Wednesday, May 30, 2018

HB Featured in ’25 Financial Advisor Marketing Ideas’ (Fit Small Business)

As many of you know, we’ve long advocated “Taking the High Road” when it comes to providing clients, prospects and followers with concise, highly relevant content. Thanks to the folks at Fit Small Business.com (FSB), we’re not the only ones who agree. FSB was kind enough to list us as #9 in their 2018 listing of 25 Financial Advisor Marketing Ideas & Strategies

Too swamped to produce regular original blog posts, but you don’t want to send out canned, aggregated content?

Try this approach

Every few days, share with your clients/prospects a link to an article or broadcast clip from the mainstream financial media (e.g., “New Tax Rules Allow 529 Plans Withdrawals for K-12”). But instead of just giving your audience another link and FYI, add some of your own color commentary about the topic. Explain why the New 529 rules are so beneficial to your readers and how the journalist/reporters could have done a better job of explaining the nuances of the new rules for college and prep school savers. If space permits, remind readers about the dangers of taking all the financial advice they consume in the mainstream media can be misleading—even if provided by ethical, hard-working journalists.
Conclusion

At a time when we’re all inundated with too much news, information and noise, you’ll position yourself as a true thought leader if you can be not only an aggregator and curator of valuable information for your clients and followers—but a value added “complexity filter” as well.

If you have time, there are 24 other good tips in the Fit Small Business article (it’s a very quick read)
https://fitsmallbusiness.com/financial-advisor-marketing-ideas/

Best, HB

*** Take our Insta-Poll and see how you stack up to your peers.

TAGS: Hank Berkowitz, HB Publishing & Marketing, Fit Small Business, Taking the High Road

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

10 Reasons Why Tech Tools Won’t Make You a Better Writer

Apps, smart devices and AI tools are taking over every part of our lives. So, it’s tempting to use tech crutch when you have to dash out a blog post, short article or another chapter of your long-delayed book.
While technology can be a great backstop for the mundane aspects of writing, it’s no substitute for creativity and shaping your true voice. Plus, tech tools take everything literally. They can be counterproductive when you’re trying to be literary or literate.
As Lucy Miller noted in Ragan’s PR Daily recently, “Proofreading software and grammar checkers—those blessed gifts from above that highlight embarrassing errors and silly mistakes—are wonderful aids, but they are far from comprehensive.”  Amen, Lucy.
If you rely on your proofreading software too much, Miller offers five good reasons to reconsider:
1. Grammar checkers go strictly by the book.
Grammar checkers or proofreaders are software programs that understand the binary code version of whichever grammar rulebook was consulted in the development process.
“Writing is not math,” noted Miller. “Language is flexible and subject to change—as are the rulebooks that we adhere to. 
2. Grammar checkers are outdated.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary added more than 1,000 words last year. “What a term means today might be radically different from what it meant 20 years ago. Plus, new words and slang are created just about every day,” explained Miller.
3. What you wrote is not what you meant.
According to Miller, most proofreading programs are unable to distinguish between similar terms such as effect and affect, or every day and everyday—and forget about correcting misplaced commas. “Most also have a tough time catching nitpicky grammatical issues. Word’s spell checker is blissfully unaware of the following glaring errors:
  • Piece be with you.
  • She shows such love and infection.”

4. Too much tech can make you lazy.
According to Miller, over-reliance on proofreading software can stunt your growth as an author and lull you into sloppy habits and a false sense of security.
Working without a net forces you to read and edit more carefully, noted Miller. “If you rely on technology to catch grammatical errors, why bother to learn the rules yourself? Tech reliance can cause your writing and editing muscles to atrophy.” 
5. Editing programs often replace the human touch.
The human eye has more proofing power than any software available today—especially if someone hasn’t reviewed the content before. “It’s amazing what technology can do, but human intuition, nuance, humor, context and experience can improve any piece,” observed Miller. “Proofreading programs certainly are useful, but software shouldn’t be used at the expense of human review.”
Here are some of our own favorites:

6. Read your work out loud or better yet, dictate it into your smartphone voice recorder and play it back. You may not like what you sound like, but this technique will prevent from straying too far from your point and from falling into the run-on-sentence rabbit hole.

We work with a number of advisors who can get up in front of 5,000 people and give a flawless presentation with little or no rehearsal--but they freeze up like alligators in the Arctic when they have to sit down at the keyboard. We don’t have them write anything for us at first. We just “interview” them with topic-specific questions related to their planned blog posts, articles, even books. Once they see a draft of our “interview” write-up, then guess who suddenly become eagle-eyed editors?

7. Walk away for at least an hour. What looked so brilliant before you took your break suddenly stinks looks a garbage dump on a hot summer day. Don’t despair, that’s what first drafts are supposed to do anyway (see #9 below).

8. Start with the end in mind. Write the conclusion first, then three or four summary bullet points (i.e. Key Takeaways). What do you really want readers to take away from your article or post? Then play around with the headline (or the cover of your book). You have no choice but to be concise and on point.

9. Write quickly.  Just let it flow. Don’t worry about grammar, sentence structure and punctuation. Let it rip! Don’t be a writer—be a story teller—then revise, revise and revise. Blogger Hannah Heath explains why you should let your first draft suck and Vaibhav Vardhan explains why your first draft is supposed to suck.

10. Give it the relevance check. We all have a mental picture of our core audience when we write. We know who are biggest fans (and critics) are. Imagine them looking over your shoulder before you hit the post, send or publish button. What would their reaction be? If it stings, give your piece another tune-up. There’s no charge for parts, just for the labor.

Conclusion

E.B. White
said, “writing is hard work and bad for the health.” Perhaps it is, but it’s an essential part of communicating with your followers and being a thought leader. Don’t let perfection be the tyranny of progress. Set a deadline. Go with your best effort, and then revise, revise and revise even after it’s been published. That’s one thing that’s great about publishing in today’s electronic age. It’s never been easier to update.

