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Personal Development
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Forbes, A Once-Great Financial Magazine, Is No Longer So Great |
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013 18:00
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Tags: Offbeat | online financial advice | research | writing
A Forbes blogger today spends more than 750 words telling readers not to invite to people to online events a month or two ahead of time. It’s a shame what Forbes has become. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
Forbes used to be a great magazine, filled with nothing but intelligent analysis and good reporting. Now it’s just part of the cacophony of the Web, screaming and streaming tons of content but much of it of little value.
The sexy headline that turns the world on its head seems to be a requirement nowadays in online journalism. In this instance, the author is not literally suggesting you do everything at the last moment. He’s just saying that you should not invite people to webinars a month in advance.
When you invite people to conventions at a hotel in Las Vegas, the author basically tells us, attendees must book airfare and hotel room. You need invitations and marketing six or eight weeks ahead of the event.
However, since no one goes anyplace to attend a virtual meeting, everybody can decide at the very last minute.
That’s ostensibly the point of this post coming from an expert on building business: People don’t need to book virtual event six or eight weeks ahead of schedule. Hence, the crazy claim about waiting until the last minute being the new best practice.
Look, anyone who knows anything about conducting Web events knows you can invite people right up until the event occurs and you don’t need as long a lead time to market events. Obviously! I don’t need 750 words on that idea.
To make matters worse, the entire post is just a ploy for the author to tell you about a Web summit he is running, which he plugs at the end.
That’s the kind of content you get all the time on Forbes now. While you do also get some excellent analysis, there is no consistency. Forbes has damaged its brand by inviting too many people to write under its banner.
With so much content coming at you these days, you have to be picky about what you read. I find myself keeping away from Forbes because it has become so spotty.
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When Advisors Write, Simple Beats Complicated Every Time |
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Saturday, June 08, 2013 19:07
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Tags: client communications | client education | marketing
When advisors write for or talk to clients and potential clients, simpler is always better. That sounds pretty simple, but it isn’t.
The world of finance, with all of its markets and underlying forces, is highly complex and by no means easily understood. Financial advisors understand the markets far better than most investors. (Warren Buffet would be an exception, of course.) But because you understand this Byzantine world so much better than most people, it is actually more difficult to explain its in and outs.
What’s the best way for advisors to get their messages understood? A good answer—maybe the best answer— is KISS, keep it simple stupid. This Website Is For Financial Professionals Only
KISS evolved from a principle that was used by the U.S. Navy in 1960 to explain design procedures. The Navy’s KISS principle stated that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complex; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
The acronym KISS reportedly was coined by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (creators of the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird spy planes). The principle is best exemplified in the story of Johnson handing a team of design engineers a handful of tools, with the challenge that the jet aircraft they were designing must be repairable by an average mechanic in the field under combat conditions using only those tools. Hence, the “stupid” refers to the relationship between the way things break and the sophistication available to fix them.
It’s easy to say, “Keep it simple stupid,” but how do you translate the complexities of personal finance to your clients and potential clients plainly so they will understand it easily? Or maybe even find it interesting.
For the answer, let’s look at the writing of novelist Ernest Hemingway, who is considered by most readers and critics as one of America’s best writers. Others, including some noteworthy writers, among them Kurt Vonnegut, criticized Hemingway for his simplicity.
Vonnegut said Hemmingway used words that anyone “can spell and understand.”
What’s wrong with that? So Hemingway wrote using words that are easy to understand. And words that are easy to spell. You actually don’t even need to be able to spell the words you write these days, as long as you understand them. Understanding is what writing is all about.
Think about simplicity when you sit down to write. You are the financial expert, and you understand the nuances. Before you write anything, thing about the eastiest way to explain it.
The simpler your words, the simpler your message, and the easier you will be to understand.
Make each paragraph a separate idea. Keep sentences short. After you write a sentence or two, read it over and cut out as many words as possible.
If you can use a word with two syllables instead of three, do it. If you can use one syllable instead of two, do it.
Some people think “big” words and complicated sentences make for good writing. Otherwise, William Faulkner never would have sold one book. For advisors, however, keep it simple.
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The No. 1 Most Common Writing Mistake By Advisors: Capital Or Lowercase Letters |
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013 15:31
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Tags: client communications | writing What is the most common mistake financial advisors make when writing personal columns and articles for publication in their newsletters? Improper capitalization is far and away the most common error they make.
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Many writers – even a lot of professionals – make errors that include incorrect verb tenses; prefixes and suffixes; compound adjectives; combining one-word forms; split infinitives, split verb phrases; etc., but let’s take a look at capitalization now. In coming weeks, I will examine the other types of common writing errors, and what can be done to correct them.
