Archive for the ‘Wealth Advisors’ Category

As a woman it’s natural to be humble, we have been taught from an early age not to talk about ourselves yet our male counterparts are quite competent about talking about their strengths and the value they can provide.  Women must learn that there is a difference between promoting vs boasting.
As a female financial advisor your prospects and clients must feel confident in your ability to manage their wealth.  They must feel and hear your confidence in order to build trust and commit to doing business with you.
While women are great at building relationships with clients and prospects many struggle to convert that “Like” to business.  Yes it’s important that prospects and clients “Like” you but what’s more important is that they gain the confidence that you are serious about managing money. They must know that you have the ability to make important and often tough decisions with their money.
As a female financial advisor if you are getting in front of a lot of people but are not closing enough business or perhaps your closing business but never getting the big assets odds are they “like” you but don’t feel confident in your skills as a money manager.
Your job as a female financial advisor is NOT to be everyone’s friend; your job is to convince clients and prospects that your first and most important priority is making smart decisions with their money. If you’re not closing enough business or struggle to get all the assets learn how to turn off the likeability and infuse more promote-ability into your presentation skills.

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!

While I have spent years teaching both Male and Female Financial Advisors how to help women who have lost a spouse this month I experienced it for real.  My Dad, after 86 fabulous years died peacefully leaving behind a sizeable estate. My Dad was very proactive in planning for the future; his desire to avoid handing his hard earned money to Uncle Sam motivated him to take all the necessary steps to protect his and my Mothers wealth.  I suppose that is why it somewhat surprised me to see my Mom experiencing the same feelings that other women experience.

Will I have to go on a budget? This is typically the first and most pressing issue for most all women who lose a spouse.  Helping my Mom understand where her income would be coming from and how much income would be generated each month from her investments immediately gave her more confidence in her ability to maintain her lifestyle. Providing her with a simple monthly summary of income and expenses will help her become more comfortable with the numbers and more aware of what she can and can’t afford.  Becoming more aware is probably the most critical factor in becoming more confident.

Will I end up a Bag Lady? There is no doubt that my Mothers tolerance for risk differs greatly from my Dad.  Even my Brothers recognized the difference suggesting my Mom reduce her risk and focus on preservation and income.   While my Dad was all about growth, we want to make sure that my Mom NEVER runs out of money.  With newly established cost basis going to cash was a viable option while immediately reducing unnecessary risk until other options can be considered.

Keeping it Simple; Lastly we want to make it simple for my Mom to manage by consolidating accounts.  While my Dad was comfortable having accounts in multiple institutions, combining all my Moms assets with her advisor who treats her with respect and makes her feel comfortable is and continues to be an important factor.

While my father did a great job accumulating assets without long term care insurance his stay in an assisted living facility could have overtime put my mother’s financial future at risk.  Fortunately, given my Fathers acumen for building wealth my Mother was able to move him to a beautiful facility overlooking the Pacific Ocean making the move a more palatable process.  While his time remaining was short I quickly recognized the devastating impact our health can have on eating away a sizeable estate.

My Father left a great legacy, plan and prepare for the future so that you can life a wonderful life.

This week I was working with my client Martha, she is a new financial advisor at a major firm.  After months of coaching Martha finally asked the tough questions and was amazed at the results.

Working with Martha we spent months creating her message, defining who she is and how she adds value as a financial advisor.  We developed her investment philosophy clichés and built her investment model.  She now had it all, she just had to put it to work.

At our most recent call she updated me on her progress, she had gone on 7 appointments some with potential prospects others with centers of influence, while she felt good about her message and presenting her practice the one area she was still struggling with was asking for the $.  This is a VERY COMMON issue with female advisors, they think by asking how much money you have accumulated is pushy and rude.  That’s like saying a Dr. is out of place when he asks about your symptoms and health!

This became  the focus of our call this week.  Martha had a meeting set up the next day so we decided to use that meeting as the opportunity to make sure Martha asked the tough questions.  We finalized all her marketing materials and we talked about the power of having what you do in writing so that the prospect doesn’t question whether you have just made things up.

The next day Martha met with her contact, she had known this woman (although not really well) and she wasn’t sure why the woman wanted to meet, so Martha decided to apply everything she has learned.

Martha asked lot’s of  open ended questions provided a little information about herself but turned the focus back to the prospect. After getting to know the prospect a little better Martha started to ask the important questions, she held her breathe (knowing she was still uncomfortable asking about $) and asked, “What have you been able to accumulate so far?”  The women then replied  $18,000,000.  Martha kept her composure even though she felt like falling out of her chair.  She then used her presentation book that we created to validate her message and how committed she is to working with women.

Martha called me that night to tell me two things, first how surprised and excited she was that the woman has $18,000,000 and secondly how proud she was that not only did she ask the tough questions (and keep her composure) but her presentation was so clear and compelling that she has a VERY GOOD chance of getting this woman to become her client.

Forget the Educate:

As a Financial Advisor who gives seminars you MUST understand that its not the actually presentation that makes an impact.  You could honestly totally botch the actual presentation and still get business from your event as long as you ENGAGE the audience and provide a GREAT INTRODUCTION and conclude the program with A CLEAR CALL TO ACTION.

My client Jeff recently hosted his first Savvy Women seminar. He called me that same evening feeling positive and quite optimistic with his event.  I asked what went well he had 12 buying units and got two immediate appointments, then he started to laugh.  He then said “To be honest Adri I forgot a bunch of the presentation but my Introduction and Closing was REALLY good.

It so common for Financial Advisors to focus on the educational, power point portion of the presentation when in fact that has the least impact on turning the participants into business.  Now certainly the content is important and I’m not suggesting you come not prepared but as you do prepare most of your focus and energy MUST be in how you introduce yourself and what you want the participants to do as a result of attending this event.

The INTRODUCTION must contain 3 things:

1. Your story; why you are in this business and why it’s important to you
2. Your market:  Who most of your clients are, their assets size and what are the most common issues they experience
3. How this event fits into your overall business experience
4. A fun and engaging way to clarify the need for what they are about to learn

The CLOSING must contain:

1. A reference back to the introduction highlighting the emotions (issues and concerns that were raised at the beginning of the presentation)
2. Clarify why the participants need to take action
3. How the participants can take action (spell it out for them) with YOU.

Creating a great introduction and closing is not a simple nor an easy task but a VERY IMPORTANT one.  For those that are currently hosting seminars be honest and evaluate how strong is my introduction and am I addressing the 4 critical components.  Is my closing clear and compelling providing the participants direction to move forward (with ME)?  If this is not the case then I highly recommend you get some coaching and training before you move forward with another seminar. With proper coaching and training you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.