Welcome to the July 2008 edition of Clearing Your Roadblocks To Success.
It is almost a year since the Sub-Prime August 2007 shock waves started rippling through the markets.
Congratulations are in order as we have made it through a challenging economy that has lasted a year and it could go a while yet.
As we have been going through a Fall & Winter in the economy, I’m reminded of something that Seth Godin talked about in The Dip. Expect The Dip and that anything that is worth doing will involve The Dip at one time or another.
The Dip also talks about "getting" that quitting is a winning strategy. In essence, know when to quit or take a mini retirement to revaluate and outsource, outsource and outsource.
- Quit the wrong stuff.
- Stick with the right stuff and be the best in the world at that. If you can't be the best, why bother. Diversification is a lie. It is about your definition of "your world" versus "the world". No mediocrity at anything. Ordinary is not good enough. Strategic quitting versus reactive or serial quitting. The Dip provides you with the realization that something is worth doing. It is about the challenge. Know what you are getting, know if The Dip is too big or too deep, know when you are heading towards a cliff or a dead-end.
- Have the guts to do one or the other. Quit the wrong stuff. Stick with the right stuff.
Sticking with the right stuff requires a vision.
“Without vision, people perish”. At the same time, without vision you will set yourself up to get sucked into fear.
I tell many lies but I am always believed
If the worst happens, I’ll be greatly relieved
On the day you were born I poisoned your heart
I’ll still be there on the day you depart.- Deepak Chopra, Why is God Laughing? © 2008
Better a vision than stress and mental illness as I am starting to see newspaper headlines like “Metal Illness Is On The Rise In The Financial Services Industry”.
One has to wonder if it is really metal illness when the recommendations are to turn off your blackberry and e-mail for a period of time during the day so that you can create some space. Mental illness is a strong label for being addicted to e-mail and the symptoms that come with it.
Space will help you to get back in touch with the big picture and vision versus being fragmented to death by constant and never ending interruptions.
Are you working on your vision for the next twelve months or are you lulling yourself through the lazy days of summer?
“Avoid resistance at all cost. Resistance is an all-encompassing term for what Freud called Death Wish. Resistance cannot be reasoned with. It understands one thing. Power. Resistance takes on the form of drugs, shopping, TV, gossip, alcohol, drugs, and the consumption of all products containing alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, fat, salt and sugar. The greatest danger is Resistance knows when the finish line is in site and it will throw out one final assault.”
- Stephen Pressfield – The War Of Art.
As my editor and I approach the completion of The Cure For The Unmet Needs Disease Book and Workbook I ran across this excerpt out of Chapter 5 of the book which is quite timely and a great message to keep me going on the vision and the book…
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.'"
Simon Reilly
The Financial Advisor Coach
sreilly@leadingadvisor.com
1 877 248 6019
This edition of the E-Newsletter Includes:
- Live One Day Planning Sessions
- Perfect Obsession, Mental Illness & Financial Services Workers Seek Treatment Mash Up
- You Want Referrals But You Need
- Simon Talking No Bull Marketing™
- Writing For Advisor.ca Is Official!
- A Full On Coaching Week + Coaching Call Follow-Up Email
- Canada Life Speaking Testimonials
- Seth Godin talked about in The Dip
- Deepak Chopra - Why is God Laughing?
- Stephen Pressfield - The War Of Art
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Live One Day Planning Sessions
This past Spring, I had the opportunity of working with 4 of my current clients each for a full day, as I took them through a Live One Day Planning Session. The work that we cover is specialized, as it is based on the client's needs and wants for their business. Very intense work, and we are able to cover an enormous amount of ground working shoulder to shoulder.
As an indication of the good work produced in one of the sessions, the same client has just booked us for a Fall Planning Session this September. Please read my blog posting from that session in April, Trust The Process.
We have planned our calendar for this Fall and have identified coaching weeks, speaking engagements, marketing days, and the time available to work live with clients on Live One Day Planning Sessions. If you are interested in working with me for a Live One Day Planning Session to catapult your business forward in the last quarter of 2008, please speak with me or email Laura (lreilly@leadingadvisor.com) directly and we will provide you with some options for dates.
Perfect Obsession, Mental Illness & Financial Services Workers Seek Treatment Mash Up
To improve my writing, I’ve been following though with Kate McCaffery’s recommendation to inspire myself with reading different types of material and I’ve been enjoying The Saturday Edition of The Vancouver Sun.
