Welcome to the April 2010 edition of our Clear Your Roadblocks E-Newsletter.
Welcome to the April edition of our Clear Your Roadblocks E-Newsletter and by the time you read this I will be in recovery from OCCEC/MDRTPPD – that is Obsessive Compulsive Continuing Education
Credit / Million Dollar Round Table Power Point Disorder.
The reason that I say this is every extra moment over the past 45 days has been going into finishing off my Power Point for my presentation at The Million Dollar Road Table on June 15th.
While I was in the midst of creating The MDRT PowerPoint, and in advance of speaking at Advocis London & Sarnia and Vancouver on March 25th and April 20th, I was advised on March 1st that Advocis has changed their 2010 CE Accreditation Qualification Process by handing it all over to The Chartered Life Underwriters so my whole world was turned upside down.
Imagine that! The Clear Your Roadblocks financial advisor speaking presentation that has been crafted over 150 financial advisor speaking presentations over 4 years that includes 20 Advocis Chapters and approved for CE Credits for 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 – no longer qualifies.
As David Essex said, “I am not a juke box” in reply to the record company that wanted him to come up with an album on short notice, I cannot pull content and PowerPoints out of thin air … it takes time and cannot be done on short notice … especially when one has a huge creative project like a PowerPoint for The MDRT.
Having said this, I really have a lot of empathy for financial advisors and what they go through to be compliant.
At the same time, it is a message to raise the bar with our presentations to go from inspirational to technical with some inspirtechnical
in the mix.
So at this writing – Laura, Tiffany and I are all continuing to work on a brand new CE Accredited PowerPoint presentataion for Advocis Vancouver.
So what can I share with you in the midst of all of this plus a world wind of booking 18 financial advisor speaking presentations with 6 more
waiting in the wings since our return from The British Virgin Islands on February 5th?
Be careful what you wish for …. Simon.
This edition of our Clear Your Roadblocks E-Newsletter includes;
‘Name That Visionary Contest’: Who are the Top 10 leaders in the industry today?
Submit your nominations and you could win an iPhone.
Enter the contest here.
There are two ways of playing this:
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.”
Be bold, outrageous, and provocative – “asking for the business” – vote for me because I love the exposure!
I’d like to announce my candidature in ‘Name That Visionary Contest’: Who are the Top 10 leaders in the industry today?
Sun Life Kelowna Financial Advisor Speaking
Testimonials
I had the fortunate opportunity to speak at my first SunLife Campaign Launch on April 7th in Kelowna, BC and here is what the Financial Centre Manager had to say and click here to read the rest of the SunLife Kelowna
Financial Advisor Speaking Testimonials.
“I received wonderful feedback about your Clear Your Roadblocks presentation from our financial advisors. It was more impactful than I expected and it struck a chord with both newer advisors and senior advisors alike. I believe that our boundaries are limited by our values which get formed in our early years and these can hold us back. You reminded each and every advisor about why they are a financial advisor and showed them practical ways to reignite their passion and build their business.”
Percival Chang
Sun Life Financial
Financial Centre Manager Kelowna, BC
While I’m not main stage at the MDRT yet, the opportunity to be a breakout speaker at the June MDRT Annual Meeting is like speaking at the world series of financial advisor speaking. Here is the cover PowerPoint slide that the MDRT gave me last week after completing the PowerPoint to go along with my manuscript. It is great for me in that I get to speak in my old home town of Vancouver. Someone once told me that you have to leave town to get famous.
Career Agency System + Succession Planning – More
Alive Than Ever?
It’s March 27th, 2010 and I’m on a flight home from Toronto to Vancouver after a week in Ontario; speaking at Advocis London & Advocis Sarnia, re-visiting a number of MGA firms and receiving word that I will speaking at the Toronto and Winnipeg SunLife Sales Conferences in June.
I continue to hear financial advisors tell me that the industry isn’t what it used to be and that nobody is providing training for financial advisors anymore with the death of the career agency system forcing many financial advisors to become independent … but they are quick to say that there are still high quality career agencies like Freedom 55, Investors Group and Sun Life.
