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    What Color Is Your Marketing

    Colors, and the feelings they tend to generate, are a powerful determinant of our daily thoughts, actions, moods and decisions, whether we realize it or not. And guess what? Marketers know this — and psychologists, too. In our latest article

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    Use Visuals to Boost Client Communications

    The adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words” turns out to have a basis in scientific fact: the human brain can accurately process and identify an image about 60,000 times faster than written text. In our latest article for Advisor

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    Developing a Growth Mindset: Why It Matters

    Growth is good, right? After all, nobody launches a financial advising practice or any other type of business unless they’re expecting it to grow. In business, as in horticulture, when we plant something and focus the proper care on it,

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    The ESG Conversations You Need to Prepare For

    While the concept of investing organized around environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles has become more broadly known in the last five or so years, the basic principle of socially responsible investing has been around, in one form or another,

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    Considering a Rebrand? Look at Starbucks

    Your advisory firm can learn from Starbucks and other companies that got it right. If change is indeed the only constant, then it makes sense that the way an enterprise presents itself to the public eye might require periodic adjustment.

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    BAUM - Gray Divorce Sample Content Workflow Graphic

    Gray Divorce: Sample Content Workflow

    Writing targeted content and providing client education around life events can be a huge growth opportunity for financial advisors. We recently facilitated the session Gray Divorce, Living Together, and Elder Care: Handling the Transitions at the 2022 FPA Annual Conference.

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    The Power of the Right Community

    It seems that in-person conferences are in full swing, and the end of the year is jampacked with people coming together to hear the financial advisory industry’s best and brightest. Last week, we were privileged to spend time participating in

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    The Four Worst Marketing Tactics for Advisors

    “According to an Investment News survey, the typical advisory firm spends less than 2% of its revenues on marketing. And it makes sense: Many financial advisors are skeptical that marketing even “works,” and they don’t have much free cash flow

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    PR: How Financial Advisors Can Get Started

    It’s no secret that content marketing and PR go hand-in-hand but very few financial advisors effectively incorporate PR into their content marketing strategies. We have to ask, what’s the point in creating amazing content if no one knows about it?

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    Creating Videos? Don’t Forget Boomers and GenXers

    It’s vital for financial advisors to understand the differences in how boomers and GenXers consume digital content — especially video. In this article for Rethinking65, Beyond AUM co-founder Gretchen Halpin discusses what sort of video content these potentially profitable demographics are

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    How Storytelling Builds Trust

    “One needn’t look far to find reasons to worry about the markets. With the Fed raising rates by 1.25% over the last two months, interest rate fears – with attendant recession worries – are running rampant among investors. And the

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    BAUM - Less is More The Power of the Niche

    Less is More: The Power of the Niche

    As a financial advisor, you know that the services you provide are invaluable—they literally serve as a blueprint for people’s lives. But you also know how competitive the industry can be and understand how challenging it is to stand out

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    A Recap of the 2022 Invest in Women Conference

    The Invest in Women conference in Atlanta returned after a three-year hiatus and Beyond AUM was happy to represent. The financial advisory industry has sometimes lagged in building representation within the female demographic. That’s despite the largest wealth transfer currently

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    How to Boost Digital Engagement and Why It Matters

    By now, it’s widely accepted that financial advisors and RIA firms should have an active digital presence. From building brand awareness to showcasing your services to prospective clients, the internet is an invaluable tool. However, there’s another layer to the

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    Zoom tips for Financial Advisors

    Four Tips Every Great Zoom Presenter Knows

    Each of us has a laundry list of challenges that have been brought on by the pandemic. Add another one to your list: engaging clients virtually. Since virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm, financial advisors have been expected

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    Using lists in your content

    Using Lists in Your Content

    It likely comes as no surprise to learn that content marketing in the digital age is highly competitive. This is partly due to the high saturation of digital content available and partly because audiences these days have short attention spans

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    How to Create Video Content that Drives Leads

    How to Create Video Content that Drives Leads

    As a financial advisor, you focus on providing solid advice to your clients. After all, your clients are the foundation of your business. While your financial skills are critical, though, without a sound marketing strategy to effectively drive more traffic

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    The Six Trends Transforming Email Marketing imagery

    The Six Trends Transforming Email Marketing

    When it comes to marketing, financial advisors generally should adopt an extremely effective and cost-saving marketing strategy to give their advisory businesses the boost they need: email marketing. In this guest article for Advisor Perspectives, Beyond AUM co-founder Gretchen Halpin

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    Use marketing data in 2021

    Make Marketing Data Your Best Friend in 2021

    Marketing can be a tough nut to crack. You know it’s essential to growing your financial advisory business and reaching new, potential clients. But the return on investment (ROI) for marketing activities can be difficult to quantify.  Historically, “marketing” for

