Have you ever wondered if great leaders are born or made? Anyone can be a great leader if they understand themselves, know what motivates others to want to follow them, and apply what they learn.

John C. Maxwell said it best, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Do you know how to get your message across and have others want to follow you?

Let’s look at six leadership styles so you can better understand your style and how to motivate others better.

Do you have a well-thought-out strategy to start your day off right? Like many people, you might not. Instead, you probably have morning routines on autopilot, like making your bed and brushing your teeth. But, if you want to get the most out of your day, it is not the morning routines that will change your life, it’s mastering morning rituals!

Do you have a well-thought-out strategy to start your day off right? Like many people, you might not. Instead, you probably have morning routines on autopilot, like making your bed and brushing your teeth. But, if you want to get the most out of your day, it is not the morning routines that will change your life, it’s mastering morning rituals!

So, what’s the difference between morning routines and morning rituals?

One of the best definitions that I’ve seen is that the difference between a routine and a ritual is the intent behind the action. While routines can be repetitive, like making your bed or taking a shower, rituals are more meaningful practices that can create a real sense of purpose.

Tim Ferris, the author of the book, The 4 Hour Work Week, said it best, “If you win the morning, you win the day”.

And, I believe that it is true. But, how do you win the morning? It’s by having at least one or more of the following morning rituals consistently be a part of your day. Over the course of 20 years of coaching financial advisors and insurance agents, I’ve found a common thread among those who are successful; they all have at least one morning ritual.

Let’s look at five morning rituals that will change your business and your life:

All successful and experienced attorneys and accountants have referred clients to financial advisors at one time or another. They have done so because they realize that at some point, they have had clients who have needed financial advisory recommendations.

Do prospects view you as a product pusher or a problem solver? It’s a tough question you may not want to know the answer to.

Every salesperson has wrestled with the age-old question, “What’s the best way to get referrals?” Depending on how you’ve been trained, you might have a few different ways to answer. Many say “ask” or “ask the right way" or “make sure you’re planting referral seeds along the way to make it easier for someone to provide them to you” but I beg to differ. I have always found that the best way to get referrals is to be referrable. To me, there is only one way to be referrable in our industry: by creating a superior client experience that fosters stark raving fans.

Are you on a production plateau and you need a little nudge to get going? Most advisors are because they’ve never learned how to create the perfect campaign to grow their business; as a result, they leave their success up to chance.

Benjamin Franklin said it best when he said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

I believe that is true. The best way to plan is to design a campaign, an organized course of action to achieve your goal, and take the right steps to do so.

The latest podcast from Advisor Solutions Founder and President Dan Finley explores ways financial advisors, insurance agents, wholesalers, branch managers, and agency manager can boost their performance to get to the next level of success. 

This Webinar is brought to you exclusively by NAIFA and the Society of FSP.

Overview:
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 has provisions set to expire by 2025. Equip yourself with knowledge, leverage evolving planning opportunities, and guide your clients confidently through impending shifts in the tax landscape.

Do you love to prospect? Do you get into the office and can’t wait to make that first call? If you are like most advisors and agents, you don’t! You probably look for anything else to do rather than prospecting. Does this sound like you?

Most advisors and agents don’t have a well-thought-out process for prospecting. The reason is they’ve never learned a step-wise approach to understanding what it takes to love prospecting. And how to do it successfully so that they create unlimited success!

NAIFA members, mark your calendars! The Q3 State of NAIFA webinar is scheduled for July 11th at 12 pm eastern. This third update of the year is an integral part of our commitment to keep you informed about our progress and the direction we're heading.

In the pursuit of peak business performance, mastering the annuity market is a powerful catalyst for propelling your financial advisory practice to unprecedented levels. Staying well-informed about the latest trends and harnessing potent sales strategies is integral to triumphing in the market. With this in mind, we are delighted to announce a crucial opportunity that you simply cannot miss!

Do you ever feel like your pipeline is stuck? You know why prospects need to take the next step, but for some reason, they don’t seem to have any urgency to want to meet, send you their statements, or even make a decision on the recommendations that you’ve worked so hard on to help them reach their financial goals.

Kevin Brady, a former U.S. Representative said, “Urgency creates action.”
Therein lies the problem; most advisors/agents don’t have a well-thought-out process for creating urgency in their sales pipelines and for maintaining the momentum!

Let’s take a look at just a few examples of creating urgency, in each stage of the pipeline and how one advisor did just that.  

LinkedIn can be a powerful platform to help grow and establish your business, as well as get your foot in the door for booking meetings with prospects. However, coming up with an effective and efficient strategy can be hard to establish to make the jump from social media to booking a call.

Discover the secrets to LinkedIn prospecting success in the next Business Performance Center webinar on Wednesday, June 14 at 12 pm eastern. Join the Founder and CEO of NAIFA partner Hummingbird Growth & Automation, Bruno Nicoletti, as he helps you crack the code by unveiling his step-by-step process for booking 15 meetings a month on LinkedIn.

In today's fast-paced and competitive marketplace, life insurance agencies need to stay ahead of the game. Embracing technology, such as insurance CRM software, is a powerful way to achieve this. By adopting the right tools and platforms, agencies can streamline operations, increase productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction.

 This guide will explore how life insurance software can empower agencies to achieve their goals, whether they are startups or well-established.

Like most businesses, your workload will ebb and flow depending on the season. With summer approaching, many clients and prospects take a step back from their financial focus to take advantage of the warm weather. Between kids having the summer off and vacations to the beach being at the forefront, advisors tend to be a little slower between June and August. Here are a few suggestions to keep your business moving forward during this quieter season.

Join NAIFA’s partner White Glove at their 2023 Virtual Summit, an exciting event that sets the stage for financial professionals eager to expand their businesses. The summit will take place on Wednesday, June 7th, 2023, from 1 pm - 6 pm eastern, offering a range of insightful discussions and learning opportunities. 

Have you noticed that you get more emails now than you ever did before?  After constantly being interrupted by emails you most likely have become conditioned to feeling obligated to view each email the minute it arrives.

David Allen, the author of the book Getting Things Done writes, “There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs.”

