Welcome to the March 15th, 2007 E-Newsletter.


Simon Reilly
The Financial Advisor Coach
sreilly@leadingadvisor.com
1 877 248 6019

This edition of the E-Newsletter Includes:

• Henry Rides Up The Financial Elevator & Peter Rides Down The Financial Elevator
• How To Create Strong Financial Advisor Boundaries & Create More Time
• A Life Coach According to Ron James
• Advisor Situational Stories
• Show Reel Update
• Revised Speaking Schedule
• On A Business Development Note
• Personal Reflections
• Subscribe to Our Free E-Newsletter
• Tell a friend

Henry Rides Up The Financial Elevator & Peter Rides Down The Financial Elevator

Two different elevator experiences ... one story is of heartfelt satisfaction and the other is of heart wrenching dismay.

As Henry rode up the elevator to his office, he acknowledged the feelings of heartfelt satisfaction he was experiencing. There were so many things to be thankful for. Why just this morning over breakfast he received a file from a relatively new client that contained the information on 5 million dollars in assets that the client wanted to turn into an annuity. That was truly something to be thankful for.

His year started out with taking 10 days holiday to travel to Maui with his wife. He was there to have some fun and invest some time to acknowledge his accomplishments for the year before. Henry also wanted to refine his vision for the next one, three, five and ten years into the future, and to set the intension of the amount of business that he would like to do in 2007 that will yield the financial goal that he wished to achieve.

While in Maui, Henry made sure that he stayed focused on his regular routine because he was well aware of the power of commitment and consistency.

His routine included waking quietly so as not to disturb his wife, and early so that he could go and spend the early morning hours in the garden lobby of the Hyatt Grande Wailea. He enjoyed starting his day in silence to reflect on his thoughts, emotions and feelings. This quiet time gave Henry the time to clear negative thoughts, refocus onto positive thoughts, and give thanks for the many blessings that he and his family had received over the years.

Starting his day in silence also gave Henry those positive ah-ha's and ideas that were instrumental in taking both his business and personal lives to the next level. Henry had saved many a case with ideas that had come to him during these quite times.

Henry found that the more time he took in silence to listen and record his experiences in writing in his journal, the more he attracted into both his business and personal lives.

So back in Southern Ontario, today wasn't any different than any other day. He rose early, and immediately gave thanks. (It could be very easy to let his ego get hooked into any number of negative beliefs and emotions that were not serving him in the positive and into justifying staying in bed because it was one of those brutal -20C° mornings, -30C° if you took the wind chill into account.

Henry's quiet time included focusing on his positive affirmation. His affirmation reads as if it had already happened and is combined with the feelings that he wished to experience as a result of focusing on the intension of receiving his goal.

“I am grateful and thankful for the opportunity to be a financial advisor serving my clients to meet and exceed their financial goals while creating the following feelings for both my client and I that include; alive, appreciative, confident, energetic, fulfilled, helpful, intrigued and satisfied.”

Henry's financial goals were not yet met for the year and he was certain that he would achieve them.

He gave thanks for the accomplishments and opportunities that he had which included owning his own office and working with a team of well paid professionals. This team included members from reception, to administrative support, to marketing, and to experts in critical illness, disability insurance, money products, and life insurance.

Henry's next step was to go to the gym because you know what they say, "there are no fat old men".

Cardio, stretching and a shower were all finished in time for a 9am breakfast meeting with a relatively new client.

Henry had received the referral to Otto from John, whom Henry had been working with for the past ten years. Henry made it clear to his clients that the way that he built his business was through asking for referrals and that Henry expected referrals from time to time.

Henry had met Otto earlier in the month for a preliminary conversation to discuss Otto's goals, and to advise Otto of the way that he did business, and what his expectations were from his clients.

He made it very clear that his practice was built on creating a strong relationship and providing top notch service through his team, and that he provided solid and consistent investment products that provided a strong return because of commitment and consistency in the market.

His clients understood that he was not interested in promising market leading performance and jumping from one investment to the next hoping to hit a home run every time.

Henry reflected on his thought, "I'm not sure why Otto had invited me to breakfast", as he greeted Otto with a warm smile and a hand shake.

Otto told Henry that he really liked his style and he really sensed a rock solid foundation as Henry never appeared to be rushed with anything and he was always very well organized. Otto mentioned that while he had done extremely well with his past advisor, he had grown tired of not hearing from his advisor all that often and only when his advisor had something to sell.

