Losing Hope
Bit melodramatic but each day I see things that make me question the future of this country. Or, at the very least, how businesses in this country may start operating over the next decade or so.
Most of the subscribers to this column are of a certain age for sure. I guess my message falls on older, more mature ears and a lot of things resonate with our generation.
We still believe in this country, right or wrong. It is still the greatest country on Earth. If it wasn’t, why would 12 million (or 2 million, or any number you believe in) people try to make this country their new home? Net in-migration has always exceeded net out migration, for 248 consecutive years. No country in the World can boast that. So, to all the Liberal Democrats, Social Democrats, Socialist, Anti Capitalists and every other nation hating bunch, GO EFF YOURSELVES.
Ok, that was childish, I know, but my point is simple, The Greatest Generation is dwindling, The Next Greatest Generation is retiring and that leaves what? Millennials, Gen Z and whatever stupid name each generation ascribes to.
Sometimes I feel positive about the handoff. I meet some smart, hard working younger people who get it. They understand that the World is not being handed to them, they need to earn whatever they get. They are responsible and understand that that responsibility is a burden that they don’t take lightly. Then there are the 70 million that just don’t get it.
I was brought up in business with a belief that “Your word is your bond”. You shake hands like you mean it and when you talk to people, you look them in the eye. You work hard and no matter what color you are, you can succeed. It takes luck as well for sure but working hard and doing what you agreed to do will get you far.
You walk into a room of unknowns, you make sure you introduce yourself and you listen more than you talk.
Simple rules and easy to follow.
The reason I bring this up is because I received a blast email from someone who has a marketing firm. While I am in no need for marketing or anything else, I thought how she presented herself and her company was interesting:
Thanks for joining the ****** Marketing Agency email list! I’m a firm believer in giving away 90% of what I know for free, so I’ll be sending you a ton of helpful resources over the next week on digital marketing for financial advisors.
But first, a bit about me and why I choose to work with advisors just like you.
As soon as I got my driver’s license at 16, I started working for my dad’s financial planning firm after school. Once I got my MBA, I took over his marketing department and worked as a financial advisor myself. It was there I discovered my true passion for helping independent financial advisors grow their businesses through digital marketing. So I switched gears and started ****** Marketing Agency.
Today I still support my dad’s team, but I’ve also worked with 500+ other top financial advisors to run their marketing. Here are 5 reasons why I love working with financial advisors.
INSERT HER PICTURE WITH A LINK TO A VIDEO HERE
P.S. Keep an eye out for our next email where I’ll share the #1 most important marketing strategy for financial advisors. (And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with social media or fancy sales funnels.)
P.P.S. Have questions about your marketing? Schedule a free Q&A call with our team. We’d love to give you our personal recommendations for improving your marketing today.
In her introductory email, she never bothered to introduce herself! Only after clicking on her link did I find out her name.
She has an MBA but she failed in real world marketing and client acquisition.
I know in the Macro picture of business a poorly constructed email is not the end of the World as we know it but it does show me something that I do think is a major difference between the Second Greatest Generation (screw that Baby Boomer BS) and Gen X Gen Y and Gen Z and those pesky Millennials. In a million years there isn’t one person I know who would not introduce him/herself before explaining whatever it is they want to explain to a group of people who they have never met. It is called common courtesy, This woman lacks it and I fear that the generations coming up will also let the simple task of a polite introduction fall into history.
I know this is a dumb thing to bring up and this MBA empowered marketing expert is not the template by which every else follows but there is a bigger picture here and I hope most of you see it.
She has an MBA, I’m presuming it’s in some related field of marketing and someone failed her. Either it was the University which awarded her with their Masters of Business Administration degree or her Father (apparent mentor) who failed to teach her common etiquette. Someone did not reinforce my basic five principles.
I have spoken to educators over the years and they too acknowledge that there are certain things that universities miss. They have these ethics courses that supposedly help students know that a smelly fish is just that, a smelly fish. Yet, the Harvards and the Princetons still graduate plenty of students who will go on and become the next Bernie Madoff or Sam Bankman Fried. Ethics courses or not, bad guys will be bad guys and I think a lot of those moral quandaries should have been addressed long before any of these culprits got into whatever esteemed university they matriculated at. Moral right and wrong is a lifelong learning lesson and colleges can only do so much.
What colleges can do is prepare student for the real world. Book learning and case studies can only go so far. Part of the recipe for success is knowing the proper way to act. Prepare student in the most fundamental ways and you will have students that present themselves in a much better light.
What I fear is that we will have a growing group of fresh faces in the business world that want to change things for what they feel is better.
Ok. What does that even mean? Being polite and respectful isn’t a good thing? Saying Thank you or Please is no longer acceptable?
Listening and learning from people who have vastly more experience. What is wrong with that?
I know that all of these generations want to mock The Second Greatest Generation but really, what was so wrong with a lot of things our generation stood for, believed in?
I believe that respect is earned, it is never a given.
These young pups demand respect now when they have not earned it.
I know that our parents had some very strong feelings about our generation but they made sure that we knew what was right and wrong before we left to conquer the World. We knew a little bit about dealing with people properly and earning other peoples respect over time.
I do think that most of the people of my generation have done that, instilled a lot of that in our children but for some reason, things changed between when they left the house for The U and when they entered the workplace.
NOTE: Being the skootch that I am, I emailed this woman and explained how bad her email was and I am still waiting for an answer. No answer and it will validate my point about what we have to look forward to in the future.