Lew Nason, LUTC, FMM, RFC®, of Dallas, Georgia, is founder of the now-famous Insurance Pro Shop.  Lew is one of the financial industry's "most booked" sales trainers.  Financial Services Advisor Magazine called Nason, "The most respected financial sales improvement trainer active in America today!"  For over twenty years Nason has been well-known as "The nine out of ten guy!"  He earned this title due to the astronomical closing rate he eventually attained year after year.  Lew explains, "A winning general carefully selects his battles.  I carefully selected my prospects."  He is the author of Nine Out Of Ten.  Lew is highly respected for not over promising.  This alone makes Lew Nason rather unique among sales trainers. 

No less an authority than Lew Nason urged me to write about clowns in financial planning because -- and these are Lew's words, -- "The responsible planners need to know!"   

Lew Nason believes, "Clowns can be funny but they are also often very sad.  Traditionally clowns attempt to be funny or sad by acting comical, or by blundering, or by acting like jerks, or by being impractical, stupid, obnoxious, or even absurd.  In my many years of selling annuities and other financial products and services, when I became known as 'The nine out of ten guy,' I never understood why some agents and planners want to make clowns out of themselves.  A few financial advisors (and we all know some), insist on being comical, jerks, impractical, stupid, obnoxious, or even absurd.  Others appear to not even mind if they make serious blunders. Possibly the most ironic fact of all is that the clowns will never recognize themselves in this two-part article, not even if they read this ten times."

Joseph A. "Big Joe" Clark, CFP®, RFC®, of Anderson, Indiana, is a role model among financial planners nation-wide.  "Big Joe" has long-term relationships with his clients.  He is known for helping people accomplish their financial goals with limited incomes.  Clark has also contributed highly to the financial planning industry.  Clark noted, "Because of his high profile from editing so many financial magazines and newsletters, Cato is a person to whom some planners and clients send their various gripes. They report other advisors, or complain about the treatment they received from financial planners.  One planner even sent his suicide note to Cato.  Cato is not a part of any regulatory agency.  You too may know about some of the clowns that Cato dares to discuss here."

The following contains more of the unpleasant and often clownish "do not do this" realities that exist in today's world for those who represent annuities.

Don't make-up routines based on lies - all in an effort to impress.  Here is an example of a blatant lie that I encountered from an Illinois planner.  Too many financial advisors brag about their success.  When you brag by telling lies you solidify your status as a clown.  A California planner said to me, "Here is my boat.  It is such a beauty.  It has … bla, bla, bla."  When I asked him "Where are your client's boats?" he quickly walked away from me and pretended he did not hear the question.  Later I discovered from his wife that the boat was not his boat!  This planner lost all credibility with me as a result of his bragging and exaggeration.  Even today, six years later, I still think of him as a clown.  Don't ask me if I will publish something he writes.

Don't tell bakers how to make bread, don't tell pilots how to fly, don't tell surgeons how to operate, and most especially, don't tell experienced financial PR people how to get targeted publicity for you!  Of course your input is essential, but, do not dictate with demands and absolutes and deadlines.  Do not ask for daily reassure or ego-gratification.  Only a clown would say, "I want to be on the cover of Time magazine next March because my birthday is in March."  A former client once demanded this of me.  Realize that your specialty doesn't include everything.   

Don't demand immediate publicity results, immediate fame, or immediate recognition!  Any publicist, media advocate, or advertising executive will tell you that results take time.  This is especially true when you are first trying to build your image.  The great images are created by a series of events, articles, presentations, books and references and by genuine caring about your clients, their families, your community, etc..  It is when people begin to see your name mentioned by others that they begin to respect your image, and are then prepared to respect you, and seek your counsel.  No one was ever chosen Time Magazine's Person of the Year "for the efforts of one year."  It takes years, and in some cases, this takes a lifetime.  If you are under indictment, or have other troubles or serious problems, don't keep this situation a secret from your Media Advocate or PR person.  You are only setting them up to be hit between their eyes.

Don't ask any support person for a report every day or every week.  Be sensible.  Do not be excessively controlling.  Don't lecture a specialist pro member of your team about his or her specialty.

Do not expect any support person to "wow you" every time you talk!  Be sensible.  Do not demand to be amazed during every conversation.

Do not exaggerate!  Owning a video camera and some lights does not mean you have a production company.  Being in a video doesn't mean you are a TV star!  Having a book self-printed doesn't mean you have a bestseller!  Having a book legitimately published doesn't mean you have a best seller.  Giving talks doesn't mean you are America's most booked financial speaker.  It is nice to meet financial planners who do not say, "My business is booming and zooming.  We are doing so well we could not do better."  A line that gets me is "I always write everything myself!" when I am friends with their full-time ghostwriter.  Nothing works like simple honesty if you really want to impress someone!

God Rid Us Of Financial Planning Clowns!