In many respects, this is very true­, in that the emails that you receive all day are merely as important as you perceive them to be and the way that you react to them can either be a positive or a negative depending on what type of time management boundaries you establish.

Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance can be an essential part of every business' risk management plan. On Thursday, June 1 at 2 pm eastern, Ross Jordan, CPCU, of NAIFA partner CalSurance Associates will outline the current E&O landscape for financial professionals and give you loss prevention tips to help you protect your practice.

In this Business Performance Center webinar, explore recent E&O claim trends, learn what other agents are doing to protect their businesses, and what kind of coverages you should be reviewing for your practice's E&O insurance.

When shopping online or making a large purchase, think about how you go about deciding which product to choose. Sure — price, brand, and product features all play into it, but when choosing between two similar products, it likely comes down to the reviews. 

When searching for professional services, the process isn’t all that different, and with the new SEC Marketing Rule in effect, online reviews will now play an influential role in the decision-making process among consumers preparing to hire a financial advisor.

At this Business Performance Center webinar, Alison Susko and Mike Hemmert of NAIFA partner Asset-Map will show you how in 15 minutes or less, you can gather and place the most critical information about your clients' financials into one, easy-to-use and easy-to-share picture.

Mark your calendars and register now for "Scaling Advice: How to Make the Financial Planning Process More Efficient," taking place on Thursday, May 18 at 12 pm eastern.

Business wisdom said, “The customer comes first.”

Terrible idea. Unless you’re a solopreneur, your customers are dealing with your employees. If your employees don’t feel valued, customers won’t have a good experience.

So the wisdom evolved: “We put our people first.”

I bought into that idea for a long time. It worked pretty well. But something about the either/or proposition never quite felt complete.

Then it came to me: the mindset necessary to produce satisfied, loyal employees is the same mindset necessary to produce satisfied, loyal customers.

It turns out that employees and customers are people. We’re in the people business.

As the Great Wealth Transfer begins to transform the financial services industry, financial advisors face a new challenge: reaching the next generation of investors. Cerulli Associates estimates $72.6 trillion in assets will be transferred to heirs through 2045, making it critical for financial professionals to adapt their strategies to appeal to this younger demographic.

In this blog post, we’ll explore strategies to effectively reach the next-gen of investors and provide them with the guidance they need to achieve their financial goals. So, let’s dive in!

How often do you hear about the importance of customer satisfaction?

And how hard do you and your team work to deliver it?

And how many customers leave anyway?

Way too many, I’m guessing.

The truth is that customer satisfaction doesn’t translate into growth and profitability the way the gurus say it will. Why? Because the customer sees a better price and assumes that the service will be good enough. And if they’re wrong, by the time they figure it out, it will be too late for you.

In the highly competitive insurance industry, brokers and agencies are constantly seeking new ways to drive growth. Agents must reach sales targets, and agencies must attract and retain high-performing talent. Fortunately, recent innovations in digital sales platforms are making these goals achievable.

John Boothman of NAIFA partner iLife Technologies will give you actionable tips on how to incorporate more digital solutions into your business to drive growth and keep up in today's ever-changing market.

As a financial advisor, generating leads is a crucial aspect of growing your business. However, nurturing those leads and converting them into loyal clients requires time, effort, and personalized attention. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can be a game-changer for financial advisors. 

Have you ever run into the same business challenge repeatedly and you just couldn’t get past it? If so, you are most likely on a production plateau and in need of a tool or technique to create a transformational moment. In other words, you need a Game Changer! 
 
Mickey Mantle, who had an impressive 536 home runs during his baseball career, said, “It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life."

Let’s take a look at a few Game Changers that can have a lasting impact on your business.

Join NAIFA's Business Performance Center for a webinar on Wednesday, April 26 at 12 pm eastern as partner AccuPoint Solutions will help ensure you maximize your ROI when using data to brand, market, recruit, analyze, or update your CRM.

Gary Weber, Founder and CEO of AccuPoint Solutions, will share his expertise from over 35 years in the industry, where he has been both a user and supplier of data to help you increase productivity, and learn how to leverage data to maximize your results.

Profit is virtuous.

Yes, it is.

And profit—not revenue, not headcount—is the key to everything you want in your business.

By the time this article is finished, you’ll be thinking about profit all the time. You and your insurance agency will be much better off as a result.

It’s no secret that financial education is critical to preparing people to make good choices for their futures. 78% of financial professionals strongly agree that financial literacy is an issue in America, and almost 90% have encountered financial literacy issues among their clients.

April is National Financial Literacy Month, which provides you with a powerful opportunity to share your wealth of knowledge to help people understand what they don’t know. In these uncertain economic times — your insights are more important than ever.

Making agreements and the business sector are often portrayed in popular culture as cutthroat environments where everyone is looking out for number one. The reality is that trust is the cornerstone of fruitful business relationships and transactions.

Consider these six suggestions to demonstrate your integrity to prospective partners and business acquaintances.

How do you convey your message to a client without seeming “needy” in the process? By understanding how clients think!

Clients give referrals for two possible reasons. First, they want to help you grow your business. Second, they want to help friends and loved ones. Of these two reasons which one do you believe is a strong reason to give you a referral? If you said to help friends and loved ones, then you are right!

LinkedIn is one of the largest social media platforms, with approximately 875 million users and over 30 million businesses worldwide. It’s a powerful tool for networking, job searching, offering business insights, and building your personal brand. 

However, to truly make the most of the platform, it’s essential to understand how the LinkedIn algorithm works, which can take a lot of time and patience. This blog explains key takeaways from the algorithm and how to maximize your visibility and impact on the platform. 

I know you have a ton of metrics to watch. Many of them don’t tell a story and don’t help you make critical decisions. They just stress you out.

This one will change your life: Custom Acquisition Cost, or “CAC”.

How will CAC make you smarter?

CAC answers 3 questions that you probably can’t answer today. And without these answers, you’re guessing about where to spend your money. The 3 questions are:

1. How much do I currently spend to get a new customer?

2. How long does it take me to break even?

3. Where should I be spending?

When something seems too good to be true, chances are it probably is. Financial advisors play a critical role in helping individuals and businesses manage their finances and investments. As a financial advisor, you are continuously looking for new ways to attract clients and grow your business. 

