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Bill Bachrach: What and Idiot! | |
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 "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."– Eleanor Roosevelt Do you remember when professional football player Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg and was ultimately sentenced to 2 years in prison? Did you say something to yourself like, "What an idiot!" Maybe that was followed by a thought like, "How could anyone squander such a great opportunity by doing something so stupid!?" To refresh your memory, in March of 2005 the free-agent wide receiver signed a 6-year, $28.5 million dollar deal to play for the NY Giants. He caught the winning touchdown pass in their 2008 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots. As far as we know, he has no other opportunity to make this much money in some other line of work. He'll be almost 34 when he's released from prison. Mr. Burress lost his substantial income, his freedom for a period of time, and jeopardized his best opportunity for lifetime financial independence. Not to mention, the embarrassment of the situation. I guess that's why the mantra of NFL coaches is "nothing good happens after midnight." I don't have an axe to grind with Mr. Burress. I hope he returns to play in the NFL at a very high level. I'm interested in the lesson for the rest of us. What is the relevance for you? What is your opportunity? Among other things, you have the opportunity to create your Ideal Life in Four Years or Less, by building an Ideal Client Community, by referral only, using the Values-Based Financial Planning™ turn-key business model. This industry affords you the opportunity to earn high six-figures, or seven-figures, of business revenue, hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal income, help people achieve their goals and fulfill their life values, enjoy significant personal freedom, live a great life, etc. etc. etc. But most financial advisors are almost certainly doing some things just as dumb as Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the leg. It's just not making headlines… thank goodness. The situation with Mr. Burress illustrates that some things are monumentally dumb. What about the more subtly stupid behaviors and day-to-day choices that may be having just as devastating of an effect on your success? Do the small dumb mistakes add up to have a larger total effect? You may not be doing the business equivalent of shooting yourself in the leg, but your smaller, more subtle, poor choices could be having an equivalent and negative cumulative impact on your success and quality of life. Reflection is healthy. My advice is that every time you read a headline about somebody else doing something really stupid, reap the rewards of that situation by reflecting on your own behavior. Ask yourself a few good questions:
It's so easy to see why everyone else is an idiot, isn't it? But we can learn lessons from other people's dumb behavior. Their stupidity can be our springboard to success! Here are a few more great self-examination questions:
Make it another great month on your way to your best year ever. ________________________________________ |
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Anne Bachrach: Become a Master of Change | |
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For most of us, the thought of change can send us into a panic attack. For some of us, we might fear change because it disrupts our sense of security and consistency by challenging our perceptions. As much as we crave stability and security, change is an inevitable part of life and we can either choose to embrace it or resist it. From the minute we are born, our body remains in constant change and resisting it only makes it harder to get through it. Resistance to change isn't because we purposely want to go against the grain; we do it because we're fearful of the unknown outcome. We don't know what's on the other side and for no rational reason we resist it, thinking that will help us. The fear of change comes from the fact that change challenges the perceptions and beliefs that our life is built upon. When change challenges our perceptions, we are forced to step outside our comfort zone, and that's uncomfortable. Additionally, when our perceptions are challenged, so is the ground our life is built upon. We are forced, through change, to refine our perceptions and belief systems that we thought were true. Let's face it, when the very perceptions and belief system your life is built on is threatened, it can be uncomfortable. But it can also be very rewarding and exciting. Change is the inevitable constant refinement of our being. Whether you want it or not, change is inevitable. Inaction and resistance cannot completely stop change; it will only lessen your personal growth and add frustration to your life. You will become stagnant and remain inside the boundaries of a very limited life while everyone and everything grows around you. Wouldn't you like to discover your potential? What about becoming a better person for you, your family, and the world? Life is really a series of changes and each change is a challenge. It's an opportunity for us to learn - to grow - to expand. Some changes might be small while others may be large, but they each bring the opportunity to learn something new about yourself and the world around you. With each new lesson you learn from the previous challenge, you become more adept at applying what you've learned to future growth and