At the same time, I’m reflecting on a financial advisor industry proclamation that while one third of financial advisors are over 64 years of age, very few have their succession planning in place.
Is this really true?
For financial advisors with Freedom 55, Investors Group and Sun Life, it is safe to say that financial advisor succession planning is in place with in-house career agency financial advisors with ten to fifteen years of experience taking over the clients of the senior advisors.
So thefinancial advisor industry proclamation that while one third of financial advisors are over 64 years of age, very few have their succession planning in place is not relevant to the financial advisors with career agencies.
So it would stand to reason that the proclamation about succession planning applies towards the independent financial advisors that work through MGAs and Mutual Fund Dealers.
Not so. I believe that succession planning is available to the independent financial advisor through the MGAs and Mutual Fund Dealers because they will do everything that they can to help the independent financial advisor find a suitable buyer for their business.
AdvisorWebsites (“the Company”) is pleased to announce the launch of the Company’s new website www.advisorwebsites.com along with brand new features and service offerings.
[ Please note that I am not in business with Bart Wisniowski and AdvisorWebsites and they are not paying me a commission for this mention. I am mentioning their new website launch because they asked. ]
The new branding is the result of months of discussion with clients across North America, as well as employees and industry analysts. The website provides information on the services offered at AdvisorWebsites for financial services professionals.
New features include simplified registration process, reduced signup costs, news and information updates, featured webinars, latest blog posts and many more. Visitors may also enter their email address to receive a free subscription to the AdvisorWebsites Marketing quarterly e-newsletter.
Finally, clients are now able to find detailed information on the Company’s Approved Vendors, rate their experience or benefit from discounted offers on services such as CSS, Social Media, Case Studies or Coaching. To read more click AdvisorWebsites.
What Does A Coaching Call Follow Up E-Mail Look
Like From Me?
Dear Joe Advisor,
Thank you for today’s coaching call.
Here are my thoughts from our call;
Now that RRSP season is complete, act as if this is the beginning of your year
Get yourself complete meaning completing all loose ends … don’t start anything
new
Find two – three days of uninterrupted time where you can be anonymous to;
Re-visit your vision and business plan
Imagine the advisor that you have to be to realize your vision
Review your budget cash flow to look at your worst case scenario … if you don’t
sell anything new, what will the projected ending balances look like? I am asking you do to this to face the fear of the ego mind that you don’t have to wake up like a salesperson every single day … Clear if you need to …Get comfortable with what Seth Godin talks about in The Dip … every business has one
Write out your investment philosophy profiles for the levels of the clients that
you deal with based on your Ideal Client Profile(s)
Write out your beliefs about your investment philosophy and clear your ego mind’s fear about what if
Consider offering your “A” Ideal Client Profile building custom asset mixes and picking funds and the rest would go into a balanced fund.
Could you charge the “A” Ideal Client Profile a fee?
Create a service offering sheet that explains what you do for your clients, what is included as part of your service offering and identify the services that you offer for an extra fee – stop doing the extras for free.
Your service offering will explain what is expected of the client and how many appointments that they receive – in the office
( The extra fees will allow you to pay your support team to do the things that they need to do to support you so that you have time to attract the “A” Ideal Client Profile and build custom asset mixes and pick funds. )
The ”A” Ideal Client Profile has to include you enjoy working with them, they have a strong association and business network and they have the $$$
Remember to qualify your prospect referrals with your Ideal Client Profile and learn to say NO … and be OK with that and GET that you will be rewarded by action and results based on what you WANT
Review the referrals that your received from your partner against your Ideal Client Profile – work on them region by region
Remember to set a goal to reduce the amount of times that you are doing the traveling – refer to the last coaching call follow up for notes
Commit to asking your Ideal Client Profile clients for referrals
Ask your Ideal Client Profile clients the following questions to;
Get you associated to the value that you provide – What I want for you is develop the conviction to work with more of these clients – this WILL ignite your passion and focus
Ask for referrals
Gain testimonials
Clear your ego’s limiting beliefs and emotions that are connected to The Hunter
Here is the reflection that I had about two needs that are working against each other; Success is impossible when unmet needs of approval and safety drive negative beliefs that “I can’t do enough” & “there is never enough”.
