Advisor Survey: Even the Affluent Lack Financial Awareness

Most advisors we talked to are optimistic about their growth prospects in 2021. But they don’t seem as confident about their clients’ financial acumen. 

Early results of our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  showed more than half of advisors (55%) believe America’s financial literacy has NOT improved over the past year. More than half of advisors (53%) told us the majority of their clients lacked a clearly defined investment policy statement or asset allocation plan when they first started working with them. Further, 51 percent of advisors said the majority of their clients did not know how much retirement income they would need when they first started working with them. And nearly half (47%) of advisors said the plurality of their clients did not have current estate and gift plans in place when they first started working with them.

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

This data is even more concerning when you consider the affluence and educational attainment of clients working with high-end financial advisors.

“Some people do not consider financial planning a high priority in their busy lives,” explained respondent Lionel Shipman, a financial and life empowerment professional. “Unfortunately, as life events happen, many will regret not having a financial plan in place and will have to endure the consequences of their lack of prioritization,” Shipman added.

According to our respondents, the biggest reason why Americans don’t update their estate and gift plans are because:

·         They don’t see it as a priority (76%).

·         They think it’s too expensive (55%).

·         They don’t know where to turn for advice (52%).

·         They don’t think they’re old enough (50%).

“People are reluctant to keep a financial, estate and gift plan in place because they mistakenly feel it limits their day to day lifestyle,” observed respondent Jim Stovall. “In reality proper planning brings freedom,” Stovall added.

Survey respondents also revealed that most of their clients did not realize how much their home equity worked against them when it came to financing college tuition. Hypothetically speaking, if families could no longer tap their home equity to pay for higher education, how would higher education costs be impacted?

·         Two thirds of respondents (65%) believed tuition rates would stabilize or start to decline.

·         Only one third (35%) thought tuition would continue rising faster than inflation.

So, what actions can advisors take to help clients feel more confident about reaching their financial goals?

• Nearly all (95%) said go beyond investments.
• More than nine out of ten respondents (91%) said helping clients focus on the long-term and doing more frequent reviews.
• Seven out of eight (88%) said delivering on core expectations.

Perhaps that’s why advisors are contacting their clients more frequently than ever before. Nearly half of respondents (45%) indicated they are communicating with clients multiple times per month, (up from 43% who said so in 2020, 38% in 2019 and 35% in 2018).

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement, #investorconfidence #economy

Advisors Remain Cautiously Optimistic for 2021

Reasons for optimism may surprise you

Preliminary results of our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  show the vast majority of U.S. financial advisory firms (92%) expect to grow in 2021. In fact, nearly two in five (39%) are expecting to grow by double digits or more this year—comparable to pre-COVID levels.

While more than half of advisors (52%) expect to see at least one sharp market correction in 2021, less than one in five (19%) expect to see a continued recession this year (i.e. two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth).

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

What’s keeping affluent Americans up at night?

In addition to the pandemic, nearly three in four respondents (74%) cited “turbulence in Washington DC” and an equal amount (73%) cited “changes in tax laws.”  Nearly two-thirds (62%) pointed to “concerns about the federal budget deficit” and nearly half (45%) cited “lifestyle changes post COVID.”

The young generation and financial literacy

As has been the case since we launched the survey in 2016, Millennials (42%) where overwhelmingly cited as the generation most pessimistic about its financial future. Generation Y (age 36-52) was the next most pessimistic cohort (23%) followed by seniors (19%) and Boomers (16%).

Less than half of respondents (45%) felt America’s financial literacy has improved over the past year. About one third (35%) believe our nation’s financial literacy has remained the same and nearly one in five (19%) worry that it has fallen behind.

*** Please share this survey link with professional colleagues who might be able to benefit from our findings https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3T836CB

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

 

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement #investorconfidence #economy

We’ll Miss You Hammerin’ Hank: Master of Consistency and Tolerance

Last weekend marked the passing of baseball great, Henry Aaron. He was just shy of his 87th birthday. 