When I say advisors are frequently guilty of capital offenses, I'm speaking from first-hand knowledge. I've been editing advisor copy in newsletters produced for Advisor Products for many months. Feel free to think of me as your editor, when I offer you these ideas. Here goes:
You may be the boss of your firm and think that the word president, when referring to you, is capitalized, e.g. John Smith, President of ABC Financial Advisors. Wrong!
Not even the president of the United States or the pope merit capitalization if referring to them as the president or the pope. The initial letters are capitalized if the titles are used before their names, e.g. President Eisenhower or Pope Paul; or ABC Financial Advisors President John Smith.
Company job titles, when used after the titleholders’ names, call for lowercase initial letters, e.g. John Smith, president of ABC Financial Advisors; John Doe, accountant; Jane Doe, field specialist, etc.
Other common capitalization errors include:
1) cities of Detroit and Chicago – the two cities are separate and do not have a common proper name, therefore no capital c
2) lakes Huron and Michigan – again, no proper common bond and no capital l
3) Southern Alabama and Northern Texas – southern and northern indicate direction and not specific areas; South Alabama and North Texas call for capitalized first letters because they are specific areas
4) Nassau and Duval counties – again, no common proper name and no capital c.
Academic degrees are written incorrectly by a large number of financial advisors. If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone’s credentials, the preferred form is to avoid an abbreviation and use instead a phrase such as: John Jones, who has a doctorate in psychology.
Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc. Here’s another example – John Doe, who has a B.A. Degree in Business Administration, wrong; John Doe, who has a B.A. degree in business administration, right.
Use such abbreviations as B.A., M.A., LL.D. and Ph.D. only when the need to identify many individuals by the degree on first reference would make the preferred form cumbersome. Use these abbreviations only after a full name – never after just a last name.
When used after a name, an academic abbreviation is set off by commas: Daniel Moynihan, Ph.D., spoke.
This information on academic degrees was taken from The Associated Press Stylebook, which is one of the two guides financial advisors can use as standards for proper capitalization, as well as other English-language applications. The other guide is Webster’s New World Dictionary. Together, the stylebook and dictionary provide much of the information any writer needs to write and spell correctly. Most newspapers and magazines in the United States use the two resources as the basis for their writing and editing guidelines.
The AP Stylebook is known fondly as the journalist’s “Bible.” You can purchase a new print copy of the stylebook at Amazon.com for about $21 or $22, plus shipping. You also can look for a copy at your local bookstore or shop The AP Bookstore online. And you can purchase the Online AP Stylebook for $26 a year. Search the Web for AP Stylebook Online to place your order.
Many people, especially older ones, probably will find the print version easier to use. With it, you look up items alphabetically, as you would in an old-fashioned dictionary.
The 2012 print edition provides fundamental guidelines on spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage, with new chapters on fashion and broadcast terms and an expanded social media chapter, in addition to chapters on food, social media, business, sports and media law. The 2012 stylebook includes more than 270 new or revised entries since 2011.
You can purchase a print copy of Webster’s New World Dictionary online or at a local bookstore for about $14.99, plus shipping if you buy online. You also can download Webster’s New World or Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary and Thesaurus for free.
Have a nice day of writing, and searching for correct entries.
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If Punctuation Presents A Problem To Financial Advisors, Then Hyphens Are In Crisis |
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Sunday, May 26, 2013 16:38
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I edit columns that financial advisors write in their newsletters and see the writing of various advisors all the time, so I’m speaking from experience. Improper punctuation is the second leading type of mistake financial advisors make when writing their newsletters, and my guess is it spills over into other forms of communication, such as brochures, letters, reports, etc.
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In fairness, advisors are probably not any worse at punctuation than other people, although the mathematical orientation of advisors perhaps makes them more likely to be deficient at punctuation. But if punctuation is a problem for advisors, then hyphenation is a crisis. It’s amazing how many advisors don’t know how to use hyphens properly. In view of that, this blog post will focus on how to use hyphens properly.
Let’s start with some basics. English language punctuation marks include: Ampersand (&), apostrophe (’), colon (:), comma (,), dash (–), ellipsis (…), exclamation point (!), hyphen (-), parentheses ( ), period (.), question mark (?), quotation marks (“ ”) and semicolon (;).
Most advisors don’t have problems with periods, commas, question marks, exclamation points and quotation marks. But they do have problems trying to use the other punctuation marks correctly.
Here are some definitions and examples as given by the grammarians and editors who helped compile The Associated Press Stylebook:
Hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words. Use of the hyphen is far from standardized. It is optional in most cases, a matter of taste, judgment and style sense. But the fewer hyphens the better; use them only when not using them causes confusion. (Small-business owner, but health care center.)