Kate McCaffery is the Practice Management Editor of Advisor.ca and Kate and I talked about the notion that a lot the new ideas are Mash Ups of a collective of old ideas.
So having said this I enjoyed the following articles in the following sections of the July 12th, 2008 Saturday Edition of The Vancouver Sun;
• Weekend Review: Pursuit of perfection can be an obsession. Religions have a different approach to perfection.
• Working: Mental illness: No end in sight.
• Business: Metal health a big concern. Stress. Alarming number of UK financial services workers seek treatment.
Please note my thoughts are written in italics.
In the article, “Pursuit of perfection can be an obsession”, Douglas Todd talked about a more mature approach to perfection that would include using the language that Jesus used for perfect that included; ripe, fully flavored, whole and complete. Perfection in Western Culture is getting a lot of people into trouble with the infinite and never ending search for perfection in the material world.
This reminds me of a comment that an old friend of mine made about his situation; “always on”. This means always striving for the next thing and never taking a break to appreciate what one has already accomplished.
What if people reminded themselves that they are working for the love of the game or adding value and through this the results will come.
Spotless perfection increases the chances of increasing unnecessary guilt and self loathing because of the lack of perfection.
The alternate to always striving is to invest oneself in increasing love in the universe and this would include the love of self.
Thomas Perry’s article that follows makes one wonder about money not being able to buy you happiness.
“Metal health a big concern. Stress. Alarming number of UK financial services workers seek treatment.”
The number of men in London that sought help for depression rose 47% from a year earlier in the past three months and the financial industry ranked last in a “happiness survey” of 2000 people in 20 professions. A whopping 58% of people working in banking and finance say they have seen someone cry as a result of stress at work.
It is ironic that Donna Jacobs talks about turning off your Blackberry and E-Mail in “Mental illness no end in sight” with last week's introduction of Apple’s 3G iPhone in Canada.
I know that Blackberry has been nicknamed “Crackberry” and the iPhone has been nicknamed “CrackPod”. Kind of funny if you are Brit, kind of like CrackPot as in look at him, he’s a CrackPot for always talking on is CrackPod.
Donna’s article talks about these devises bypassing human contact creating isolation leading to stress, burnout and eventual depression and that one needs to get back to friendship, family support and basic human love on a one on one basis.
One in four Canadians will have a period of mental illness at some point which is well above the global average and stress is costing the Canadian Taxpayer $50 billion a year
Once again, we are always on. It reminds me of an old song by Carol Pope from Rough Trade called “All touch ( as in cell phone ) and no contact”.
With respect to the value of communication, community, family and friends;
Are we not creating another addiction through the acceleration of communication, community, family and friends though CrackBerrys and CrackPods striving to fulfill the thing that is missing in our lives?
The bottom line is, the answer is not out there, the answer is within and you sure as h*ll are not going to find it on your cell phone.
Falling into mental illness is created by an intensified assault from constant interruptions from five second TV advertisements, immediacy of information, from expectations of immediate results on the job, in investments, in lifestyle changes, in fast tracked learning filling our minds to capacity with no fallback position because the mind is too crowded with too much stuff.
I just saw a TV commercial featuring the new Sprint Instinct Cell Phone Offer and at the close of the commercial, one friend says to the other about the friend not purchasing the Sprint Instinct Cell Phone; “Maybe you are afraid to fall in love”.
Better said; “Maybe you are afraid to fall in love with yourself”. Well you can! Get the new “fall in love with yourself feature at a touch of button - long distance and roaming rates still apply.”
You Want Referrals But You Need
It’s 3:30pm Wednesday, July 2nd and I’ve had a fabulous day of writing the Workbook for The Cure For The Unmet Needs Disease as I have been banished by my editor.
Well maybe banished is strong word. :-)
Over Monday and Tuesday, I thought that I would give it a go to review the first two or three chapters that my editor has completed but we both agreed that I should leave it alone because my editor is taking copy from chapters in the latter part of the book and bringing them forward so I will wait till my editor is complete on the first draft.
At the same time, the possibility of my ego [ me - ego - no way! ] or just the simple fact that I have delivered the Removing Your Roadblocks Speaking Presentation over eighty times which is what the book is following, was challenged because my editor has enhanced my work for the better by restructuring and editing at the same time. A rough example is what was in Chapter One is now in Chapters Two & Three. The bottom line, the work is excellent and I am pleased.