Aaron was my first boyhood sports hero at a time when kids could still look up to athletes, celebrities and even Presidents as role models. At the time, I didn’t know the 20-something Aaron would go on to club 755 career home runs and break Babe Ruth’s all-time record of 714—long considered one of the most unbreakable records in sports.

Aaron was the only pro athlete I knew who had my same first name (Henry), nickname (Hank) and almost the same birthday. It didn’t matter that Aaron came up through the racially segregated South (Mobile, AL) and I was a young, white Jewish kid from partially integrated West Philly, and later the mostly white suburbs. I felt a special bond with Aaron, even more so after reading one of the early biographies about him “I Had a Hammer.

For a legendary power hitter, Aaron was on the small side (6 feet tall and 180 pounds in his prime). I was a scrappy undersized singles hitter. But when they started calling me “Hammerin’ Hank” after a rare over-the-fence home run on my scraggly Little League field, that was the ultimate compliment you could give an impressionable 12-year-old.

For some reason, the moniker, Hammerin’ Hank stuck with me, even after I switched sports, towns, and schools. And I felt duty bound to follow the real Hammer the rest of his illustrious career.

I still have my first Hank Aaron baseball card circa 1970. It’s a little worn around the edges, but it still smells faintly of bubble gum and it hasn’t faded much. In those days you got 10 random cards in a pack for a quarter—plus a large slab of stale bubble gum. After blowing my allowance week after week as I accumulated half a dozen duplicate Jose Cardenals, Denny Doyles and enough Alou Brothers (Matty, Felipe and Jesus), my luck day finally came outside the local drugstore. I tore open the pack, held my breath, and there was Aaron’s likeness right on top, was staring at me, quietly confident in his Atlanta Braves uniform. Finally, a bona fide superstar to add to my mediocre collection of cards! It was like getting the Golden Ticket from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory!

Life lessons from baseball cards.

That early life lesson taught me to keep plugging away and never give up in pursuit of your goals. More on that in a minute.

Aaron finally eclipsed Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record on a cool April 1974 night in racially tense Atlanta, Georgia. I wasn’t old enough to know about all the hate mail and death threats Aaron and his family endured as he closed in on Ruth’s seemingly unassailable home run record—one of the last remaining monuments to Caucasian superiority in the major team sports. I just celebrated with baseball fans everywhere as we watched Aaron circle the bases on TV with two young white fans, equally exhilarated, serving as his unofficial escorts, before they were tackled and hauled off by security.

Only later did I learn that Aaron was barred from playing on his high school team because of the color of his skin and that as a teenage young professional in the southern minor leagues, he had to overcome endless racial taunts and a cross-handed batting grip (left hand above his right). But it was that athletic dyslexia that gave the righty, Aaron, tremendous forearm and wrist strength—deceptive power that allowed him to launch baseballs further than any slugger in the game’s history (except one).

Aaron retired after 23 seasons, but his home run record stood for three more decades until it was finally broken by Barry Bonds—a much larger man—later found to have taken anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) as he chased Aaron’s home run record. Even with modern training and PEDs, Bonds barely broke the record when he retired with 762 homers.

Aaron was gracious after being eclipsed by Bonds in 2007. “I move over and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historical achievement,” Aaron said. “My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams.”

To his credit, Bonds last week tweeted a thank you to Aaron, calling him “a trailblazer through adversity” and credited him for “setting an example for all of us African American ball players who came after you."

Master of consistency

What many don’t realize about Aaron is that he not only had tremendous longevity, but was an outstanding fielder, a smart, speedy baserunner and a hitter who set a number of other all-time Major League records that remain on the books today:

• Most runs batted in (2,297).
• Most total bases (6,856).
• Most extra-base hits (1,477).

Another remarkable thing about Aaron’s body of work is that he only led the league in home runs four times during his stellar 23-year career. He just kept hitting 30 or 40 dingers per year for an incredibly long time. Same thing with his extraordinary career RBI total. He only led the league four or five times in that category as well—he just kept driving in 100+ runs per season year after year after year.

