Technology has spoiled us. Actions that used to take days are now a click or flick away.
Unless, of course, you’re downloading something, and you encounter the dreaded “progress bar.” It never moves. It never ends. It’s processing … forever.
That’s a little how I feel about getting back to you with my review of the inaugural Evidence-Based Investment Conference I attended in mid-November.
If you haven’t been paying close attention, you may not have noticed that Dimensional Fund Advisors has just released a powerful new, massively overhauled public-facing website, www.dimensional.com.
It’s just so Dimensional, isn’t it, to do something fabulous and virtually whisper about the news?
Now, whenever you’re struggling to explain to current or would-be clients why they shouldn’t be loading up on gold, chasing the latest red-hot ETF, dumping everything into an S&P 500 index fund, avoiding all things international, or otherwise pursuing the most popular possibilities of the day … you’ve got a great first stop on the tour. Just point your visitor to Dimensional’s new site in his or her chosen language, and your work may very nearly be done.
Using the U.S. site as my reference point, here are a few of my favorite things:
Being Seen – I wouldn’t swear by it, but I think their “find an advisor” function has gotten a lot more functional. That’s good news for those of you who would like to be found.
Being Heard – You and I have known all along that Dimensional’s returns are a thing of beauty, and that its track record for inflows is often second to none … especially during the ugliest times when everybody else is heading for the hills. Now, these sorts of critical stats are almost the first thing a visitor sees, in stunningly simple glory. They’ve even managed to keep the disclosures from cluttering up the scenery. (Hopefully no compliance attorneys were harmed in the making of this site.)
Being Quietly Compliant – Sure, you may run aground on the shoals of compliance if you start showcasing outperforming returns. Dimensional’s disclosure requirements are not the same as yours. You should be able to point visitors to their site and let them do the talking for you.
Being True to Form – For those of us already familiar with Dimensional, the site is a fun and fresh reminder of everything we already know and appreciate about them – the history, the science, the academic underpinnings.
As we reflect on the outcome of yesterday’s presidential elections, you may enjoy a reminder that, big picture, the world has a way of continuing to turn, come what may. My personal inspiration came last week when I took a little longer than usual to knock off for the day, scheduling a 6 pm Skype with a new friend I’d recently met: Phil Stockton of Private Capital Ltd.
BREAKING NEWS: As I was putting together this week’s whimsy, I was delighted to see that my British communications colleague and Evidence-Based Investor author Robin Powell published a podcast conversation between us. In “What’s With the Name?” we explore the origin and meaning of Evidence-Based Investing. I also happened to mention my conversation with Phil toward the end. I do hope you’ll give the show a listen. We’re all one, big happy global family!
Now, back to my own post: I was willing to delay happy hour last week, because my Wednesday evening was Phil’s Thursday morning, and another busy day for him as he and his partners Rick Adkinson and Mathew Bate are spreading the mostly unheard-of word on evidence-based investing to families sorely in need of hearing more about it – in Hong Kong.
I don’t leave my corporate world headquarters (third bedroom) that often, let alone schlep across the country for a one-day gathering. But there are so many signs that evidence-based investing is taking off in a big, exciting, scary, glorious, challenging, amazing, awesome, perfect storm of a way, I couldn’t resist being part of it.
Normally, when I seek legal counsel for anything, and I compare the hourly rate to my own, my first thought is, I am so in the wrong profession. In my next life, I intend to be an intellectual property attorney. Seriously, that’s how far gone I am; I think that sounds fascinating.
But back to Fred and his extended series, “Interesting Angles on the DOL’s Fiduciary Rule.” These are excellent legal opinions on a matter that either already is or is going to be of critical importance to you and your firm … and it’s FREE.
Have you established a LinkedIn profile? If not, for crying out loud, get ’er done (although that’s the subject for another Wednesday Whimsy). If you do have one, that’s fantastic, but I’ve stumbled across something worth double checking, to ensure that your LinkedIn profile isn’t inadvertently steering visitors to the wrong address.
Every so often, when I click on an advisor’s company name, and then click on the website address on the resulting page, I end up being taken to a site that may bear the firm’s name but be a different – wrong – address. You probably don’t need a Communications professional like me to tell you why that’s unfortunate, especially if that firm happens to be a similarly named competitor of yours. I’ve seen that happen.
