“If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
The First Sip
Hey Sunday Brewers!
Ever wondered how many times an average 4-yr-old laughs per day? 🤔
Or why you should never use the number 2 in your headlines? 🤔
What about a way to get 503 advisor leads in 4 days? 🤔
You’re in the right place.
But first, let me hit you with a story that’ll make you smile…
From 1982 to 1996, Jessie Hamilton started her days at 4 a.m.
She’d get out of bed, drive down to the Louisiana State University campus, and cook a breakfast spread for the boys at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.
Then she’d cook lunch.
And then as soon as the dishes were clean…time to prep for supper.
But Ms. Hamilton was more than just a cook…
She was like a mother to many of the boys who found themselves living away from home for the first time in their lives.
She’d give them rides to the grocery store… even doctor’s appointments.
Everyone loved Ms. Hamilton… especially Andrew Fusaiotti.
Over the past 30 years, Andrew has periodically checked in with the former house cook.
And when he called her at the start of the pandemic to see how she was holding up…
He discovered she was still working two jobs in her mid-70s.
“I asked her why, and she said she couldn’t afford to retire,” he recalls.
After that conversation, Andrew called up her adult children and learned that she had a remaining balance of $45,000 on her mortgage…
So he quickly sprang into action and rallied nearly 100 fraternity brothers to raise $51,765.
And earlier this month, Andrew and his friends presented Ms. Hamilton with two checks.
One check for $45,000 to pay off the mortgage.
One check for $6,765 to spend as she pleases.
“That shows how they all felt about her,” Andrew said.
“She is the type of person that inspires me, people that don’t have a lot, but give a lot. She’s the most giving person you’ve ever met.”
Ms. Hamilton says she now plans to retire and relax some in her paid-off home.
She might even sleep in a bit past 4 a.m. 😉
“Andrew answered my prayers,” an emotional Ms. Hamilton said. “He’s my guardian angel.”
1 Caffeinated Neurohack
Research shows the average 4-year-old laughs 300 times a day…😂
(That’s once every 2 minutes they’re awake!)
By comparison, it takes the average 40-year-old 2.5 MONTHS to laugh that many times. 😏
In a related study, researchers tracked age and contrasted it with how frequently they smiled or laughed.
They asked 1.4 million people around the world a very simple question:
Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
For those in the 16-23 age range, the answer was YES ✅
But after the age of 23, the answer is almost always NO ❌
In fact, the average person doesn’t begin smiling and laughing on a regular basis again until they reach their 70s and 80s.
That might seem trivial, but I believe it’s an important wakeup call.
Laughing and smiling shouldn’t be luxuries that we save for the weekends…
We need to make a habit out of being more joyful all the time.
Scientific studies have shown that laughter is proven to do things like:
🤜💥 BUST stress
😎 Relax muscles
❤️ Improve cardiac health
💊 BOOST immunity
🧠 Increase endorphins
👫 Strengthen relationships
Want to add more laughter to your life?
- Spend more time with a dog! (But maybe not cats)
- Watch a funny movie you’ve seen dozens of times before
- Lighten up, Francis & laugh at yourself!
☕ TL;DR: Laughing is scientifically proven to benefit your physical and mental health. Do it more often. (Right now…laugh right now…) 🤣
Marketing Psychology Quick Hit
Most advisors are pretty good with numbers…
It sort of comes with the territory.
But even “non-math” brains have a psychological bent toward seeing numbers.
In fact, this is why numbers are used so often in email subject lines and blog headlines.
When a reader sees a number in a sea of letters, the brain involuntarily zooms in and says, “This must be important…let’s focus.”
It’s why the title The 14 Biggest Retirement Planning Myths is much more appealing than a similar post titled The Biggest Retirement Planning Myths.
So while adding numbers to your email headlines, LinkedInPosts, and other content will instantly help you attract more eyeballs…
I want to give you some next-level digital marketing hacks from my copywriting vault:
- Odd numbers tend to work better than even numbers, because they seem less contrived and more believable. (e.g. Try giving away 17 tips in an article rather than 20.)
- Research shows just 5% of top-performing content has the number 2 in the headline. This makes it the WORST number to use.
- Always use the numeral and never the word. (Your high school English teacher won’t like this piece of advice…but we’re writing conversion copy – not a 9th grade book report 😆)
If you want to get really technical, you can always split test the same email and simply change the number in the subject line.
If you do run a test like this, hit “reply” and let me know what sort of results you get!
☕ TL;DR: The human brain is enthralled by numbers. Use them in your email subject lines and blog post headlines to stop prospects in their tracks.
Weekly Industry Catch-Up
It was a BIG week for BIG tech, with Wall Street juggernauts like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon reporting beefy Q1 earnings….ALSO, more than 1B vaccine doses have now administered worldwide….& big week for Bitcoin’s kid brother, Ethereum.
Here’s what else happened:
🔹 Tax hike. The Prez unveiled his new American Families Plan to raise $1.5T over 10 years by slapping a 1% tax on the wealthy (among other things).
Professional opinion makers say:
▶️ Good politics, but bad economics.
▶️ It’s a start, but it doesn’t go far enough.
▶️ Unconstitutional and over the line.
🔹 Pause button ⏸ The SEC was supposed to make a decision on approving the VanEck Bitcoin ETF this past week, but decided to table the topic until June.
Why is this important? This would be the first-ever crypto ETF…
Why now? New SEC chair Gary Gensler is pro-crypto…
ETF…Good or bad? Depends on who you ask: YEA vs. NAY
🔹 ‘Google It.’ Massive Q1 earnings boosted Google to a market cap rate of $1.6T for the first time ever. Gross revenue for the first three months of 2021 were $55.3B
Google’s search portion of the biz grew by 30% since last quarter thanks to a HUGE bump in “available near me” searches.
Google-owned YouTube saw revenue jump 49% with more eyeballs than ever glued to content 👀
Advisors who double down on local SEO and YouTube could be big winners in 2021.
Check out this video from our resident coaches who built a YouTube channel with a smartphone & blanket as a backdrop…
to over 80 THOUSAND FANS, with a cool $50,000 a month in life insurance commissions…
All from Youtube.
What’s New In #SHIFTnation?
Be Well,
Jeremiah
