Standard Deviations with Dr. Daniel Crosby

Tune in to hear: How did Phil pivot from a financial advisor position to roles focused on marketing? Why is a clearly established marketing strategy so critical as a starting point and what does this look like, practically? How important is it to have an affinity for, or direct tie with, the niche client group you may serve (e.g. first responders or dentists)? What should be top of mind for conten...

Tune in to hear: Why do humans seem to have such limited access to understanding what they want, from a financial perspective? Andy believes that the ethos of financial planning is the marriage of capital and purpose. What, specifically, does he mean by this and why does he think it is so critical? Should we try to expand our clients’ notion of capital and what might be the broader impact on their...

Tune in to hear: What drove Nuala to write her new book, Tune In: How to Make Smarter Decisions in a Noisy World ? In her book, Nuala talks about four factors that amplify the risk of noise, obscuring our ability to arrive at the truth. What are these factors and why are they so important? How do we overcome the very entrenched obstacles we face when trying to make informed decisions? What does Nu...

Tune in to hear: What was the message that Shawn felt compelled to get out there in his upcoming book, The Advisor Transformation ? What distinction does Shawn draw between success and significance? How does Shawn bring vision into his work at Triad in a way that better synthesizes work and life? What is Martin Seligman’s PERMA Model and what can we learn about finding fulfilling work from this mo...

Tune in to hear: How should advisors go about optimizing SEO for their practice and why is it so critical? Why do advisors who offer texting as a communication option get 400% more opt-ins? Why is email so powerful and how can advisors build out a list that will serve them well? Emails with video content really outperform, but many people are hesitant to venture into video. What advice would Rober...

Tune in to hear: What are the 3 primary types, or thresholds, of AI and where are we headed next in this burgeoning field? What is "general purpose AI" and how does it differ from models like ChatGPT? What about "artificial super intelligence?" Why is the developing world, on average, more optimistic about AI than the developed world? Will our pessimism in the west around AI hamper our ability to...

Tune in to hear: Why is it that we hate uncertainty even more than bad news? How does our dread of uncertainty impact our decision making process? If a client comes in agitated vs. paralyzed, does the means by which we resolve this uncertainty look different from reaction to reaction or do they share a common solution? Is normalization part of regulating your clients emotionally whether it is deep...

Tune in to hear: Why does Dr. Stutman use a behavioral, rather than a psychological, approach to leadership? What are the differences between these two approaches? What are some of the common qualities shared by many of the world’s best leaders? Also, were any of these particularly surprising or unexpected? What role does admiration play in effective leadership? How do great leaders strike a balan...

Tune in to hear: What life experiences put Jane on a path to become a listening coach? What is generative listening and how does it differ from other forms of listening? In what ways did becoming familiar with generative listening transform Jane’s life? What does Jane mean when she says “listening to ignite thinking in others?” What role does empathy play in the process of being a generative liste...

Tune in to hear: What makes women so uniquely good as behavioral investors? Why have many thought of women as particularly risk averse for so many years and what systems, on the trading floor and elsewhere, have perpetuated this misconception? Some book recommendations on women in investing and its history. Examples of how insidious the bias against women in finance can be. What can we do to attra...

Tune in to hear: How might financial planning conversations need to change in light of the new longevity many will experience? How will the “100 year life” affect the 3 life stages (education, work and retirement) that used to be more clearly delineated? How might we be able to give more salience and power to our mental image of a future self? What does Dr. Mathar’s research around this topic sugg...

Tune in to hear: What did Philip’s research on the drivers of financial advice seeking uncover? Additionally, what might stand in the way of clients taking advice? What can the industry do to reduce economic barriers to entry for getting advice? What about reducing emotional barriers to entry for getting advice? What mistakes do advisors make when it comes to changing behavior and what could we be...

Tune in to hear: What lead Dr. Griner to focus his work and research around compassion specifically? When clinicians like Dr. Griner talk about compassion, what are they talking about exactly and how might this differ from the popular conception of compassion? How do we balance our desire to want to end someone’s suffering without falling into the trap of just wanting to fix everything or go direc...

