that they enjoyed and began to view their financial affairs as something positive.

Once I had a vision and a mission I was able to develop my goals focusing on activities that would impact my ability to transform the way women think about money.  Every decision you make your vision and mission must become your filter and guiding force. If your decision, action or strategy will not help you accomplish that end result then recognize it’s not right for you.

Today my vision is not much different, only bigger.  My vision is to transform Wall Street by empowering more female financial advisors to embrace their value and have the courage to speak up and redefine the way business is done. My mission is to inspire women to live by their purpose and build their business staying true to their principles and values as a woman.

As you read my blog and receive my emails you will see that most everything I do is designed to do just that.  I know where I am going and what I want to do, DO YOU?

It seems The Good Old Boys are alive and well in Penn State. As my family read about the scandal surrounding the Penn State football program it immediately takes me back to the early years in the financial services arena.  Women were very poorly treated in the industry for many years until the “Boom Boom Room” broke wide open creating greater awareness or simply FORCING the industry to begin recognizing women as a valuable resource to the industry deserving the same respect, both personally and professionally as the men.

While the ludicrous acts at Penn make me ill what bothers me the most is how the men protected each other, all for the glory of the game. That same attitude continues today in both football and financial services.  On my way to the top  in financial services I can tell you a number of situations I encountered that applied that same blind eye leaving the victim (usually a woman) to succumb to the double standards all for the glory of those who produce.  Where the hell are their principles?

As I was writing the prologue to my new book I shared my early experience as a Registered Sales Assistant and Female Financial Advisor, you wouldn’t believe the number of unethical and imoral incidences I encountered that after being reported I was either moved to a new position or I took it upon my self to quit and find  another job.  I was a single Mom, I needed the money and the security of the job but I would not nor could I work in an environment when I knew others (even clients) were being treated badly.  But was that the end of MY responsibility?
Here I was a young woman building a career, recognizing that production yields the power.  I knew something wasn’t right with how my broker was trading clients accounts,  I suppose I had a looming concern but on the outside everything seemed kosher, the Branch Manager was constantly involved so I assumed things were on the up and up.  But the day I was asked to lie to a client about the profits of his trade I knew it was time to go. After sharing my concerns with my manager  and being told “Adri your being  too sensitive” that was it for me.

But here is what I never told anyone and, for some reason makes me nervous even today.  After leaving Grant the broker at Prudential I was working locally for UBS. One day I received a phone call from a former Grant Ross client.  Hearing his name and voice caused me some concern, he shared that they had lost all their retirement savings as a result of working with Grant. They needed my help in order to get evidence that they weren’t the only ones.  I remember being on that call, like “Big Brother” was possibly listening in or tapping my phone.  I knew I had to do something so I quietly (I remember whispering)  gave them the name of a client whom I knew was in the same situation and how they could reach him.  I told them that was all I could do and they thanked me profusely.

A large case was brought up against Grant and Prudential Bache, Grant lost his license as well as the trader he was in bed with, the Manager lost his job and hopefully the clients became whole again.  I knew I did the right thing but it wasn’t easy and truly scared me at the time. But I did it because it was the right thing to do.

They say you have to be really tough and strong to play football? They are whimps with no internal strength of character, integrity nor honesty.  It is for this reason I am on a mission to inspire women to discard the traditional, protocol methods of building a business we inherited and redesign the New Paradigm, the Female Centric Paradigm when clients come first and decisions are made based on principles and values not by protecting the top dog on the block.

It’s time for Female Advisors to rise up and Break the Mold!

If you are still doing business as usual you may want to consider changing it up.  While seminars continue to be a viable source of new business you must stay fresh and rethink how you can attract more qualified prospects to your events to get new business.

Many advisors use RME (Response Mail Express) a direct marketing company to promote their seminars and events.  While this is an effortless way of filling the room it can also be costly if not managed properly.  The biggest frustration to this process is buying lunch for someone who is only there  for the meal.  But there are two strategic methods to get the benefits of a direct marketing process without the unnecessary expense. The key is making sure your guests are all qualified.

The first most common method of qualifying your guests is to put a qualifier right on the invitation.  While this may screen out most unqualified prospects (at least the honest ones) there is no guarantee that everyone is adhering to your guidelines.  What I do like about this is that with a qualifier on the invitation about 80%+ who attend your event will have the necessary assets.  The only negative is that while they may have the assets they may have little to no need much less commitment to doing business with you.

The second option is to qualify the leads yourself, this not only allows you to identify those with money but learn their status and potential commitment to making a change to do business with you. Instead of  placing a qualifier on the invitation you can have the RSVP company tell all those that RSVP that the event is already full BUT they would take their name and contact information and have the advisor call them in case there was a cancellation. This is where you step in.

