Dear Joe Advisor,

Thank you for today’s coaching call.

Please remember to realize that you are the vessel through which all communications flows, one cannot be of service feeling guilt for things that are beyond their control and it is best to focus on what one can control and create, remember your Value Proposition, all the value ads that you bring to the table, that you are doing your best and that at the end of the day, the client has free will to choose what they want to do or they can accept this excellent advise from you;

“At the time of the market turmoil in Sept 08, some said the wrong thing to do was to stay put, this turned out to be the right thing to do.”

Thanks for the opportunity to be of service.

Simon

 

From Advisor.ca Preserving your vision by Melissa Shin / March 01, 2011

Shelley Streit won’t deny who she is anymore.

The Stettler, Alberta advisor runs Guiding Light Financial, which started as a traditional investment practice in 2006 but then shifted its focus to debt and cash-flow management in late 2010.

Why the change? Early last year, Streit found herself deep in debt and disillusioned by the materialism of the financial services industry. “I was tired of playing pretend,” she says. “The Armani suits at meetings didn’t sit well with me.” Determined to change her ways, she looked for an advisor who could help her manage her cash flow, but never revealed her profession.

Streit says advisors weren’t interested in reducing her debt, and instead gave her trite advice: she needed to spend less than she made. “Oh really?” scoffs Streit. “People actually want to know how to fix their debt.”

Seeing the gap, she turned her practice’s focus to debt and cash-flow management last October, and took inspiration from personal finance maven Gail Vaz-Oxlade and fellow advisor Stephanie Holmes-Winton, who mentors her.

The outpouring of interest has been impressive: in a town of 5,000, 30 came to her debt- and cash-management seminar held at the local library in February.

“People are asking us for monthly [debt management] coaching, like a personal trainer,” says Streit.

She’s even seen the need for her services from her existing clients. Before the changeover, clients were investing but cashing out months later so they could spend.

“If those people choose to be my investment clients, I’m bulletproofing my practice because I’ve dealt with their behaviour.”

Her motivation? “Debt is a problem. It’s in our families, our neighbourhoods, and our backyards and it’s affecting everyone,” she says, citing the Vanier Institute of the Family’s finding that average family debt hit $100,000 in 2011. “If I can change the world one family at a time—that’s what I’m going to do.”

She’s not without critics. “Advisors say I’m doing charity work,” she says, even though Streit developed her own compensation model with permission from Manulife Securities. Others ask why she charges people with debt. “If I save you $70,000 and your family stays intact, is it worth it? My fee is less than a lawyer’s,” she jokes.

With her business’s quick expansion, Streit has to remind herself of her priorities.

“If I do everything, I’m not staying true to myself and my family.”

She’s learned to do the things she does well herself, and outsource the rest.

As for clients, Streit has an open-door policy, but is clear about the line they can’t cross.

“If you have another advisor and you want a debt management plan, we’ll take you. We sign a non-compete clause. I started this to help myself and other people,” she says. “But clients no longer get to work with me when they keep making excuses.”

Simon kept pushing me forward when at times it felt like the same old things, but I had things that I had to work through. When I hired Simon I thought that it would be all about business and I’m thankful to Simon that he didn’t run when it got personal. Some coaches would have run away and not held me accountable to what I needed to deal with to get me to the place to be the best that I can be. Simon didn’t offer me an agenda of who he wanted me to be and his coaching program provided me with the tools to clear my limiting beliefs which were rooted deep down in my unmet need of worthiness to become the unique financial advisor that I have evolved into being.

Shelley Streit
Financial Advisor
Guiding Light Financial
Stettler AB
http://www.guidinglightfinancial.ca/

Free One Page Business Plan Webinars September 9 & 28^th – Register Now!

Announcing Leading Advisor’s One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars and the One Page Business Plan(TM) Webinars!“If you don’t get the words right, you might build the wrong business and may never get the numbers right.” The dates for the One Page Business Plan(TM) Free Webinars are: Friday, September 9th at 11:15am EDT Wednesday, September 28th at 12:30pm EDT

Who should attend?

