I was at my desk early today and there was a steady rain outside. Apparently, we needed it because I was told, in a recent conversation, there have been drought conditions in New Hampshire. The dry conditions date from last year and ground water levels in the state need to recover. Now, in late afternoon, things have cleared up, but a touch more precipitation is coming.
But enough on that – what’s on my mind today, given that I need to do my regular monthly blog post? Simply this: it’s important, every once in a while, to get another perspective, whether in business or personal life. I suppose this is obvious but being a rather self-motivated type that likes his independence, it can sometimes be a while before I ask for advice, feedback, criticism.
And you need to go to the right place for help. For example, I have had golf swing lessons in the past that I would describe as “cookie cutter” with each pro saying more or less the same thing as the other, bland non-specific advice (you have to love the one who said my swing tempo should match the rhythm of the words “Coca-Cola”). It wasn’t until I tried one of those swing tip applications on my iPhone that I saw things I was doing wrong that were not pointed out by the random pros. It was eye-opening (and believe me, I’m still trying to put into practice the concepts that app’s pros shared with me; reprogramming the swing is far from an easy task).
I plead guilty to not having a copy editor go over my reports before I post them. Every good writer should employ one, since inadvertent mistakes slip through. When I catch them (or someone else does) I usually correct and repost. Call it stubbornness or penny-pinching on my part. Perhaps in time I will employ someone to give my work a once-over before it goes out.
Earlier this year I contracted with a person to review the performance of Soleares reports and research, to determine which get substantial views, which don’t. The woman did an outstanding job (you should see the Excel reports she generated!). I am still going through her work.
Here’s my current plan of action: to maintain a fairly consistent set of data and reports through the start of Soleares Research operations in 2006, through the end of this year, so an even twenty years. This set, of course, will include much history regarding variable annuity contracts, benefits, funds, separate accounts and other items. In the New Year I will make changes to the coverage, based upon the findings of the data analyst and any responses to a recent client survey I sent out (for those who haven’t filled one out, I can send a link to it again).
From there I may experiment with a few things. Sometimes one needs to throw an idea against the wall to see if it will stick, right? Needless to say, this has happened plenty of times in the annuity industry. Take a flier on something, monitor its progress, and make changes – or pull the plug – if necessary (note: I suspect this kind of thing will be going on in the in-plan annuity space over the near term).
So those are some of my thoughts of this rainy day. This week there will be no issue of The Soleares Report given that Monday falls during the week of Independence Day (I apologize for mistakenly sending out an email alert on that early; it will go out again on the appointed day).
I hope you all enjoy celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of our great country.
