What Is Your Reinvention Plan For 2009?
January 5, 2009 by Simon | Leave a Comment
It is 7:21 ET on Sunday, January 4th and I am appreciating the miracle of flight travelling to Toronto to speak at Pro-Seminars in Toronto on January 6th and London on January 7th. I am also appreciating a 10 hour door to door trip to finalize my planning, write this blog, fine tune my speaking presentations and more.
Everything is a miracle; it is just the way you perceive it.
Here is an excerpt from Paul Ghezzi’s most recent e-newsletter about this economy;
- Anticipated $4 to $6 Trillion dollars of global fiscal stimulus from the G20
- Rapidly accelerating monetary stimulus from central banks across the globe
- Expansion of federal government deficits across the globe to fight deflation
- The birth of the “green global infrastructure” movement and the promise of millions of new “green jobs”
- Unprecedented levels of ‘cash’ sitting on the sidelines, waiting to come back into riskier assets
- The end of deflation in 2009
- All the bad news in the economy is already “baked into the cake” ie the stock market has factored in all the bad news to come.
As Laura and I drove to Comox, BC for me to catch my first flight to Toronto via Calgary, we remarked that this is a milestone because this is the beginning of our fourth year of speaking at Pro-Seminars Conferences.
Hard to believe that I have spoken at 100 financial planner speaking presentations and to close to 10,000 financial planners in the past three years.
This is in alignment with what Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers where he writes that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to get really good and what Seth Godin writes about in The Dip that you have to commit to being the best there is and to what Chris Barrow told me to do; go out and tell 10,000 people.
Laura and I also talked about how far we have come in a few short years.
We took the time over the holidays to appreciate 2008 and it is with great joy that we start 2009 with;
- Written 90 day goals and actions
- Our free, planning, client, speaking and product development time is planned out on a year at a glance calendar. In doing so, we have identified the 13 open speaking time slots that we will market to financial planner associations, companies, conferences, MGAs and publications.
- Using a hard copy, old style, week at a glance written time management system to plan our time. I don’t know about you but I can’t see my time management big picture on a crackberry or crackpod. At the same time, hand writing a time management plan causes one to own it as it is said that if you see it you will forget it, if you hear it you will remember it and if you do it you will understand it - as in own it.
- Identified more tasks that we can delegate to our Virtual Assistants
- The intention to improve the organization of our Client Relationship Managment Software
- A brand new web site
- A published book
- A coaching practice that is 93% full
- Scores of secured speaking opportunities
- Published in the January edition of Advisor.ca.
- Published in the January edition of The Insurance Journal
- Increased income, reduced unnecessary overheads, focused on debt reduction and increased savings
All of this sets the stage for our 90 day reinvention goals to;
- Identify 13 speaking opportunities from financial planner associations, companies, conferences, MGAs and publications.
- Identify financial planner associations, companies, conferences, MGAs and publications sponsors for our new live workshops.
- Improve my blog with more references to other financial planner blogs and publications
- Improve my blog with vlogging
- Update our coaching web site pages
- Attract more financial planner publishing opportunities
If this all seams a littler much … why not? We published a new book and web site in 2008 and that was just for starters.
What are you doing to reinvent yourself in 2009?
You are either reinventing or you are ….
Finishing The Year With An Empty Head
December 19, 2008 by Simon | Leave a Comment
Do, Do, Do, lookin’ out my back door … Global Warming or Ice Age? Over two feet of snow and more on the way on Friday and Sunday. Laura and I are going to head for the mainland early Saturday morning to see my mom for an early Christmas visit and get back on Saturday night before the snow on Sunday.
Happy Holidays … we are off until January 5th.
Here are the first two steps to A Strong Start To 2009 that is article that is included in my December 2008 Newsletter;
- Schedule one or two days of uninterrupted time in a place where you can be anonymous. Get away from your business and personal life so that you are not reminded of all your day-to-day busyness.
- Review your 2008 calendar and write down everything you accomplished during the year in the different areas of your business. Consider: administration, computers, systems, customer service, financial, marketing, office management, planning, product development, production, sales, team building and training.
I’ve added one more step to make this process even more successful … Empty Your Head.
Using Microsoft Excel as an example;
- Type in every idea, project, task and to do line by line until you empty your head
- Next, review the following categories and ask what other ideas, projects, tasks and to does come to mind and add them to the list; administration, computers, systems, customer service, financial, marketing, office management, planning, product development, production, sales, team building and training.