challenges. Change actually becomes much easier to handle because when you come out the other side, you gain valuable skills and experiences that you can apply to the rest of your life. Instead of being fearful, you may even have fun being more open to change because you know your life will be that much better. With a constant refinement of perceptions and beliefs, change goes from sending us into a panic attack to being just another task we successfully complete. It goes from being a major incident to a whole new exciting adventure. With every change you make in your life, you become more adept at building solid ground no matter what the situation; and rationally dealing with your fear instead of allowing your perceptions to falsely magnify it. Change becomes fun and exciting, and you learn to actually welcome it. Here's how you become a master of change: There's no way out and around it. Choosing inaction or resistance to change carries bigger consequences than choosing to face the change head-on in the first place. You are an ever changing person in an ever changing world and resistance just adds fear and frustration to every situation. Learn to be open to creating new and exciting adventures that change will bring. Focus on the Desired End Result Worrying about what might happen will not help you deal with what's at hand. Focus on where you want to be when the change is complete. The mind has an uncanny way of being a goal-achieving machine and will create your reality based on the thoughts you are focused upon. You want to keep your desired end result in mind at all times and only think about what you want to happen, not what you don't want to happen. What got you to where you are today isn't what will take you where you want to be. Look at your long-range desired results and embark on a new journey to even greater outcomes. Rationalize Your Fear Fear is usually the result of our mind creating hypothetical dramas that have no base in reality. If you find yourself fearful of the outcome of an impending change, ask yourself what you're really afraid of. There is a solution to everything and when you rationalize your fear, you can see that you are going to be just fine. You can just suck it up, and as Nike says, "Just Do It." Do what you are afraid of doing and reap the benefits. You will quickly discover that the experience of change wasn’t worth all that anxiety over the unknown. Each time you rationalize the fear, you will have greater courage to "Just Do It" in the future. Break it into Manageable Pieces For major changes, break it down into smaller manageable pieces. It's much easier to identify a solution when you can apply a strategy to deal with each step. When you know what you're going to do each step of the way, you can get to the end result with confidence and a rational strategy. Last but not least, celebrate your victories. Each time you felt the fear and did it anyway, you were victorious and reaped the benefits of showing that you are a champion! Little by little you'll learn to trust your abilities more and to handle anything that comes your way. When you rationalize the fear and create successful strategies, you come out a winner on the other side. Look at change as a fun and exciting adventure. Reap the many rewards! You can resist change, but only temporarily. When you resist the natural flow of the world, which is based on change, your life becomes a series of challenges that are amplified by your resistance. Resist them and you become a victim - embrace them and you become a true master of change. "Life and business are like the changing seasons. Anne M. Bachrach. All rights reserved. Anne M. Bachrach is the
author of the book, Excuses
Don't Count; Results Rule!. She has 23 years of experience training and
coaching. Anne helps financial professionals keep and get more clients while
maintaining balance in their life. Through her proven systems, she inspires
Advisors to stay focused and take action on the highest payoff activities that
lead to their ultimate professional and personal success. Take advantage of the
many complimentary resources on her website (www.AccountabilityCoach.com) and subscribe to her blog (!Anne's Blog!).________________________________________________________________________ |
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Mark Little: 62 Trusted Advisor Temptations to Resist | |
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Tom Voccola: The Fourth Key to Building a Growing and Sustainable Financial Services Business | |
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The Five Keys:
All groups fall into habitual behavioral patterns, or an auto-pilot dynamic. In almost all of the cases I've experienced, in large organizations and small, clients are run by the business. That is to say, they are busy reacting to what the world puts on their plates every day. In fact, most of us have become Masters of Reaction. The days and weeks fly by with ever increasing activity yet the team seems to be swimming in molasses. The faster they "DO" the slower they feel they are progressing towards their goals. When this happens it's because the group has fallen into the trap of becoming really proficient at putting out fires, and they rarely feel they can afford the time to prevent them by fostering different behavior. Encourage the dynamics of intention, creativity, innovation, and integrity. Ask yourself the following four questions and rate them on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “Not at All” and 10 being "Fully".
Your scores are only meaningful if you intend to use them to improve. So, let’s expand a little on the implications of each question and give you some insight into how to improve them. Q1: Is your team clear and in alignment with what it wants to accomplish for the organization, and for themselves? (Intention) The key here is to recognize the synergy available by aligning group and individual goals. Organizations tend to focus on the bottom line rather than the top line: why we are engaged in the first place. Focusing on the quarterly profit statement rarely inspires peak performance. In some cases it can actually stunt performance because of the team’s lower tolerance for risk. Of course the team and individual performers have financial goals. Fine. Post them and then focus on how you can expand your capabilities to attain your highest and most meaningful goals. Q2: Is your team actively investigating new ideas, thoughts and concepts and do they find ways to adopt, modify and integrate these ideas into their work? (Creativity) If new ideas, thoughts and concepts always flow top-down, people tend to resent or ignore them. When the boss has all the ideas, it teaches employees not to think. According to the New York Board of Trade, one of the important reasons that over 80% of the TQM programs of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s failed to produce the intended results was that they were management driven initiatives, not employee inspired. Q3: Does your team have the freedom and support to take time out to make things better? (Innovation) Generating new ideas is the easy part. Setting aside time to act on them is something else. Innovation comes from trial and error. But it never occurs when one’s nose is pressed against the grindstone. In fact, most great ideas come outside of work, while the mind has room to roam. An innovative environment provides room to run, room to fall down, and room to pick oneself up again for another try. It requires action. Many great inventors and scientists will tell you, their breakthroughs were accidentally discovered while they were engaged in trial and error. Thomas Edison performed more than 6,000 experiments before he concluded that a carbon filament bulb would last longest. Q4: Do you and your team make choices that are consistently in alignment with your high-level goals — and then follow through impeccably? (Integrity) I believe that the highest form of integrity is to remain true to yourself and your highest ideals, with care and consideration for others. The Bachrach & Associates, Inc. (BAI) team defines its core value, integrity, this way: "We live in alignment with our Goals and Values, empowering us to Walk our Talk and do what we say we will do." What's your definition? Our time on this earth is limited. Windows of opportunity are continually opening and closing. Bill Bachrach, BAI's CEO, asserts, "We only get 168 hours per week. So the Rule of 168 says that if you don’t control those hours, somebody else will." If you intend to accomplish something meaningful with your organization, you MUST move mission critical items from a to-do list onto the calendar. If you make each choice consciously, in alignment with your high-level Goals, and then schedule each commitment intentionally, including the time to create and innovate, then maintaining your Integrity with timely action will naturally follow. Next month: The Fifth Key Entrepreneur, speaker, author and CEO
Guide, Tom Voccola is the CEO of CEO2, a Chief Executive Consulting Firm
specializing in the rapid transformation of corporate and organizational
cultures. Tom is the co-founder and past Chairman of the Los Angeles area CEO
Round Table for the American Electronics Association, and the author of The
Accidental CEO – A Leader’s Journey from Ego to Purpose. His life's work is
to inspire a new generation of leaders who transcend ego and its fear based
agenda. His work gives executives immediate and authentic access to new levels
of power, influence and freedom within their organizations. |
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Rick Barrera: Product TouchPoints | |
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The second reason that Product TouchPoints are critical in financial services is that 70% of the population processes information VISUALLY, so making your value VISIBLE to the eyeball is critical. A few years ago American Century Investments won an award for a simple but powerful graphic they placed on the front of each client's quarterly statement. It was a line graph showing the amount the client had invested over time and a second line showing how those cumulative investments had grown, or shrunk, over time. This simple graphic made the rest of the statement irrelevant for many clients. They could see in an instant how much money they had put in, what it was now worth, and unless something was clearly wrong, they could file the statement and know exactly how their investments were faring. In this case, a picture was worth a million words, and that simple graphic saved countless phone calls to American Century reps from clients trying to read "incomprehensible" statements. What a breath of fresh air! BAI advisors use the Financial Road Map™ to bring instant visible value to clients in their very first meeting. The experience usually results in clients hiring the advisor instantly. They also use a series of other "visible value" tools including Values Based Financial Planning™ books and other client facing visuals that make their services more accessible and more useful for their clients. After all, what good is it to create extraordinary value for clients if they can't see or understand that value? Why would they want to pay a premium for your service if they cannot understand how what you are Overdelivering is different from what they would get from another advisor? Why would they refer you if they don't see what you do as extraordinary? What are your Product TouchPoints? How can you differentiate them from everything else in the industry? How can you make them visibly more appealing? How can you use them to better represent the tangible value you deliver? Make a list of everything you give to clients from your very first meeting, to the transfer of their assets to their children. What could you do to demonstrate the value you are delivering in a more tangible and visible way? How could you use these TouchPoints to stand out? How could you make them more visceral? Then, start with the most critical Product TouchPoint, thinking from the point of view of your client, and redesign each TouchPoint until your client responds with a significant positive emotion to that TouchPoint. If you are not getting an emotional response, you have not succeeded in the redesign of that TouchPoint. When you are consistently getting a positive emotional response, it's time to start on your second Product TouchPoint redesign. When you have completed at least three Product TouchPoint redesigns, you are ready to move on to Systems TouchPoints. We'll discuss them in a future newsletter. _____________________________________________________________________ |
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