2020 and New Year’s Revolutions

Just about everyone wants to set some New Year’s resolutions. I opted to push a New Year’s Revolution. I suppose it’s really just a continuation of some personal objectives I made last July to change some things up, but it’s time to expand that to the business realm as well. I realized this when I took my annual break at the end of the year and started to see what was on social media, how people were consuming social media, and, most importantly, what real information was available. It’s time to change the ways we connect with our clients and the public.

The first change may seem minor, but it is an important one. Buy the time you are reading this, we hope to have our main landline text enabled so we can send and receive texts without changing the phone number we’ve used and publicized since 2003. It’s a simple truth that people have less time to spend on the phone, and quickly getting a specific message out and receiving a focused response back is becoming a necessity for people. We are by no means giving up voice calls, but adding another method of communication only provides our clients with options.

Next, our office will also be adding different methods of educating our clients during the pre-appointment process and beyond. While reading a physical medium like a book or report has been scientifically proven to help people process, retain, and think about information more effectively, the U.S. population is rapidly moving to digital media, and especially video, in order to learn. Over the next few months, our office will be building an online educational platform where new prospective clients can opt to go through a video-based program that covers the same critical information as my books. We then hope to expand that platform to cover other topics our existing clients may wish to learn about and possibly hold online seminars the same way.

Finally, social media is quickly becoming the way people find and digest information. The last time you wanted to know how to do something, did you a) call and ask someone, b) find a book in a bookstore or library, or c) go on YouTube? Each year, exponentially, more and more people are choosing option c. If I have a leaky faucet, I’ll check to see if there is a way I can fix it myself on YouTube. When I see someone post a video with some special effects I like, I’ll check online to see if there is a way I can also do it.

But then people are suddenly assuming the person in the video is an expert even though they have no degree, accreditation, or experience. Unfortunately, as the Baby Boomer Generation ages and begins needing long term care, there is a corresponding proliferation of bad, inaccurate, and half-true information circulating about Medicaid Planning. In order to combat this, I will be creating a plethora of videos to address these and other subjects in a way that is informative but also fun and entertaining.

It is with this last piece that you can help me. Most of the people reading this are clients, colleagues, and other professionals who understand that I know what I’m talking about. In your eyes, I’m credible. In order to gain “online credibility,” I need likes, follows, shares, and comments on social media. If you could, please follow me on social media and click to get notified when new content is posted. With any luck, the general public will start to find good, accurate content in the complex area of Estate and Medicaid Planning without falling prey to false information and quick fixes.