Strategic marketing customized for female clients helped longtime planner Candace Bahr build her practice up to $100 million in AUM.
What steps did she take? Find out at the upcoming Women Advisors Forum, set for Nov. 14 in Newport Beach, Calif., where Bahr is set to speak.
Women need a very different approach than men, says the founder of Bahr Investment Group in Carlsbad, Calif. We are much more group-oriented, want to be educated and enjoy working together in teams. We are collaborative, as opposed to competitive, and seek emotional connection and trust in all of our relationships.
Bahr recommends that female planners use education as a platform for networking. Try offering content that assists women in making sound life and financial decisions, she says.
DIVORCE SUPPORT
For 25 years, she and fellow planner Ginita Wall have held a monthly networking event for women going through divorce. The Second Saturday: Divorce Workshop for Women, in San Diego, is sponsored by a nonprofit they founded, the Womens Institute for Financial Education. The monthly meetings, which cost $45, usually draw about 40 women who want to learn the basics on navigating divorce.
At the gatherings, literally there will be somebody living out of their car sitting next to someone whos dividing $100 million, Bahr says. Divorce is the great equalizer.
Not only does the workshop create a support community, but it often produces one or two clients for Bahrs for-profit practice.
Bahr also suggests that women build their own referral networks, with attorneys, accountants and for those who practice in a particular niche subject matter experts. Demonstrate your own expertise through speaking engagements, she suggests. Its just as easy to talk to 40 people as two, she says. We are leveraging and creating impact.
GENDER SPLIT
Bahr says she sees a gender-based difference at the parallel monthly divorce workshops her nonprofit holds for men. We notice that, during the breaks, women talk, share stories and really bond. At the mens events, she says, During the breaks, the men are on their phones. They are not looking to meet and talk.
This story has been corrected. An earlier version said Bahr was to speak at the Women Advisors Forum in Chicago in October.
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