Otto said, "Henry, the time has come for a more solid approach and a new advisor, and I want you to invest this money that I have into an annuity".

Henry provided a warm and heartfelt, "Thank you for this opportunity Otto".

Meanwhile, Peter is riding down the elevator heading to his "past" client's office without an appointment and feeling heart wrenching dismay.

Peter was going to his past client's office for one last attempt to try to save the business that his client had just moved to another advisor.

He thought in anger, "How could Jim do this to him? After all I've done for him!"

Looking back, Peter gained Jim as a client when he had walked into his office one day with the story of how much money he had lost with his current advisor.

Jim still had a substantial financial portfolio, and Peter was happy to gain the opportunity to work with Jim, even though Jim wanted him to cut his commission. Something that always irritated Peter was that Jim constantly whined about how much he lost from working with his previous advisor.

At the time, Peter really needed the business so he was reluctant to advise Jim of the way that he conducted business, and what his expectations were from his clients. He also decided to cut his commissions. He didn't want Jim to be whining about him.

Peter thought that he would work with Jim and that through his good work in giving Jim what he wanted, Jim would bring him some additional business and referrals so he figured it would all 'come out in the wash'.

As Peter continued down the elevator he thought about how his business was really getting to him.

He wasn't sleeping well and was often staying up past midnight watching late night TV, and he was having trouble getting up in the morning.

Getting yesterday's news that Jim had left him to work with another advisor didn't help him with last nights' sleep. Peter finally got to sleep by 3am and he had woken with a start after having slept past his alarm. He immediately blamed his wife for not waking him up as she must have known that he needed to get up, and get to work.

Peter was really starting to feel like an employee in his own home. All he seemed to feel like he was good for was bringing home the bacon. All his wife and kids could seem to do was spend more and more and more.

Peter's wife had just purchased new bedroom furniture. They had discussed a budget of $15,000 and like everything else, she managed to have no appreciation for what it took for him to make the money that she so frivolously kept spending. They were really becoming strangers.

At the last minute on his way to his appointment with Jim, Peter decided to make a quick stop at his office. He rushed into his office to deliver some instructions to his assistant but his assistant was no where to be found, late as usual. She seemed to be taking more and more liberties. She was showing up late, taking longer and longer breaks, taking too many personal calls and leaving early whenever she felt like it. Peter scribbled a quick note and left it on her desk and ran out of the office.

As Peter rode down the elevator he thought how could Jim do this to him? Peter thought that he was through with these rich people because all they seemed to want was all the service in the world, and they were not willing to pay for it. Why does he keep on attracting these same kinds of clients over and over again?

Last night, he had spent an hour reviewing Jim's investments and much to his surprise he realized that he had regained what Jim had lost with the other advisor in the inside of six months and Jim still had the audacity to change advisors right when he was finally going to make some money on Jim's business.

Peter was now driving through morning rush hour traffic on his way to Jim's office and he was irritated by the fact that he had not gotten around to getting new snow tires. He also realized that his windshield washer tank was empty, and his windshield was covered with dirty spray from last night's snowfall that had turned to slush from all of the salt that was on the roads.

If only Peter had listened to the Coach that had shared the quick qualifying questions at the last Pro-Seminars Event that he had gone to earlier in the year. If he had listened, and put the ideas into action then he wouldn't be in this mess today.

The qualifying conversation and questions went something like this:

“Thank you for the opportunity to have a conversation with you about working with you as your financial advisor.

I would like to ask you a few questions so that I can best serve your needs.

Based on your experience in working with your financial advisor;

• What are three things that you liked best about working with your last financial advisor?
• What are three things that you liked the least about working with your last financial advisor?
• What are the three most important things that are important to you in working with a financial advisor?

Thank you for your input”.

If Peter had taken the time to qualify Jim with the questions, he would have found out that Jim wasn't interested in creating a long lasting relationship and that all Jim was interested in was paying little or no commission and that he wanted all the service in the world which included calling Peter on weekends and holidays at all hours.

It would have been better for Peter to face the music back then and let Jim go to another financial advisor using the following script;

“Given that my financial practice is built on:

• Creating a strong relationship
• Providing top notch service through our team
• Providing solid and consistent investment products that provided a strong return because of commitment and consistency in the market.
• No interest in promising market leading performance and jumping from one investment to the next hoping to hit a home run every time.
• Providing our service for full fee as we do not reduce commissions

Do you believe that I am the best financial advisor to meet your needs?”

These questions provide a qualification process and help to set strong and healthy boundaries.

