June 19, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 2 comments
There is a great chance that you have a can of WD-40 under the sink or in the garage. Most people do. In fact, you can find it in the garages of homes in 160 countries. Everybody knows WD-40. What most people don’t know is the origin of the name.
The Rocket Chemical Company was founded in San Diego, California in 1953. It created a product to displace the standing water that caused corrosion in nuclear missiles. The first thirty-nine attempts to perfect the formula failed. Success was achieved on the 40th attempt. WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. In 1969, the company name was changed to simply WD-40.
We have all heard of similar struggles by Walt Disney, Theodore Seuss Geisel and the Coca-Cola Company. If we’ve learned one lesson from these stories, the lesson is, don’t be in a hurry to become a success.
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6 Essential Investment Tenets to Instill in Your Clients for 2024
January 15, 2024 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
The stock market has taken investors on another wild rollercoaster in recent years. The market recovered from a bear market in 2022, and after a solid up year in 2023, there’s bound to be another one at some point. Going into 2024, the market will keep investors guessing, which is why helping your client maintain a long-term perspective is essential.
We can’t know what stocks will do today, next week, or next month. But we know that, over the long term, stocks will continue their century-long advance. Reacting to short-term swings in the market means moving in and out of the market at the wrong times, locking in permanent losses, and often missing out on the biggest gains in the market.
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How to Talk to Clients About Market Volatility
September 25, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
You don’t hear people talk much about market volatility until stock prices suddenly sell off. But when your clients watch their portfolio value decline unexpectedly, it can be terrifying, leading many to make potentially costly mistakes, such as selling into a steep market decline. Though we’ve experienced many volatile markets over the last 20 years, advisors must help clients understand that volatility is not their enemy.
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The Inevitable Frustration of Success
December 26, 2022 / by Diana Marinova / Best Practices, Connelly Corner / 0 comments
Let’s talk about the inevitable frustration of success, about building a business slowly. I have one piece of advice if you’re still building your business: Don’t be in a hurry to become a success. If you become impatient, the impatience will wear you down. I’m not suggesting we sit back and wait for success to […]
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How to Build Your Story-Benefit Matrix
May 25, 2020 / by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Last week I blogged about a useful sales tool called a story-benefit matrix, and why you should develop one for your practice. Just going through the process is beneficial: It forces you to think through a number of different ways your prospective client will benefit by working with you – and gives you an opportunity to help tell an illustrative story that will cement that case.
It’s basic “soft-skills” at work.
But it’s helpful to understand how to build one yourself, so let me help you with that.
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Remind Your Clients Investing Is a Marathon
May 8, 2017 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
Despite regular and sometimes frightening dips markets continue to rise incrementally over time, continually setting new highs. The problem is that many clients disbelieve this; they panic when the market temporarily falls. As their financial advisor, it’s your job to keep them on track.
You need to get them over their short-termism and make them see that their focus should be on 20, 30 or 40 years from now – not on this afternoon or next week.
Use all the tactics at your disposal to illustrate that investing is a marathon not a sprint.
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Read This if You Need a Boost in Self-motivation
July 18, 2016 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
At some point in your career as a financial advisor you will experience a lack of motivation. When this happens you can either stay unmotivated and fail, or develop a new course of action and succeed. The following post includes some tips to help you do the latter.
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It Takes Extraordinary Patience to Build a Successful Business
June 19, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 2 comments
There is a great chance that you have a can of WD-40 under the sink or in the garage. Most people do. In fact, you can find it in the garages of homes in 160 countries. Everybody knows WD-40. What most people don’t know is the origin of the name.
The Rocket Chemical Company was founded in San Diego, California in 1953. It created a product to displace the standing water that caused corrosion in nuclear missiles. The first thirty-nine attempts to perfect the formula failed. Success was achieved on the 40th attempt. WD-40 literally stands for Water Displacement, 40th attempt. In 1969, the company name was changed to simply WD-40.
We have all heard of similar struggles by Walt Disney, Theodore Seuss Geisel and the Coca-Cola Company. If we’ve learned one lesson from these stories, the lesson is, don’t be in a hurry to become a success.
Read more