April 5, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
What do successful financial advisors do that unsuccessful or even adequate advisors don’t, won’t, or can’t do? I could list several things here, but it all starts with setting clearly defined goals—and then achieving them. But, while the vast majority of advisors understand the importance of setting goals—actually writing them down—and having a plan to achieve them, fewer manage to achieve them. As a result, they never raise the bar for themselves, gradually slipping into mediocracy.
The failure to achieve goals can be attributed to a number of things—i.e., the goals are unrealistic or too vague; not having or strictly following a plan; not being accountable for your goals, to name just a few. While these are identifiable reasons for not achieving goals, they are more of an expected outcome for advisors who lack the vital qualities to carry them to success. You can have the most incredible work ethic, but if you’re not setting and achieving your goals, it’s like a rudderless motorboat spinning around in a lake.
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You Can’t Be Afraid to Fail. It’s How You Succeed.
March 20, 2023 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Who doesn’t want to be a success? It’s what people, particularly financial advisors, strive for every day. No one wants to be a failure. But did it ever occur to you that it’s virtually impossible to be a success without failing? Successful people must be very comfortable with failure because they probably fail more often than they succeed. They’re successful because they use their failures as learning experiences to propel them forward.
Yet, many people seem to have such a dysfunctional relationship with failure that they can’t see the value in it, choosing instead to avoid it by not taking the same risks that led to it. That’s not learning. That’s capitulation, which never leads to success.
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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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To Develop Top-of-Mind Awareness with Clients, Develop Your Authority
December 6, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
We’ve reached the fourth and final issue in our series on Critical Issues Facing Financial Advisors Right Now—Staying Top-of-Mind with Your Clients. Of the four critical issues presented, developing top-of-mind awareness is perhaps the most crucial because it is paramount to your ultimate success. If you are not the first person your clients think of when good or bad things happen to them, things that impact their financial lives or the lives of their friends and family, you could have a long, slow slog to the next level.
I’ve written on the importance of top-of-mind-awareness in past posts, along with the strategies you can use to develop it among your clients. The key to remember is creating top-of-mind awareness is not about pestering your clients with calls and emails just to keep your name in front of them. You don’t want to annoy your clients.
The key is reaching them in a way that heightens their perception of you as someone who’s not a typical advisor but rather as a genuine authority in their field. Authorities have influence. Some even develop a kind of star power that gets people’s attention. What makes an authority? Content.
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Priceless Lessons for Financial Advisors from George Bailey
July 12, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
“Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” Angel Second Class, Clarence
For many of us, it took these words, proffered by a fledgling angel to a despairing George Bailey, to realize one of life’s most enduring truths. The timeless movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, is full of valuable lessons. But its central theme – that each of us is a hero in waiting – should remind us that it’s through our challenges that our superpowers and unique gifts are eventually revealed.
For me, the essence of the story is conveyed in a scene not usually associated with the classic moments people remember about the movie.
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7 Qualities Financial Advisors Must Have to Achieve Their Goals
April 5, 2021 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
What do successful financial advisors do that unsuccessful or even adequate advisors don’t, won’t, or can’t do? I could list several things here, but it all starts with setting clearly defined goals—and then achieving them. But, while the vast majority of advisors understand the importance of setting goals—actually writing them down—and having a plan to achieve them, fewer manage to achieve them. As a result, they never raise the bar for themselves, gradually slipping into mediocracy.
The failure to achieve goals can be attributed to a number of things—i.e., the goals are unrealistic or too vague; not having or strictly following a plan; not being accountable for your goals, to name just a few. While these are identifiable reasons for not achieving goals, they are more of an expected outcome for advisors who lack the vital qualities to carry them to success. You can have the most incredible work ethic, but if you’re not setting and achieving your goals, it’s like a rudderless motorboat spinning around in a lake.
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Take Action Now if You Want to Succeed as a Financial Advisor
August 29, 2016 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Financial advisors often fail or stay at a mediocre level because they procrastinate. They don’t understand that success requires looking to the future, setting goals and working hard to achieve those goals. Instead many advisors think they can get by day by day on the bare minimum. Unfortunately, success doesn’t just ‘happen’. No matter how talented you are your star won’t rise unless you get proactive about growing your business.
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Five Skills That Will Make You Stand Apart from The Crowd
August 1, 2016 / by Don Connelly / Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
Hard skills can be learned from a book. They’re the skills most of us spent 16 years in school focusing on. In contrast, there’s no clear path to learning soft skills. Soft skills have to be learnt ‘on the job’ via experience and with trial and error.
Soft skills are at the very heart of what it is to be a great financial advisor. They are the skills that will mark you out from the crowd. So make sure you excel at soft skills by putting in a lot of practice. And persevere.
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Why Is Online Reputation Important for Your Success as a Financial Advisor
November 30, 2015 / by Diana Marinova / Connelly Corner, Marketing Yourself / 0 comments
As Don Connelly always says, only three things must take place for you to get a new client: that person must like you, trust you and think you are smart. But how could prospects like you, trust you and think you are smart if they never met you? How do you come across as likeable, trustworthy and smart if you have no prior relationship with them?
The answer lies in your online reputation.
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How Asking Yourself WHY Would Help You Be a Better Advisor
April 6, 2015 / by Don Connelly / Best Practices / 0 comments
Asking ‘why ‘can greatly increase your understanding of yourself and of those around you, both of which will make you a better advisor. Asking ‘why’ your clients do business with you can make the referral process easier. Asking ‘why’ can help motivate your clients into investing for their future. Asking ‘why’ you became a financial advisor can help you re-energize your career.
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