The mantra of consistency has served me well as a lifelong distance runner, triathlete and entrepreneur. You just have to set the bar high and keep grinding away, day after day after day.

Tom Seaver, another recently departed Hall of Famer, once said: “In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics, you get shortsighted. If you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.”

Conclusion

“What I deeply admired and respected about [Aaron] is that each time he rounded those bases — an astonishing 755 trips home — he melted away more and more of the ice of bigotry to show that we can be better as a people and as a nation," President Biden related last Friday. "For generations of athletes and civil rights advocates who followed, he showed how to be proud and be unafraid to stand up for what is right and just," the President added.

We’ll miss you Hammerin’ Hank. The game was lucky to have you.

What’s your take on podcasting? We’d like to know.

#HankAaron, #Baseballgreats, #equality, #Hall of Fame #consistency

What’s keeping your clients (and peers) up at night? See our 2021 CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™

Using Podcast Interviews to Establish Credibility

By Tina Dietz, guest columnist

With 65 million Americans monthly listeners, podcasting is one of the fastest growing platforms that professionals can use to establish authority. Whether you’re just starting a firm, or your organization has long-established credentials, podcasting can catapult your influence beyond the capabilities of many other expert-building marketing channels.

Getting featured on TV, publishing a book or doing public speaking are gold standards for expert status (see CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™ ), but podcasting has made it possible for all types of financial advisors to share their knowledge and expertise with a wide audience.

One of podcasting’s biggest advantages is that it’s open publicity. This means the host has the freedom to generate the message and control the content. Podcasting also requires fewer resources than video and is more accessible. That’s because audio is available to consumers even when text and video are not such as when driving, jogging, gardening or cycling. The convenience of listening to downloadable audio files on smartphones or tablets has created a new wave of attentive, on-the-go listeners.

Voice of authority

Using your personal voice to reach your target market is a powerful channel for conveying your firm’s values and brand authenticity. Doing so deepens trust and develops loyalty with clients, prospective clients, strategic partners and future employees. By using a conversational format, podcasters have the freedom to articulate what makes their firm unique, without using typical marketing jargon.   

Below, we’ll focus on leaders who are looking to establish themselves as experts and to develop their spheres of influence.

Getting started with podcasting

You don’t need to be a host yourself. One of the best ways to introduce yourself to a new market is to be a podcast guest. Hosts are hungry for content. They are searching for experts like you—people in the know who can keep their shows fresh to provide value to the audience. There are over 30 million podcast episodes today, and that number has grown significantly over the past 10 years.

The key is to reach out personally to hosts of podcasts most appropriate for your subject niche – don’t ask your assistant to do it for you.

Podcast hosts want a good fit for their shows. After they book you, they will take the time to suggest ways that you can most effectively resonate with their audience. One way to find podcasts that are looking for guests is to do a keyword search in Apple Podcasts or Google for shows with topics that appeal to your ideal clients or target market. Apple Podcasts is to podcasts as what Amazon is to books; it is the premier platform for broadcasting your audio message to an eager audience.

You don’t have to start with cold leads, however. Ask colleagues who’ve been guests on podcasts you like to introduce you to the hosts of those shows. As with developing your practice, referrals go a long way toward establishing credibility and building relationships.

If you have the resources, you can also use a booking service to acquire guest spots; there are several excellent companies that can take care of placing you on the perfect shows.

Leveraging podcast interviews

Once you’ve secured a podcast spot, there are infinite ways you can use, and re-use, this valuable content. You can now post audio clips on your website or blog, include audio clips in your media kit, or feature them on your company profile or LinkedIn page. You can share the audio across social media, or use the transcribed content for new articles or blog posts. A wealth of marketing assets is available at your fingertips when you have podcast content.

Conclusion
Podcasts are free for everyone to access. It takes almost no technical know-how to get started as a guest. These characteristics make being featured on podcast interviews one of the best “expert platforms” available today. What are you waiting for?

What’s your take on podcasting? We’d like to know.