• Do you have too many scattered ideas?
• Do you need to focus on a few?
• Do you need to jumpstart your business right now?
• Do you have no time or interest in writing a 50 page business plan?
• Do you need to determine if you’re focusing on the right things?
• Do you need an effective blueprint to keep yourself and team focused?

Then consider a fresh, simple approach to business planning that will enable you to focus on what is important…the One Page Business Plan^(TM) – a powerful tool for building and managing a business. It’s short, it’s concise, and it delivers results quickly and effectively. There can be no question as to where your business is headed when it is in writing, especially when you have the key essentials about growing your business clearly specified on a single page.

Is this another ho-hum course on business planning like the ten others you have attended – no way! I know how to capture the essence of any business in just a few minutes using the innovative key word and short phrase techniques using the One Page Business Plan^(TM).

To Register for the One Page Business Plan^(TM) Free Webinars:

Call Laura at 250 248-6012 / 1 877 248-6012 or e-mail Laura at lreilly@leadingadvisor.com and you will receive your GoTo Meeting Webinar Link, Phone Number and Access Code.

• Friday, September 9^th at 11:15am EDT
• Wednesday, September 28^th at 12:30pm EDT

 

This was after my client was explaining that they were not feeling well over the past week while they were working on three large cases at the same time.

I asked them when they were going to get some free time and my client remembered that they had the upcoming weekend free … except for a family reunion … that would be fun … until the subject came up around money and that their family would all want to talk about their investments that they have with my client.

I suggested that my client announce to their family in a jovial way early  on at the reunion that “this was a financial advice free zone” at the family reunion and that they all knew the office number and that they would be happy to talk about investments at the office.

 

I just cast my vote.

You are in exceptional company.

You have made an open and direct case for your constituency’s vote in this round to allow you to continue to ‘raise the bar’.

In our industry the key distribution change which we are observing is the retiring boomer demographic influence in moving the financial advisor platform from commodity/transactional sales to Professional Practice/collaborative/relationship sales.

In this sphere you are uniquely leading the way – as a visionary.

All the best!

Dan.

Daniel H. Zwicker
B.Sc. (Hons.) P. Eng. CFP CLU CH.F.C. CFSB
Certified Financial Planner
Chartered Life Underwriter
Chartered Financial Consultant
Chartered Financial Services Broker
Professional Engineers Ontario

Website: http://www.firstfinancialconsultinggroup.com
Blog: http://www.dzwicker.blogspot.com
Beyond Risk: http://www.beyondrisk.blogspot.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danzwicker

Simon Reilly Makes The Final Round Of Advisor.ca Visionary Poll!

Dear All,

I’ve made the final round for Advisor.ca’s ‘Name That Visionary Poll’.

The Advisor.ca ‘Name That Visionary Poll’ started last April. The first step was nomination, the second step was shortlisting the top twenty and this final round is choosing a winner from the top ten so please click here to cast your vote for me.

There are two ways I could have played this:

1. Pretending to be a shy and demure Canadian, because that is what Canadians do, in the hope that people will vote anyway – ”I don’t take part in these celebrity competitions because it’s beneath me”
2. Bold, outrageous and provocative – ”asking for the business” – vote for me because I love the exposure!

Another reason that I am doing this is to demonstrate the power of E-Nurture Marketing & Social Media as you are a reader of my Blog or E-Newsletter and we were initially introduced through financial advisor speaking or via the internet.

Honestly, it would cost tens of thousands to receive the exposure that this poll can create.

So I’m asking for your help.

The next step is to vote for one of the top ten finalists and you can do this by CLICKING HERE & PLEASE VOTE FOR ME.

Again, why am I asking?