*** Take our Insta-Poll and see how you stack up to your peers.

TAGS: Proofreading, grammar software, Lucy Miller, Vaibhav Vardhan, EB White, becoming a better writer

Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Be Entrepreneurial (even if you never start a business)

With graduation season upon us, the latest crop of smart, ambitious and hopeful young adults will officially enter the world of adulthood. For most, that will mean entering the workforce immediately or perhaps after one last overseas trip.

Today’s kids have more pressure on them than any previous generation to show ROI on their monstrous tuition bills and/or student loans. These young people aren’t stupid (or lazy). Sure, they want to put their hard-earned knowledge to good use, but they know they’ll be changing jobs every year or two for the early part of their careers. They know they’ll have to jump ship often in order to get a significant increase in pay and responsibility. They know they’ll have to reinvent themselves continuously so they don’t get “disrupted.” There’s no ladder for this generation to climb except the one that they build for themselves. They’ll have to go out and find their own mentors, too.

Many universities and most business schools offer courses like “Principles of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.” It’s debatable whether or not you can really teach entrepreneurship, but you can certainly make natural entrepreneurs better at their craft. It’s also helpful for all of tomorrow’s future leaders to learn how to become more entrepreneurial.

Our client Anthony Glomski, founder of LA-based AG Asset Advisory told me recently that “Entrepreneurs figure things out. Problems are puzzles they solve. This requires actually ‘doing’ and lots of self-study like podcasts, reading, TED Talks, etc.  This is the stuff that matters,” added Glomski, author of the new book: Liquidity & You: A Personal Guide for Tech and Business Entrepreneurs Approaching an Exit.

Our Take: You don’t have to be in a California garage working on the next billion dollar startup to benefit from Glomski’s advice.

Another of our clients, Blake Christian, CPA of Long Beach, CA-based HCVT, said that regardless of your major and career, “always keep your eyes open for other business and investment opportunities that you may be able to handle in your off hours.  Most passions can be turned into profitable business ventures,” added Christian, author of the new book, The Benefits of Becoming a CPA-Preneur .

Our client Kyle Walters, founder of Dallas-based Atlas Wealth Advisors and a partner of L&H CPAs told me, “Most people think success is about being right and not failing. With entrepreneurship, you need to be ready to fail a lot because it’s the only way you are going to grow. I’m not talking about catastrophic failures in which your business shuts down. You need to be ready for things NOT to work and you need to keep going. It’s going to happen a lot, added Walters, author of the forthcoming book The Personal CFO.



Can entrepreneurship be taught?

According to Glomski, “Some people are born with entrepreneurial DNA, but I believe it is a learnable skill set. In writing my book and in my existing capacity I'm fortunate to be around some incredibly successful entrepreneurs. There are some commonalities amongst all of them—most are voracious readers and lifelong learners. More than half seem to have read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.”

Glomski said he began his career on typical Big Four corporate path at age 22 and was miserable by age 22-1/2. “One day I was assigned to go review the financials of the Stone Foundation. I assumed they sold rocks or something. It turned out to be about a completely self-made guy who had amassed an enormous net worth and founded a Fortune 500 Company. I went to our administrative assistant and asked her, ‘how did he do this?’  She replied: ‘He wrote a book about it...Take a copy.’

I read the book and it forever altered my life and who I work for (entrepreneurs). The book was Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude. It was authored by W Clement Stone and Napoleon Hill. Thirty days later I quit the firm and never looked back. So if I could offer one piece of advice, read Napoleon Hill’s Think & Grow Rich.

According to Christian, today’s students graduate with a more entrepreneurial outlook than prior generations because they know their first job will be a short layover on their career flight—not their ultimate destination. “Having more open-mindedness and flexibility to risk job changes is healthy overall, but must be balanced with dedication to the job you are currently doing,” said Christian. “Geographic flexibility, including foreign assignments, also allows for a stronger resume and life experiences,” he added.

Are younger people more reluctant to fail?


“I don’t know if it’s one generation versus another,” noted Walters, “but there’s definitely more pressure than ever on people entering professional careers NOT to make mistakes--not having a dreaded ‘ding’ on your record. That’s completely the opposite of entrepreneurship where you are figuring things out all on your own. Mistakes are all part of the learning curve. If you have family and peers who have all built a narrative around you based on success, then the self-imposed pressure to be perfect can be higher.”

Many of the experts we consulted for this post stressed the importance of reading and lifelong learning. HCVT’s Christian said writing skills and math skills “continue to be deficient” in the young people he comes across.  “I strongly suggest that every college student take bookkeeping (QuickBooks) class and a business writing course in order to be more ready for the real world.” 
According to Walters, very little of being an entrepreneur is about success or being perfect. “The person who can fail forward over and over and over again is the one who’s going to win. You need to be ready to ‘fail successfully’ and not let it discourage you and realize it’s all part of the process to growth, observed Walters.

Conclusion

Most of you on this distribution list have been entrepreneurs at one point or another in life. Michelle Galligan, Managing Director of Columbus, Ohio-based accounting and consulting company,
ViaVero, said that being an entrepreneur is an integration of work and life. “When you really love what you do every day, it makes it so much easier to put in all the time and effort that it takes to run a business. I don’t dread Mondays and I don’t count the days and minutes until the weekend.”
Our Take: If you can make a living with Galligan’s outlook on work and life, you are well on your way to success.

*** Take our Insta-Poll and see how you stack up to your peers.

TAGS: Anthony Glomski, Liquidity & You, Blake Christian, The Benefits of Becoming a CPA Preneur, Kyle Walters, The Personal CFO, Michelle Galligan, ViaVero