Choosing A Boat Instead Of An Assistant

March 11, 2010 by Simon  | Leave a Comment

Advisors and potential coaching clients give me a lot of excuses for putting off their coaching programs.  They want to end their struggle, but just not yet.

I hear similar excuses for not making other changes that would help, such as hiring an assistant.  One advisor told me that he would hire an assistant, but he needs the cash to pay for a new boat.

True, the boat would do a lot to “medicate” the pain the advisor is experiencing; to console him about his lack of clients and his failure to satisfy the ones he has.  Or, he could hire the assistant, who will take better care of his clients while freeing up his own time to attract and retain new clients and provide the best service he can deliver.

It’s all about choice.  Would you rather start now to end your business struggles and begin a life of prosperity and abundance (filled with boats, if that’s what you want) or get your boat now and stay stuck.  The trouble with the latter choice is, you may end up living on that boat.

 This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008

You Are Just Coping

March 10, 2010 by Simon  | Leave a Comment

Our unhealthy and unproductive habits aren’t just more comfortable than the idea of trying something new, but as we learned from the “Change or Die” article, they are coping mechanisms.

Look through this list of common coping mechanisms to see if you can spot any of your favorites:

  • Acting out: not coping – giving in to the pressure to misbehave.
  • Aim inhibition: lowering sights to what seems more achievable.
  • Attack: trying to beat down that which is threatening you.
  • Avoidance: mentally or physically avoiding something that causes distress.
  • Compartmentalization: separating conflicting thoughts into separated compartments.
  • Compensation: making up for a weakness in one area by gain strength in another.
  • Conversion: subconscious conversion of stress into physical symptoms.
  • Denial: refusing to acknowledge that an event has occurred.
  • Displacement: shifting of intended action to a safer target.
  • Dissociation: separating oneself from parts of your life.
  • Fantasy: escaping reality into a world of possibility.
  • Idealization: playing up the good points and ignoring limitations of things desired.
  • Identification: copying others to take on their characteristics.
  • Intellectualization: avoiding emotion by focusing on facts and logic.
  • Passive aggression: avoiding refusal by passive avoidance.
  • Projection: seeing your own unwanted feelings in other people.
  • Rationalization: creating logical reasons for bad behavior.
  • Reaction Formation: avoiding something by taking a polar opposite position.
  • Regression: returning to a child state to avoid problems.
  • Repression: subconsciously hiding uncomfortable thoughts.
  • Somatization: psychological problems turned into physical symptoms.
  • Sublimation: channeling psychic energy into acceptable activities.
  • Suppression: consciously holding back unwanted urges.
  • Symbolization: turning unwanted thoughts into metaphoric symbols.
  • Trivializing: Making small what is really something big.
  • Undoing: actions that psychologically ‘undo’ wrongdoings for the wrongdoer.

The above list of coping mechanisms is (c) Davis Straker, http://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/coping/coping.htm, and used with permission.

 This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008

You Are Emotionally Retired

March 9, 2010 by Simon  | Leave a Comment

You know the look, you’ve seen it in others.  There’s a flatness of expression, a hesitation in words and a slouching of posture.  There’s no longer a light in the eyes (if there ever was), and it seems like they’ve given up on life.  Is it happening in you?

Can you, your business, your clients or family afford for you to be emotionally retired?  What do you think it’s like for your clients to work with you?  And, how much fun do you think you are around the kitchen table at the end of the day?

If emotional retirement hasn’t hit you yet, is it just around the corner at 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 or 65? 

The long-term solution for emotional retirement is address to your Unmet Needs Disease.

A short-term solution… purchase a journal and write down all of your successes, no matter how small.  Think back on the day, on the week, on the month, on the quarter and on the year.  Re-live each success and how they made you feel.  Re-light that spark in your eyes by reconnecting with what has gone well.

 This article was originally published in Curing The Unmet Needs Disease © Simon Reilly 2008

In Your Mind Is Compliance A Wish Or A Demand?

March 8, 2010 by Simon  | Leave a Comment

According to freedictionary.com, the definition of compliance is;

  • The act of complying with a wish, request, or demand; acquiescence.
  • Medicine Willingness to follow a prescribed course of treatment.