■ The exposure is absolutely great for my professional career development

■ The publicity is a vindication for all the hard work done with clients and the philosophy and ideas that we share in these and other pages

■ The encouragement to me to keep fighting the fight for quality career and independent financial advisors

■ My coaches and mentors all get to take a break as my unmet need of recognition is satisfied

To vote CLICK HERE.

Please note that given Advisor.ca is a publication for financial and investment advisors, I humbly submit that I do not profess to be a Financial or Investment Visionary as far as financial planning, products and services.

If one were to see me as a Visionary it may be because of doing my best to walk my talk as a Financial & Investment Advisor Coach, Speaker & Writer that uses systems like a E-Nurture Marketing & Social Media in their own practice and this is why I suppose I gained the nomination in the first place for Advisor.ca Visionary Poll.

To vote CLICK HERE.

 

The following is a cut and paste / mash up / collage … call it what you like of the outcomes that my clients want to achieve as a result of working with me as their coach ( please note that there are some duplications ): 

1. Eliminate fear
2. Increase confidence
3. Deepen your understanding or yourself and others to eliminate judgment
4. Increase your focus
5. Release anger
6. Attract more referrals
7. Shift from being a salesperson to a business person
8. Maintain your state of mind while you are building the systems for your business
9. Change the outside perception of your prospects that your firm does group insurance for smaller companies to a perception that your firm works with companies of 150 – 250 employees – we will do this by changing your inner perception
10. Clarify your projects and your maximize time so that your focus is more magnified and you are less fragmented
11. Improve your delegation, learn to let go of more
12. Support you while you create a scalable system so that you are dealing with the larger cases while the team is taking care of the smaller cases
13. Help grow the team and add team members that report to existing team members – give the existing team more resources to be more productive
14. Assist you to communicate, manage and motivate your team
15. Assist with employee reviews to create a true win-win environment
16. Improve your “what do you do better message” – “branding”
17. Offer listening, accountability, tough love at times and systems to support your goals
18. Increase you desire / understand your lack of desire
19. Understand your unmet need of recognition combined with the negative beliefs and negative emotions that contribute to ups & downs in motivation and time management problems because of taking on too much
20. Ask for more referrals
21. Eliminate justification
22. Eliminate procrastination
23. ID projects and actions
24. Develop a time blocking system
25. Improve your focus
26. Increase your trust by understanding the unmet need of control
27. Increase your trust in yourself by deepening your understanding of yourself
28. Increase your referrals
29. Eliminate fear
30. Take yourself more seriously
31. Eliminate fear
32. Get out of survival mode
33. Manage your projects and time
34. Eliminate reactionary behaviors
35. Improve your focus
36. Create more follow through
37. Be more organized
38. Create a vision, plan and goals
39. Create a marketing plan
40. Attract more referrals
41. Create a client engagement checklist
42. Increase your sales activity and results
43. Hire a new assistant

 

As the iPhone/Otter Box went through the air as it has done on occasion towards a certain death on concrete, I thought “this is it” and a vision of an iPhone with a smashed screen came to mind.

The Otter Box did its job and all is well with my iPhone.

The Otter Box itself lived but the Otter Box belt clip fractured on impact.

Thank you to Erin @ Otter Box customer service for immediate customer service and a new Otter Box belt clip is on its way free of charge under warrantee.

P.S. My Otter Box is Black

* *

Dear All,

I’ve been shortlisted for Advisor.ca’s ‘Name That Visionary Contest’: Who are the Top 10 leaders in the industry today?

Round One is over and the candidates have been narrowed down to 20 entries.

The next step is to vote for the top ten entries and you can do this by clicking here; 

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

There are two ways I could have played this:

1. Pretending to be a shy and demure Canadian, because that is what Canadians do, in the hope that people will vote anyway - ”I don’t take part in these celebrity competitions because it’s beneath me”
2. Bold, outrageous and provocative - ”asking for the business” - vote for me because I love the exposure!