- Next, sort the ideas, projects, tasks and to does alphabetically.
- Next, using another column in Microsoft Excel, label each item with the category that it relates to
- Next, sort the categories alphabetically
- Next, using another column in Microsoft Excel, prioritize by A+ - must be done before December 24th, then, by A, B, & C priority
- Next, using another column, identify what can be delegated
- Next, schedule your A priorities and delegate for action
This simple and effective strategy will help you to create A Strong Start To 2009.
For more click here for Happy New Year With An Empty Head.
December 31, 2013 & Dealing With The Same Clients, Products And Services?
December 18, 2008 by Simon | Leave a Comment
I am sure that you have heard that it rarely snows on the south west coast of Canada - Here’s an 8pm, Wednesday December 17, 2008 photo after a few hours of shovelling it. It’s 6am Thursday morning and we have no electricity so it’s coaching by candle light … thank goodness for my laptop and an Aircard.
Here’s an excerpt from my December 2008 Newsletter…
Imagine that it is December 31, 2009 and you are looking back at the year. Ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers: What did you accomplish? What goals did you set and achieve? What made you happy? These questions can be asked in all of the following categories:
- Personal - consider education, fitness, travel, income, relationships and your own sense of well being.
- Business - think about your vision, administration and office or computer systems, finances, marketing, office management, production, products, sales, your team and training.
How will it make you feel to have achieved all of these accomplishments by December 31, 2009?
Now, imagine that it is five years into the future, December 31, 2013 and that you are dealing with exactly the same clients, products and service that you are now.
How does that make you feel?
Change doesn’t fail because it is too early; change fails because it is too late.
Clear Your Roadblocks eNewsletter - December 2008
December 17, 2008 by Simon | Leave a Comment
Welcome to the December 2008 edition of Clear Your Roadblocks To Success.
It’s 9:30am, Sunday, December 14th and I’ve just had my breakfast after shoveling the snow off the driveway and it is still snowing. I’ll go out again after I’ve finished this final newsletter of the year as the temperature for the week will be an unusual low of -10C° and a high of -3C° and I don’t want the snow to freeze on the driveway.
I’m thinking of what to offer you as we approach a challenging 2009. The best two things that I believe I can offer you are:
1.) Don’t create a vision, business plan and goals in 2009 … do it now in 2008 before the start of 2009!
2.) Give thanks for everything that you were given and for every result in 2008.
Create the time now and work on your vision, business plan and goals from December 22nd – 24th or December 29th – 31st.
Make a decision now to seize these days before 2009 seizes you like years gone by without a vision, business plan and goals.
Choose to make 2009 a year like no other year.
Create a holiday activity list of business and personal activity from December 22nd – January 4th that can include;
Make Rules Versus Looking For Rules
December 17, 2008 by Simon | Leave a Comment
Financial planners must remain compliant following rules relating to investment and life insurance products that are set out by a number of regulatory bodies.
While this serves their clients, the financial planner may become hypnotized looking for rules and when it comes time to write their vision and business plan for 2009, they have to make decisions about creating their own rules for their 2009 vision and business plan.
There is an expression that you are either living your vision or living someone else’s.
One rule that can help you to have a restful holiday season is to list all of your incomplete client tasks and projects and beside each one write down the action that you must take before December 19th. This will allow you to take the time for some well deserved rest until January 5th.
Another thought I have is forget the do not call list rule. I’m not a fan of cold calls so why bother.
Understand that the consultative financial planner identifies a niche where they can solve a problem. They can communicate their message to the niche via an e-newsletter that reaches across regions and provinces with the intention of the reader in the niche to call the financial planner.
Today’s successful financial planner needs to break their rules about doing business across regions and provinces and view their business from 35,000 feet and get used to the idea that they may have to travel out of their region or province to attract more business that is within their niche.
Our business didn’t take off until we got that we had to break the rules and get out of our region and province … click here for our 2009 financial planner speaking schedule. Funny … they say that you have to leave town to get famous and note that we don’t have one financial planner speaking presentation booked in British Columbia for 2009 … yet!
Hats off to our webmaster Barry Ochsner of 1Cat.biz who just enhanced or Financial Planner Speaking Web Page!
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