Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

Are you maximizing your news source for everything you can get out of it?
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I’m a big fan of The Wall Street Journal. I skim this in the morning and come back to reading it a little more thoroughly during the day.

I love this newspaper for a number of reasons.

• Obviously, working in the financial services industry, it’s helpful to remain up to date with what’s going on within our industry, within global industry, and also to remain abreast of the latest national and international news and cultural trends, as well as human interest stories, all of which your clients may also be reading or hearing about. It helps you be an aware, educated, and informed person.
• The Journal is also well written, and it’s a great mechanism for you to strengthen your own writing. Read the articles and notice how they begin. Notice how they stick on point. They’re tight in their writing, and this challenges me as someone who writes content to make sure my subject stays top of mind for my readers. And, out of the gate, I tell people exactly what I’m wanting them to think about. I’m learning this more and more from reading The Journal‘s articles and seeing how professionals, who do this for a living, do this so well every single day.

I skim the paper each morning for articles that might be relevant to advisors that I’ve connected with, and when I see an article that I like and that is going to be helpful for a particular person, I copy it and then simply hard mail it. I actually snail mail it. I simply put it in one of these already-set-up envelopes with a personal note on a compliments slip and my business card, and I mail that all to them. When I was an advisor and had clients I was working with, I did exactly the same when I would see articles that were relevant to a certain industry that I had clients working within—I would send relevant, helpful or interesting articles to them.

The Wall Street Journal‘s content isn’t just business-related. Oftentimes it will have features containing information about health, fitness, rest, fashion, food, travel, and more, so they address a wide variety of interests likely to be relevant to many of your clients. And business-related articles are not limited to economic or corporate-activity news. There are often features about management skills and leadership techniques that could be helpful for you, as an advisor, to learn, but are also useful to send to your business-owner clients who also might find the information insightful and helpful. It’s also a great resource for finding articles to mail to prospects or Centers of Influence you’d like to work with, letting them see they are on your mind and showing you would like to help them.

Sending someone a hard copy—something physical they can actually hold in their hands—makes a big, positive, lasting impression. People keep useful articles as well as personal notes and cards. All of our email inboxes are inundated with messages each day. It’s easy to gather up a load of emails, put them in a folder, intending to come back to them, but never actually come back to them because you’re simply so busy. However, when you receive something physical in the mail, especially something that’s personalized, chances are you’re going to keep it around far longer. As an example, I received a thank-you note from an advisor in Colorado—Caleb Paddock. Back in April of 2020, he sent me a hand-written thank-you note for some content I’d posted. I still have it in my desk drawer. When I received it, it stayed on our kitchen table for a week or so. My wife saw it. Caleb’s thoughtful, personal and kind message was meaningful to me. I know he thought enough of me to take the time to write and mail that note to me, and I really appreciated it.

So I’m encouraging you to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal. (I have no financial interest in The Journal—I’m simply a huge fan of this paper.) They have great subscription offers going all the time, and, with most new subscriptions, access to the online edition is included as well, so if you’re away from where you regularly get the physical paper delivered, you can read it online wherever you are and stay fully abreast of what’s current and topical, and continue to have access great articles you can copy and send to your clients to show them they are top of mind for you and you are aware of what is relevant and important to them.

So to do this most effectively,

• Get a subscription to The Wall Street Journal. Subscriptions are highly cost-effective for the amount of information they’re going to provide you.


• They’re also cost-effective for how you’ll use them with clients. Forwarding articles is a great way to stay top of mind with clients and to show them you’re thinking about them and understand what’s most important to them.


• Have this mailing kit ready to go. Don’t rely on yourself consistently putting together the envelopes, compliments slip and business cards each morning when you identify articles you want to share. Print off 10 of these kits every Friday afternoon, so you have what you need ready to easily and consistently mail articles to people you want to connect with, impress, and stay top of mind with. Each morning, grab this little prepared mailing kit, copy the article, and send it.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.