One method that some financial advisors use is purchasing leads. However, we like to say that purchasing leads is essentially like playing the lottery. Purchasing leads can be a risky and ineffective lead-generation strategy. In this blog, we’ll explore why financial advisors should think twice before buying a list of leads. 

We've all heard the old adage, "knowledge is power." However, while knowledge is power in some situations, in others, it only becomes powerful once it is applied. For example, if you want to get in shape, knowing how to diet and exercise is not enough—you actually have to put that knowledge into practice.

In the financial sector, mental strength is also key. Just like physical fitness, mental toughness can be developed and strengthened with training. And like physical fitness, there are different exercises that can help build mental strength.

If you are like most advisors and agents you know that there are only three ways that your production can go: rise to a new production peak, backslide to a production valley, or cruise control onto a production plateau. Two out of three of those are not good states to be in your business and most people that reach a production peak don’t remain there for very long.

So, where do you currently find yourself? Most of us need a strategy (or several) to move from where we are to where we want to be.

This might be jarring for some readers. 10% will get it, and 1% will do something about it. Those who do will still compete for sales but not revenue, profit, or market share. We’re talking massive advantage.

“Insurance Agency” is not a business model. It’s a business. And that matters WAY MORE than you think.

As part of February's I Love NAIFA Month, we are highlighting all the aspects of the association we love. We are grateful for our Business Performance Center partners, who help provide agents and advisors with the tools and resources to build your agency or firm. 

Don't miss some of the recent content highlights from our BPC partners to help you take your business to the next level.

Matt Wagner of NAIFA Business Performance Center Partner, Client Focus, shares what agents and advisors need to know about AI and what it means for the industry.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the masses came online in December. It’s called ChatGPT. You can communicate with it at openai.com. It gives impressive answers to hard questions in seconds. Many think it will put Google search out of business. Maybe put schools out of business. AI is coming like a wrecking ball for repetitive, commodity work.

What about insurance agents? I was going to share my thoughts, but then it hit me.

Why not just ask AI?

So I did.

When you think of mentally strong people, who comes to mind? Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffett, Kobe Bryant, Tony Robbins? These icons all have habits and practices that you can learn from and adopt in your own life. Below are five tips you can implement today to jumpstart your self-improvement journey.

Highly successful people are constantly working to improve their knowledge and skills and one of the best ways they do this is by reading. Whether it's reading for pleasure or reading to gain new knowledge or skills, there is a clear link between highly successful people and their love of reading.

If you are like most advisors, you have aspirations and dreams to build your business. You may have thoughts of creating business plans to assist you in reaching your goals. However, ask yourself this question: “How many times have I created a business plan only to file it away or lose my motivation to follow it through?”

Oftentimes, advisors start out their business plans with the best of intentions, only to get sidetracked by the day-to-day operations which leave those plans unattended and ultimately unfulfilled. If this has happened to you, rest assured that you are not alone. So what is the solution?

No matter what time of the year, no matter what stage of your planning, a business plan is not enough, you need a business blueprint!

Matt Wagner of NAIFA Business Performance Center Partner, Client Focus, shares nine ideas on how to drive high-value sales and help grow your business.

When I was an engineer, I won sales where the sales team couldn’t. Customers felt like I understood them and their ideal outcomes, which was true.

These 9 ideas have helped me drive high-value sales, in addition to:

• building trust
• maximizing customer lifetime value
• generating a lot of referrals and repeat business
• making me love my job

Join NAIFA's Business Performance Center for a webinar on Tuesday, January 24 at 1 pm eastern. Hear from NAIFA Coaches Circle leader Joe Templin to learn how you can reliably get your foot in the door and get your name out there.

Social media marketing can be a huge boost to your business, and you often hear about the best strategies and practices to implement. However, when crafting the perfect social media plan, you also need to think about mistakes to steer clear of to ensure your campaign is a success.

In this article, we will cover some of the top errors businesses by social media platforms and how to avoid them!

Digital Marketing had the biggest growth for generating insurance sales since 2021. In a recent global study conducted by Accenture, most insurance buyers now search for information on digital channels. 48% of insurance customers who responded to an Accenture survey stated that social media would factor into their insurance-buying decision. Introducing agents and training to effectively utilize email, social media, web-based advertising, text messages, and personalized videos which helps maximize their value delivery.

Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the technology driving the industry to new insurance sales as it does with other industries in e-commerce. Winning agencies will become more data-driven and introduce agents to tools that utilize data analytics and AI to grow their businesses. Whether finding patterns based on past data to predict future events or leveraging AI to make assumptions and predictions beyond human capabilities, successful agents and agencies will take advantage of these new technology tools.

On Thursday, January 10, join 2023 NAIFA-National President Bryon Holz, NAIFA CEO Kevin Mayeux, and NAIFA SVP of Government Relations Diane Boyle for the first State of NAIFA webinar of the new year. 

Holz, Mayeux, and Boyle will share an update on where NAIFA is as an organization, preview NAIFA's advocacy goals for the new year, and highlight the benefits available exclusively to NAIFA members.

If you are in the financial services industry your business is tethered to the market. When the market is up so is your business but when the market is down, so is your business. It’s inevitable especially if you have a fee-based business. When the market and your assets under management drop it also means your gross commissions drop.

When this happens, do your business-building activities necessarily need to follow suit? The answer is “no”. However, many advisors stop prospecting because they don’t have a good strategy for continuing to do that task during a Bear Market.

If you are viewing a Bear Market as an obstacle rather than an opportunity you certainly won’t reach the next level.

Are you on a production plateau? Many advisors and agents are. In fact, at some point, every financial advisor, insurance agent, wholesaler, branch manager, and even agency manager hits a production plateau. I know because I’ve coached them all through one.

So, what do you do? The real question is if you had all the tips, tools, techniques, strategies, and solutions…would you apply them? In other words, are you coachable?

Public speaking is one of the most important skills a business professional can possess, but it's also a skill that can be difficult to master. There are many things to consider when preparing for and delivering a speech. That's why it's important to perfect your public speaking prowess.