Some guidelines concerning usage of hyphens:
Avoid Ambiguity. Use a hyphen whenever ambiguity would result if it were omitted: The president will speak to small-business men. (Businessmen normally is one word. But the president will speak to small businessmen is unclear.) Another example: He recovered his health. He re-covered the leaky roof.
Compound Modifiers. When a compound modifier—two or more words that express a single concept—precedes a noun, use hyphens to link all the words in the compound except the adverb very and all adverbs that end in -ly: a first-quarter touchdown, a bluish-green dress, a full-time job, a well-known man, a better-qualified woman, a know-it-all attitude, a very good time, an easily remembered rule.
Many combinations that are hyphenated before a noun are not hyphenated when they occur after a noun: The team scored in the first quarter. The dress, a bluish green, was attractive on her. She works full time. His attitude suggested that he knew it all.
But when a modifier that would be hyphenated before a noun occurs instead after a form of the verb to be, the hyphen usually must be retained to avoid confusion: The man is well-known. The woman is quick-witted. The children are soft-spoken. The play is second-rate.
The principle of using a hyphen to avoid confusion explains why no hyphen is required with very and -ly words. Readers can expect them to modify the word that follows. But if a combination such as little-known man were not hyphenated, the reader could logically be expecting little to be followed by a noun, as in little man. Instead, the reader encountering little known would have to back up mentally and make the compound connection on his own.
Two-Thought Compounds. serio-comic, socio-economic.
Compound Proper Nouns And Adjectives. Use a hyphen to designate dual heritage: Italian-American, Mexican-American. No hyphen, however, for French Canadian or Latin American.
Avoid Duplicated Vowels, Tripled Consonants. Examples: anti-intellectual, pre-empt, shell-like.
Numerals. Use a hyphen to separate figures in odds, ratios, scores, some fractions and some vote tabulations. When large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a word ending in -y to another word: twenty-one, fifty-five, etc.
Suspensive Hyphenation. The form: He received a 10- to 20-year sentence in prison.
If you still don’t have a print copy of The Associated Press Stylebook or an online subscription, consider getting one If the individual entry you want to look up is not listed in the stylebook, use the first listed entry in Webster's New World College Dictionary.
Prefixes and suffixes present a world of confusion all by themselves. We’ll write about them later.
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Embracing Change Can Be The Key To Expanding Your Business |
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Friday, March 01, 2013 20:32
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The words Bob Dylan wrote 40 years ago, "For the times, they are a-changin" ring truer today than ever before. The way almost every business is conducted continues to change at dizzying speed. The more we hold onto the old ways, the harder life becomes.
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Despite all reports to the contrary, we are not experiencing the end of the world...just the end of business as we know it. So the first thing to do is to get centered (See “How Meditation Enables You To Make Better Decisions Leading To More Success")
Get quiet and reflect on who you want to be going into this next phase of the business cycle. This way, you can remain calm, fearless and proactive, rather than reacting to every new idea that comes along, out of fear of not making enough money, or that you're going to miss the next big opportunity.
The Great Recession forced a lot of people to get real, and to stop buying things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like. Now it's time to get real with yourself, your family and your work. The more authentic you get, the easier life becomes.
Take the path of least resistance. Create products and services that your target markets are most likely to purchase. There is a collective shift going on not only in what services Clients need and are willing to purchase, but in the way they are purchasing it as well. For example, even if you can’t participate in social media, you can certainly conduct webinars, thereby putting yourself out there face-to-face with potential clients you would never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
Even better, why not let your target market “fill the room” for you? For example, conduct an educational webinar for the local chapter of your target market’s association. Let them blast out an invitation to their membership. You can record it, and then archive and post it on both yours and your target market’s website for future viewing. You now have a permanent record of your genius that markets 24/7 for you, using the latest technology, allowing potential Clients to get to know, like and trust you.
In addition, what product or service have you always wanted to offer that your Clients need, would be profitable, fun and reflect the real you? Need a hint? Ask your existing Clients. If you don't have the time, desire or expertise to produce a new product or service, consider outsourcing and forming strategic alliances that will allow you to reach new markets and share
the revenue.
Instead of getting 100% of nothing from a product or service that never gets to market, you can split the revenue received from a strategic alliance between you, your marketing or production partner. You get a new offering into the marketplace at no cost to you, and it's a great way to test your new ideas without taking on additional financial risk.
Now is the time to proactively take advantage of the changes surrounding every Advisor in what you offer and how you deliver it.
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