Another reason that I am doing this is to demonstrate the power of E-Nurture Marketing as you are a reader of my E-Newsletter and we were initially introduced through speaking or via the internet.

Honestly, it would cost tens of thousands to receive the exposure that this contest can create.

So I’m asking for your help.

The next step is to vote for the top ten entries and you can do this by clicking here and PLEASE VOTE FOR ME;

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

 Again, why am I asking?

• The exposure is absolutely great for my professional career development
• The publicity is a vindication for all the hard work done with clients and the philosophy and ideas that we share in these and other pages
• The encouragement to me to keep fighting the fight for quality career and independent financial advisors
• My coaches and mentors all get to take a break as my unmet need of recognition is satisfied
• You will have to spend a few minutes thinking about your personal Top 10 leaders in the industry today 

To vote CLICK HERE; 

http://www.advisor.ca/partnersuccesscenter/aca10/bioform.html

 

Motivation is based on unmet needs like recognition, safety and worthiness. These are the core of all negative beliefs and emotions. Motivation is not sustainable because it is driven from the outside trying to medicate the unmet need with people, places and things.

What are the practice management issues that many advisors are facing? No business plan, no goals, in overwhelm and not asking for referrals just to name a few.

“Simon’s Clear Your Roadblocks Speaking Presentation was blunt, upfront, honest and he told the real truth.  He shared insights to help financial advisors understand the roadblocks and take action towards creating new business rather than resting on their service commissions and trailer fees.  Some say that my position as the Advocis Ottawa 2009 Program Chair will be a challenging one. Simon’s presentation helped me to understand how to be more proactive and inspired me to take action now to get 25% of the 2009 Program Chair work done in 2008.”
John Saikaley
Desjardins Financial Security
Advocis Ottawa Program Chair (2009)
Ottawa, ON

Business Plan and Goals – The unmet need of safety generates the negative beliefs of “I don’t have enough time” and “I don’t have enough money” which fuel the negative emotions of anxiety and fear … hence, the advisor is addicted to survival. It is impossible to build a strong set of values, vision, business plan and goals with this happening. A learned advisor said; “most financial advisors are addicted to selling and they will not take the time to build a vision, business plan and goals”.

In Overwhelm – The unmet need of control generates the negative beliefs of “I am out of control” and “no one can do it as good as me” which contributes to the negative emotion of fear. The Law Of Attraction is absolute and with the unmet need of control fueling the negative beliefs and negative emotions, the financial advisor unwittingly will not delegate and if they do, no one will ever be able to do the job as good as them. The unmet needs become their jailor.

Asking For Referrals – Ninety percent of advisors agree that asking for referrals is the number one way to build their business and only fifteen percent actually ask for referrals on a consistent basis. The challenge is the unmet need of approval which generates negative beliefs like “what if they say no” which fuel negative emotions like uncertainty and worry.

“Values are like turtles, they only come out when it is safe”. Unmet needs will dominate ones values, vision, business plan, goals and ability to grow until the unmet need is met from within.”

 

Dear Steady Advisor,

Thank you for Tuesday’s coaching call.

Congratulations for the dedication, focus and results that you have created during this very busy time.

Congratulations again for booking your holidays and meeting with your team about what could be done before you go away and for the laser focus on what must be done before your go away and to your commitment not to take anything with you and to not make calls on your holidays.

You have been adapting your steady cross the T’s and dot the I’s – do one thing at a time and do it well behaviour for some time to a multi-tasking behaviour.

When this happens it kind of has a snowball effect when it comes time to relax back to your natural style because you have conditioned yourself to be always on.

Rather than fight your creative brilliant mind with all of the ideas that it has when you are trying to relax on the weekend, use a journal to empty your mind to capture the ideas for future action.

This way you are still honouring the ideas as they come in … it doesn’t mean that you have to act on them immediately.