There's no question that reading is essential for success. But what books are top leaders reading right now? We've gathered some of the most popular titles in insurance and financial services, leadership, and entrepreneurship. Whether you're looking to gain new insights or stay up-to-date on the latest trends, these books are sure to provide value.

Join NAIFA's Business Performance Center for a webinar on Tuesday, November 29 at 1 pm eastern. Sit down for a discussion with Harlan Accola of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, and Caleb Guilliams, Founder of BetterWealth, to learn about the three products your clients must have to survive this intense financial storm. 

Let’s face it, it’s easy to procrastinate from time to time. The problem is when procrastination goes from an occasional occurrence to a daily avoidance that the real challenges set in. With a task such as prospecting for example, if your business is on a production plateau chances are you bought into a narrative that you will come off of the plateau without intervention, and that your pipeline will trend upwards again soon.

Does this sound familiar? Let’s look at this subject from a different perspective. Everything that you may have been telling yourself about procrastination may simply be a myth.

NAIFA's Business Performance Center has been busy this past month with webinars on topics ranging from understanding and maximizing data, adopting digital marketing and e-commerce practices, and showcasing a benefits marketplace. If you missed one of those webinars, you can always watch them on-demand in the BPC archives.

As 2022 draws to a close, now is a great time to reassess your client engagement strategy. Show your clients you care about them and their business with these tips. 

New Business Performance Center partner, iLife Technologies, will host a webinar on Wednesday, October 26 at 12 pm eastern. Join John Boothman, Strategic Distribution and Partnerships at iLife, to learn how to adopt eCommerce best practices to help grow your life insurance business.

Have you jumped onto the social media bandwagon in recent years when it comes to marketing your business or are you still stuck in the 90s cold calling? I have been in the financial services industry for almost three decades, and I was reluctant to add one more thing to my prospecting plate such as social media. That is until I learned how to leverage the power of LinkedIn!

New Business Performance Center partner, AccuPoint Solutions, will host a data-driven webinar on Thursday, October 13 at 12 pm eastern. Join Founder & CEO of AccuPoint, Gary Weber, for "Data Diving: Understand and Maximizing Your Most Important Asset." Gary will help you how to best understand the complexity of the data you may have – or may want to purchase – for your sales, marketing, recruiting, and data analytics efforts.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and iLife Technologies have completed an educational partnership agreement to advance thought leadership and consumer education, and promote professional cooperation between the two organizations.

Under the partnership, iLife will provide exclusive benefits for NAIFA members through their all-in-one sales platform, content for NAIFA blog posts and social media platforms, as well as articles focused on helping insurance agents navigate the ever-increasing trend of online-centered businesses.

To grow a successful business, you need a team of talented, dedicated individuals working together towards a common goal. As the insurance and financial services industry continues to grow, recruiting top talent is more important than ever.

But how can you find and recruit the best talent for your business? There are a few key things to keep in mind. Read on for tips to help you build a cohesive, diverse, and dynamic team.

Social media is an integral part of marketing your business. While spending money on targeted ads may seem like an easy and effective way to build your followers, building your brand organically can benefit you in the long term—and save you money on advertising.

Join Chief Marketing Officer and Partner at Chalice Connect, Whitney Kendrick, along with Senior PEO Sales Consultant at Paychex/Oasis, Maria Petroni, for a Business Performance Center webinar on Thursday, September 22 at 12 pm eastern.

In this webinar, Whitney and Maria will give you an overview of the Chalice Connect Marketplace, and how it can help your business navigate and save on new benefits such as health insurance, travel options, and succession planning - especially timely with open enrollment periods opening up soon!

Chalice Connect is one of the Business Performance Center's newest partners, and also an affinity discount partner for our NAIFA Members. This webinar is free to attend and will teach you how to access their marketplace, which can save your firm, agency, or practice time and money.

Social media plays an essential role in your business marketing strategy. With so many social networks available, it’s important to keep track of what you're posting and when.

YouTube can be a powerful tool for building your brand. You can connect with potential customers and gain a loyal following by posting engaging videos. Read on to learn 5 tips for creating compelling YouTube content.

When it comes to insurance and financial services, some market demographics are often underserved. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, millennials, and LGBTQ+ Americans are often left out of the conversation. This is due, in part, to insurance and financial professionals viewing these demographics as less lucrative.

However, underserved and historically marginalized communities represent a huge opportunity for insurance and financial services professionals. By reaching out to them, you can grow your business and positively impact the lives of underserved populations.

Virtual webinars have become incredibly popular in recent years. From hosting week-long conferences via Zoom to organizing corporate meetings, webinars can be a great tool for groups looking to engage with others. Running a live virtual webinar can be daunting, so it's good to learn the top tips for successful live webinar hosting. Cut down on stress by following these simple steps for hosting a successful webinar.

By hiring agents and advisors from diverse backgrounds, you can grow your business, make more money, and find creative solutions. Studies show that diverse perspectives lead to better ideas and improve sales performance and innovation.

Read on to learn how a diverse workforce can benefit your business and clients alike.

Join us at NAIFA's Apex Sales Summit the week of August 15 to learn about a revolutionary new approach to life insurance with a special Learning Lab: "What Has Happened to Term Life Insurance? It's Called Longevity."

Longevity represents a new way of thinking about term life insurance. It combines the advantages of term life insurance with the flexibility to accommodate clients' changing needs.

Join us at NAIFA's Apex Sales Summit the week of August 15 for "The Digital Crossroads: FinTech, Your Business & Your Life."

In this Apex-exclusive Learning Lab, you'll learn how FinTech is changing the way agents and advisors do business and how it will shape the future of the insurance and financial services industry.

Live virtual webinars are becoming more and more popular for businesses of all sizes. The COVID-19 pandemic made doing business online a necessity, but webinars have proven to be incredibly effective, even as more businesses return to in-person meetings.

Now, webinars play an integral role in the growth and success of companies. They cost-effectively provide a platform for important discussions and help build and maintain relationships critical to a business's success.