Tina Dietz is an internationally acclaimed speaker, audio publisher and podcast advisor to HB Publishing & Marketing Company. Visit her at Twin Flames Studios

 

#Podcasting, #practicemanagement, #thoughtleadership

Voices of Reason Amid the Chaos

After a year like 2020, many were hoping for some normalcy in 2021. It didn’t last long. This first week of the new year saw a record number of Covid deaths, an armed insurrection of the U.S Capitol, a surprisingly weak jobs report, new calls for Presidential impeachment, Democrats gaining a Senate majority for the first time in a decade, and a jet liner disappearing shortly after takeoff with 62 passengers on board. Whew!

Sounded like a bad Hollywood movie script, but sadly it wasn’t.

Despite the market’s resilience (for now), it was enough to test the resolve of even the most optimistic among us. I’m sure you received calls from nervous clients asking if it was time to take a more defensive position. See what’s keeping your peers and their clients up at night.

In these extraordinarily volatile times, several advisors who participate in our PR Light program shared common sense wisdom about maintaining one’s financial cool during unsettling times. We hope you find their insights comforting and enlightening:

DR. GUY BAKER, PH.D. (Wealth Teams Alliance, Irvine, CA) told Forbes that not all assets are created equal, especially when calculating your net worth. He also counseled Yahoo Finance readers to prioritize their credit card debt during their post-Holiday hangover and told Moneywise readers to brace for “higher tax rates, higher interest rates and slower economic growth during the early years of the Biden administration as the Fed acts to offset rising inflation.”

*** Contact us here if you’d like to learn more about our PR Light program. Give us one hour per week of your time, and you can 10X your profile.

Prepping for a new Administration

At a time when commercial real estate seems at the abyss, BLAKE CHRISTIAN, senior tax partner of HCVT, LLP (Long, Beach, CA) believes the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program may have a unique role in leading the comeback of businesses in disadvantaged communities. It may also reinvigorate commercial real estate overall. Christian told National Real Estate Investor that both President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have praised the Opportunity Zone program as an economic development tool and that they’ll give it even more support as greater transparency and accountability is being built into the program.

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years and, and OZ is the most flexible and impactful economic development program that I’ve seen in my career,” observed Christian. “It works really well for real estate, it’s way more flexible than a 1031 exchange and it’s fantastic for operating businesses.”

Part of the power of Opportunity Zones is that they’re not restricted to real estate. “A third of my opportunity zone business is on operating businesses,” Christian told The New York Times recently. “They’re accelerating quicker than real estate projects at this point.” Practicing what he preaches, Christian is creating an OZ fund to finance the expansion of a manufacturing business, of which he is a co-owner, that converts shipping containers into housing for homeless and low-income earners.

In these uncertain economic times, KAREN KOCH, a partner of Bedford Cost Segregation, (Louisville, KY) told The Tax Adviser that research and development (R&D) tax credits can be highly effective way for all kinds of businesses to replenish valuable dollars spent on new and innovative products or processes. Koch said many companies leave thousands of potential R&D credits on the table because they think they must create breakthrough innovations from scratch. In reality, Koch said they can earn valuable R&D credits simply by properly documenting improvement they’ve made in their products or internal processes.

Speaking of processes, KYLE WALTERS (L&H CPAs, Dallas, TX) shared great tips for cutting through “analysis paralysis” and “expanding the power of your network” in separate recent columns for Accounting Today.

Finally, RANDY FOX, founder of the advanced planning firm, Two Hawks Consulting, (Skokie, IL) told WealthManagement.com why he was committed to raising $10 billion for charity. Hint: It’s about better educating advisors; not about finding big money donors.

Conclusion

My dad always told me things are never as bad as they seem when the chips are down, just as things are never as good as they seem when you’re on a roll. There are plenty of ways to prosper in good times and bad. As financier George Soros said: “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux. Money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” 

There will be plenty of time for that in 2021. While you’re at it, give your folks a call. They’d love to hear from you and chances are they’re right.

What’s keeping your clients (and peers) up at night? See our 2021 CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™.