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    Overcoming Fear by Gretchen Halpin on Databird

    Our Co-Founder Gretchen Halpin was featured on Databird Business Journal about how she built her way to the top of the financial services industry by overcoming fear. Gretchen Halpin discussed inspirations, goals, and how to overcome obstacles. Read the full

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    Best Practices for Refining Your Personal Brand

    Best Practices for Refining Your Personal Brand

    Let’s start with the obvious: the financial advisory business is a personal business. Our success depends on building relationships with our clients — relationships built on trust. And then, as financial planners and wealth managers, we must perform and communicate

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    centers of influence

    Are You Thinking of COIs All Wrong?

    This is a term that needs no definition or explanation. Whether we refer to them as the popular acronym “COIs,” as referral sources, or as professional partners, it’s safe to say that “centers of influence” are an invaluable element of

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    It’s Time to Get Real About Speaking Gigs

    Picture it: You’re sitting in the audience of the conference you attend every year, notepad balanced on your lap, PowerPoint slides displayed on a large monitor in front of you. The speaker line-up is filled with industry experts, thought leaders

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 29

    The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all of us to think more creatively about how we do business. According to a report from Practical Perspectives surveying 525-plus advisors in early April, the dominant means of advisor-to-client communication used by advisors has

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 24

    In 1999, Amy Edmondson, professor at Harvard Business School, identified the concept of psychological safety in work teams, “a climate in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves.” Since then, research has found that psychological safety can make teams

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 23

    Throughout the Coronavirus crisis, we’ve seen some powerful acts of kindness, from small gestures like dropping off toilet paper at a friends’ door to companies and individuals donating millions of dollars for COVID-19 relief. How can financial advisors give back

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 21

    The COVID-19 pandemic and multiple months of lockdown have left many of us feeling… well, stuck. Creatively drained. Tired and overwhelmed. But moments like these actually present opportunities for great renewal — whether it’s dusting off your goals document from

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 17

    Clients don’t pick a financial advisor just for their professional knowledge. “More often than not, personal likability and trustworthiness rate much higher than professional knowledge alone,” WealthManagement.com says. So how can you build “business social” client relationships? Gather as many

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 16

    It can be hard finding the motivation to network and cultivate relationships during this COVID-19 lockdown. But it’s important to keep building bridges with centers of influence (COIs) — accountants, lawyers, insurance brokers, real estate agents, and other professionals —

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 14

    When’s the last time you did something for yourself? As Cara Maksimow, a licensed clinical social worker and owner of Maximize Wellness Counseling, says on Headspace, many people connect the term “self-care” with being selfish. But being selfish implies that

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 12

    Vulnerability can feel uncomfortable, risky, and scary. But if you want to innovate, you need to be vulnerable, according to researcher Brené Brown. This fear of vulnerability can show up in many ways in your organization — it could be the underfunding of new ideas in the name of

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 11

    At Beyond AUM, our team frequently shares recommendations for books on business, entrepreneurship, leadership, and creativity. Right now, we’re reading The Outward Mindset by the Arbinger Institute, which is about the role of mindset when seeking significant and lasting organizational change. Today, we draw inspiration from this book for our “30 Tips for

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 9

    Keith Johnstone, British and Canadian pioneer of improvisational theatre, says in his book Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, “There are people who prefer to say ‘yes’ and there are people who prefer to say ‘no.’ Those who say ‘yes’ are rewarded

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 8

    Financial planners understand the importance of developing a strong, well-thought-out plan, given that they do it every day for their clients. But financial planners also understand that they need to build in room for flexibility. Clients might face challenging and

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 5

    We’re back with our “30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor” series. Today’s tip is about the importance of dedicating time and energy toward professional development. Right now, as it seems to take a Herculean effort to think about anything not

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 4

    Today’s tip is about centers of influence (COIs) — in other words, “someone who can have a positive impact on your business by providing introductions to new potential clients, networking opportunities, and word of mouth,” as WealthManagement.com describes.   Today’s

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    30 Tips for Today’s Financial Advisor: Tip 1

    When we’re dealing with stress, some of us end up doing way too much or way too little. Dr. Brené Brown describes these patterns of behavior — “over-functioning” and “under-functioning” — in her new popular podcast “Unlocking Us.” Right now,

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    Beyond-AUM-WTF-Is-Thought-Leadership

    WTF Is Thought Leadership?

    Admit it. You’ve asked yourself this question at least once. The business world loves its buzzwords, doesn’t it? While most corporate jargon (we’re looking at you, “synergy”) can be flipped past in the dictionary for language that’s a bit more

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