I have an entirely new level of respect for what financial advisors go through in respect to them remaining compliant as I had my own experience last week with resubmitting my Clear Your Roadblocks Speaking Presentation for CE Accreditation to Advocis via the new 2010 CLU Institute’s Practice Guidelines for Financial Advisors and Planners.

Yes! For an instant my needs of approval and worthiness triggered negative beliefs like “what if I don’t get approved?” and that started to fuel FEAR.

I remember reading somewhere that you can create a breakthrough from a breakdown.

A breakdown is because a system is failing and where there is no system, there will be breakdowns.

My friend and business coach Chris Barrow and I had a number of conversations last week about content and I’m taking a liberty to nick Chris’ byline; “all problems exist in the absence of a good conversation” to read “all problems exist in the absence of a good conversation and the conversation helps to create a system to eliminate the problem”.

I proceeded to go through my own process of breaking through my own roadblocks to compliance and reflecting on the above definition of compliance, came from the place of a willingness and wishing to be compliant rather than allowing my fear based mind making up a debilitating story that some patriarch on high was demanding that I be compliant because the work that I am doing may not be good enough.

Focusing on the latter would have just made my experience one thousand times harder and I would surely fail.

So I set about the process of gleaning into the new 2010 CLU Institute’s Practice Guidelines for Financial Advisors and Planners and reacquainting myself with the Advocis Best Practices Manuals and I’m very happy with what I am creating.

The process is allowing me to make sure that I align with industry standards and in the process I have realigned my content, re-written content and created new content and I am on a roll creating even more content.

Here is the content that I am working on under the banner of a new presentation.

The win is this creates content for; coaching, blogging, speaking, article, e-newsletters and a new book :-) called;

Clear Your Roadblocks To Practice Management;

Overview

1. Introduction – Simon Reilly

2. What Is A Parable?

  • Parable Example
  • Parable – Interest Matrix

3. Why Don’t Advisors Have A Business Plan & Marketing Plan?

  • What Are Your Expectations For 2010?
  • How Many Have a Vision, Business Plan And 90 Day Goals?
  • Values Are The Missing Link
  • Clear Your Roadblocks Scorecard
  • Recession Is A Choice, What Is Yours?
  • The Foundation Of Your Business
  • Planning Process – 90% / 10%
  • What Are Your Values?
  • Why Are Values Important?
  • Values Are The DNA Of Vision
  • Why Is Vision Important?
  • How Unmet Needs Impacts Your Business
  • Why Motivation Doesn’t Work
  • What is the Unmet Needs Disease?
  • Is it a value or an Unmet Need?
  • Unmet Needs and the Law of Attraction

4. Business Plan

  • Define Your Values
  • Create Your Vision
  • Create Your Business Plan
  • Create Your Succession Plan
  • Build Your Budget Cash Flow
  • The Sales Activity Calculator
  • Set 90 Day Goals
  • Pay Attention To Project & Time Management
  • Measure Your Progress
  • Hire The Best
  • Attract A Junior Advisor
  • Delegate & Communicate With Boundaries
  • Create Your Organizational Structure
  • Keep On Building The Best Team
  • Quarterly Review Meetings
  • Engage Your Clients With An Agreement
  • Receive Fee For Service
  • Customer Service & Customer Relationships
  • Eliminate Conflict

5. Marketing Plan

Understand & Create Your Marketing Funnel

  1. Personal Marketing
  2. Promotional Techniques
  3. Target & Niche Marketing
  4. The Marketing Engine

1. Personal Marketing

  •  Understand Marketing Vs Selling
  • Your Personal Brand
  • Your Tag Line
  • Find Your Center Of Authenticity – Your Elevator Speech
  • Find Your Center Of Authenticity – Your Parable
  • Value Proposition – The Referral Card
  • The Unique Selling Proposition – The Referral Card
  • Segment Your Clients
  • Asking For & Receiving A Referral
  • Prepare To Attract High Net Worth Clients
  • Uncover Client Testimonials
  • Cultivate Strategic Alliance Partners
  • Implement Social Networking To Receive Referrals By Association
  • Cross Sell & Create Your Life Insurance Parable