Let's get real. Who can provide high quality service and work for free? It is impossible.

These questions would have likely eliminated Jim as being a quality client.

So why do financial advisors do this?

Before we get to the answer to that question, Peter arrived at Jim's office and he parked his car, and stepped into the elevator. The elevator ascended and then stopped at the next floor. The door opened and a prospective client stepped into the elevator. Peter had been meaning to introduce himself to this person for a long time as they both had offices in the same building, and the prospective client was a successful real estate developer.

Peter had been practicing his elevator speech for a while and he thought that he had it down pat;

“Good afternoon. I am a professional financial advisor with more than a decade of experience in financial services helping clients just like you and I’m here to help you to create better financial returns while ensuring that your financial legacy will be there for you into your retirement and well into generations to come.”

Peter thought about introducing himself, but he was so upset about losing Jim that he could not find the words.

All Peter could do was to say good morning.

Peter, along with many financial advisor, have unresolved unmet needs and because they have been unconsciously striving to get their unmet needs met outside of themselves through their relationship with their family, friends and clients, they are likely to have weak boundaries.

How To Create Strong Financial Advisor Boundaries & Create More Time

Boundaries help to define what works and what does not work for you.

The qualifying script offered earlier in the story, is a stop gap to make sure the behaviors of others do not cross your boundaries.

You have to be brave and get over your unmet need of safety to completely implement strong boundaries, as the unmet needs of safety and security will likely cause you to say yes to clients when you should have said no.

Boundaries are about becoming selfish in a healthy way, versus selflessly expecting that if you give and give and give to others, it will come back to you.

Boundaries are an invisible wall of protection that you draw around yourself and your business. Boundaries define who you will work with, and who you will not work with. Boundaries are installed to insulate you and what is most important to you.

Boundaries are about what is important to you, and they have nothing to do with how others may feel about your boundaries. They are your boundaries and your boundaries are OK.

Here is an example.

Looking back a few decades, some wise soul created the open door office policy. Later on we found this idea to be absurd as it has been scientifically proven that it takes 20 minutes out of an hour to get focused on the project at hand, and when we get interrupted it takes another 20 minutes to get back to what we were doing before the interruption.

I see many successful advisors wasting their energy by having an open door policy with their staff and their clients. At the end of the day they can't seem to get anything done, and they wonder why.

There are likely unmet needs of appreciation, approval and recognition present that fool advisors into helping everyone else except themselves.

Here is an example of what must happen:

• Have a conversation with your assistant and explain that you are going to meet with them first thing in the morning for 20 minutes to address A priority items.

• Let your assistant know that you will meet with them again at 11am to work with them on the B priority items.

• After that, go to work on your A priority project work - like getting on the phone to contact clients and prospect about new business opportunities because new business is the life blood of your business. Make the calls without leaving messages which will cut down on the dreaded telephone tag. This will cut down on inbound calls into your office while you are making outbound calls so that you can focus 100% on the calls that you are making.

• Set up your afternoon for appointments with clients.

• Advise your assistant that you are no longer taking walk in client appointments, and that if a client walks in, the assistant is to instruct the client that you are busy with a client and that you will be more than happy to schedule an appointment. Tell your assistant that if the client says, “that’s OK I’ll get them another time”, the assistant is to advise the client that you have become busier, and that it is best that they schedule an appointment.

You must have strong boundaries in order to grow your business.

Boundaries are a series of systems that you implement and are about what others can and cannot do.

When an advisor has healthy boundaries:

• Anger subsides
• Fear and anxiety are removed from your radar because inner strength is created because you are more focused on your projects and when you accomplish more, you become more confident
• Healthy associates and clients respect you more for your discipline and conviction

When an advisor has weak boundaries:

• The advisor attracts over demanding and self centered associates and clients
• A lot of time and energy is wasted

Here are 6 steps to having strong boundaries;

1. Understand that you must extend your boundaries in order to grow both your business and personal life, or your time and energy will go down the drain

2. Be willing to take the time to educate others about your boundaries. Another example is advising clients that the best way to reach you is through e-mail. Start returning calls and answering questions by e-mail. You can begin by sending an e-mail that says thanks for their telephone call and that you are following up on their call via and you would like to know how can I be of service. This will train your clients to use e-mail and cause your clients to get focused by asking you specific questions. This will take some discipline as your clients will behave in the way you have initially trained them, and if you trained them in the past that you are a 7-11 Store, that is exactly what they will expect. Of course you can still do this another way by insisting that your assistant ask your clients specific questions about how you can be of service. You can still use the e-mail strategy to reply.

