Writing For Advisor.ca Is Official!

The first six months of 2008 went out with a bang, as we reported in Giving Thanks Mid Way Through 2008 and I can confirm that I am a monthly contributor to Advisor.ca with my first monthly article starting in September.

This causes me to reflect back on a List Of Marketing Actions that we created in 2004 with the help of Chris Barrow and Kim Black;

• Choose A Niche
• Find A Problem That Needs Solving
• Create A Solution Through One On One Coaching, Group Coaching, Workshops and Supporting Products
• Brand Your Solution
• Receive And Publish Coaching Testimonials
• Create A Web Site
• Write Articles
• Publish An E-Newsletter
• Publish A Blog
• Create A Speaking Folio
• Create A Show Reel
• Speak To 10,000 People Within The Niche At Association And Corporate Events
• Receive And Publish Speaking Testimonials
• Get Published By A National Publication Within The Niche

• On The Way;
o Attract Sponsors
o Create CDs & DVDs
o Create Relationships With COI’s
o Exhibit At Tradeshows
o Master Viral Marekting
o Stregthen Your Team
o Upgrade Your Website
o Write & Publish A Book

• Market, Market & Market Coaching, Group Coaching, Workshops and Supporting Products Some More

… And Never, Never Do A Cold Call Ever Again.

As Seth Godin said; “There are no overnight successes and it takes four to six years to be a success on-line and overall”. As Jim Rohn, said; Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every single day”.

For me, last Friday’s conversation with Kate McCaffery, the Practice Management Editor of Advisor.ca was like going through Journalism 2.0 as Kate offered me some extremely valuable tips of creative writing that include …

Don’t be a fake meaning use original material and make sure you acknowledge the creator of the idea if you do use someone else’s idea but please, no “cut and paste”. Fakery is rampant from those that chose to walk around with a fake Rolex to copying music CDs and movie DVDs. First of all it is stealing and second and more importantly, it is confirming the grand daddy of all unmet needs, the need of worthiness and that “you are not worthy”.

If you have a need of worthiness, you have a limiting belief that “I am not good enough” along with the limiting emotions of anxiety and fear. The unmet need, limiting belief and limiting emotion all combine with the laws of attraction to attract evidence that you are not worthy and you wonder why you attract prospects that waste your time, to sales that fall apart to failing to ask for referrals. You may wonder why but it gives your ego the fuel to get angry at the evidence that you are attracting further compounding the problem.

A provocative question; “How many financial advisors are fakes?” What I mean by this; Are most financial advisors fakes because they all sound the same and very few of them are branded and niche market themselves with an original idea? Food for thought for another article.

To keep your writing and marketing fresh, read all kinds of different material from both industry and non-industry related material that could also include poetry to again keep your mind fresh and alive with new ideas and inspiration.

Kate wondered out loud that there may not be any original ideas or material. Of course one can always “Google Up” to find out where the idea originally came from. I think that I heard that Einstein once said that every idea has already been invented and they are floating around out there in the Meme Pool somewhere just waiting for you to tune into. This sequays into The Hundred Monkey Theorey.

New ideas and material are coming about through what the music industry calls Mash-Ups where one idea + one idea + one idea = a brand new idea.

One beloved Canadian artist that is NOT a Mash Up that I’m listing to as I write this is Alanis Morissette’s new CD called Flavors Of Entanglement which is as strong as Jagged Little Pill, the tenth top selling CD of all time. Bravo Alanis!

You can learn more about how the mind works and figuring out how my mind works as you try to track through this article through Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book and Mind Genius is a wonderful software to use to facilitate the process of Mind Mapping.

The titles for the September – December monthly 800 word articles have been created and I have loads of back ups. The articles require an introduction or attention grabbing statement along with three points and supporting points and the introduction and the three main points should be about two hundred words each and here are the deadlines;

• July 7th – September Article
• September 7th – October Article
• October 7th – November Article
• November 7th – December Article
• December 7th – January Article

In the spirit of writing inspiration, I am creating a new habit to schedule time to read the following industry and related publications;

• Advisor.ca
• Advisors’ Edge
• Canadian Business
• Globe & Mail
• Horses Mouth
• Investment Executive
• Marketingmag.ca
• Money Sense
• The Advocis FORUM
• The Financial Post
• The Insurance Journal

Please let me know if I have missed any notable Canadian Publications and I would be grateful if could send any that you may know of in the UK and USA.

So in the spirit of keeping my writing fresh I headed down to Chapters in Nanaimo on Sunday afternoon to do some research. At the same time, I am walking my talk as I have told my clients many many times to stand in front of the magazine rack and look at the attention grabbing headlines so that you can become a resource of value added information to your clients to make themselves unique and different.

I believe that these trips to Chapters will become a routine to enhance my writing. More to follow on A Trip To Chapters For Writing Inspiration.

This week is an Off Week From Coaching and I am devoting the entire week to working with my Editor on editing The Cure For The Unmet Needs Disease.