Do you ever feel like things are just going too fast?  Why is that?  I won’t bore you with the details but there’s reams written on how technology affects people.   The bottom line is: We invent machines and then instead of letting the machines do the work, we let the machines work us. As

One big concern about writing a blog focused on women clients is the one-sided nature of the viewpoint.  Yada, Yada, Yada…. always writing about how men need to change for women – blah, blah, blah! Let me assure you, I  greatly appreciate the strengths of men.  In fact, most of my clients are men and

I get asked frequently how to deal with upset people.  The turbulence in the market over the last 2 years makes clients hyper-vigilant and edgy – challenge #1.  Challenge #2 is that men and women tend to deal with emotions differently.  Every man I know automatically does the wrong thing when trying to calm an

Fact of the Day: The Affluent Insights Quarterly just released the latest research on wealthy Americans (investible assets of $250,000 and more).  Here are the key points and five opportunities they reveal: Fact: 44% of those surveyed work with an advisor – of those 81% are satisfied Opportunity #1: Great news!  The wealthy are pleased

Encouragement is a wonderful thing.  Spontaneous and unsolicited encouragement is beyond wonderful.  It’s fantastic!   Here’s my story of such a gift. Charles G.Read (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Charles+G./Read)   read an article I’d written on reaching women clients published recently in a financial journal and promptly bought The $14 Trillion Woman.  Upon reading the book,  he sent out an

This week I was on the east coast with colleagues teaching Coaching Skills to leaders of a major wire-house, an initiative that has been going on for several months.   This has been a challenge for the group.  Like many in the industry they’re overwhelmed with daily urgency’s.   They need business results and they need

Do you remember as a small child being scared at night?   Your room became a night time horror chamber with a Boogie Man ready to jump out and get you!  That fear was completely imaginary but also totally real!   As a nation we’ve been running from the Boogie Man.  Everyone I meet has

Half of my job is coaching the other half is training.   Recently, I’ve been training a group of leaders in a national firm on Coaching Skills.  Most people think that learning how to coach is going to be easy.  What’s so hard,  the “Coach” is just having a conversation?  Then they try it.  Suddenly,

Eureka!  I finally found it!  What am I talking about?  Ideal client service.  Advisors work hard to achieve ideal client service model.  I’ve talked with with many financial advisors about this and I’m always impressed by their high commitment to clients.  Frequently, I coach them around increasing client satisfaction.  Usually during this discussion I ask the

This week I was talking to a female financial advisor who has been in the business for many years.  We’ve been talking about how she gets referrals.   I asked her to “notice” what she does that helps her get referrals.  Suddenly, she remembered a series of events that were a great source of referrals before