Getting a handle on your head trash
You have head trash. I can say this with confidence because you are human and all humans have head trash. Head trash is indiscriminate. Everyone from new advisors to CEOs to luminaries suffer from head trash. Carl Richards has spoken openly about his imposter syndrome, Michael Kitces shared how our coaching tanked his head trash […]
Creating Hockey-Stick Style Growth: How to Unleash your Game-Changer
If you’re completely content with your revenue, income, growth rate, service levels, team performance, business operations, daily workload, time off and the way you feel taking it, you’ve clicked on the wrong article. This is for advisors who are ready to unleash their inner game-changer and create hockey-stick-like growth. Every day, I have conversations with […]
How to say anything to a client
After last month’s column on how to let profitable clients go (link), an advisor told me that if he used my words with his clients, they would walk out enraged. He didn’t take issue with the principle of my column, but rather with my choice of words. This got me thinking about the number […]
How to be OK with letting even profitable clients go to grow
Every day, you make business decisions that define your success. The harsh reality is that far too many of them lead us down the path of working more, harder, and for less than is deserved. These decisions include who to serve, what to charge, what exceptions to make, what services to deliver, and how. […]
How to be a trusted advisor
The world was very different when financial planning was born than it is today. When the first class of CFP participants graduated in 1973, client’s life roadmap was clear: they went to college or learned a trade, bought a house, had 2.4 kids, and worked for a company that did the saving for them in […]
How to stay focused and why we lose it
If you want to grow your revenue, income, time off and satisfaction faster than you thought possible, simply follow this advice from Stephen Covey, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Each year we set goals to grow revenue, deliver more value to clients, and run a more efficient […]
How do you define your value?
Defining value is the most ambiguous problem in our profession. And the inability to define value can be debilitating for you and your business prosperity. Industry research puts the alpha added by a financial advisor at 3-3.75% a year, and the value in terms of clarifying goals creating better habits and avoiding big mistakes can […]
My thank you letter to 2020
This was far from a typical year, so it’s fitting this not be a typical post. This last column of 2020 is as much about my learning as yours. I’m just back from my annual ‘Reflection Retreat,’ three days of solitude during which I rested, recharged and reflected on 2020. Before finalizing plans […]
The importance of taking imperfect action
I want to ask you, are you waiting to narrow your niche, raise your fees, charge for planning, launch that website, start that podcast or start marketing again during COVID? Have you ever put taking important action off making a change that will make you more successful? Have you rationalized that you just need […]
Encouraging clients to live a little
Clients come to you for guidance on how to align their financial resources with the life they want to live. So, why will they sometimes hesitate, challenge or ignore your advice when you’re encouraging them to live a little? The simplest answer I can offer is that sometimes the client’s money stories do not […]