That same day you as the Advisor would call the prospects reconfirming that the event is full but also giving yourself the opportunity to engage in conversation and screen or qualify the prospect.  If after a brief phone conversation (which is already building the relationship) they did qualify the advisor would call back the next day to say a spot had opened up.  If the prospect did NOT qualify she would maintain that the event was full.

The benefit to option 2 is that you are able to maintain more leads and contact information thereby continue dripping on these prospects even if they are not currently qualified or truly interested. The value of this is that at some point they may become interested, inherit money or change jobs giving them the liquid assets.  In addition by continuing to drip on these prospects there is the possibility that they will forward your information to another qualified party.  The second option, while providing you with fewer leads you are automatically dealing with a smaller number of potential qualified prospects without the additional commitment of time to call each one.

Seminars are alive and well you just have to keep rethinking how to make them work BETTER.

OMG she did such a fabulous job.  Watching Haly a female financial advisor give a presentation to about 20 guests was amazing.  Haly is very comfortable speaking in front of groups but as I watched and listened to her presentation I saw all of my coaching come to life.

Haly set up the room in a U shape format which allowed her to get close to every guest.  She sprinkled fake $ all over the tables creating a festive fun environment. She had pink buckets positioned randomly on the tables; while acting as centerpieces she planned to incorporate these buckets into her presentation.

Haly opened up the presentation using her introductory script (which we created) to introduce herself. You knew what she did, who she did it for and why, all of this was accomplished by sharing stories and her personal history.  She then proceeded to tie her mission and focus to her business to why she is hosting this presentation, very smooth. It was what came next was a pleasant surprise.

Haly’s event was titled “The Everyday Philanthropist, she had two presenters and estate planning attorney and an insurance specialist.  Before introducing her guests Haly set the stage by hosting a mini Savvy Women seminar presentation (for those that don’t know this is a seminar I created and sell on my website.) This was the first time I have actually seen the presentation in action and I loved it.  Haly talked about women, how they are driven by a purpose. She had the entire group (even the men) list the three things they want our money to do for us (assuming our lifestyle needs are being met). They wrote those items on the back of the fake dollars and then proceeded to share.

To get the audience sharing Haly used three pink buckets to emphasize the point.  In each of her buckets she had a picture that represented what she wanted to do with her money (always alluding to our Purpose for our money) She even used a toy to represent her philanthropic interest. She then asked the audience what they had written, it was REALLY fun listening to what others put on their dollars.  This exercise accomplished two things, it engaged the audience in the topic of the presentation but it also created a more personal setting.

It’s not just the message that creates a great presentation it’s how you set the stage and incorporate creative ways to engage the audience.  After seeing Haly present there is no doubt that her focus must be to get in front of more groups to share her story and present her message, this is where her business will come from.

I’ve never had a greater appreciation for routine in my life, electricity is up there as well.  This is day 6 without power. The storm that hit CT came early when the leaves were still on the trees. The heavy wet snow falling on branches full of leaves caused branch after branch to crack, break and fall.  It was so erie hearing the constant cracking sounds and dangerous just being outside as it was literally raining tree branches.  In the aftermath it looked like a tornado struck with huge trees laying across roads entangled with electrical wire, in fact many are still blocking roads today 6 days later.

A unique set of circumstances created an extraordinary situation. There is no routine, while I have my lap top and cell phone I am able to hold my coaching calls (an hour of pleasurable distraction). I am moving from hotel lobby to our room trying to find a comfortable location. By the end of the day I am exhausted and wonder what the hell did I even accomplish today?

My husband and I are some of the lucky ones; we were able to find a hotel an hour away from our home. EVERYTHING was booked, even today our hotel is turning people away.  While it is supposed to be restored by Sunday at midnight with no wires connecting our home to any phone nor electrical pole odds are it will be a bit longer.  So day by day we wake in a hotel and try to create some semblance of normalcy.  While we are warm and well fed (probably too well fed) and are able to charge our phones and computers I find myself getting more and more agitated.

While my current situation is extreme it only highlights the importance of routine and having a daily schedule. So many advisors I coach find the day running them, while they start with a schedule they allow the seemingly important/urgent issues to sidetrack their day and interrupt their plans for a productive day.  I realize even the best routine can be disrupted, it’s how quickly you can get back into your routine that will continue to create the most productive and efficient environment.

Take some time, look at all the routines in your day, from the moment you wake notice your morning routine, you don’t even have to think about it.  When you enter the office, is that routine as seamless and effortless?  If you haven’t been good at staying with a routine then start small, just put structure into the first 2-3 hours of your day, get that down, make it stick. Then you can begin adding more systems, routines and structure to other parts of your day.  This isn’t an option if you plan to reach the level of success you really want.