 

#practicemanagement, #thought leadership, #wisdom, #blakechristian, #GuyBaker, #thepersonalcfo, @BedfordCostSeg, Randyfox, wealthadvisorconfidence

Focus on the One Thing You Need Get Done Today, Tomorrow (and Next Year)

I don’t care how disciplined you think you are; the Holidays are a time of huge distraction. Even in a normal year, it’s easy to let slip our to-do lists, budgets, client follow-ups and timesheets when gift lists, parties, family gatherings and travel plans are tugging at our subconscious. That’s okay. If ever we needed a reason to celebrate with friends and family it was 2020.

Just realize that it could be tougher than ever to get refocused when the calendar flips over to Monday January 3, 2021…. especially if you’re still working from home.

You may not like what you’re seeing when you finally confront your bathroom scale, your credit card statement or your overflowing inbox, but eventually you must pay the piper. You’re not going to reverse a month’s worth of letting your guard down in one day. Don’t let that put you in a post-Holiday funk.

Hint: New Year’s Resolutions rarely work. There is a better way.

Two of my unofficial mentors--Randy Shattuck and Josh Patrick--have some great suggestions for managing your re-entry back to the daily grind.

According to Patrick, founding partner of Stage 2 Planning Partners and host of The Sustainable Business podcast, highly driven business owners and professionals try to get too many things done at once. That’s because their boundless energy and determination makes them feel invincible.

“When I was in younger, I would always have 20, 30, sometimes 40 projects that I wanted to get done,” recalled Patrick. “I spent all my free strategic time starting at this list, wondering what to do first. I would create one, then start another, and then another with nothing ever getting finished.”

Sound familiar?

Ultimately Patrick discovered the concept of “working on a backlog” in which you never allow yourself to work on more than on one or two projects at a time. Everything else should go into a backlog. According to Patrick, you take those 10, 15, 20 projects that you’re desperately trying to attack today, make a list, and score each project on a scale of 1-10 based on importance. Then choose the one or two projects with the highest score and you work only on those projects until they’re done. Isn’t that a lot better than playing Task-List Whack-a-Mole?

Josh’s latest video has more great prioritization tips.

Shattuck agreed. After years of working with leaders of professional service firms, he said he’s learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work to produce growth. Turns out lack of focus--not lack of time--is the real culprit.

“Most leaders of professional service firms can define their top priorities with broad brush strokes, especially when establishing annual plans,” observed Shattuck in a recent Forbes article. “But it’s the stuff of everyday decisions and tasks that get in the way. Most people are so overcome by the minutia of little tasks that the big ideas never get the time or energy they deserve. This is a major problem because big ideas are the ones that produce growth,” added the founder of  The Shattuck Group consultancy. 

Randy believes it all boils down to two things: Getting things done and Focusing on The One.

1. GETTING THINGS DONE. With GTD, you write down everything rattling around in your mind and then categorize the list according to three simple criteria:

a) Do it now, for simple tasks you can do right away. “These are gratifying because it makes you feel really productive,” related Shattuck.

b) Do it later, for longer-term tasks.

c) Do more research, for tasks that are not quite actionable yet.

Shattuck believes the real benefit of GTD is getting things out of your head so you can fully focus on what really needs to get done right now. That requires a different approach that he calls “The One.”

2. FOCUS ON THE ONE. Shattuck admits he worked 80 hours a week when he first started his firm and would immediately tackle every single task that popped up. But after about five years of near-burnout his mindset shifted. Instead, Shattuck said he started to look “very closely” at how certain activities produced growth while others did not produce growth, even though each task on his list was considered important. “That’s when I began to ask myself this all-important question: ‘What is the one thing I need to get done today to ensure we keep growing?’”

According to Shattuck, the activities that produce growth are not necessarily more time-consuming or more difficult to achieve than other tasks. “But if we don’t prioritize them, they won’t get done or they will only get done at half the level of effectiveness that we need.”

As our client Kyle Walters explained in a recent Accounting Today article about The 64/4 Rule….a whopping two thirds of our results (64%) come from just 1/25^th (4%) of our time and effort. Think about that when you feel overwhelmed by your ever-growing To-Do list. Two-third of your results come from just 4 percent of time!

