Page 27 - Investment Advisor June 2021

or flat-fee models for financial plan- Who/what’s your top go-to source A must read for any marketer, business
ning), and one firm I know offers free for news/analysis online, including on owner, salesperson or entrepreneur.
financial planning to all of their clients’ Twitter, and why? “The Nature of Fragile Things,” by
children until they turn 26 (to coin- I have scaled back my news consump- Susan Meissner. This is just a riv-
cide with insurance). Talk about a great tion considerably since the start of the eting tale, and I’m almost finished
strategy to stay in front of the “Great pandemic, but NPR is my daily gen- with it on just day two! It’s histori-
Wealth Transfer”! eral news source for everything (and cal fiction set in 1906 San Francisco,
Another new strategy that many firms I consume it mostly via podcasts and during the great earthquake and fire.
we work with started this year is send- radio). I also subscribe to The New The main character is a young Irish
ing clients emails that contain a short York Times and love their podcast immigrant so desperate to get out of a
video update instead of requir- New York tenement that she
ing clients to join yet anoth- Concerns right now? The answers a mail-order bride ad
er Zoom meeting. commoditization of wealth and agrees to marry a man
Others may not be able to she knows nothing about.
offer digital assets such as management, increased It’s such a dramatic thriller.
Bitcoin, but because they know Highly recommended!
their clients are incredibly pressure to lower fees and be I’m excited to dive into
interested in them, they are more fee-transparent, the rise Michael Lewis’ new book, ”The
creating content around them Premonition,” next.
and proactively talking to cli- of robo-advisors/DIY investing,
ents about this new frontier, the shift in how investors find What do you do for fun, and
discussing both the pros and how does it help you?
the cons. an advisor in the first place — My two little ones (Hudson

keep me plenty busy, and I
What’s the top trend or theme all these come back to one thing: is 5, and Grace just turned 3)
you’re following and/or writing shifting demographics and love going on adventures with
about this year and why? them and seeing the world
Following: digital assets (cryp- increased technology. through their eyes. I also love
to, NFTs, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, any type of physical activity:
etc.). It’s been fascinating to watch as “The Daily.” I listen to it most morn- running, hiking, swimming, strength
we’ve gone from all the big players in the ings while getting ready for the day. training — any kind of movement. This
industry completely ruling these assets On Twitter, my top follows for inter- year my husband, Ryan, and I discov-
out as “a fad” just a year or two ago to esting analysis are Morgan Housel ered pickleball, and so that’s been so
seeing news in recent weeks that every- (@morganhousel), Barry Ritholtz (@ fun to learn, too.
one from Goldman Sachs to Morgan ritholtz), Harry’s Marketing Examples
Stanley to Visa, PayPal and Venmo are (@GoodMarketingHQ). Do you have any professional or
announcing new forays into crypto. personal plans you can share?
I’m not at all surprised, though, as not What book are you reading right now Last year, I read 58 books, so one of my
having an open mind and being willing that you find insightful and why? goals for this year is to beat that num-
to explore new frontiers is the biggest I almost always read two to three books ber! If anyone has a great book recom-
barrier to any business’ success. at once. Right now I’m enjoying: mendation, I’d love for you to send it
Writing about: all things video. “Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious my way!
YouTube is the world’s second larg- Science of Creating Magic in Brands, I also create one to three videos a
est search engine, and the average Business, and Life.” This book was writ- week but right now outsource all the
American adult spends 24 minutes daily ten by Ogilvy advertising legend Rory editing, so another goal of mine is to
on YouTube. Sutherland, and it is chock-full of com- (finally!) learn how to do (good) video
Every advisory firm has a website pelling, fascinating stories from all areas editing myself.
these days, but most do not have an of life, but at its core, tries to answer the
active YouTube channel. There is so question “How do some businesses con- Jeff Berman can be reached at jberman@
much opportunity here. jure up irresistible products and ideas?” alm.com.

JUNE 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 25