One should be conscious that they have the unmet needs and use the I observe journaling to be aware that one is meeting the unmet need from within versus trying to get them met from the outside which is impossible.
At the same time as stronger values based affirmation would serve and here is an example; I observe my value of abundance is being met as I witness that I am attracting clients with $500,000 in assets and clients that
want $5,000,000 in insurance
Remember that you are protected, provided for and that the present is perfect … make a list of the evidence that you have for this.
The following process fits into your two – three days of uninterrupted time …
The first 90 days of 2010 draws to a close on March 31st… time to start creating 90 day goals for April 1st to June 30th
Before you do this, make the commitment to Empty Your Mind before the end of the month so that you can create the space to write your 90 day goals and get your business house in order.
Using Microsoft Excel as an example;
1. Type in every idea, project, task, and “to-do” – line by line until you empty your mind. I do this on a weekly basis and I review the following areas for info;
Business plan
Documents that I have created in the last week in Excel, Mind Genius, Word etc.
E-Mail - incoming
Files
Loose paper notes on my desk – file them at the same time
Notes in my Journal
Maximizer or Outlook – or the CRM system that you are using
Open documents on my computer desk top
Smartphone notes
Sticky notes – if you use them – I don’t
2. Next, review the following categories and ask what other project areas come to mind and add them to this list; administration, computers / systems, customer service, financial, marketing, office management, planning, product development, production, sales, team building and training. You can also include areas for your personal live that include; auto, clothing, home, health, hobby, intellectual, relationships; family, friends, spouse, spirituality
3. Next, in a separate column in Excel, type in the category that each idea, project, task and “to-do” belongs to
4. Next, sort the ideas, projects, tasks and to-dos alphabetically
5. Next, using another column in Microsoft Excel, prioritize by A – must be done before X date then, by B, & C priority
6. Next, using another column, identify what can be delegated and meet with your team with written instructions
7. Next, schedule your A priorities and take action
Here is a goal setting strategy that you can adjust to 90 days versus 1 year goals.
Vision worksheet
If you could wave a magic wand and be looking back on the year from December 31st…
What would have to have happened for you to be happy with the progress that you have made in the past year?
What did you accomplish?
What goals did you set and achieve?
What made you happy?
Use the following project areas to remind you of all the goals that you could be setting in both your business and personal lives:
Business
Personal
Administration
Auto
Clients
Clothing
Computers, Systems and Technology
Charity
Customer Service
Entertainment
Financial
Family
Marketing
Friends
Planning
Health
Product Development
Hobbies
Production
Home
Sales
Intellectual
Team
Spirituality
Training
Spouse
Travel
Write your goals down in detail, using the five W’s – who, what, where, when and why – but forget about how.
Bill Bishop’s New Book Is Published! The Problem With Penguins
Bill Bishop is very pleased to announce that his new book The Problem With Penguins is now officially published. He wants to thank everyone who helped him put this book together over the past two years.
Why Some Financial Advisor Don’t Want To
Work With A Coach
Survival instincts are great motivators and cause one to keep going and going and going and doing and doing and doing the same thing, and at the end of the day still expect a different result.
Those same survival instincts cause one to keep going, just like some men who will not stop to ask for directions because it might demonstrate a sense of helplessness that could attract an ambush.
At the same time, it takes time to create and find the map. Then there is the time it takes to read it. So perhaps it is better to just keep on driving and driving and driving.
What if a financial advisor’s client asked for a copy of their roadmap; their values, vision, mission, business plan?
“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all.
People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing.
People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong.
Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling.
Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”
Seems to me that the unmet needs that some non-values based financial advisors and investment advisors are trying to fulfill through money are not doing it and this is what I suspect is contributing to the problems that Jim Ruta is talking about in is October 6th, 2009 Blog – We Have Definitely Outsmarted Ourselves Now.