The Outline of the Workbook for The Cure For The Unmet Needs Disease is completed and I’m well underway and it would not surprise me to have the Workbook done by Friday. This should be no surprise as I have gone through the process with hundreds of coaching clients over the years.
You Want Referrals But You Need
In the back of my mind, I am reminded that I am going against the grain because “people buy what they want, not what they need” is almost like sales doctrine or scripture.
Here are some examples;
Financial Advisors may “Want” a Vision and Business Plan but they sabotage themselves with a lack of focus created by the Unmet Need of Perfection. Even though they come to the realization of a niche and product to build a Vision and Business Plan on, their ego sabotages them with the Unmet Need of Perfection combining with the Limiting Belief of “It or they may not be good enough” combining with the Limiting Emotion of anxiety. The end result is they keep on trying one thing after another creating more and more overwhelm.
Financial Advisors may “Want” Referrals but they sabotage themselves with procrastination because of their Unmet Need of Approval. Event though they know that 85% of Financial Advisors agree that asking for Referrals is the most effective way to build their business, their ego sabotages them with the Unmet Need of Approval combining with the Limiting Belief of “I may make a mistake” combining with the Limiting Emotion of fear. The end result is even though they may struggle through their fear to ask for a Referral, their fear based energy leaks out onto their client that they are asking for a Referral from, and their client says NO!
Simon Talking No Bull Marketing™
Simon Talking No Bull Marketing To The Young & Old Bull.
You may have of heard something similar to the following based on an crude old joke where the young bull says to the old bull, “lets run down the hill and prospect one of those cows!” The old bull says to the young bull “lets not and walk down and prospect them all”. The No Bull Marketing™ Consultant says to both of them, “let’s use No Bull Marketing™ or Nurture Marketing or Pull Marketing and have the qualified ones walk up here and ask us about what we have to offer” because they checked out our web site and blog and subscribed to our e-newsletter.
Push Marketing is the old school cold calling, direct mail and newspaper advertising. No Bull Marketing™ or Nurture Marketing or Pull Marketing is finding a niche where you can solve a problem, write about solutions in your website, e-newsletter and blog, develop your writing into speaking presentations, write for magazines & newspapers, go out and tell 10,000 people in your niche and never do another cold call again which is exactly what Chris Barrow told me to do and we are doing it.
It’s 11:30am MT on Tuesday in Calgary and I successfully delivered How To Thrive In A Recession to Pro-Seminars at 8am and Laura and I working from our hotel room until our 3pm appointment with The Board of The Advocis School.
The original blog was posted as No Bull Marketing™ and the idea to cut and paste me into the picture just came to me out of the blue and I asked Kim Black to create it for fun - well done Kim!
Writing For Advisor.ca Is Official!
The first six months of 2008 went out with a bang, as we reported in Giving Thanks Mid Way Through 2008 and I can confirm that I am a monthly contributor to Advisor.ca with my first monthly article starting in September.
This causes me to reflect back on a List Of Marketing Actions that we created in 2004 with the help of Chris Barrow and Kim Black;
• Choose A Niche
• Find A Problem That Needs Solving
• Create A Solution Through One On One Coaching, Group Coaching, Workshops and Supporting Products
• Brand Your Solution
• Receive And Publish Coaching Testimonials
• Create A Web Site
• Write Articles
• Publish An E-Newsletter
• Publish A Blog
• Create A Speaking Folio
• Create A Show Reel
• 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
• On The Way;
o Attract Sponsors
o Create CDs & DVDs
o Create Relationships With COI’s
o Exhibit At Tradeshows
o Master Viral Marekting
o Stregthen Your Team
o Upgrade Your Website
o Write & Publish A Book
• Market, Market & Market Coaching, Group Coaching, Workshops and Supporting Products Some More
… And Never, Never Do A Cold Call Ever Again.
As Seth Godin said; “There are no overnight successes and it takes four to six years to be a success on-line and overall”. As Jim Rohn, said; Success is a few simple disciplines practiced every single day”.