How can you make sure that your webinar goes smoothly? Read on for tips on hosting and participating in a live virtual webinar.

It takes a lot of hard work to build a successful insurance agency or financial planning practice. But it's not just about putting in the hours—you also need to have the right team in place. A dynamic, productive, and effective team can make all the difference in achieving your business goals.

Did you know that filling a position can take up to 42 days? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire is $4,129. Finding and hiring qualified employees can also be a daunting task. According to recent studies, 59% of employers say finding qualified candidates for their open positions is challenging.

Live webinars are ideal for forging connections directly with your audience using interactive Q&A sessions. On the other hand, pre-recorded videos are excellent for educational or instructional videos that you can refer your audience to whenever they need them. You can use pre-recorded video to explain procedures that your audience should follow or address frequently encountered concerns. Because you have the luxury of being able to plan out the video ahead of time, you also have the opportunity to focus on its production and ensure that it is clean and professional. Read on for tips on creating professional pre-recorded video content.

The most successful entrepreneurs often have a few common traits. Whether you are an insurance agent, financial adviser, or any other type of solo business owner, use these tips to succeed.

Planning for the Future

Start with a solid business plan. Include funding sources such as loans, marketing and advertising ideas, client acquisition, and financial projections for expenses and profit. A business plan is just a start. Once you're in business, continue making plans and keeping track of progress. Where do you see yourself and your business in five years? Make a detailed plan for getting there!

When growing your business, connecting with as many people as possible is essential. That means not just writing blog posts and social media posts but also using video to appeal to a broader audience. Start creating engaging video content with these tips.

Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in the marketing and sales world. If you're looking to increase your revenue and identify opportunities, listening to a podcast is a great place to start. Here are  4 different ideas and strategies to generate more leads using a podcast.

As an insurance agent, getting in front of people to deliver your message can be one of your most challenging tasks. For agents looking to attract new clients in today’s market, expertise is everything. Seminars establish your expertise and can put you in front of a large group of people in a single setting. This type of marketing is one of the most cost-effective and time-saving ways to grow your business.

These days, people are living longer which, of course, is a good thing. But it also means retirees’ savings must stretch further to last throughout retirement. Throw in the recent surge in inflation, rising long-term care costs, and the unfortunate reality that many retirees are not financially prepared for retirement, and we have the makings of a retirement crisis ahead. 

On the bright side for older-adult homeowners, housing wealth has been on the rise. According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), U.S. homeowners aged 62+ saw their home equity soar to a record $10 trillion in 2021. It can be prudent for homeowners and their advisors to discuss ways to incorporate housing wealth into retirement planning decisions. 

We're pleased to congratulate loyal NAIFA member Cheryl Canzanella, CLU, ChSNC, LUTCF, on her new position with NAIFA partner Fairway Independent Mortgage. Cheryl will take over the role of HECM Business Development Manager - Retirement Solutions.

Since joining NAIFA in 2010, Cheryl has been active in the NAIFA community. She is a Past President of NAIFA-Northeast Florida and has served in leadership positions at the local, state, and national levels. She is also a recipient of NAIFA-FL's President’s award. In 2019, she was recognized as NAIFA’s Young Advisor Team Leader of the Year. Cheryl is also a Founding Past President of Women in Insurance & Financial Services (WIFS) Northeast Florida.

The podcast industry has grown tremendously over the last few years, reaching over 100 million Americans alone. Because of that growth, more and more businesses are turning to podcasts to help promote their goods and services.

If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, you've come to the right place. With this straightforward guide, you'll be podcasting in no time. Even if you're not that tech-savvy, we'll show you how to create a podcast to build your brand in eight simple steps.

As a results-driven business owner, you know your time is valuable. You want to spend it on adding value to your business. That's why you need an effective marketing automation strategy in place. Marketing automation can take care of the repetitive tasks so you can focus your efforts on the most important aspects of your job.

The best part is that you don't have to be technical or computer savvy to benefit from marketing automation. There are many tools available for free and affordable options that allow you to create great-looking landing pages, build email campaigns, track conversions, send emails, and much more.

Many webinars and courses for financial advisors regularly talk about how to attract new clients. And while this is logical, it made me think: Instead of looking for new clients, why don't financial advisors create meaningful relationships with their HNW client's adult children? So, when their parents retire, they choose to keep them as advisors instead of finding someone new.

But you'll be surprised to know the statistics regarding advisors doing this. I've been polling advisors, and I hear 15-20% when I ask them how many of their HNW clients' adult children they have a meaningful relationship with.

For the past few years, pundits have been predicting that bots, robo-advisors, and other technologies will lead to the demise of living, breathing financial professionals. That hasn’t happened yet, and, in my opinion, it never will. Yes, people can conduct much of their preliminary research online, and a few are willing to purchase basic coverage without ever speaking to a person. But most will want a financial professional to guide them through life’s twists and turns. Even those people who purchase coverage from a robo-advisor will seek the expertise of a financial professional as their needs become more complex. 

Increased demand for insurance products driven by raised awareness due to COVID-19 and a tight labor market.

New annualized premium for workplace life insurance, disability insurance and supplemental health products rose in 2021, according to LIMRA’s workplace benefits sales surveys.

According to a Pew Research Center survey, 85% of Americans say they go online on a daily basis, with 31% reporting that they go online “almost constantly.”

With people spending more time online than ever before, it’s important that your website is optimized for visitors to browse and stick around. But longer isn’t necessarily better. You want visitors to stay on your website because they’re enjoying the content and experience — not because they can’t find the information that they’re looking for or can’t complete a desired action, like making a purchase.

In this post, we’ll cover what a “good” average time on page and average session duration benchmark is, and how to improve these metrics on your website.

For your clients who are homeowners aged 62+, a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM, commonly called a reverse mortgage) loan offers some distinct advantages over other types of home-equity-release loans.

According to a survey conducted by Clever,* about half (51 percent) of retirees believe they will outlive their savings. Perhaps even more worrisome, the study also found that 65 percent of retirees say they are not financially secure. They may be facing any number of financial challenges, including how to best pay for long-term care or combat recent jumps in the prices of food, gas, and just about everything else.

