By Antoinette Tuscano 

Why be like every other financial advisor in your area when you can be unforgettable to clients? Try one of these five creative and fun ideas to showcase your personality with flare. Get noticed, boost your referability and build relationships with clients.

1. Delivering coffee for better online meeting attendance

I was having a problem with clients and prospects frequently canceling Zoom meetings with me. So, I started buying coffee for them and getting it delivered to their house right before our online meeting. Now, people are not canceling their meetings with me.

—Glen Alexander Winata, Jakarta, Indonesia, 10-year MDRT member. Contact him at gawinata@gmail.com.

2. Cooking for care and referrals

I love cooking for clients. A lot of clients are very busy juggling work and child care. On weekends, I cook for myself and clients. It’s how I show them I care — and it’s how I got a lot of referrals. I make good, healthy food to keep them healthy, so they don’t have to use their insurance benefits. The best way to connect with hearts is through my healthy food.

—Yeon Hwa Yoon, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 12-year MDRT member. Contact her at yhydream7@naver.com.

3. Showing the love

I specialize in love and marriage as my niche, so my TikTok posts are about how couples can do financial planning and grow together. Social media is about being a magnet and attracting those needles that otherwise go flying out of the ocean. You must make the magnet very specialized. My focus helps me gather referrals.

—Joseph Tan, ChFC, CLU, Singapore, 16-year MDRT member. Contact him at josephtan@acquityasia.com.

4. Delighting with personalized birthday cards

I connect with clients through personalized birthday e-cards. I use Canva, which has templates, to create these. I gather photos from clients to add to their birthday cards, which include my name and logo. My clients will sometimes share this personalized card on social media.

—Ronald Espina Lim Jr., Cebu City, Philippines, eight-year MDRT member. Contact him at plukronald.lim@gmail.com.

5. Connecting with a tap

I use NFC business cards. I tap the specially designed near-field communication card on someone’s phone, and my contact information is downloaded into their phone’s contacts. It also has a QR code. The card is very customizable, and it can even create links to your social media.

—Lim Yee Von, Selangor, Malaysia, eight-year MDRT member. Contact her at yeevon09@gmail.com.

3 steps to winning the endurance game

By Johan Fanggara, CFP

After competing in endurance sports — including five marathons, two Ironman races and several triathlons — I realized the financial services profession is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. Therefore, having the right mindset is crucial to building something sustainable.

To most people, marathons seem like an impossible distance to conquer. Yet, every weekend, thousands of regular people cross the finish line. So, it can be done, even though no one is born with such endurance. The good news, though, is that endurance can be built. It’s the same with our business endurance.

During my decade-long career in financial services, I’ve noticed patterns in building the business endurance mindset. Continuously achieving MDRT, Court of the Table and even Top of the Table for many years might seem like an impossible feat, much like crossing the finish line of a marathon. What if, however, much like in training for endurance sports, you built a mindset in business that allows you to continuously nail your goals? I think you can.

Commit to a clear goal

No great achievement can be accomplished without a fervent commitment to conquering it. Why is that goal so important and personal to you? Is it crystal-clear enough?

Plan your work, work your plan

Goals without plans are nothing. Break it down to monthly or even weekly goals. Monitor them closely to ensure you’re on track. This is what sets aside committed versus merely interested people.

Don’t climb Mount Everest alone

Nothing great is achieved alone. Surround yourself with people who will run with you and believe in you no matter what.

Great things take time. We must be ready and embrace the process. What we sow now, we won’t reap today. Don’t run a marathon with a sprint mindset.

Finally, without commitment, you’ll never start. And without consistency, you’ll never finish. Let’s win our endurance game. 

Johan Fanggara, CFP, is a seven-year MDRT member from Jakarta Utara, Indonesia. Contact him at jfanggara.asn@gmail.com.