Finding Your Fire

Clear Your Roadblocks | June 2009

Welcome to the June edition of our Clear Your Roadblocks E-Newsletter.

It’s Tuesday, June 23rd @ 6:30pm and I’m writing this E-Newsletter at the Kelowna airport awaiting my 8:35pm flight to Nanaimo via Vancouver and what a month – our best of 2009!

Along the way, Laura had sent out our June 2009 Leading Advisor’s Speaking Update and I have forgiven my Blackberry Storm as the software upgrades have done the trick and I no long feel like smashing it on the pavement.  I was filmed for IE:TV with How To Tell Your Story To Potential Clients and Heath Slawner filmed me and presented the video main stage at the Toronto Independent Financial Advisor Summit on May 27th. We have hired a ghost writer to write articles about The Compassionate Advisor and The Six Degrees Of Life Insurance Connection. We have already Celebrated Our Success Half Way Through 2009 and we are taking the last week of June / first week of July off for a Staycation.

At the same time, the vision has blurred.

This E-Newsletter includes;

• Finding Your Fire
• Financial Advisor Coaching Versus Financial Advisor Consulting
• Blurred Vision

Enjoy the read and thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

Simon Reilly
The Financial Advisor Coach
1 877 248 6019

 Finding Your Fire

“Life is not tried; it is merely survived, if you’re standing outside of the fire.” – Garth

A wise advisor said to me, “Do you want to know how to get busy in September? Get busy in June!”

To do this, one has to get ‘Fired’ up so to speak.

There are all kinds of Behavioral Assessment Systems out there whether they measure ones’ Behaviors as Dominance, Influence, Steadiness or Compliance or as a Controller, Promoter, Supporter or Analyzer they are akin to the elements of Fire, Air, Earth and Water.

This goes back to 444 B.C when Empedocles, founder of the school of medicine in Sicily stated that everything was made up of four “roots” or elements and these elements can be combined in an infinite number of ways, just as painters can crate a great number many pigments with only four different colors.

The challenge, based upon Behavioral Research is that 18% of the population exhibits the Behavioral Characteristics of Fire which has a strong ability to respond to problems and challenges and the rest of the following Behavioral Styles are more introverted and have to adapt into the Dominance, Controller or Fire Behavioral Style; the Influence, Steadiness or Compliance or the Promoter, Supporter or Analyzer that are again akin to the elements of Air, Earth & Water

One can only adapt into the Dominance, Controller or Fire Behavioral Style if they take the time to understand and take care of their Natural Behavioral Style so that they can adapt their Behavioral Style when the need arises because they will burn out if they don’t.

The challenge is compounded because most Behavioral Styles are just too needy to get into the fire.

They are either addicted to approval and consumed with talking and talking and talking trying to get their unmet needs met from someone, and they fail to put their vision and plan in writing because they have ADD; Always Day Dreaming because it is easy to talk rather than write and act.

Another style is addicted to safety always playing it safe, resisting change and waiting for someone to tell them what to do.

The other is addicted to the unmet need of control, and even though they may sit down and write the vision and plan it will never be perfect enough for them to take action.

This is not the summer to sit on the fence.

This is the summer to take action.  “It is only a matter of time for things to turn around” said one airline passenger to another. The passenger had just returned from the Paris Air Show. The passenger acknowledged that things are still slow but again, “It is only a matter of time for things to turn around”.

If I was in the business of coaching owners of airlines I would have struck up a conversation.

Here is the thing, it is easier to get in touch with prospects while it is slow because when things take off, it will be too late because the prospects will be too busy and everyone will be an expert again.

The time to share your values, vision, purpose, mission and value proposition is now.

There reason that I say this is you are not your product or service.

 Financial Advisor Coaching Versus Financial Advisor Consulting

In the early days of coaching training back in 1995, I can remember an expression that we were offered from the coaching school that went something like, “coaching isn’t about what you need to do, it is about why you are doing it and who you need to become”.

Here a few more thoughts on the above.

The consultant does the work then you blame the consultant when you don’t get the result.

It is all about you and not what you need to do.

If you are not in alignment, then it will not matter what gets done and by whom.

Garbage inside of you, garbage outside of you.

Coaching is about why you are doing it and who you need to become (values and vision as an example) and less about what you need to do because you already know what to do.