As a financial professional, you want to give your clients the best chance at financial success. For most homeowners aged 62 and older, home equity represents the largest portion of their overall net wealth, usually dwarfing their other assets (e.g., retirement savings). While home equity is good, unless the home is sold or the equity is tapped, it is of essentially no functional value to a homeowner in retirement because it is generally very illiquid.

When analyzing your website, you want the full story of how visitors are engaging with your site. You want to know not only how many visitors you get, but where they’re coming from, how long they’re spending on your site, how soon they’re leaving, and much more. 

To find the answers to these questions, you need to track website engagement metrics. In this guide, we’ll introduce this key concept, discuss the top metrics to watch for while running a successful website in 2022, and hear from actual website owners about what metrics they're prioritizing for the upcoming year. 

Don't miss NAIFA partner ReminderMedia's webinar "How to Turn Clients into Raving Fans"! ReminderMedia President Luke Acree will outline the importance of focusing on relationships, not transactions.

In the webinar, Acree will help you:

• Discover why you need to be known, liked, and trusted before you can do business
• Find out how one psychological trigger will guarantee a desired response
• Learn why focusing on transactions rather than relationships will kill your business

The webinar will take place on March 24th at 1 pm eastern.

Twitter is one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world, with an advertising audience of 353 million users on the platform. For professionals in the insurance and financial services industry, Twitter presents an opportunity to network and use the social network as a place for finding prospective clients. Here are a few best practices to keep in mind if you want to be successful at using Twitter for finding prospective customers.

Brian Haney, CLTC, CFS, CIS, CFBS, LACP, CAE, NAIFA's Young Advisor Team (YAT) Leader of the Year recently shared five keys to his success as a financial professional with InsuranceNewsNet's AdvisorNews. Haney is the Founder and Vice President of the Haney Company in Silver Spring, MD. He has been a loyal NAIFA member since 2013 and is very engaged and active in our association.

You can stay in business for a long time by being efficient in the use of your materials and resources, having a strong hold on who you are, and surrounding yourself with other successful, young entrepreneurs.

Efficiency is key to remaining competitive in today's market. When you determine your strengths, you can harness them to maximize your leverage. Using personified production methods, such as dividing a production process into separate operations completed by different people or at different times, allows you to be more efficient. Play on your strengths and know that developing these skill sets will give you an edge over competition, both new and seasoned.

A LinkedIn profile is a critical tool in today's world if you want to grow your business and client base. It can add immense value to your professional and personal brand. Conversely, the absence of a social media profile means lost opportunities. 

Follow LinkedIn's Lead

The LinkedIn website will lead you through the process of building your profile. Have an updated resume handy as you begin the process. Take a look at profiles of others in your industry. Make sure to use a professional headshot; it can make or break your profile. While it may be tempting to use a decades younger picture−don't. Your picture should reflect your professional, approachable, trustworthy self. It's worth spending some money to be sure you have the right picture, and don't be afraid to smile.

Facebook is a huge source of potential clients and customers and professionals who overlook Facebook as a connection channel with prospects miss out big time. Here are three tips for prospecting using Facebook and getting positive results.

1. Create a Profile that Defines you

To find new clients, it's important to create a unique profile that showcases who you are and what you care about. How you present yourself on Facebook is a big factor in whether they visit, or even notice, your profile. 

If you run a company with fewer than 500 employees, you have a small business. According to the SBA, small businesses make up 99.7% of the businesses in the country, so you have good company.

But how do you remain a successful small business – one that doesn’t fail within the first 18 months? Here are 5 things you must know.

It's become the new norm to be directed to an official social media page when you visit most business websites. Why? There are 3.2 billion active internet users worldwide, roughly 45% of the world population. This figure is an honest answer to why businesses are now engaging prospective customers on their social media platforms.

With the expansion of the digital space, all spectrums of industry have become more interactive in their social media platforms to net potential clients. Recruiting within social media platforms varies from sector to sector. The focus here will be on the financial sector professionals and how the LinkedIn platform has been essential in helping them recruit potential clients.

If you are a financial advisor trying to grow your practice, Dean Thurman, Senior Partner of InvestWise Financial and Co-Founder of White Glove, has a few growth hacks for you.

While many advisors were down in revenue during 2020, Dean’s office showed a 5% increase.  So far in 2021, Dean’s office is showing 53% revenue growth.

Dean attributes much of his success to these 7 growth hacks that his office has put into place over the last few years.

Technology might not seem like a likely tool a financial advisor can use to build client relationships. It almost goes without saying that older generations prefer human interaction versus digital services when it comes to their finances. And surveys have found that even tech-savvy millennials are more likely to get help with their finances from real-life advisors than from robo-advisors. 

So how can technology help financial advisors strengthen and add value to their relationships with clients—especially older clients—when it lacks the human touch? After all, a computer can’t hold your hand during a market downturn. 

But there is new technology that can enable advisors to build their businesses by giving them the ability to better assist aging clients and clients taking care of aging parents at the stage of their financial lives where they need the most help. That new technology is Carefull.

Are you leaving money on the table?

If you aren’t nurturing and engaging with your leads and clients, the answer is yes. According to Invesp, “Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at a 33% lower cost.”

Lead generation is only the first step in a well-rounded, efficient marketing plan. To maximize your lead generating efforts, you need to interact with those leads and connect with your clients. If you don’t keep in touch with them, they’re likely to forget about you, and that leaves the door wide open for your competition to creep in. 

Consider just how much trust someone needs to have in their financial advisor to give them continuous access to, and nearly complete control of, their life’s savings, their retirement income, and their future security and dreams. That degree of trust ranks right up there with entrusting your life to a surgeon, your children’s wellbeing to a nanny, and your heart to your spouse.

Trust like that isn’t simply granted to a financial advisor because of a single phone call.

Your company’s workplace culture and brand are permanently linked. Business leaders often view it as a one-or-the-other undertaking, but that’s a mistake. If you want to build or refresh one, you should couple them both together.

Impossible, you say? Too much of a heavy administrative lift? Keep reading, you’re in for a surprise.