For me, last Friday’s conversation with Kate McCaffery, the Practice Management Editor of Advisor.ca was like going through Journalism 2.0 as Kate offered me some extremely valuable tips of creative writing that include …
Don’t be a fake meaning use original material and make sure you acknowledge the creator of the idea if you do use someone else’s idea but please, no “cut and paste”. Fakery is rampant from those that chose to walk around with a fake Rolex to copying music CDs and movie DVDs. First of all it is stealing and second and more importantly, it is confirming the grand daddy of all unmet needs, the need of worthiness and that “you are not worthy”.
If you have a need of worthiness, you have a limiting belief that “I am not good enough” along with the limiting emotions of anxiety and fear. The unmet need, limiting belief and limiting emotion all combine with the laws of attraction to attract evidence that you are not worthy and you wonder why you attract prospects that waste your time, to sales that fall apart to failing to ask for referrals. You may wonder why but it gives your ego the fuel to get angry at the evidence that you are attracting further compounding the problem.
A provocative question; “How many financial advisors are fakes?”; What I mean by this; Are most financial advisors fakes because they all sound the same and very few of them are branded and niche market themselves with an original idea? Food for thought for another article.
To keep your writing and marketing fresh, read all kinds of different material from both industry and non-industry related material that could also include poetry to again keep your mind fresh and alive with new ideas and inspiration.
Kate wondered out loud that there may not be any original ideas or material. Of course one can always “Google Up” to find out where the idea originally came from. I think that I heard that Einstein once said that every idea has already been invented and they are floating around out there in the Meme Pool somewhere just waiting for you to tune into. This sequays into The Hundred Monkey Theorey.
New ideas and material are coming about through what the music industry calls Mash-Ups where one idea + one idea + one idea = a brand new idea.
One beloved Canadian artist that is NOT a Mash Up that I’m listing to as I write this is Alanis Morissette's new CD called Flavors Of Entanglement which is as strong as Jagged Little Pill, the tenth top selling CD of all time. Bravo Alanis!
You can learn more about how the mind works and figuring out how my mind works as you try to track through this article through Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book and Mind Genius is a wonderful software to use to facilitate the process of Mind Mapping.
The titles for the September - December monthly 800 word articles have been created and I have loads of back ups. The articles require an introduction or attention grabbing statement along with three points and supporting points and the introduction and the three main points should be about two hundred words each and here are the deadlines;
• July 7th - September Article
• September 7th - October Article
• October 7th - November Article
• November 7th - December Article
• December 7th - January Article
In the spirit of writing inspiration, I am creating a new habit to schedule time to read the following industry and related publications;
• Advisor.ca
• Advisors’ Edge
• Canadian Business
• Globe & Mail
• Horses Mouth
• Investment Executive
• Marketingmag.ca
• Money Sense
• The Advocis FORUM
• The Financial Post
• The Insurance Journal
Please let me know if I have missed any notable Canadian Publications and I would be grateful if could send any that you may know of in the UK and USA.
So in the spirit of keeping my writing fresh I headed down to Chapters in Nanaimo on Sunday afternoon to do some research. At the same time, I am walking my talk as I have told my clients many many times to stand in front of the magazine rack and look at the attention grabbing headlines so that you can become a resource of value added information to your clients to make themselves unique and different.
I believe that these trips to Chapters will become a routine to enhance my writing. More to follow on A Trip To Chapters For Writing Inspiration.
This week is an Off Week From Coaching and I am devoting the entire week to working with my Editor on editing The Cure For The Unmet Needs Disease.
A Full On Coaching Week + Coaching Call Follow-Up Email
This week is a full on coaching week back to back from 7am PT - 4:45pm PT with a 75 minute break for lunch and 15 minute breaks between calls. I committed to this to create a OFF WEEK next week so that I can give my book 101% focus as my editor is miles ahead of me and this will not do.
I though that I would cut and paste, from some of today’s Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mails, so that you can see that they look like;
Dear _____________,
Thank you for today’s coaching call.
Please click here to listen to today’s call; ( We record our sessions to enable our clients to listen to both sides of their calls via Audio Acrobat and they receive a link of the recoding along with their Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mail )
Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mail #1
Here are my thoughts in follow up to the call.
• Congratulations on the ________ windfall.
• First of all, please forgive my strong position about “doing one thing well”. While the ________ idea has merit, I am concerned that it will take too much out of your main company focus which is ________and both companies need Leadership, Management, Marketing & Sales. Please do an analysis to figure out the sale amount and hours to fulfill the “complete” sale for both the ________ and ________and this will tell the tale.