Tune in to hear: What is the “Dumb Ways to Die” music video and why was it originally created? Was the above an effective behavioral intervention or did it fall short? Why is buy-in for employer sponsored retirement savings plans so low and what might be done to remedy this? Why might marketing campaigns with behavioral interventions outperform more overt, standard marketing approaches? What did C...

Tune in to hear: What were some of Nikola Tesla’s eccentricities? What is “The Spotlight Effect” that Morgan Housel observed when working as a valet at a high-end hotel in Los Angeles? What is Morgan Housel’s “Man in the Car Paradox” and what lessons can be learned from it? What is the psychological principle “The Anchoring Effect?” Why does ego driven spending do so little to sate our desire to b...

Tune in to hear: What strategy did Alexander the Great use to overtake Tyre in 332 BC? Why did this military victory leave Alexander feeling more grief stricken than triumphant in the end? Why did Hephaestion’s death mark a turning point for the Macedonian Empire? What are “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying?” What makes up Martin Seligman’s “PERMA” model of well-being and how can we apply this in...

Tune in to hear: What common ground, if any, can be found across nearly all spiritual and religious traditions on the globe? What does academic research have to say about the benefits that accrue to those who are generous? Why doesn’t spending money on ourselves bring about long-lasting joy and what role does the “hedonic treadmill” play in this? Why do the benefits of giving transcend economic an...

Tune in to hear: - With all of the possibilities out there, why has Jon landed on his current path and why does he think that pro bono work is so vital? - Jon’s organization just completed a very comprehensive study on pro bono financial planning. Were there any results that really stood out or surprised him? - What did Jon’s research unearth about the moral case for doing financial planning? - Wh...

Tune in to hear: - If so much of what accounts for our behavior is habitual, what hope do we have and how can we change that as we look to the New Year? - Why do such small bits of friction have an outsized influence on our behavior? - Does publicly stating your goals have any drawbacks or does it help you stay accountable? - What is the rhyme-as-reason or fluency effect and how might understandin...

Tune in to hear: - Why do overly linear, or bullet-pointy, stories tend to fall short? What are the risks of making your backstory too similar to a resume? - What is the psychological principle “peak-end rule” and how can it be applied to better your backstory? - Why is knowing your audience such an important part of effective storytelling? - Why “time of possession” is so important, especially in...

Tune in to hear: - Why will AI, automation and algorithms likely lead to an increase in human centered connection in the financial services industry and beyond? - What is one of Thomas Hobbes’ most famous remarks and how do people take it out of context? - Why loneliness has far reaching implications for longevity that exceed even obesity. - How did Volvo make their cars more safe for women in par...

Tune in to hear: - Why do only 13% of American millionaires describe themselves as wealthy? Why don’t we recognize our abundance for what it is? - What is wealth confidence and what are its broader implications within portfolio management? - Wealth confidence is definitely somewhat correlated with portfolio performance, but why is net worth alone not a sufficient measure for one’s wealth confidenc...

Tune in to hear: - Why does Daniel Staker call his new book “a book from a breakdown?” - Why is behavior such a fundamental building block of marketing? - How do we get to the bottom of what our clients really want when they are often so bad at articulating it for themselves? - What does Daniel Staker mean when he says that “people often fail to respect reality?” - How can we get people to accept...

Tune in to hear: - We frequently hear the term “emotional intelligence” thrown around pretty loosely, but what is a deeper dive into its definition? - Does Dr. McCarthy see people frequently using emotional intelligence towards Machiavellian ends or is this quite uncommon in her experience? - Why is EQ so important for leaders and individuals more broadly and why is it extra important in the conte...

Tune in to hear: - What is all weather investing and what are its behavioral underpinnings? - Does Eric strategically rebalance the all weather portfolios or are the allocations fairly static? If they are dynamic, what signals do they look for when making a change? - What is the trend-oriented global macro program that Eric implements? - How can one strike a balance between the realities of trying...