In follow up to your appointments and with respect to your natural behavioural style, remember to take the time to debrief you appointments right at the end by making brief bullet notes before you get distracted by an associate or the next appointment.

Thank you for the opportunity to be of service.

Simon

 

The called ended with the client in tears and me saying that I would e-mail them in follow up and for them to call me when they were ready.

The call started by me asking the client about their background which was a total of 25 years of experience with the last 10 years in insurance sales.

The prospective client told me that these were their challenges;

1. Developing a niche market
2. Motivating their team
3. Getting more referrals

I asked the prospective client on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, how do they score themselves when it comes to asking referrals and they scored themselves a 10 when they felt a connection with the client.

I asked the prospective client about the system that they were using to motivate their team and the client explained the new system that they were going to use that included a review of each team member’s vision, plan, goals and actions.

You are doing an excellent job on these two fronts I told the prospective client and said that I didn’t think that they needed any help in these two areas.

The prospective client said what about building a niche market?

I replied that there were many pieces to build a niche market and key pieces include creating a parable, interviewing their clients asking the question of what are their three biggest challenges and then researching and writing solution articles to create a personalized newsletter that included their client testimonials.

I paraphrased one of my client’s parables about “taking care of what matters” …

I can probably best explain why I decided to become a financial advisor by sharing with you a defining moment in my life.

I grew up in a house that was a big believer in protecting what matters most, protecting myself, my family and my future.

So while my brother and I were just heading off to college with a stay at home mom, my dad passed away suddenly from cancer at the early age of 52.

What did I learn?

My dad was a firm believer in life insurance and his allowed us to work through the grieving and the stress without having to worry and he enabled all of our lives to

continue knowing that the financial support was there.

That the most important financial planning activity was not growing and retaining assets … it was taking care of an unforeseen risk.

As a result of my experience, I have dedicated the rest of my business life to help others to grow and retain their assets and use risk management strategies to protect against the unforeseen that would damage financial goals that they have worked so hard to grow and retain.

Would you like to know more?

The prospective client broke into tears telling me about their father who was in financial services who showed them at an early age the dividend cheques that would come in from his own investments and that the client’s father had the resources to fund the education of all of their siblings … and that the prospective client’s father died before their twelfth birthday.

After allowing some time for empathy I shared that I believe while there is sadness to clear, that my prospective client is living and fulfilling their father’s legacy through 25 years in financial services and that the sorrow must be cleared to reveal the passion to tell this story to more and more people that require the inspiration to take care of what matters.

The called ended with me saying that I would e-mail them in follow up and for them to call me when they were ready.

I would love to work with the prospective client to help them to clear their roadblocks because this is what I do … but it cannot be about me.

 

Evolution has programmed us to feel the fear for survival in our guts. In days gone by, our survival was dependent upon our tribe. The tribe reinforced obedience and conformity to the tribal system through the threat of expulsion. Expulsion from the tribe meant certain death.

The tribal mind is primal, hooked into that basest of instincts – survival itself. It focuses on the negative and messages such as, “things are scarce” and, “there isn’t enough to go around.” The primal mind is always poised to fight and expects constant attacks.

The captive agency system, which introduced many financial advisors to the profession, is a tribal system. Remaining a member of today’s financial advisor tribe can mean meeting specific sales targets. The negative ego mind perceives that not meeting these sales targets means expulsion from the tribe and is a definite risk to survival.

Many of the captive agencies no longer exist. More and more financial advisors have decided either to become independent or have been forced to become independent. However, even independent advisors can be triggered into thinking with this survival-based negative ego mind.

Financial Survivors suffer from the Unmet Needs Disease, causing the negative emotion and the negative belief that they are not achieving their true potential as an advisor.

Financial Advisors have Clear Values, causing the positive feeling and the positive belief they are achieving their true potential as an advisor.

Note: Some of the above ideas were developed from Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art. Steven also wrote the novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, which was adapted into a must-see movie starring Matt Damon and Will Smith.

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