• At the same time, you are noticing that the ________needs the Leadership, Management, Marketing & Sales from somewhere and it will not go away. It is easier to do what you know. The same sales / economy objections are going to come up no matter if it is ________ or ________and if you have to battle a tougher economy, it is better to go into battle fighting an adversary that you know then one you do not.
• ________ needs vision, time management, goals and actions … no matter what you choose.
• If it were me I would have a meeting;
o Let’s work on improving vision, our working relationship, sales and income
o Explain your analysis of ________ and ________
o Go back to the past strategy on ________
o Create a marketing plan
o Take action
o Meet and review results
o Take action
o Etc.
• You may have to take some flack from ________ about the time and energy that ________ has put into the ________ … all you can do is hear ________ out.
• To read more, read the blog on Quarterly Review
• Read the following blog on Leadership
• Please complete the Budget Cash Flow and ________ Project List and Planning.
Laura will send an assessment for ________ to complete.
I will review the Live Planning Session Notes for next time.
Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mail #2
Here are my thoughts in follow up to the call.
• Remember to set the time aside first thing in the morning to clear and in the process, you will focus on what you want to create. Remember it is a choice to awaken or be hypnotized by the ego mind. ( Clearing is a process that I teach clients on how to clear their unmet needs, limiting beliefs and limiting emotions. )
• Write down all the positives about your business; time in business, experience, number of clients, value that you add to clients, team, systems, environment, financial situation, marketing opportunities, value that you add to the community etc. How does this make you feel … this is the key and it will ignite your passion
• Do a clearing about the hiring
• Write down all the positive characteristics, skills, talents, training etc. of each of the members of your team … this will help you to focus on what you what to attract relating to the hiring. How does this make you feel … this is the key and it will ignite your passion
• To read more, read the blog on Quarterly Review
• If you like, we can run an assessment to help you to magnify the focus of your hiring and this will also help us to help you to write an attractive ad for the position
• Focus your attention every day on what you want to attract
• Convey this message to the rest of the team
• Read the following blog on Leadership
Please remember to complete the assignments on boundaries and tolerations.
Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mail #3
Here are my thoughts in follow up to the call.
• Send ________ job description
• Please write out your perfect business day and circle the items that you want to do, this will help me to compare this to ________ so that we can plan for the best assistant
• I will send an assessment e-mail to you so that you can forward it to ________ - the outcome of the “assessment” is to improve communication and management and team
• Do the clearing about the ________ relating to what he said about creativity and writing
• Remember to speak to your manager about your hiring plans so that they have your space requirements in mind.
Canada Life Speaking Testimonials
:-) … All the business luggage is put away until September 8th Presentations to Pro-Seminars in Las Vegas.
Canada Life June 19th, 2008 Western National Accounts Conference Speaking Testimonials
"Hit me when I really needed it. Some great ideas, and help with my stinking thinking. Great understanding into my unmet needs vs. my values and how it reflects in my business."
Gene Eberley
gene.eberley @ td.com
TD Waterhouse
"I cannot verbalize the feeling but I was left with an unbelievable need to act. Simon gets ME without knowing me."
Chris Canavan
chris.canavan @ nbpcd.com
BMO Nesbitt Burns
"Tangible tools for me and my business."
Jed Brezer
jed.brezer @ nbpcd.com
BMO Nesbitt Burns
"Great energy. Interesting concept of removing roadblocks before planning. Thought provoking and great material."
Doug Salberg
doug.salberg @ raymondjames.ca
Raymond James Ltd.
"Reinforcement of the need for the written plan for three years."
Glen Crawford
glen.crawford @ cibc.ca
CIBC Wood Gundy
"I enjoyed the passion you bring to your presentation. Content is fabulous. Positive ideas that appear practical and achievable."
Eric Schenstead
eric.schenstead @ cibc.ca
CIBC Wood Gundy
"The energy and encouragement to re-evaluate my business and my daily life. Motivation - even though I first saw this presentation only eight months ago, this time it moved me immensely."
Colin Biblow
cbiblow @ credential.com
Credential Financial Strategies
Seth Godin talked about in The Dip
Deepak Chopra - Why is God Laughing?
Stephen Pressfield - The War Of Art
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Thank you for sharing your time.
Simon Reilly
The Financial Advisor Coach
sreilly@leadingadvisor.com
1 877 248 6019