Don't ask for free work from others!  This should be obvious but "others' complain to me all the time that financial planners want them to "get me a paid or unpaid speaking engagement for free" or "write an article about me for free."  Do not promise to "pay if you like the way things turn out."  Do not be a clown.  Don't ask someone to phone a restaurant and have you paged in front of a your prospect.  This doesn't impress your prospect that much any more due to the invention of the cell phone.  Do not ask a financial PR person to write a sample article on spec for you, then tell the writer the article is not good enough.  But your next step is to submit the article to a magazine for publication. The article is published and you have cheated the writer.  This is theft! And planners did this to me over nine times in my first four years of association with them.

Don't demand that your self-published book be recognized as a best-seller!  An elderly loud-mouth financial planner once hired me.  Immediately he started yelling over the phone.  He demanded that his book, self-published four years earlier, be promoted into a best seller!  Many times when we talked I learned that his staff people frequently left and were replaced.  Even his son left.  This old guy (a "name" you know) often fell asleep after yelling his demands.  This clown did not allow anything like reality to cloud his thinking.  According to the National Association of Book Publishers there has never been one self-published title that made any recognized national best-seller list.  The writer/publisher simply does not have the distribution or budget for the amount of promotion that would be required.  Such clowns usually end-up telling lies about the number of books sold.   Due to the huge cost, the necessary efforts to make a best-seller would not make economic sense.

I once rewrote, then placed a book (with a major legit book publisher) for a financial planner who was later very furious with "his publisher."  This planner was angry because the publisher would not hire a cruise ship and take 300 of the planner's invited friends, clients, and prospects, on a free cruise around the world, to celebrate publication of his new book!  Such an event as this would also make no financial sense.  You would think the author of a book on personal financial planning would understand this!

Don't tell little white lies.  On his Web Site a planner in New York State lists two of his best-selling "books."  Actually each is a very tiny self-published booklet.  Is he being honest or not?  What do you think?

Financial Planning Clowns Annoy You!
 
Don't talk about yourself all of the time.  When you praise others, you place yourself in the category of "those who are praiseworthy" and that is a good place to be. For example, if you have truly shared the podium with some luminary, then the mention of that elevates you to their level.  But if you were not at least on the same program, then don't mention it.  There are planners who claim they have shared the stage with Bob Hope and John Wayne, and Oprah Winfrey, but all four people were on that same stage during different years. Twisting the facts to create a lie only makes a clown of people who make false claims like this.

Be mindful that branding is a series of images.  The respect that has been garnered by some products, some manufacturers, or some professionals, has not been achieved by one event, but by a series of events and accomplishments over time.  Each was positive, and usually there is very little negative, or no negative.  Thus you should strive to create many positive reflections on yourself (and your brand) and be very careful to avoid "negative exposures" of any type.

Be ready for publicity opportunities.  You must have a media kit prepared with great care, before you have need of it.  It is your prompt response that adds to the favorable image. But everything in your media kit must be honest, accurate, and create a positive image.  You really need the advice of experienced third parties to help you effectively accomplish this.

Professionalism is essential.  You should have a series of photographs available that reflect the image you desire and want to create.  If you want to be thought of as a great speaker, have photos of yourself speaking in an animated pose.  These should be available in high resolution and in color - those who might use them will do the necessary cropping to suit their publication.  Do you want to be positioned serving seniors, the military, truck drivers, etc.?  Do you specialize in Roth IRA products, annuities? 

Understand how to multiply your publicity.  If you are quoted in a any publication, no one will know - unless you reproduce the article and share it with the market segment prospects you want to impress or influence.  This is particularly true of an article you prepare for publication by a professional organization.  Your peers will not be buying from you.  But you can take your well-written article and send it with a cover letter to your prospects, clients and local media.  Or maybe have a third party send it to them for you.  You might be surprised how this will elevate you in the opinion of those who receive this, even if they read very little of the article.

Clowns That Never Know They Are Clowns!

Don't fail to show interest in your prospects and clients.  After all, they represent your livelihood.  When speaking or writing about your prior activities, coach prospects in terms of how your services were of value and benefit to others.  The implication is that you always deliver value.

Don't hesitate to be yourself!  But don't try to be something that you are not.  This may be how most clowns are created!  Norman G. Levine, a legend in the financial industry for building record-size agencies and achieving record size sales, states, "You are actually unique and quite special.  Don't hesitate to build upon your own personality and your own characteristics or circumstances."

Don't be afraid to adopt a gimmick that you think is right for you.  About gimmicks -- I know a planner who considers his trademark to be the fact that he always wears a red tie.  I think this is not much of a trademark.  But he is entitled to do what he wants.  Who am I to criticize his gimmick?  I know another planner who calls herself The Cinderella Financial Planner and has a pumpkin coach and glass slipper on here letterhead.  I suggest that your gimmick by original and not anything silly. 

