A few weeks ago I applied to attend a networking and idea conference. I say “apply” because it was exactly that:
- A long(ish) online application, including professional and personal accomplishments
- Thoughts around why you were looking at their conference and
- An upload section to include work you’re proud of
After I “passed” that first round, I was invited to a 30 minute personal phone interview with the group’s founder. During our time together we discussed things like:
- What I’m passionate about right now
- Success and struggles, along with
- What gets me going every day
Overall it was a process I admire, a blend between “sales”, vetting & prospect pre-commitment. Plenty to steal from and implement in my own world.
Things must have gone well enough (from their perspective) since I was offered membership to their platform event in Los Angeles. Awesome! With that, it also opened doors into more intimate events, venture capital groups and philanthropy avenues. Needless to say, I’m excited.
That said, something else stuck out about this group even more. It’s what I walked away thinking about…
Registering myself for their event, I came to the payment screen. Getting ready to put credit card information in, I saw a button that read “Gender Differentiated Pricing”. Clicking it, this is what I saw:
Talk about progressive! Talk about different! Talk about setting a tone for everyone walking into the group (women and men)!
So what can you do with this?
As a financial professional (female or male it doesn’t matter), could you steal this concept and place it into your firm somehow? Any place you could differentiate this way, as you move forward with female clients?
Or it doesn’t have to be gender inequality and the pay gap. Could you take on another issue you’re passionate about? And using that societal cause, dovetail it into a market separator you’ll speak and act towards, where others aren’t?
Because walking into this group’s event later in 2017, I’ll have a different mind frame. I know they think one level deeper, they don’t have issues taking action and they reflect current realities and passions in their platform, where others are slow to act.
And I respect that.
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