So here’s how to double check your address in a few, easy clicks, using screen grabs from my own profile so you can follow along (and feel free to connect with me while you’re at it). To paraphrase Dr. Emmett Brown from “Back to the Future” (one of my faves), “Please excuse the crudity of these models. I didn’t have time to build them to scale or paint them.”
A few months ago, I was privileged to be introduced to Tara Hunt of Truly Social, while collaborating on a Canadian evidence-based advisor firm’s marketing and communications (or “marcomm,” as we in the biz call it, because it sounds so much snazzier).
While you may or may not be in the market for a full-on engagement with a marketer of Tara’s stature, she shares a ton of excellent stuff for free on her YouTube channel. I encourage you to visit her channel and click on the “subscribe” button toward the upper-right corner of her page. You’ll then be notified whenever she adds new material.
In particular, as someone who generally prefers books over video (Shhh, don’t tell Tara!), I perked up at her recommendation of the fast-reading “Talking to Humans” by Giff Constable.
How fast? I watched Tara’s video earlier this afternoon, downloaded the $0.99 Kindle copy of Constable’s book immediately thereafter (or there’s a free PDF version), and am writing this post about an hour later.
Don’t let the attractive price or brevity fool you. If “Talking to Humans” is good enough for Tara, that’s certainly good enough for me … and you.
From my perspective, the book isn’t really about marketing as much as it is about understanding who your existing and would-be clients are, what they really want out of life, and how you may be able to best help them with that.
Client discovery, in other words.
“Here’s what customer discovery is not,” writes Constable. “It is not asking people to design your product for you. It is not about abdicating your vision. It is also not about pitching. A natural tendency is to try to sell other people on your idea, but your job in customer discovery is to learn.”
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Constable’s book should provide you with some worthwhile new ideas to spice up your practice development. It’s divided into two parts: A fictional case study to introduce the essential ingredients to client discovery, and a second part that is packed with practical tips on how to proceed.
All that, and Tara’s video will also treat you to a classic video clip of The Odd Couple’s Felix Unger parsing the word “assume.” Do you remember that one? Don’t assume you’ve got nothing to learn from “Talking to Humans.” Give it a read today.
Love it or hate it, every firm needs it. I’m talking about branding. Whether you’re building a fresh website, adding signage in your office or streaming out reams of corporate communications, the branding that accompanies it is to your firm what that “Circle-K” is on a steer’s butt. Your colors and fonts, your artwork, style guides, logo, firm name and more come together as your branding. “This is us and ours!” it says, loud and clear.
Your choicest words are also integral to your firm’s branding, otherwise known as your tagline. This is where I typically come into the mix. I love to corral the hours of conversation I hold and pages of notes I take when discovering a firm, into the select handful of words that magically embody the essence of who you are and what you stand for.
This week’s post is dedicated to killing two birds with one stone. If you are an advisor who really should be (or already are) a member of our Evidence-Based Advisor’s LinkedIn group — and you are interested in attending the inaugural Evidence-Based Investing Conference in New York City on November 15 — have I got a deal for you.
Given the similar names, there’s naturally some synergies to be explored between our EBA group and the EBI Conference, don’t you think? The event’s hosts did, so they have extended a special invitation to our group, along with a $400 DISCOUNT off the regular registration rate. Any advisor who is an EBA group member can attend for the reduced rate of $1,095 (regularly $1,495).
To find out what code to use to receive the discounted rate:
Why might you want to attend? Because we’ve carefully curated this EBA group as a forum of relatively like-minded advisors, we’d like to see a strong showing of us at an event that is, after all, celebrating a term we’ve collectively embraced as our own.
In a past post, “Client Communications and Current Crises,” I explored when to reach out to your clients during scary market news. My advice was that “right away” was the best way, despite any misgivings you might have about what to say when the trouble may still be brewing.
Another important way to make your crisis communications more effective is to sustain a regular stream of good-news reach-outs in between. In so doing, the crisis-driven ones won’t seem out of context when they arrive. They’ll just be one more exchange in your ongoing conversation.
Are you subscribed to 
A few months ago, I was privileged to be introduced to 
Circle-K” is on a steer’s butt. Your colors and fonts, your artwork, style guides, logo, firm name and more come together as your branding. “This is us and ours!” it says, loud and clear.