“Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”
Hey Sunday Brewers!
We’ve got everything you need to supercharge your growth this week, including…
- Three ways to train your brain to read FASTER 🏎💨
- How one 4-letter word can change your marketing strategy 🤯
- The power of green beans & squash in your ‘hood 😊
Let’s dive in…
The First Sip
Take a walk through Jenna Fournel’s Boston neighborhood on any Saturday morning this summer and you’ll find an old wooden table sitting in her front yard.
On that table is 30 pounds of fresh produce harvested from her family’s backyard gardens.
It’s free for anyone in the neighborhood to grab.
Greens, watermelons, eggplants, beans, peppers – whatever’s in season.
“It’s just lovely, like you drive by and it just looks like this beautiful bounty of generosity,” said one neighbor.
Jenna calls this her “farm stand” – a tradition that started in the summer of 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
And while it eventually became a place for neighbors to safely interact during lockdown, it started as an ode to her late son, Oli, who passed away in 2019 at the age of 8.
“People brought us food for months, people checked in all the time,” Jenna recalled.
“I was so struck by the ways in which a community, both people that I knew but also strangers, just lifted us up.”
It was around that time that Jenna and her husband remembered how much her sons loved the family garden.
And, so, they decided to return the favor and share their own fresh produce with the community who had surrounded them during their darkest days.
They said it was slow at first with only a couple of people daring to stop by.
But over time, it’s grown.
The Saturday farm stand is now one of the staples of the neighborhood.
And while the produce is nice…it’s the communal support that’s meant the most to Jenna and her family.
“When you learn about other people’s stories not only do you feel less alone but you also feel more called upon to make sure that they don’t feel alone also,” she said.
1 Caffeinated Neurohack
Warren Buffet was once asked about his key to success…
He pointed to a stack of books and said, “Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest.”
500 pages per day?!
Sounds impossible, right?
While he may be one of the most voracious readers in the world, he’s not alone in his belief that reading is critically important to success.
Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey…
They all read multiple books per month (and many read 50+ per year).
500 pages per day is probably impractical for you right now, but you can read way more than you realize.
The key is to TRAIN your brain to read faster.
Here are a few of the best speed-reading tactics:
👉 Read with your finger. (The speed of the finger determines how fast you read.)
👉Use the ‘third word rule.’ (Start each line on the third word, and end each line on the third word from the end. Your eyes will catch the other words via peripheral vision.)
👉Start reading faster than you’re comfortable. Then after a couple of pages slow down to a more manageable pace. This slowed-down pace will still be faster than your standard reading pace.
Give speed reading a try this week and let me know how it works.
☕ TL;DR: Want to read more? Learn how to speed read.
Marketing Psychology Quick Hit
People love free stuff.
It doesn’t even matter what it is.
It could be a keychain, a cookie, or a pencil…
Price and value don’t always matter.
The brain has a love affair with getting something for nothing…
…and you can use this to your benefit in marketing.
You don’t have to give away a year’s worth of financial planning or an all-inclusive trip to the Bahamas.
You can just take services that you’re already offering at no charge and simply make prospects aware of the fact that they’re “free.”
For example, you might already give new clients a one-hour consultation as part of the onboarding process…
But if you’re just tossing it in as something you do, you aren’t maximizing the value.
Add those four letters…F-R-E-E…in front of the phrase “one-hour consultation” and it suddenly seems more valuable and enticing.
Take a net worth spreadsheet that you typically give away on your website and offer it as a “free bonus” for people who give you their email address.
You simply take what was already free and slap a more attractive label on it to magnetize, engage, and convert.
☕ TL;DR: Bolster your marketing with FREE offers.
What’s New in SHIFT Nation?
Discover the unique referral method top FAs are using!
Weekly Industry Catch-Up
🔹 Jobs on jobs. The June Jobs Report showed some signs for optimism with payrolls increasing by 372,000 (48% higher than estimated). Average hourly earnings also increased by a robust 5.1% (YOY).
🔹 Twitter breakup? Twitter shares saw a steep decline toward the end of the week as rumors swirled that Elon Musk’s deal to buy the company is in jeopardy. Legal analysts say Musk could be on the hook for more than the $1B breakup fee, if the deal falls through.
🔹 Fed ‘Ponzi Scheme.’ One hedge fund CEO is pointing fingers at the Fed and making no apologies about it. In his latest letter to investors, Dan Morehead (Pantera Capital) says the Fed’s “manipulation of the government and mortgage bond markets” is “the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.”
Be Well,
Jeremiah D. Desmarais
CEO, Advisorist
#1 in ROI-Driven Training for Advisors