Don't adopt something questionable that is common place.  For example, there are endless people who want to teach you (for a fee) how to better communicate, or how to communicate more effectively, or how to communicate like a leader, or secrets of master communicators, or winning communications.  They want you to attend a communications clinic, workshop, conference, session, or so-on.  Yet they all teach the same thing.  If you must teach something, rather than teach "communications" to planners, why not think of something original, different, and more needed.  The same applies to you as a planner.  You don't have to do what so many others do.  If we are talking about something that clowns do, then you do not have to do that at all.  It is OK to relax and be your true self.

Don't fail to ask questions.  Shut-up and listen once in a while. It is amazing what you might learn.  Even if someone else's experience or advice does not exactly match your circumstances, there may be an element that is valuable, or it may lead you to research a point that then leads on to something you can apply to your benefit.  But when you are the only one talking, you can learn very little.  Remember, as Loren Dunton said, "So called stupid questions make more sense than stupid mistakes!"

Be cautious about the consultants you hire and follow!  Do not respond to "in-your-face" ads that target insecure and struggling planners.  If the ad has the word "suck" in the headline ignore it!  Absurd promises like Stop Making Your Home Office Rich or Triple Your Income In Three Months or Earn An Extra Million This Year are all obvious cons.  If someone offers to make you a mega-star have enough sense to ask if that person is a mega-star?  And has that person ever created even one mega-star?  Would anyone other than a clown fall for such obvious false promises? 

Do you really want to work with a person who has to say 'SUCK' to attract your attention?  Is such a person likely to help you?

Ask yourself, -- if a consultant has to shave his head, wear yellow suits, yell, make exaggerated claims and promises, etc., is he really likely to help?  If the consultant's claim to fame is that he survived a plane crash, lost tons of weight, was a champion swimmer, or once rode a bucking bull, then what does any of this have to do with anything?  There are highly respected consultants like Lew Nason, Ed Morrow, Jack and Gary Kinder, and others.  Go with those who are proven.  The ones who use "suck" in their come-on headlines have been disproven time-and-again.  Even their "in-your-face" strategy has been frequently disproven except for possibly a few used-car sellers.  Such lack-of-class people still seek to hook struggling, insecure, and desperate planners and agents with this approach.

Don't be a secret clown!  I know a planner who is a secret drug addict.  I know another planner who is a secret alcoholic.  I know another planner who is a sex addict.  Their clients appear to love them.  For now!  But all three are disasters waiting to happen.

Clowns Everyone Seeks To Avoid!

Don't commit the worst blunder a clown can make!  I believe the greatest blunder a financial advisor can make is to believe "I will never have legal action taken against me.  Not ever!  My clients and their children all love me."  Hesitate about joining the Financial Advisors Legal Association and you actually increase your risk!  FALA works in close liaison with the IARFC.  You are more likely to face a serious lawsuit, or regulatory action, than any other profession, even physicians!  The cost of an average defense is now $42,000.00.  Your obligations (liabilities) today follow you through your retirement and all of your senior years!  Contact the fast-growing FALA for free details about how you can now affordably protect everything.  The address for FALA is 7469 West Lake Mead Boulevard, Suite 170, Las Vegas, Nevada 89128.  Or phone 1-800-261-0633.  Act now because you are at great risk!  You could be totally honest and entirely innocent, and not steal anything, but still be sent to prison as IARFC member Hal Chroney was.  Chorney ended-up a martyr among financial professionals.  He also became a hero and a celebrity.  But Chorney was forced to pay a horrendous price and endured brutal treatment.  Your massive risk is unfair and unjust but it confronts you now - your threat is real - this threat is not phony like the bio-sketch of a clown.  Only a clown would delay or ignore such a huge threat!  Contact FALA as soon as possible!

Bottom Line: The one feature most clowns (in financial planning and insurance) have in common is you never get to see their real faces.  These clowns are showoffs and "pretend people" who often sell inferior products for the larger commissions.  Clowns do this at the client's expense.  They fool some people some of the time.  It is more difficult to fool informed financial professionals such as you.   They can not fool you or professional editors and program producers with their lies, showy displays, big mouths, and vanity productions.  Their deficiencies frequently include a lack of class, style, and taste. 

Mehdi Fakharzadeh, one of the most successful insurance agents of all time, says, "If a financial planner sleeps with an employee and his wife does not know this but you do, then why would you trust him, or expect him to be loyal or honest to anyone else?  If a person is a clown, then most likely no one with 'half a brain' wants to do business with such a person.  With all due respect to Emmit Kelley, you do not want to be perceived as a clown.  We are not in a circus.  We are in a real world where the responsibilities placed on you are huge.  We have a few clowns among us who make your work more difficult.  But we are accountable.  We have ethics and class."

By Wally Cato

Forrest Wallace Cato, RFMA, RFC, CRR, CPC, has over 20-plus years of successful experience as a local, regional, and as a multi-national, media strategist and media advocate serving financial professionals. For financial advisors, he creates, establishes, and maintains, desired images, then promotes those advisors within target markets. This highly proven marketing communications effort leads to increased understanding (brought about by desired media exposures) and results in increased consumer acceptance!