Conclusion

Most New Year’s resolutions fail because we set goals that are too ambitious, too hard to measure or too easy to defer. And that stems from not being honest with yourself. Take a page from Shattuck, Patrick, and Walters. Ask yourself what absolutely must get done today and how much you can reasonably do in a day--and do well. It won’t be an easy transition (trust me I know). But you’ll eventually find yourself with a lot more clarity which will translate into working fewer hours, while spending more time with the clients you like and ultimately higher revenue.

What’s your take? Please share. I’d like to learn more

#practicemanagement, #focus, #timemanagement

Advisors: Do You Suffer from ‘Smartest Kid in the Class Syndrome?”

“Early in my career, I used to get very excited whenever clients came in for a consultation or review meeting,” said Kyle Walters, an L&H CPAs partner and author of The Personal CFO. “I really thought they were coming in to learn about all the latest developments I was following in accounting, tax and personal finance. It took me about 10 years to understand from their body language that they were just zoned out, waiting patiently for me to finish my lecture so they could ask the only relevant question—“What does this mean for me?” added Walters, a longtime HB client and regular columnist for Accounting Today.

Walters said it’s like taking your car to the mechanic and having to spend hours listening to him explain the details of what’s wrong with your crankshaft or carburetor. Unless you’re really into cars, you probably don’t care. Walters said that for years he was like Tony, the overzealous mechanic from the Seinfeld show. “My wife would hear me on a call and say, ‘You shouldn’t talk so much; they don’t care as much as you think they do.’”

Don’t talk down to clients

According to Walters, you don’t want to overwhelm clients with how much you know, and you NEVER want to talk down to them (or worse, talk down to their spouses). That’s not only arrogant; you’re implying they’re not smart enough to understand a tax-related subject. Chances are they’re smarter than you, which is why they have the means to afford a professional CPA and other financial advisors.

No offense, but they’re just not interested in taxes, asset allocation and Monte Carlo simulation. They’re coming to your office to get advice—not a jargon-filled finance lecture about RMDs, NOL, EBIDTA and Alpha.

By the way: The spouse who talks the most in the meeting with you is very often NOT the financial decision maker in a married couple. On the elevator down to the lobby, guess who’s giving the thumbs-up or thumbs-down sign? Hint: It ain’t the husband. And who is most likely to switch advisors after her husband passes away. Right again!

Clients appreciate simplicity, not complexity

Again, too many advisors think clients are impressed by how much they know about the new tax reform, or Modern Portfolio Theory or estate tax laws. In reality, they will be rewarded if they can simplify all of a client’s financial issues and say: “Here’s what all this means for you and you’re going to be OK if you do the following things. These are the next steps,” Walters added.

This is where advisors have a really hard time: Clients don’t want to pay you for data. They’re paying you for advice and educated recommendations so they can make smarter financial decisions.

Conclusion

If you’re still in doubt, use the “What / So What / Now What” filter……Don’t just give clients The What (i.e., data and information). You need to give them the So What (i.e., What does it mean for me?) and the Now What (i.e., What Do I do About it?). They’ll be glad you did and so will the people they refer you to.

What’s your take? Please share. I’d like to learn more


#practicemanagement #thoughtleadership #thepersonalcfo 

Two Simple Vocal Techniques for Reducing Stress When Presenting

By Tina Dietz, guest columnist

If 2020 wasn’t stressful enough, now we have the Holidays, year-end deadlines and uncertainty about everything from tax rates and vaccine rollout, to the estate tax exemption to PPP loan forgiveness (or not).

What happens to your voice when you’re in a state of tension, stress, fear, worry or anxiety? Your shoulders naturally raise to protect the vulnerable throat and neck. That’s not great if you’re meeting with an important new client, delivering a presentation, or appearing on a webinar, podcast or radio show.

