February 20, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 1 comment
There are things we know and there are things we don’t know. A first thing we know is that every single time the stock market has gone down, it has come back.
A second thing we know is that every single time the market has gone down and come back, it has gone on to set new highs.
And, a third thing we know is that a perplexingly large number of investors lose money in the stock market, despite knowing the first two things.
What we don’t know is what the market will do tomorrow.
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The Alzheimer’s Tsunami & Preparing for the Worst
February 27, 2014 / by Don Connelly / What's New / 0 comments
Understanding the Signs, and YOUR legal & Ethical Liability
We heard you loud and clear! On February 18, 2014, Don Connelly 24/7 held a second webinar discussing a Financial Advisor’s call to action upon a client’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
Is the Advisor obligated to act? If so, how?
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Optimism Is a Choice
February 24, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 1 comment
I read an interesting article that stated each of us has nearly 60,000 thoughts per waking day, one each second. We mostly think about things we have thoughts about before and many of those thoughts are negative.
Mood and memory are linked.
For whatever reason, bad thoughts seem more powerful than good thoughts. We hash over the bad thoughts and we get in a bad mood. People in bad moods think negative thoughts. We should call it a negativity loop.
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Play The Cards The Market Deals You
February 20, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 1 comment
There are things we know and there are things we don’t know. A first thing we know is that every single time the stock market has gone down, it has come back.
A second thing we know is that every single time the market has gone down and come back, it has gone on to set new highs.
And, a third thing we know is that a perplexingly large number of investors lose money in the stock market, despite knowing the first two things.
What we don’t know is what the market will do tomorrow.
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Having Problems Is a Plus
February 17, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
If you know you’ve got problems gathering assets and growing your business, you are lucky. A problem can be turned into an advantage and that’s a good thing.
The very fact that you recognize a problem means that you are concerned enough to recognize it, that you want to better yourself. Too many Advisors drift along waiting for magical occurrence to turn their business around. You are trying to make things happen.
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Every Advisor Needs to Bring Back the Story
February 13, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Presentation Skills, Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 3 comments
The ability to tell good stories is vital if you want people to like and trust you. Your clients like you and trust you. They didn’t buy a financial plan or a managed account. They bought you.
People can’t ‘buy’ you until they know you and the best way to get to know you is to hear your story. And they can’t hear your story until you tell it to them. The better you do that, the sooner you open the account. As Peter Guber says, you tell to win.
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Client Goals Are Not Reduced by Falling Markets
February 10, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Investing Wisdom / 0 comments
The biggest challenge every investor (and, actually, every Advisor) faces is staying fully invested in the face of bad news. It’s only normal to want to escape danger. Unfortunately, fleeing danger means timing the market. The stock market is too fragmented to successfully time over an extended period. In too many ways, tactical asset allocation is churning without the commissions.
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Get Your Work Done in Sixty Percent of the Time
February 6, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 1 comment
I can tell you without hesitation that the amount of time you spend marketing yourself this year determines how much you will grow next year. If you don’t prospect and market yourself, your business will wither and die.
I can also tell you without hesitation that running your business gets in the way of growing your business. The details eat up your time. There are only so many hours in the day. What to do then? Why do we give tasks more time than they need and what can we do about it?
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People Are Deciding about You, Not the Numbers
February 3, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 2 comments
When you are trying to convince someone to do business with you, you must earn that person’s trust. When you use charts, graphs and numbers to make your point, you are asking the person to trust the numbers. Asking someone to trust the numbers is really saying there is no need to trust you.
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There Is No Ambiguity When It Comes to Being a Good Advisor
January 30, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Yet, while certain elements of this business are ambiguous, the challenge we face is not.
The correct way to succeed is straight-forward. Either you do things right or you don’t. Either you do the right things or you don’t. Either you see enough people or you don’t. Either you build a good business or you don’t. Embrace the clarity.
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Your Job Is to Find the Pain and Make It Go Away
January 27, 2014 / by Don Connelly / Storytelling, analogies and power phrases / 0 comments
Imagine if you were in long-term back pain and you were sorely in need of relief. Your diligence has led you to a doctor who assures you that, if you allow her to perform surgery, the pain would not merely be alleviated; the pain would be gone. She explains that there will certainly be some short-term discomfort, but any inconvenience will be worth it in the long run. You will be overjoyed when you are pain free.
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