 2. Promotional Techniques

  •  Direct Mail
  • Telemarketing
  • Seminars
  • Tradeshows
  • Concept Launches
  • Newsletters
  • Printed Marketing Materials
  • Media Exposure Through Interviews And Articles
  • E-Mail To Contact Target Markets
  • Internet
  • Community Involvements Networking And Referrals By Introduction
  • Association Marketing Networking And Referrals By Introduction
  • Working With Strategic Alliances

 3. Target & Niche Marketing

  •  Target Market Or Niche Market?
  • Find A Problem That Needs Solving
  • Create A Solution Through Your Marketing, Products & Services
  • Brand Your Solution
  • Make A KEDO Offer To Become A Client For The First Time

 4. The Marketing Engine

  •  Develop Articles For Publication
  • Produce A Newsletter With Ease
  • Create A Web Site
  • Web Marketing Simplified
  • Publish A Blog
  • Create A Speaking Folio
  • Speak To 10,000 People Within The Niche At Association And Corporate Events
  • Receive And Publish Speaking Testimonials
  • Get Published By A National Publication Within The Niche
  • Develop Strategic Alliance Partners
  • Attract Sponsors
  • Create CDs, DVDs and a Showreel
  • Create Relationships With COI’s
  • Master Viral Marketing
  • Write & Publish A Book

6. Clear Your Roadblocks

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-03-07

March 7, 2010 by Simon  | Leave a Comment

  • All is well in Canada, end of the 1st period Canada/USA hockey game for gold, Canada 1-0 #
  • 2-0 Canada, We Believe! Keep going! #
  • March 1 and a buffer day to start the month to id projects, prioritize and act after a record breaking month! #
  • The key is not to get busy, rather get busy with the right things. #
  • Canada’s economy grew by a better-than-expected 5% in the final quarter of last year http://tinyurl.com/ycjn8pl #
  • Updating my Clear Your Roadblocks PowerPoint to 2010 CLU Institute’s Practice Guidelines for Financial Advisors and Planners. #
  • Gaining speaking presentation CE Accreditation for 2010 causes empathy for financial advisors & what they go through to remain compliant #
  • The CE Accreditation for 2010 is reminding me about the number one thing I learned when I wrote my book; first write a table of contents #
  • We just sold 600 copies of my book Curing The Unmet Needs Disease; http://tinyurl.com/5nvma2 #
  • Just has a great catch up call with my friend Robert Gignac, author of Rich Is A State Of Mind http://www.richisastateofmind.com/ #
  • A job description provides focus and helps to measure what; is working, not working, needs to improve, help is needed & action is required #
  • Just joined linkedFA, a social networking site designed for financial professionals, investors, and recruiters. http://www.linkedfa.com #
  • We just sold 200 more copies of my book Curing The Unmet Needs Disease; http://tinyurl.com/5nvma2 – 800 today!! #
  • Another day on CE Accreditation, the adage for every hour spent out front as a speaker, it takes ten behind the scenes is WAY out of date #
  • Appreciating the Buffer Days that I have this week to practice in private on 2010 CE Accreditation to be rewarded in public! #
  • Research to create 2010 CE Accreditation helps me to appreciate the content that I have developed – research + content + blog = new book! #
  • Greed rhymes with need. Justice Jocelyn Palmer concluded Thow's fraud was motivated by simple greed … http://tinyurl.com/yj3cx3n #
  • The Future Of Money in March Wired Mag http://tinyurl.com/yzc3cdz + how FaceBook becomes a Checkbook http://tinyurl.com/yexoj7s #
  • Bart Wisniowski of AdvisorWebsites.com did an excellent job on his first video blog http://tiny.cc/xnSjB #
  • Check out instouch – the insurance industry’s social network http://www.instouch.com/ #
  • Almost living the life of Reilly, invstd 2½ dys this wk dvlpng cntnt, sold 800 books, 13 spkng gigs bkd in Feb, 5 yrs since 1st blog post #

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