The Direction$ Alliance: Planting the Seeds

Notes from the August 11th Conference Call

Approximately 90 advisors were welcomed to the first conference call for the Direction$ Alliance on August 11th.

In keeping with our mission to change the conversation about personal finance, the Founders of Direction$ tried to model the call itself on some of the principles we believe are essential to hosting conversations that matter. We did not bring a business agenda to the call, nor a developed menu of services that Direction$ will offer to its community. Instead, we brought ourselves, our personal stories, and our passion for improving the way financial planning advice is delivered to women. There were no expected or desired outcomes, except for clearing the space where community participants could share their ideas, interests, and issues.

The art and process of hosting meaningful conversations includes a step called “harvesting” where the participants’ comments are gathered to set the priorities for what the community would like to accomplish going forward. It is not yet time for the harvest, though we can already see that it will be rich and abundant. This first conference call was instead a sowing of seeds, as will be the two conference calls to follow on September 2nd and 17th. Our focus now will be to see which seeds take root in our community, and to direct the wisdom and resources of the Alliance toward cultivating these ideas.

Here is what was planted on our call:

A sense that many of us individually have been searching for community support in our efforts to serve women: “This is an idea we have been waiting for, for a long time…”
Recognition that women clients and prospects can be resistant to our best efforts to keep them engaged
Need for women-centric presentations, outlines, workbooks that advisors can use in their outreach to women prospects
Interest in face-to-face networking – at a Direction$ sponsored conference or at association conferences – in additional to online networking
Need for a collaborative, nationally distributed “blueprint” of ways to get women talking about money. Request for a “turnkey” process of engaging women.
Guidance on working with women who are part of a couple seeking financial planning advice
Observation that the best ideas on serving women will go nowhere without consistent marketing
Request for more information on circles – how they are conducted, number of participants, and how these are different from seminars and workshops
Interest in available research on gender styles and differences that can inform our efforts; Interest, too, in initiating needed research that has not yet been conducted
Desire to create “break-out” sessions on our conference calls, allowing call participants to focus on subjects of special interest
Possibility of developing a Direction$ brand that could identify and distinguish Alliance members in the eyes of the woman consumer, as advisors who are committed to changing the personal finance conversation for women.

We will be building on these ideas and shares in our next call, as well as hearing from advisors who may be joining us for the first time.

For those of you interested in listening to the recording of the session, please call (712) 432-1065, then enter the code: 940063. You will then be able to listen to approximately 50 minutes of the call. (Unfortunately, the first part of the session was not captured, but we promise that this technical glitch will be gone for the September 2 session.

The Founders of Direction$ — Eleanor Blayney, Elizabeth Jetton, and Peg Downey – want to thank everyone who took part in this call, and to encourage you to keep visiting the website, for announcements of upcoming Direction$ speaking and circle events, and for sharing your ideas and thoughts. You can also follow us on Facebook on the Direction$ Alliance community page. (Note to advisors who cannot have Facebook accounts due to BD compliance concerns: you do NOT need to set up an account in order to follow our community page.) You can also follow our bite-size comments on all things female-friendly on Twitter: @directions4her.