While the stock market tends to dominate news cycles surrounding any current large-scale event, too many average Americans are uneducated when it comes to investing. When many people see reports of record market highs and losses, massive government bailouts, and changing legislation regarding interest rates and taxes, they do not have the educational background or investing experience to translate these headlines into meaningful analyses and applications for their daily lives. Investing education is critical for all Americans, particularly in times of economic turmoil. Consider these benefits of investing education when making financial decisions with your clients.

For financial advisors, referrals are—and will probably always be—the primary method of generating new business. It seems like every business blogger out there has the best, top, greatest, or most unique ideas for generating referrals. Personally, my favorite book title proclaiming its best ways to get referrals is this one: Endless Referrals, Third Edition.

I guess the previous editions didn’t result in endless referrals as promised.

To capitalize on the referral market, there are only two aspects of your business that are worth focusing on: delivering an exceptional client experience and continuously developing relationships with clients and spheres of influence.

E4 Insurance Services invites you to join our Building Relationships Every Week (BREW) on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, at 1 pm eastern.

In this week's session, Chris Pezalla, Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary at Newcleus, will discuss LINQS+, a proprietary non-qualified retirement plan with guaranteed lifetime benefits for the participants and expense savings for the plan sponsor.

Poor Thanksgiving is the middle child of the holidays. From Halloween on, all the focus is on the winter holidays.

That’s a shame. Not just because so many people love Thanksgiving, but also because it’s a great opportunity to connect with your clients and sphere of influence.

Exploring Money Mountaineering with Harlan Accola, National Reverse Mortgage Director at Fairway, and Peter Neuwirth, Senior Consulting Actuary at CapAcuity, is now available on demand!

The webinar explains Neuwirth's six foundational principles of Holistic Financial Wellness, teaching how to create a framework to make sound financial decisions and how to prepare psychologically for a changing landscape.

If you missed this year’s Advanced Practice Center Impact Week, don’t worry! We have everything you need to know on-demand. Check out our 10, one-hour sessions with industry experts, including: 

• Kathleen W. Bilderback on the effect of low-interest rates on acquisitions, third-party sales, management buy-outs, and family business succession 
• Stacey McMahan on comprehensive succession and exit planning 
• Scott McHenry and Andrew Rinn on the role of life insurance in a qualified retirement plan 
• Diane Boyle on NAIFA advocacy and topics of interest to NAIFA members 
• Howard Sharfman on ideas to grow your business at each stage of your career 
• Robert B. Wellendorf on life insurance in the business marketplace 
• Frank W. Seneco and R. Wesley Sierk on PPLIs and CICs 
• Steven J. Beatty on why business owners need life insurance 
• Daniel M. Zugell on trends and opportunities for the modern ESOP 
• Joel Solomon on the importance of consistency in your practice 

From the 1980s through the early 2000s, many advisors and brokers dreamed of having more help with critical yet time-consuming tasks like proof of insurance and minor claims processing. We mused, “If only I had help with those tasks, I could spend more time focusing on high-touch customer service and sales.”

Today, digital innovations are streamlining much of the way carriers and their representatives conduct and generate business. These innovations are precisely the help we wished for.

So why do many in our industry resist digital advances like customer self-service and apps?

Many prominent surveys have shown that most employees want a permanently hybrid work environment – or at least more flexible workplaces. This is a shift that has been coming for some time – the pandemic simply accelerated it.

For employees, hybrid workplaces combine in-person work and telecommuting. For organizations, this shift brings many questions about how to manage the new hybrid workplace. For many leaders, managing a distributed team of people engaging in various work modes – such as in-office, hybrid, remote and outside sales – is unfamiliar.

In a tight recruiting economy, the pressure is on employers and their HR teams to hire the right people and engage them in their organizational culture.

Using personality tests in the workplace can often address both of these needs.

On November 12, author and Senior Consulting Actuary Peter Neuwirth, FSA, will join Harlan Accola, CRMP, CSA, (loyal NAIFA since 2015) National Reverse Mortgage Director of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, to present "Exploring Money Mountaineering."

This webinar will focus on Neuwirth's six foundational principles of Holistic Financial Wellness. Neuwirth and Accola will discuss how the lessons learned from the Covid-19 crisis can help us prepare, psychologically and financially, for the uncertainty of the future.

The event will take place on Friday, November 12, at 2 pm eastern.

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation is an Educational Partner to NAIFA.  For members, you can learn more about Fairway and how to partner within the Member Portal.  

On October 19th, Andrew J. Rinn, JD, CFP, CLU, ChFC, Vice President of Advanced Marketing & Case and Competition at Ameritas (and loyal NAIFA member since 2018),  will be presenting  Life Insurance in Qualified Plans - Bridging the Retirement Planning Gap with actuary Scott McHenry. During this presentation, they will cover various topics such as how to identify potential clients and concerns, different approaches, and more.

The National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) and Carefull have completed an educational partnership agreement to advance thought leadership and consumer education and promote professional cooperation between the two organizations. Under the partnership, Carefull will provide preferred access to the Carefull monitoring technology for NAIFA members, content for NAIFA blog posts and social media platforms, as well as articles around protecting and managing older adult's finances for NAIFA’s Advisor Today. 

The last year and the global pandemic have taught us that businesses and employees alike need to be able to accept and manage change. Heraclitus, an Ancient Greek philosopher, said it best when he stated, “The only constant in life is change.”

NAIFA and White Glove have completed a marketing partnership agreement. The two organizations will work together to bring modern marketing practices to financial services professionals while raising awareness of the critical advocacy work that NAIFA undertakes at the state, interstate, and federal levels.  White Glove is a founding partner of NAIFA’s Business Performance Center that provides thought leadership to agents and advisors on practice management.

American seniors are sitting on a massive mountain of cash.

Low-interest rates, rising home prices, and vanishing inventory have contributed to all-time-high home equity, yet most of it sits untouched and forgotten.

Unlock the income potential of being an insurance broker partner with Insperity. 

NAIFA has teamed up with White Glove, to present the webinar series: Hyper-Growth in a Hybrid Environment, September 13- 17th.  Each day will focus on a strategy to support advisors in prospecting and marketing. 