Financial advisors and investment advisors need to switch to becoming values based financial advisors and values based investment advisors.
Here are a few of Jim’s thoughts from his Blog;
The average number of insurance sales per agent in Canada has dropped to fifteen (15). Yep, just 15. This used to be what you had to hand on the first day of a sales campaign to stay in the top five. 1.25 sales per month?
Even then, more than 50% of life insurance sales are still replacements of existing business. So, just how much new “human life value” are we really protecting anymore?
Maslow’s identified the concept of unmet needs theory back in 1955.
This was right at the time of the advent of the electronic babysitter. 1955 was the advent of the electronic babysitter where children were put in front of this device and it took care of getting all their needs met instead of the parents. What am I talking about? TV. Now, to a certain extent, these same baby boomers have grown to adulthood and sometimes they, along with their generation X & Y offspring can’t put down their new electronic baby sitter, the Blackberry, iPhone, iPod or MP3 player.
The baby boomers’ parents were the Traditionalists born between 1927 and 1945 who went through a world war or two and the great depression. It’s my guess that they had no idea how to deal with their emotions and just stuffed them below the surface so they could go through the pain that they were going through.
When the boom of post world war two came along with the onslaught of the baby boomers, baby boomers were told, you are never going to have it as tough as I had it, you can have everything, but you may not deserve it while today’s generation X & Y children were told you can have everything that you deserve and have it all right now.
The electronic baby sitter and you can have set the stage for the lack of fulfillment that many baby boomers are starting to feel because while they have the art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, money, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel an emptiness prevails along with; “is this all there is?”, and “what am I doing this for?”, and “what is the use?”. What’s worse, some of their offspring generation X & Y children lack ambition because they live an even more instant gratification world with the attention span off a nat.
This helps to explain why a lot of generation X & Y are not joining the ranks of the financial advisors where the average age of today’s financial advisor is 59 years old.
Why should generation X & Y want to be a financial advisor? The answer might lie in their observation of their parents chasing the dream of you can have it all, medicating their unmet needs outside of themselves, chasing art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, money, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel while leaving their families behind to emotionally fend for themselves. You can’t give what you don’t have.
This explains the advent of the coaching movement, people might even want to hire a coach or a “fulfillment planner” rather than a financial advisor because they have got the money and it does not mean a lot to them.
This also explains the lack luster performance of a lot of financial advisors and investment advisors because they unconsciously thought that they could get their unmet needs met from money and possessions and when the reality of money and possessions don’t buy you happiness sets in with “is this all there is?”, and “what am I doing this for?”, and “what is the use?”, they have a total lack of inspiration.
Perhaps this ties in the concept of Affluenza.
Affluenza is what people go through when they get instant money through an inheritance or through winning a lottery.
They believe all along that if they could just get this money along with the art, boats, cars, clothes, cottages, homes, motorcycles, relationships, wine and travel that went along with it, then they would truly be happy.
Problem is, once the feeling of the windfall is over they are right back where they started except they now have the negative belief of “what is wrong with me” combined with the negative emotions of despair and sadness all fueled by the granddaddy of all unmet needs; worthiness.
What is really sad here is The Laws OF Attraction Are Absolute; you create what you focus on. If you keep asking “what is wrong with me” you will find the answer.
It’s one of a few forthcoming Saturday’s ahead where I’m in front of my computer to write the 20 page manuscript for Breakthrough! – How To Breakthrough “The Plateauing Out Syndrome”!
This is the last place that I would like to be on a Saturday but I am reminded of two sayings that Teresia LaRocque used to say back in our days at Anthony Robbins & Associates; “if it is going to be, it is up to me” and “what you practice in private, you will be rewarded in public”.
I’m using this blog as a journaling to get me going or find my voice so to speak which is the number one benefit of blogging. It also gives one the vehicle to get over their unmet needs of approval, recognition, safety and worthiness.
