The last Victorian MDRT state event in 2016 delivered a positive experience for its 100 attendees and was jam-packed with fantastic thoughts and ideas to assist emerging and established advisers alike.
‘Un-Marketing’
The afternoon event, hosted by 2013 AFA Adviser of the Year and MDRT Victoria State Chair, Jenny Brown, commenced with a video of a Main Platform presentation made by marketing guru, Scott Stratten, at the 2013 MDRT Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. This was an outstanding presentation because it made every member in the audience of 8,000, as well as each attendee at the Victorian MDRT event, reconsider the meaning of the term ‘marketing’.
Stratten lives vicariously through social media and related a number of true stories that proved the power of modern-day marketing, to which Stratten applies the term ‘un-marketing’. He says the message delivered by a company logo is not marketing, but rather what the logo stands for. His great anecdotes, while highly entertaining, also rammed home his serious messages about the power of marketing in the modern social media world.
Aside from the great stories, which were self-contained lessons in what to do and, equally importantly, what not to do, other small gems from Stratten included:
- We share stories. We share experiences. That’s what we do.
- Marketing is a verb.
- What we do is how we market.
- Every time we answer or don’t answer the phone, we’re marketing.
- You can’t automate awesome.
In a single sentence, Stratten also offered the only rationale advisers will need to combat any notion that they will be replaced by robo-advice: “You can’t scale the human touch.”
Stratten also urged advisers to treat Twitter as a two-way opportunity: “Twitter is a conversation; not a dictation. 75% of my tweets are replies,” he said.
Other succinct but powerful messages included:
- Treat social media like a networking event.
- We spread things that make us react.
- Be quick. Be timely. Be authentic.
- It’s an opportunity when problems happen.
Adam McCann
The main presentation at the event was made by MDRT Australia Chair, Adam McCann, who delivered a scaled version of the focus session presentation he made to a thousand of his peers at this year’s MDRT Annual Meeting in Vancouver.
McCann’s passionate and authentic message centred on how his thinking has evolved through disruption, enabling him to move away from his earlier pre-conceived ideas about what constitutes advancement and success. McCann told his audience these learnings were significantly influenced by the lessons he has absorbed from his involvement with MDRT, to the point where he has graduated to another business level which he previously believed to be almost unattainable.
Adam’s message to his peers was that, while there will always exist disruption and change, “… people will still need you.” This comment also reinforced the earlier message from Scott Stratten, when he said that “You can’t scale human touch.”