Data Privacy – it’s very real and requires your attention

Your employees did some charitable work and you want to share how proud you are of them on Facebook. Your colleagues had a lunch date and you want to post the photo on Twitter. You and your clients went to a concert together and it would be a great marketing picture for other clients to…

Sleep becomes you…

I think John Lennon had it wrong. It’s not love we need more of…it’s definitely sleep. After suffering from three weeks of bronchitis, laryngitis, and a sinus infection where my faithful physician doled out all the right meds. In the end, what finally cured all that ailed me was…NyQuil. It konked me out and I…

Who’s sick of hearing the word “innovation” yet?

There are few words in financial services like “innovation” to make the majority of us cringe. And guess what? We all better get over ourselves – and quickly – because if you’re not embracing this word, you’re likely adding paper to your fax machine, picking up a movie at Blockbuster on the way home, and…

No SPAM Sandwiches for you! (YEAH!!)

I think one of the biggest deterrents of connecting on LinkedIn is access to someone’s email address and the fear of being spammed. CAN I GET A WITNESS? I get very aggravated when someone adds me to their newsletter, etc. and then I have to stop and unsubscribe. Let me explain why this is poor…

Something bad happened, now what?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been in a car accident? What about, did you ever break a bone? How about you broke a plate in the kitchen? (I’ve done two of the three – I will let you guess which one I haven’t done…yet.) The point is none of these things were planned, right?…

How influencers have changed business

I used to get really annoyed when a financial service professional would pick my brain about increasing their online presence and yet, when I would follow-up they would say, “Well, so-and-so told me that it’s not a good idea so I’m going to just hold off for now.” Ugh – so frustrating, but I learned…

What does leadership in 2017 look like?

Quite possibly one of the number one comments I hear from financial service professionals today is, “I’ve been doing my business for blah-blah years and I find social media doesn’t make any difference.” I nod my head and say, “Keep doing what you’ve been doing then” and go about my business, but we all know…

There are no more secrets…

Do you remember when you were a kid and you told a secret to a friend and said, “Please, don’t tell anyone else this!” Then days later the entire school knew your secret and your friend was like, “I just told one person!” Yeah…if you thought that was bad, fast forward to 2017 where the…

Back to basics

We all have a nightmare customer service story these days, don’t we? I mean, it might not have been as bad as United Airlines or Delta, but something that just made you leave an encounter thinking, “What the….”  Well, welcome to Customer Service 2017! Are you shocked?  I have to admit I’m stunned every time…

Why nobody really wants things for free

I spent the last ninety days giving it all away in the name of research. You heard me right. I wanted to see what the reactions were when I gave social media assistance away for free to different financial advisors across the United States and asked for absolutely zero, zilch, nada in return. The overwhelming…

It’s not enough to be on time anymore

When I graduated in 1989 from Fort Zumwalt North High School in O’Fallon, Missouri, I walked off the field that day with not only an academic diploma, an acceptance to St. Louis University, but also a certificate of achievement for having never been late to class a day in my life. That’s right – I’ve…

When what you’ve always done stops working

We all get those emails, right? “I’m just following up on….” blah blah blah. YUCK! Can we all agree to stop following up? …but I want my answer! Yes – I get it that you need an answer, however, following up is all about you. You’re doing it in your timeframe, at your convenience, for…