Shortly after I started Advisor Products in mid-1996, Bob Veres, who really liked me back then, wrote a rave review about my client newsletter, and Jay was one of about 150 advisors who contacted me for information as a result. I called every single one of those 150 advisors and spoke with each one about their practice and my new business.
Jay did not buy the client-newsletter back then, but I always remember speaking with him then because he was smart, independent, and thoughtful. Over the past 15 years, I’d see periodic requests from Jay for information about Advisor Products and we ran into each other at conferences every few years.
Three years ago, when I started a weekly educational webinar series for private wealth advisors, Jay became one of hundreds of irregular attendees at A4A’s weekly webinars at 4 p.m. EST every Friday.
Yesterday, I saw Jay’s name on a website order form faxed to Advisor Products. As you can imagine I was happy to see that. So I wanted to call Jay to say thank you for, at long last, becoming a client of Advisor Products.
When I checked the Advisor Products CRM system for Jay’s phone number, I was surprised to see that Jay has been a website client of Advisor Products since early 2004. Which brings me to my point.
Jay said he faxed the order form because he wanted a website redesign and AdvisorVault. He’d been thinking about doing it for two or three years. Sending PDFs by email, after encrypting and password-protecting it, was too much hassle. Plus, he wanted an organized database of his clients’ financial documents. And Jay said he really is looking forward to sharing documents with accountants and attorneys who work for his 140 clients.
Then, Jay told me what he thought about A4A and he told me it was really good. He laughed with me about how totally independent A4A is on topics affecting the advisor business and professional movement. And he told me that he appreciated my calling to get his feedback.
“Happy Thanksgiving,” Jay said before we hung up.
Which really does bring me to my point.
My conversation with Jay reminded me that I am so thankful to you for caring about my work and for your encouragement.
Advisor Products, the marketing company I started in 1996, is big enough so that I did not know that Jay was a client. Thankfully, that business is so strong that I can’t know all of the advisors using our services, and it is growing stronger now because we’re doing work that helps advisors and their clients.
Meanwhile, Advisors4Advisors, the online practice management website for private wealth advisors I started a little over two years ago, is poised to do great things, and it gives me great satisfaction.
Jay gave me great feedback on my work at Advisor Products and A4A, which reminds how lucky I am.
My two kids are in good colleges and growing into good people. My wife still seems to love me and our life, and our three dogs are loyal pals.
And because of the support you’ve given me, I pretty much every morning wake up and can’t wait to work.
Advisors have been very, very good to me and I just want to say thank you.
