Thread by @ThyConsigliori

24 September 2021 #MyStory #25

Today, we’ll finish up on lessons 4 – 6:

1) Entertain and Inform
2) Risk/Reward
3) Limit but SELL the Risk
4) Qualify
5) Always Show Up
6) Work Your Numbers

2) I imagine you know the word "holistic," and also that it's related to seeing things as a whole, not just as a clump of parts. But I also bet you don't know the power of that in selling. I certainly didn't, when I get started and overcame the other hurdles at ITG.

3) Our investors really were that, investors. They all had portfolios and earned interest on their investments. Something that amazed me was that in all the hundreds and hundreds of prospects I spoke with, not one had any idea what their rate of return was on the whole.

4) It was Bruce Dorfman's book that gave me the answer. He describes an East and West Pool of investing. East is conservative and safe, West risky and proffers much higher return. The fact that this is subjective is good, not bad.

5) Reading my coach's book, it struck me. None of my prospects would have the slightest idea what their real rate of return would be on their portfolios as a whole. I knew it in advance. And, I knew that a conversation that gave them that information would be valuable.

6) My boss Norman had already suggested we send out copies of the book to our prospects, in addition to our fabulous brochure. No one ever gave me a better or more profitable idea. I sent out more copies of that book than all the other brokers combined.

7) Prospect with book in hand, I'd guide them to the chapter on East & West Pool investing. Then, we'd map out their investments using the same structure. What was it worth a year ago? What is it worth now? One by one we'd go. It usually took about 45 minutes or so.

8) My fellow brokers at first scorned me, from the vantage point of their 3-minute, this-market-is-going-to-the-moon pitches. Ah, but I targeting the interest, ALL the interest as what I recommended my customers invest into their West Pool, with us.

9) As I might have mentioned, ITG's average new account was about $1,500. For my entire time there, mine was over $10,000. That was a record that was never broken. It came from the value of the analysis, and the aggression of the sale. I will always be proud of that.

10) When you sell with that kind of hard working integrity, you're empowered to always show up. A rule I wrote for myself was to ALWAYS take my client's calls. I never ducked a single one. Remembering how they all ended up losing their money, you can imagine, not an easy call.

11) As they mounted up, each one losing their investment after the next, and I had to keep selling new clients even to have an income, the guilt began to grow. My tipping point was when I knew for certain. Once I got there, there was no more selling. I just couldn't.

12) It was devasting to lose something I'd fought so hard to win. I knew everything about how to sell those damned options. But once I discovered that every single buyer lost their money, I was never able to sell another option again. I quit about 2 weeks after the discovery.

13) It was in working my numbers that I realized I'd lost my ability to sell options. I went from 5 brochures (and Dowbeaters books) sent out per day, to zero, overnight. Once I realized I couldn't send brochures or books out, it was obvious that the end had arrived.

14) There's another number to observe. 14. Sending 5 brochures out per day plus all the other efforts that surrounded it consumed about 14 hours. Throw in a necessary hour for lunch and that's a 15-hour day of work. Leave the house at 6:30 AM, you return around 9:00 or 10:00 PM.

15) What struck me was that I was losing my 3-year old son, Nicholas. One evening, I got home at 8:45 (a bit early, actually), and wanted to play with him. His bedtime was 9:00. He refused. He said, I kid you not, "10 minutes of play does not make you a good father."

16) Long as I live, I'll never forget the day I quit. I went in in the morning, like always. Attended the 7:00 sales meeting. And then went into my boss's office. It was a tough conversation as you might imagine. I was a rising star.

17) Nicholas has two older sisters. I drove home and picked up Kate. Our children were fine. Kate and I found ourselves driving aimlessly, so happy. We ended up just tooling along the San Francisco Peninsula’s famous Skyline Drive.

18) Have you ever had a day like that? Where you just cut loose and followed your car's steering wheel? I will always know what freedom is. Freedom was that day. I loved ITG. I simply loved my family more. Driving Miss @KateScopelliti was the greatest joy possible.

19) Part of me will always be sad that our options program hurt every customer we sold. I don't know the math. Someone should have been able to figure it out. What price commission would still have allowed our clients to win? There should have been a proper business model.

20) Next week we'll discuss destiny. While it was NOT my destiny to be a broker, it WAS my destiny to succeed at it until it was time to move on. And there will be Jaguar, purchased in Germany, imported to the US that will be part of that story. Ha!

Today's thread - 24 September 2021 - ends at #20.

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