The throat is the main conduit between your body and your mind, representing the link between your thoughts and feelings. When you create more freedom in your throat and neck, you open your ability to express yourself more effectively and generate a greater sense of confidence and wellbeing.

The musculature of the throat is incredibly complex, with fine, interwoven connections that provide flexibility of movement. We often that freedom of movement for granted until we spend too many hours at the computer or experience high-stress levels. Then we notice that awful tension in the throat, neck and shoulders.

While there’s no machine at the gym to exercise your neck and throat, you can use your voice to release the tension in your throat and, really, your entire body.

Here are two techniques to consider for reducing your stress levels immediately:

1. Sigh like my Italian grandmother.

My great-grandmother was a 4’5” marvel of efficiency and energy. In the afternoons, when she allowed herself to rest in her chair for a while (usually while crocheting something), she would repeatedly release a deep sigh. At the time I wondered why, but now I know that she was releasing tension in her body.

Take a deep belly breath in through your nose and allow yourself to sigh it out. (Bonus points for allowing any sound to come out with the sigh.) The long exhale combined with the vibration of the "ah" sound triggers your parasympathetic nervous system and your body’s relaxation response.

If you’re trying to feel more relaxed before you work with a client, enter a meeting or wind down at the end of the day, this is one of my favorite exercises. 

2. Try the One-Word Rant.

My e-book, Problem Solving in 10 Minutes, shares a creative problem-solving technique I developed based on our the human tendency to worry and complain. Often, our concern is driven by something we are deeply committed to. Otherwise, we wouldn't get upset!

A shortcut version of this technique is the One Word Rant. The word is, "WHY." Why? Because that's the question we're really asking ourselves at the heart of our stress and upset.

"Why is this happening?"

"Why are they doing/saying that?"

"Why can't I feel better?

When we allow ourselves to express our frustration in a safe, quick and healthy way, the brain and body respond with a cascade of hormones and neurotransmitters that make us feel good, such as epinephrine and testosterone (yep, even for women) and we sense more clarity and feel more focused.

The technique is simple. But you'll want to be in a private, quiet place to use it, since it involves some vocalization. I've been known to do the One Word Rant in my car.

Ideally, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or wider, and semi-squat like a sumo wrestler. Throw your hands in the air above your head, take a deep breath and loudly exclaim “WHYYYYY!" You don't want to strain your voice or throat, but you definitely want to express your "why" loud and proud.

Yes, I’m serious. I’ve facilitated the One Word Rant in groups as large as 50 people0—including business leaders-- and the results have been amazing. The simplicity of the "why" allowed the group to bond without having to explain or share a lot of personal feelings that may have caused them to feel vulnerable. At the same time, that shared experience of making a loud noise together in unison elevated the energy in the entire room. The group collectively felt heard and acknowledged.

The chemical cascade of hormones and endorphins the One Word Rant releases is simply wonderful. Generally, this technique is more energizing than the Italian Grandma Sigh, so I tend to use it if I’m having a frustrating day or if I need to boost my energy before speaking or a meeting.

The One Word Rant is also a fabulous tool to show your kids to help them learn to shift their stress and state of mind quickly, without a lot of "talking about it" that may be difficult for them to articulate or stressful to share with a parent.

Conclusion

We lead busy lives and we quick solutions. Whether heading to the podium, the studio, the conference room or simply into rush hour traffic, try these techniques this week to reduce your stress and keep yourself going and growing.


Do you have a surefire technique for calming your nerves when the pressure is on? Please share. I’d like to learn more.

Tina Dietz is an internationally acclaimed speaker, audio publisher and podcast advisor to HB Publishing & Marketing Company. Visit her at Twin Flames Studios

The Power of Your Byline

Even in this digital age, a bylined article is one of the most effective tools available for establishing credibility with your target audience. Putting your name on a published work positions you as an expert in your niche—a leader among your peers. It draws attention to the stature and strength of your firm and it helps differentiate you from the competition and other pretenders.