This manuscript is the foundation for a PowerPoint presentation and a book which I am thinking is going to go a lot deeper than Curing The Unmet Needs Disease. “Writing is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”. – Forest Gump
This process is also deepening the roots of niche marketing;
Mass marketing is inventing your own words or concept and going out and marketing it to anyone and everyone. Curing The Unmet Needs Disease is an example of inventing your own words or concept but I did not market it to anyone and everyone. I am marketing it to the niches of; financial advisor coaching, insurance advisor coaching and investment advisor coaching.
Niche marketing is taking the words of the niche like “The Plateauing Out Syndrome” and creating a solution for that niche and marketing it to that niche which in this case is the niche of; insurance advisor coaching
So … from time to time … I may do a play by play as I go along.
10:00am Saturday, October 10, 2009
Success! I have a rough draft of the table of contents and I am well on my way with the writing. Parts of the writing will go easy as I can borrow copy from past articles, audio transcriptions of speaking presentations, blogs and my book.
12:30pm Saturday, October 10, 2009
I have 16 ½ pages of 20 pages completed and I’m taking a break for lunch and going to Starbies. I’m thinking that I am going to run over to 25 pages. I suspect the writing will be a little slower this afternoon as the table of contents that I created is going to take me into a lot of new material that I have not written about. The bottom line is I just want to confirm that the biggest writing lesson that I got from writing a book and PowerPoints is write the table of contents first. Too bad I didn’t figure this out with the first go around with my book.
2:00pm Saturday, October 10, 2009
I have a quick trip to Starbies for a Chai Tea Soy Latte, a Simon Sandwich and I took Shadow for a walk (while people are well meaning, they sure lack common sense as Shadow is crouched taking a poop, and with me with a poop bag ready to go, the neighbor is going “come on Shadow, come on Shadow, come and say hello! ); I am back at it with 18 pages.
2:20pm Saturday, October 10, 2009
I am just taking a break heading into page 20. How many words are in this document compared to my book? My book has 34, 600 words and the manuscript I am working on has 4,800 words … I’m nearly 14% of the way there to a new book … it will not be a book, it will be a booklet.
3:10pm Saturday, October 10, 2009
Just finishing page 22 and I’m on the home stretch. Of course this manuscript is going to have to go out for editing but I am almost there.
3:35pm Saturday, October 10, 2009
I’ve just finished the 26th page and I can say this rough draft is finished. Pages 1 – 23 are ready to go for editing and I have work to do on pages 24 – 27 which might take the document to 30 pages and that is OK.
I’ll finish this up on Sunday morning.
Ha Ha. When I started this writing this AM, a part of me, perhaps my fear based ego mind was convinced that I was going to be investing three Saturday’s in a row to get this done.
Not so fast … I still have the following Creative Projects to complete by October 31, 2009;
Proof Manuscript - Breakthrough! – How To Breakthrough “The Plateauing Out Syndrome”!
Write Coaching Program – One On One Coaching Silver Program
Workshop & GYM Sales Pages – The Clear Your Roadblocks One Day Workshop and The Clear Your Roadblocks Coaching GYM Program
Create PowerPoint – Breakthrough! – How To Breakthrough “The Plateauing Out Syndrome”!
Research PowerPoint – There Is Nothing New! – How To Use Old Ideas In “The New Normal”
Create PowerPoint – There Is Nothing New! – How To Use Old Ideas In “The New Normal”
And plug away at the these projects that are a work-in-progress;
The Invention of Lying is really about The Invention of Telling The Truth.
Aside from the movie offending some Christians in the way that the film’s main character comes to “positive truth” which he posts on what look like tablets and reads to the people; to me, there is one thing about the following synopsis from the film that is all incorrect.
“The Invention of Lying” takes place in an alternate reality in which lying-even the concept of a lie-does not exist. Everyone-from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street-speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark (Gervais) suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune. But lies have a way of spreading, and Mark begins to realize that things are getting a little out of control when some of his tallest tales are being taken as, well, gospel. With the entire world now hanging on his every word, there is only one thing Mark has not been able to lie his way into: the heart of the woman he loves.