When the why and the who are sorted out you can create sustainable results around what you need to do.
This analogy from Passion For Business illustrates the difference between a coach and a consultant:

• A business coach will help you understand how and why you ride a bicycle, help you to determine what’s holding you back from riding properly, and jog along next to you as YOU ride. 
• A business consultant will explain why one bike is superior to another, teach you how to ride the bike, and if necessary, ride the bike for you.

Sometimes the coach has to become the consultant and get on with the work.

Monday, June 22, 2009 - I’ve invested the day in writing a business plan from top to bottom following the Live On Site Financial Advisor Coaching Practice Visit Agenda and I’m using this last part of this blog to list the final pieces that I have to complete the writing on so I can deliver them in tomorrow’s session along with the Practice Visit Agenda;

• Accountability – Create Forms
• Client Appointment Schedule Template – Delegate
• Client Segmentation – Investigate Existing Plan and Determine Next Action
• Customer Service Plan – Evaluate / Edit
• Education Seminars – Discuss Content and Schedule
• Financial – Create a Bookkeeping and an Accounting Delegation System
• Financial – Investigate Automated Commission System
• Marketing Plan – Write
• Sales – New Customer Appointment Requests
• Team – Evaluate Existing Job Descriptions And Delegate Additional Items If Required
• Team Meeting Plan – Create Generic Agenda
• Co-Deliver New Business Plan to Team

Financial Advisor Coaching – Actions, Follow Up

 Blurred Vision

There is an expression that “the excitement of the climb gets eliminated by the fear of the height”.

I suppose in our case it should be “the excitement of the climb gets eliminated by the test of the commitment to the climb to the height” as the easy way can seem to be very tempting.

Tempting in that as we have been nearing the peak of our vision which is demonstrated in The Marketing Funnel, and while the Financial Advisor Public Speaking Testimonials have been solid along with Two Brand New Financial Advisor Speaking Presentations, we have been distracted because the interest has been lower for financial advisor coaching sales in the last four financial advisor speaking presentations that I have delivered.

The temptation has been compounded by all kinds of referrals to coaching outside of the financial advisor niche.

At the same time, we did our best to hire an administrative assistant with A Clear Administrative Assistant Job Description and we attracted a person that we did not hire that was over the top in entrepreneurial marketing.

I believe that part of the lack of attracting financial advisor coaching sales has been because I was not clear about what was going on. As soon as this was clarified, business started to flow.

After much soul searching and discussion with my friends Chris and Pat it was determined that;

• 10% make things happen
• 80% watch things happen
• 10% wonder what happened

Having said this, 90% of financial advisors are sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen.

So having said this, I’m committed to dealing with the 10% of financial advisors that make things happen.

At the same time, I realized that while I had committed a few years ago to talking to 10,000 financial advisor coast to coast which we fulfilled by speaking at Advocis Victoria, BC on March 28th, 2009 and Advocis St. John’s Newfoundland on May 25th, 2009, I had fallen into OCSD – Obsessive Compulsive Speaking Disorder and had whistled past the 10,000 goal to 12,000. :-)  Good thing that I have finished my last financial advisor speaking presentation until September with the completion of  Advocis Toronto on June 18th, 2009 and I can take a breather now.

In essence, the guy that wrote ‘Curing The Unmet Needs Disease’ is saying that he has nothing left to prove speaking wise … but what about the MDRT?  :-).

So realizing all of this I’ve decided to concentrate on the top 10% of financial advisors because the other 90% are asleep at the wheel and refuse to take action to clear the roadblocks to their success. Most are frozen in complacency and will not do anything even if you give them the coaching program for free. They think that they will start investing in their business when things get better and they don’t get that things will not get better until they invest in themselves.

Going forward I’m investing my time in attracting clients with a team and will invest part of my coaching time in Live On Site Financial Advisor Practice Visits and delivering Financial Advisor Coaching Workshops.

The last and final piece is with all of this going on; we reached the summit of The Marketing Funnel and attracted a sponsor for a live leading advisor workshop and financial advisor gym which I am delivering in July.

In a wonderful book called, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the shepherd asked the alchemist if there was anything that he still needed to know.

“What you still need to know is this: before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up. It’s the point at which, as we say in the language of the desert, one ‘dies of thirst just when the palm trees have appeared on the horizon.’”