As author and motivational speaker Denise Brosseau has said: “Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas”

As our annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™ revealed, publishing bylined articles is the SECOND most effective thought leadership tactic out of more than two dozen tactics we surveyed. Half of respondents (50%) rated bylined articles “highly” or “extremely” effective—a number which has risen to to nearly 60 percent since the pandemic began. Among firms expecting double-digit growth in 2020, nearly seven in ten (68%) rated bylined articles “very” or “extremely” effective for establishing thought leadership.

Look at the multiplier effect of recent bylines from HB clients taking part in our Just in Time media outreach program:

•  RANDY FOX (Two Hawks Consulting) has a regular monthly column in WealthManagement.com: 
  
  
• BRAD KRAUS (James Capital Advisors) was recently published in Commercial Observer:  Bye-Bye Boutiques
  
  
• KYLE WALTERS (L&H CPAS) has a biweekly column in Accounting Today.
  
  
• BLAKE CHRISTIAN (HCVT, LLP) was recently published in Accounting Today  (6 ways opportunity zone expansion can aid COVID-19 recovery). This led to interviews in The New York Times  (Despite Challenges, Opportunity Zones Provide Much-Needed Capital , The Journal of Accountancy (Companies Rethink the Office Amid Coronavirus Pandemic) and Globe Street (What Biden Could Mean for Opportunity Zones).
  
  
• DR. GUY BAKER, Ph.D. (Wealth Teams Alliance) was recently published in Thrive Global (Everyone’s Situation Is Different). This led to interviews in Forbes (What You Can and Should Do About Your 401k Fees), Fox Business News (Mortgage refinancing is about to get more expensive — here's why). And US News & World Report (What to Consider Before Getting a Reverse Mortgage in Retirement).
  
  
• KAREN KOCH (Bedford Cost Segregation) was recently published in AICPA Tax Insider
  (R&D tax credits: A valuable cash infusion for businesses), which led to guest columns in Midwest Real Estate News (The myth of the 179D EPAct and the $1.80-square-foot deduction) and guest speaking opportunities at numerous state CPA Societies.

How to get bylined articles published

Even if you don’t have well established relationships with journalists and editors, getting a bylined article published is not as daunting as you might think. Just remember, the media doesn’t owe you anything. The media doesn’t exist to make you famous or to help you sell products and services. The media exists to keep powerful people and organizations in check, and it exists to keep its readers and followers as well informed as possible.

That’s where you come in.

Look at the publications, newsfeeds, websites and blogs that you read regularly. Which ones do you admire most? What holes in their editorial coverage can you help them fill? With newsrooms shrinking across the landscape, busy editors love having knowledgeable and reliable outside sources they can tap for a quick quote on tight deadline. They love having reliable outside contributors who can submit a well-written, well-researched article on time--one that resonates with their readers. 

Make a busy editor’s job easier

Few have time to have time to play golf, have lunch, or grab a cup of coffee these days. But they WILL respond to a relevant pitch that shows you’re familiar with their work, their editorial style and their target readers. Reach out with a brief email, phone call and contact on twitter or LinkedIn if possible. Share links to other relevant things you’ve written or presented about the topic you’re proposing. It’s okay if that work has never been published.

Make sure to follow up multiple times after pitching—say at weekly intervals. Journalists are extremely busy people. Just because your story didn’t get picked up a week or two ago, doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of publication today. The world changes fast. Have a thick skin. Be persistent without being pushy.

Whatever you do, DON’T SEND A COMPLETE MANUSCRIPT OR ARTICLE ON SPEC. That’s a rookie mistake and editors hate that. Just submit a brief outline of your proposed article and make it crystal clear to the editor what’s in it for them and what’s in it for their readers. It’s not about what’s in it for you.

The resources section of our website has more about making a busy journalist’s life easier.

Conclusion

As motivational speaker, Jay Baer, has said: “A thought leader is someone with proven expertise and experience who isn’t afraid to share it with the world without direct compensation.” Doesn’t that sound like you?


What’s your take? I’d love to hear from you.

#bestpractices, #thoughtleadership, #bylinedarticles, #pressmentions, #PR,  #Denise Brosseau, #Jay Baer