To me, all the characters in the film who are telling the truth in this alternate reality … were doubting, insulting, judging and making everything wrong most of the time and there didn’t seem to be a lot of “positive truth” about anything until Gervais’ character starting telling the truth with a positive spin on it.
Gervais’ charter discovered telling the truth with a positive spin on it after he discovered he could tell either a lie or a truth in the alternate reality of the film.
As soon as Gervais’ character started telling the truth, everyone started to feel happy and more positive which included Gervais’ character. He started to point out the positive with everyone he met and had a positive outlook towards winning the woman in the movie played by Jennifer Garner.
The other odd thing was that while all the characters in the movie were vocalizing their “negative truths” to each other; “you are fat”, “you are a loser”, “this product sucks”, “we are selling you this product even though we know it sucks” … and Laura and I are laughing – not at the doubting, insulting, judging and making everything wrong comments from everyone’s ego in the movie, but at the honest reality that a lot of this is what goes on in present day reality, not just in the “The Invention of Lying” alternate reality. At the same time, no one in the audience was laughing at a lot of the “negative truths” because in truth they are not funny and it may have been a sobering reality that these “negative truths” may be going on in their ego’s reality.
While I would not recommend that you run out to the theatre to see The Invention of Lying, it will sure make you pay attention to telling the “positive truth.”
I’ve had the odd client with the flu over the course of the past five weeks. Not sure if it is the H1 N1.
I remind them that they have an inherent and powerful immune system that works 24 hours a day without them even thinking about it and it is my belief that they can magnify their immune system’s powers by consciously triggering and magnifying its power.
I talked with Chris Barrow in the UK a couple weeks back about what’s going on over there.
The dental clients that he works with and the financial advisors that he knows are having excellent years because they have a vision, business plan and goals while the average person is struggling.
I asked if he was noticing a lot of people in airports wearing viral masks as I am curious as I am traveling a lot over the next two months and wanted to find out what the lay of land looks like.
“We were wearing viral masks two months ago and they have all been thrown away … nobody is dying, if a person has a healthy immune system and they use common sense they will be OK.
We have just gone through the anniversary of the start of the Second World War.
Everyone thought that we were going to be bombed and gassed.
The government shipped over a million children from the cities to board with families out in the country and issued gas masks to everyone in the cities.
By December, the children had all found their way home and the gas masks where all in the rubbish.”
At the Kelowna airport at 5:15pm PT on Wednesday awaiting an 8:35pm flight to Nanaimo via Vancouver.
Feel ing thankful as the live financial advisor coaching practice visit was a success and I covered everything on the Agenda.
Someone once said; “those that can do and those that can’t teach”.
This live financial advisor coaching practice visit was great for my client and for me because we worked shoulder to shoulder writing the entire plan complete with systems and then some.
I’m settling in for a few hours and I’ll use the time that I have waiting for the flight to write the June Clear Your Roadblocks E-Newsletter.
Wednesday – Friday have a lite schedule of coaching and prospect calls and that is it for the month as Laura and I are taking a Staycation next week.
Here are the Phase 1 Objectives / Systems that we created in the live financial advisor coaching practice visit
Objectives Phase 1
Create a Vision
Create a Leadership, Decision, Meeting and Time Managment System
Earn $552,000 by June 30, 2010
Create an inspired, enthusiastic, productive and profitable team
Create an Office Managment System
Create a Bookkeeping and an Accounting Delegation System
Create an In House Financial Planning Marketing System
Create a Prospect / Seminar Follow Up System
Create a Qualification and Enrolment Sales System
Qualify Customer Service
Objectives Phase 2
Create a Financial Planning Web Site
Create a Financial Planning Marketing Funnel
Create a Financial Planning Associate Advisor Marketing System
8:00am Saturday, October 10, 2009
I’ve had the odd client with the flu over the course of the past five weeks. Not sure if it is the H1 N1.
Dates for 2012 TBA - stay tuned!