3. You must learn to be relentless towards your boundaries. If your clients have your cell phone and home number, get a new cell and forward the old one to the office phone. Get a new home number and only give your home number out to close friends and family. If a client asks for your cell or home number advise them that you do not give it out and that all calls go though the office – thanks for understanding. You can get a 24/7 answering service, and if it is really urgent after hours, the client will leave a message. If it is, your answering service can call you. Most of the time you will find that the client will call back during regular business hours.

4. To take this to the next step, make of list of the 10 things that associates and clients may no longer do when they are around you, or do to you, or say to you when they are around you.

This could apply to comments that I have heard assistants make about advisors that they work with. Ring, ring. Is James there? No he is not. We had a telephone appointment at 3pm. “Oh, he’s always late”.

!!! What kind of a message is this comment sending out to the clients! You must demand that every single person adheres to these boundaries. Digs, put downs, making fun, critical remarks are not an option.

5. Have a plan in place to eliminate the behavior when others cross your boundaries. Here is an example:

“Can you help me?”

“Sure.”

“I have a request that you stop saying that I am always late and thank you for understanding my request.”

6. Make a list of the ways that you are crossing the boundaries of others and stop!

A Life Coach According to Ron James

Laura and I watched Ron James's "West Coast Wild" on the CBC. Ron is clearly the funniest man in Canada.

Here is an excerpt of Ron's humor as best as I could scribble notes as Laura and I were in tears of laughter.

"Your parents went through a depression and at least one world war and would not spend a nickel on themselves while you baby boomers look forward to being 106 years old at the Spa with a glass of Pinot in one hand and a Life Coach in the other.

What the hell is a Life Coach anyway?

It's some Pseudo New Age Psychologist babbling nut that charges you money.

For what?

Advice.

Well a friend can give you that for nothing. You drink too much and you are an asshole."

Advisor Situational Stories

Please find the following links to 7 Advisor Situational Stories that I wrote in my Blog in February of 2007.

Fear Of Sales, A Hard Habit To Break
Google Financial Advisor Coach
Hiring To Be Liked Is Sabotaging Your Business
Small RRSP Potatoes
The Destructive Midas Touch
The Number & How Much Is Enough
The Hire Is Not A Fixer Upper

Please click here for a list of all of the 21 February Financial Advisor Articles Blogs.

21 February Financial Advisor Articles Blogs.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Show Reel Update

We have completed our final touches to the Show Reel, and you can see the Show Reel by clicking Show Reel.

Revised Speaking Schedule

Pro Seminars	March 6	Kitchener, ON
Pro Seminars	March 7	Toronto, ON
Pro Seminars	March 20	Saskatoon, SK
Pro Seminars	March 21	Edmonton, AB
Pro-Seminars	March 29	Vancouver, BC
Pro Seminars	April 3	London, ON
Pro Seminars	April 4	Winnipeg, MB
IFB Summit	April 10	Vancouver, BC
IFB Summit	April 13	Calgary, AB
Pro-Seminars	May 7	Vancouver, BC
Advocis S Sask	May 10	Regina, SK
Advocis Durham	May 17	Oshawa, ON
Advocis N. Central Sask.	May 24	Saskatoon, SK
IFB Summit	May 30/31	Toronto, ON
Pro Seminars	June 19	Calgary, AB
Pro Seminars	June 20	Regina, SK

On A Business Development Note

I am writing this edition of the E-Newsletter on March 7, 2007 while flying back from Toronto, ON after completing Financial Advisor Public Speaking Presentations for Pro-Seminars in Kitchener and Toronto, ON.

Our practice remains busy with making a difference in both the business and personal lives of the financial advisors that we serve, and we are grateful and thankful for this.

While we remain busy with running the business of coaching, speaking and writing, there does not seem to be a lot time for additional business projects which includes writing the book. It is kind of bittersweet for me to realize that the behaviors that are required to write a book are too different from the behaviors that I use to coach, speak and write the Blogs and E-newsletters. I have resigned to believe that I will work on the writing for the book when I have a complete week off - which I do have from time to time over the course of the year.

Personal Reflections

On a personal note, Laura & I took a week off and I have enclosed a link to some of the pictures that I took while we were away.

Listen To The Silence On Pender Island

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Simon Reilly
The Financial Advisor Coach
sreilly@leadingadvisor.com
1 877 248 6019