Archive for the ‘Financial Advisors’ Category

If you’re looking to enhance your prospecting efforts, generate more referrals, and get new introductions from your existing clients – consistently and repeatedly – it’s time to consider a seminar program to grow your business.

In today’s environment, seminars have proven to be one of the most effective methods to build a successful practice.

There are many different kinds of seminars, or EVENTS as I prefer to call them, and each type serves a very specific business-building function:

·         Large events, marketed through a marketing company, are very effective in building brand recognition and a database full of prospects

·         Smaller, more interactive workshops are ideal for relationship building and closing business

·         Specialty events are tailored to enhance client loyalty, and generate new introductions and referrals

No matter what your business objective is, strategic events can help you accomplish it – as long as you:

1.      Know your objective:  Be clear and specific about your immediate objective – more specific than just, “I want to open accounts.” Do you want to close business, generate more introductions, enhance client loyalty, or just get your name out there and generate leads? The more specific your objective is, the more effective you can be.

2.      Have a plan:  Based on your objective, be clear on the steps it takes to achieve that goal. How will you  call people to action at the end of your event? How will you encourage your audience to actually do what you are recommending? How can you entice the audience to provide the information you need in order to follow up?

3.      Prepare, prepare, prepare:  Before your event, rehearse your presentation. Clarify the call to action. Determine the steps you will take immediately after the event to follow up with participants. Identify possible objections and challenges, and craft your responses before they arise. Do what it takes to make sure your event is a seamless experience for everyone there.

A little support goes a long way in creating a truly effective event, and you might be surprised at just how easy it can be to develop and deliver a program that fuels your business for years to come.

If you’d like to learn more about how to create and implement a seminar program that suits your objectives, raises your public profile, and delivers serious results, click here http://yourpinkoffice.com/Event.Detail.asp?id=1283098029

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.

What is it about women that make us so masochistic, especially female financial advisors and other successful business women?  I woke up this morning really dragging, I felt it yesterday but just kept on going, and here it is today and I’m still feeling it.  The worst part was I wasn’t listening to my own advice.

I can’t tell you how often I am coaching female advisors about the importance of slowing down, and practicing self care. Most of these women (I include myself in this crowd) think slowing down is going to Hot Yoga (not exactly relaxing) or getting a pedicure while talking on the phone (not exactly the down time I was thinking about).  That’s not slowing down that’s just trying to fool our bodies in thinking we are rejuvenating.

The reality is some day’s life just catches up to you.  You know those days when you are just dragging, can’t find that boost of adrenaline that usually props you up all day.  You think “Why am I so tired, there must be a reason?” You reflect back on the past few days and because you can’t find a logical reason why you are tired you figure you will just work through until you start to feel better.

I did the same thing today until I had a BIG conversation with myself.  While I kept thinking about things I needed to do, wanted to get done my other brain the one that speaks from my soul said “Adri, your tired, stop doing and rest.” So for once I actually listened, I finished what I was doing and crawled back into bed in the MIDDLE of the day.

Later after resting I headed off to the movie theatre to watch a movie my husband would never want to see and eat a big bucket of popcorn that my husband would insist on sharing.  In fact after the movie in fact after the movie I went to one of our favorite restaurants and had a glass of wine all by myself, why?  Because I can.

Do something totally out of character this week, treat your self and let me know what you did, I’d LOVE to hear about it. Leave a comment below to share!

How easy it is to allow what feels good get in the way of what IS good. This tends to be particularly challenging for female financial advisors as we always have a hundred things to do on our list. How many times have you looked at your calendar, you know you need to make some follow up calls but you decide to clear some small nagging problems first. Next thing you know the day is over, you never made those calls and you leave feeling less than satisfied. I know because this happened to me. Since that day I learned that If you truly want to be successful, I mean really successful you MUST learn to overcome these distractions

One day I was headed to the Library for a Focus Friday. This is a day where I pack up my laptop and head to the library for some intensive marketing and business planning work. It was about 9:00 am I had already worked out and set the stage for a very productive day but then the gremlins hit me. On my route to the library I thought about those few errands I needed to run, the grocery, laundry maybe even a quick trip to Marshals (just to make sure I didn’t miss out on something new). The thought of completing those few simple errands made me feel good and I could already feel my mind justifying why I should do those “To do” items first, I could always go to the library AFTER.
Then my success brain kicked in, it was like there was a full on conversation going on in my head. The success brain said “No Adri, stick with the program and do what you need to do first, want to do second” I was so tempted to take that left into Starbucks instead of that right into the Library, the voices in my head were going back and forth until I finally made that Right Turn and denied myself those “feel good” errands and went directly to the Library.

Once settled into the library while getting started created some discomfort before I knew it it was noon and I headed across the street to get some lunch. I didn’t head home nor did I go do those errands why? I was on a role and wanted to go straight back to the library to complete a few more hours of productive work. When I finally left the library I thought about doing those errands and decided they could wait for another day. I was feeling too good; way to pleased with my day to cloud it up with annoying errands (even going to Marshals didn’t interest me).
This is the kind of good feeling that comes from following your schedule, doing what is truly important and not letting those FEEL GOOD items distract you from your focus. This is the behavior that determines Success.

My client is Tweeting!! She is in a pilot program with her firm and they are testing the use of Twitter. My client is the only female advisor in the group and fell into the same old trap; trying to compete with the men on their turf.

My client was posting the same old tweets about the same old research reports voluntarily adding herself to the HUGE basin of traditional financial advisors. While being female automatically makes her different she is even more unique in her views and how she approaches her clients. So why was she diminishing her uniqueness because THAT is where the value of social media kicks in.

My client’s tweets will now be focused on the female investor. All of her tweets will be engaging and compelling statements that would attract and be of interest to women. While this is not her total market this has become her most productive niche when it comes to marketing. After doing some simple Google searche she immediately recognized that within this arena there was very little competition, an “Ah Ha” moment.

By limiting her tweets to one specific market not only does the task of finding articles and comments to tweet become more manageable but it also becomes more effective and productive. NOW she is truly leveraging her unique strengths as a woman to accomplish more as a financial advisor.

As an advisor who is looking to use social media as a way to gain more leads and exposure you have a decision to make:

Do I want to throw myself into the same pool as all the traditional advisors and hope that something I say is different and stands out? Or

Do I want to focus all of my marketing efforts on a unique niche allowing myself to dominate that arena and become known as the expert in that field.

It’s your call but I know what I would do……………