☕ Advisor Sunday Brew: 🦄 Unicorns, Bitcoin and… Nachos? 🌮

“Freedom lies in being bold.”

-Robert Frost

If you’ve been around my team here at Advisorist for any length of time, then you know we’re strong believers in having an “attitude of gratitude.”

We genuinely believe that a posture of gratitude has the ability to change how you think, feel, and perform.

And we’re not the only ones.

There are countless double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that show a significant correlation between gratitude and happiness + success.

It’s no longer a theory or cute idea (like many have claimed over the years)… it’s a commonly accepted fact among social scientists.

As Dr. Mealanie Greenberg puts it:

“Feeling and expressing gratitude turns our mental focus to the positive, which compensates for our brains’ natural tendency to focus on threats, worries, and negative aspects of life.”

Gratitude actually CREATES positive emotions and REVERSES the grip of negative emotions.

Pretty incredible stuff…

And if you’re looking for a way to try it yourself, I’ve got a simple little exercise for you.

It takes about 15 minutes.

Here’s how it works:

• Call to mind a person who once did something for you (which you’re grateful for) but to whom you never got a chance to express deep gratitude.

• Write a letter to this person (addressing them directly).

• Describe in specific terms why you’re grateful for this person and how their actions have positively impacted you.

If the person is still alive, consider sending them the letter.

But even if they aren’t, the simple process of putting your brain into a place of gratitude can prime you for success.

☕ TL;DR: Write somebody special a letter of gratitude – you’ll feel better.

Marketing Psychology Quick Hit

The human brain responds more favorably to people, brands, images, logos, and ideas that it’s exposed to on a frequent basis.

This idea was first popularized by a 1968 experiment in which subjects were shown images of random people’s faces and then asked to grade how much they liked the faces (before and after).

The results?

When a participant saw a face 20 or more times, they rated it significantly higher than faces they only saw a couple of times.

Since then, dozens of similar studies have reached the same conclusion: People respond more favorably to familiar stimuli. 

This concept is known as the “Mere Exposure Effect.”

And though it may sound fairly basic, I want you to understand just how powerful that idea is – particularly when it comes to LinkedIn.

It indicates that the more active you are on LinkedIn – sharing content, getting into prospects’ inboxes, liking and commenting on posts, and participating in group discussions – the more people will LIKE and TRUST you.

So while you might feel like you’re putting yourself out there too much, it’s actually helping to forge stronger ‘neural connections’ between you and your prospects and clients.

Research shows that the ideal number of LinkedIn posts per week is 5. 

If you make it a point to post once per day for the next month, I can almost guarantee you’ll experience a lift in visibility, trust, and likability. 

☕ TL;DR: Clients and prospects think more favorably of you the more they see you. You’re probably not posting enough on LinkedIn – do it 5x weekly. 

Weekly Industry Catch-Up

☕ The Scoop: The S&P 500 crossed the 4,000-point threshold for the first time ever on Thursday, while Bitcoin creeped back toward all-time highs and the total crypto market nears $2T market capitalization.

With vaccinations nearing 2.8M per day in the U.S. and cases flat-lining, much of North America inches toward more normal times.

Here’s a look at some other noteworthy happenings from the previous week:

🔹 Corona-Cash. It’s hard to know what people will do when they get a stimmy check, but it looks like many are being…responsible! Bill payments jumped 30% in March (compared to February). But that’s not to say everything is fine and dandy…

Approximately 1-in-2 Americans say the pandemic delayed their retirement plans by 2+ years. 

Plus, a new Fidelity study shows Americans between the ages of 40-49 have an average 401(k) balance of $120,800 and contribute 8.9% of their salaries to retirement. 

🔹 Putting the PAY in PayPal. The original digital wallet made a big splash this week when PayPal announced it’s now allowing U.S. consumers to use cryptocurrency holdings to pay for millions of products and services from online merchants. 

In other news, Chipotle gave fans a chance to win $100,000 worth of Bitcoin Thursday….That’s a whole lot of chips and queso. 

🔹 Knock-knock. Who’s there? If it’s a commercial office space…there’s a good chance nobody’s home. 

There are currently 137 MILLION square feet of office space available for lease across the U.S….a 40% year-over-year increase. 

PLUS…Major firms like Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and PwC are actively looking to unload massive blocks of office space. Virtual is the new status quo.

What’s New In the Facebook Group

An inexpensive TECH gadget top advisors are using to produce flawless video on the fly 🔥

Got a clever opener not already mentioned? Add it HERE (and swipe 10 others that advisors submitted).

Enjoy Your Sunday,

Jeremiah