A change in business hours, layoffs, a reduction in benefits, a department reorganization, an elimination of bonuses, elimination of casual Fridays: Change in business is as relentless as it is inevitable.

How confident are you in your employee classifications and the process you use to categorize them? Do you really understand the differences between exempt vs. non-exempt classifications when it comes to your white-collar employees?

This month, Fairway Mortgage and the Business Performance Center presented the webinar “How to Advise Your Clients to Get to the Zero Tax Bracket.” 

NAIFA and OneAmerica® have completed an agreement on the Educational Partner Program, under which OneAmerica will provide educational content and thought leadership for NAIFA’s Advisor Today platform as well as its Centers for Excellence: The Business Performance Center, Limited and Extended Care Planning Center, and Talent Development Center. OneAmerica sponsored and participated within NAIFA’s 2021 Virtual Congressional Conference held May 25-26^th that drew more than 1,350 advisors, and will be a key sponsor for the upcoming Performance+Purpose conference to be held virtually August 17-19, 2021. 

NAIFA and ReminderMedia have completed a marketing partnership agreement to promote professional cooperation between the two organizations. Under the partnership, ReminderMedia is a founding member of the Business Performance Center. NAIFA and ReminderMedia will work together to give broader access for financial professionals and consumers in areas where the organizations’ interests overlap.

I’ve given dozens of talks on the need for financial professionals to navigate the digital landscape effectively, and invariably the conversations veer into the arena of “what’s the newest, best tech to help me grow?” As a self-avowed tech junky, I am always obliged to engage in this conversation, because it’s a lot of fun to talk technology.

I’ve given dozens of talks on the need for financial professionals to navigate the digital landscape effectively, and invariably the conversations veer into the arena of “what’s the newest, best tech to help me grow?” As a self-avowed tech junky, I am always obliged to engage in this conversation, because it’s a lot of fun to talk technology. However, what most people don’t realize is that I do so significant hesitancy because, I am acutely aware of one thing that, as an outside-the-box thinker with ADD, I have to fight my inner tendency to want newer, cooler, better. I admit it - I like blowing the whole thing up and finding a better way of doing it! If you’re at all like me, suppressing that tendency can be challenging, especially since there seem to be new awesome apps, platforms, and digital tools popping up every single day.

Practicing good social media etiquette is critical in the digital economy

Raise your hand if you like getting solicited from random strangers. Strange, I don’t see anyone’s hand raised.

If you’re looking to expand your presence in the healthcare sector, you’re probably trying to figure out how to sit down with the physicians whose names are on the doors you’re knocking on. But unless you have an existing relationship with one of those physicians — or a personal contact who can help you start one — you may be knocking on the wrong doors.

Social media offers many ways that you can add to your growing client base, particularly Facebook. The difference between this platform and many others is that the groups feature allows you to find and interact with potential clients on a more personal level. This feature also gives you the opportunity to find prospective clients in special interest groups. Finally, Facebook gives you the added touch of searching for new clients within your geographic location. All of these features give you more leads on a regular basis if you learn how to use them well. 

Start Your Own Facebook Group

If you haven't already, get your own Facebook group up and running. It's as easy as clicking the "create group" button and filling out a few details. Make sure that you're clear about the services you're providing, your location, business hours, and mission statement. Use a clear and professional photo for your profile and a cover photo that makes your business details clear. This way, when you're prospecting for clients elsewhere, people will have a place to connect with you that shows them who you are and what services you offer. 

You may be wondering, "How do I make a strong impression with my business Instagram profile?" Or, 'How can I add branding personality to my Instagram business page?" Well, read on and find out these and much more. Instagram started as a simple picture-sharing app between friends. However, it quickly evolved into the go-to social media platform for eye-catching content. With millions of users and a higher engagement rate when compared to Facebook, your business can't afford to be left out of this marketing phenomenon. 

Instagram can be a highly profitable marketing tool for those in the financial services industry. There are many ways that financial advisors and insurance agents can recruit prospective clients through Instagram. The following are some of the most effective ways that those in the financial services industry can prospect using Instagram; 

Create Catchy Content with Beautiful Pictures 

If you are looking to recruit prospective clients through Instagram, you should create well-curated content that aligns with your financial services. Instagram is a platform where people enjoy seeing beautiful images on daily basis. Thus, instead of simply writing a post about your financial services, showcase them through beautiful photos. The shared photos should highlight the unique features of your services and why customers should look forward to them.  

YouTube has become an indispensable tool since its introduction in 20005. Many businesses have adopted this tool for both advertising and marketing their products to achieve business objectives. If you are still in doubt whether your financial service company, it is worth noting the following.

There are so many platforms that you can venture in to promote your financial institution and grow your client base. However, it isn't easy to know which one of them will yield benefits. 

Most people market through LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, but very few of them pay attention to Snapchat; even though its projected user base in the U.S. alone has reached 70 million.

It has become the new norm nowadays to be directed to an official social media page once you visit most business websites. Why is this so? There are 3.2 billion active internet users worldwide. This figure translates to roughly 45% of the world population. This figure is an honest answer to why businesses are now engaging prospective customers on their social media platforms.

NAIFA has announced that its Business Performance Center Impact Week will offer an amazing slate of virtual programing led by industry experts, March 23-25. Presentations will be high-impact and provide valuable takeaways focused on practice management, growing your business, and reaching new markets.

Focusing on the right people and companies will make the difference in prospecting smarter, not harder. LinkedIn is an influential platform with senior-level influencers and top company decision-makers. If you use it well, you can grow your list of prospects.

As we tread into the digital age, it's crucial to make sure that your insurance firm or financial services agency is keeping abreast with the best practices to drive and convert new prospects. Webinars offer a great platform to provide interactive content to prospective customers and get feedback in real-time. You can consider adopting the following strategies to ensure that your webinars covert as many leads as possible into the business:

The webinar presents an ideal platform for any type of business, including insurance to land leads, nurture them, and consequently convert them into customers. For any successful financial services firm, it offers the perfect avenue to provide thought leadership, present appealing content to attract qualified leads, and land them accordingly. You can harness the power of this platform in the following ways: