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Bill Bachrach: Olympic Inspiration |
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 What were the most inspiring moments of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver for you?
Did you watch certain moments and find yourself saying something like, "If he or she can do THAT… what's possible for me?"
I hope so, because that's one of the biggest benefits of watching sports that most of us only watch every four years. There are valuable lessons to be learned. Let's not miss them and, more importantly, apply them to our own lives.
When was the last time you crossed your finish line at the end of the day and screamed with the joy, relief, and satisfaction of knowing you laid it all on the line? Think about Lindsey Vonn after her gold medal downhill run.
Did you watch some of the cross-country skiing or biathlon with amazement as competitor after competitor collapsed as they crossed the finish line wondering what your own life would be like if you pushed your limits just a little farther? I didn't catch his name, but one of the cross country skiers commented about how his sport is the only one where it's normal to puke after practice. That's commitment. I'm not suggesting that you should throw up at the end of good day's work, but maybe you could leave a little more on the "field of play." What do you think?
Who will ever forget 24 year-old figure skater Joanne Rochette whose mother, to whom she was very close, passed away unexpectedly shortly after arriving in Vancouver? Instead of packing it in, just four days later she skated with extra inspiration and won the bronze medal. Could there possibly have been a dry eye in the house or living rooms around the world when she looked to the heavens at the conclusion of her program? It's no wonder she was awarded the Terry Fox award as the athlete who best exemplifies courage and selfless qualities.
My favorite quotes from the games were:
"Before you go to sleep at night ask yourself one question: Did you do every single thing you could today to make sure that you did your best? It's hard to answer 'yes' every single day." - Apolo Ohno; Short-track speed skater
"The more awkward positions that I become comfortable with, the fewer situations I'll be uncomfortable with." - Graham Watanabe; Snowboarder
"I don't like to look at it as competition. It's about me conquering myself… me being able to face my own fears, distractions, and weaknesses and say that I overcame them." - Apolo Ohno; Short-track speed skater
How does this apply to you? What if being a financial advisor was an Olympic Sport?
How good would you have to be to make the team? Where would your client service experience and client acquisition skills have to be in order to compete with the rest of the financial professional "athletes" on the world stage? How good would you and your team have to be to earn a spot on the podium or win the gold medal? These are great questions for you and your team to consider as you continually look for ways to be your best.
Fortunately, being a great financial advisor is not a zero sum game with only one gold medal. And you don't compete against other financial advisors only against your own potential. There is plenty of business for all of the great financial advisors in the world. As the saying goes, "it's only crowded at the bottom."
Take some inspiration from the athletes of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada and use it as propellant to achieve your next level of success.
Remember… anything is possible.
Keep moving forward,
Bill Bachrach, CSP, CPAE
(Speaker Hall of Fame)
Chairman & CEO; Bachrach & Associates, Inc.
Author: Values-Based Financial Planning & High Trust Leadership
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Contact Anne
Bachrach at the Financial Services Speakers Network at anne@fsspeakers.net to schedule Bill
Bachrach to speak at your next meeting or conference.
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Anne Bachrach: Learn How To Make Better Choices To Be More Successful |
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 "If you don't like where you are, change it! You're not a tree." – Jim Rohn
You may have heard it said that it is the little things in life that are worth living for. Similarly, the little things in life are what change our lives for the better or worse. The choices we make in life define who we are and what we will eventually become. Certainly, making some rash decisions when we are young can have very ill consequences when we grow older. It is important that people maintain their health with a view to tomorrow, while balancing their desires for the present day. However, this advice also applies to a person's heart and mind. When we take chances because of our passions or we take action because of our mind's ambition, we have to live with the result of our actions—good and bad.
Strong emotion should always be taken into account when making choices, but it cannot totally overpower logic and reason. There is something to be said about going with your "gut." Sometimes we just don’t know enough to make a totally informed decision so going with your "gut" might play a role in your choice. If going with your "gut" never seems to get you the results you want, you may have to reconsider this strategy. Having a fine balance of both qualities is the best way to make careful decisions in life that you can live with now and tomorrow. That said, no one is expected to make perfect decisions all the time. They say hindsight is always 20/20 because sometimes we see things in retrospect that we were never capable of seeing years ago. Perhaps we have grown in our perspectives and our understandings of other people. More importantly, we have come to know ourselves.
The truth of the matter is that a happy life is all about choices and progress. We make choices to the best of our abilities and then progress forward. The most successful people in life believe that they have a purpose and that they will achieve that purpose, goal by goal.
In learning more about self-improvement, we learn that we can't change others, nor can we single-handedly change the world. People do have the power to change their own lives and this is the single most important message in self-improvement. You do not have to settle for what you think is life's "role" for you. You are not doomed to live a life you are unhappy living. You are not enslaved to other people. Any and all of these self-limiting beliefs are changeable. You make your own choices. You choose to live where and how you live. If you don't like any part of your life, choose to change it – start today.
You have the capacity to define success and to reach that pinnacle of success through working smart and having perseverance. The choices you make may help or hinder your mission in life, depending on how much thought goes into the decision making process. However, even if you make a mistake in judgment it's not the end of your mission. It simply means that you have to make adjustments in your life plan to get you back on track. Giving up should never be an option. Your choices directly affect your life and possibly others, depending on your situation and choices. As a financial professional, you owe it yourself and to others to make the most of what you have been given. What you do for others has a big impact on their lives so get out there and get more clients so you can have a positive impact on their lives.
You almost always have a choice. Choose wisely.
"Don’t say, "If I could, I would." Say instead, "If I can, I will."" - Jim Rohn
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!).________________________________________________________________________
If
you're looking for a cost-effective way to help you stay focused and gain a
competitive advantage to achieving your goals in the current economy, click
here to learn more about joining Anne Bachrach's 90-Day Goal Achievement
Group Coaching Program.
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Mark Little: 62 Trusted Advisor Temptations to Resist |
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 This article was published last month, however the title was omited which explained the list and it's value to you. We are publishing it again to clarify its meaning.
1. Tempted to do business, rather than design one on purpose.
2. Tempted to begin with no end in mind.
3. Tempted to chase opportunities instead of executing a thoughtful plan.
4. Tempted to chase resources rather than carefully selecting and then mastering resources chosen.
5. Tempted to not precede obstacles, bottlenecks and road-blocks with the question "what’s the goal?"
6. Tempted to confuse just-in-case learning with just-in-time learning.
7. Tempted to think growth is all business and not personal.
8. Tempted to launch into projects with insufficient resolve for success.
9. Tempted to not see the bigger picture (where your greatest value lies).
10. Tempted to leave too early.
Initial Growth Period
11. Tempted to delay facing up to inevitable decisions regarding your least profitable clients.
12. Tempted to allow Non-Ideal Clients to distract you from serving Ideal Clients.
13. Tempted to not clearly define who on your (growing) team is expected to do what and by when.
14. Tempted to work ever longer hours while avoiding client acquisition activities.
15. Tempted to control everything.
16. Tempted to not focus on your 3 priorities (Serving Clients, Client Acquisition, Leading your team).
17. Tempted to strengthen weaknesses (rather than focus on your strengthening your 3 priorities).
18. Tempted to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) rather than your clients' Trusted Advisor.
19. Tempted to invest in more training or coaching while never fully mastering any.
20. Tempted to choose out-tasking over out-sourcing.
21. Tempted to hire bargain basement help.
22. Tempted to do too many projects for clients while getting compensated too little.
23. Tempted to not solve problems with processes.
24. Tempted to allow your business to become "people dependent" rather than "process dependent"
25. Tempted to not honor the wisdom within your results.
26. Tempted to not create clear objectives and priorities.
Personal Development
27. Tempted to not invest enough time in those things that matter more than money to you.
28. Tempted to quit too soon.
29. Tempted to not choose your highest and best activities during the day.
30. Tempted to not seek out mentors.
31. Tempted to not get (or take) expert advice.
32. Tempted to not optimize your own attention, deploying the power of focus on your priorities.
33. Tempted to avoid reality-based thinking.
34. Tempted to not insist that there are things which will no longer be acceptable to you.
35. Tempted to make no decision (to avoid making a bad decision).
Advanced Development Stage
36. Tempted to democratize your business instead of reserving "the final decisions" for yourself.
37. Tempted to hire more people than you need.
38. Tempted to abdicate instead of delegate.
39. Tempted to not spend enough time with Potential Ideal Clients (or people who know them).
40. Tempted to love your product, your business, or your brand more than your client.
41. Tempted to not hold sufficiently high standards which forces accountability with consequences.
Other Multifarious Pitfalls to Resist
42. Tempted to be everything to everybody.
43. Tempted to treat exceptions as rules.
44. Tempted to allow your team to be undermanaged.
45. Tempted to avoid measuring success in all areas which will result in your overall success.
46. Tempted to hold-on to people longer than you should.
47. Tempted to not take the time to document The Best Way™ of doing literally everything.
48. Tempted to not require reviewing each team member’s written goals for the week.
49. Tempted to not invest in the training & development of your people.
50. Tempted to not be skilled at clearly articulating the value you bring to your Ideal Client’s lives.
51. Tempted to not seek accountability for yourself.
52. Tempted to not measure your progress in a thorough (and candid) way at least 3 times a year.
53. Tempted to not build a business to be of tremendous value someday to a potential buyer.
54. Tempted to not work hard enough (sometimes you should "work like you're a rookie").
55. Tempted to not take enough time off.
56. Tempted to pull punches rather than (skillfully & gracefully) telling the truth.
57. Tempted to not challenge false assumptions (including our own).
58. Tempted to make clients feel comfortable rather than seriously confronting their biggest issues.
59. Tempted to not gain the skill to help Ideal Clients put important issues in context.
60. Tempted to be a "one-man band" versus the CEO of a comprehensive financial planning business.
61. Tempted to forget that not doing everything you can for your Ideal Clients is mortifying.
62. Tempted to be a salesperson rather than a Trusted Advisor.
________________________________________________________ __________
Follow the story of how one Financial Advisor successfully
moved from being an Investment Content Expert to a Trusted Advisor delivering
fully comprehensive financial services through a team of experts. You may sign
up for "The Kate Wilson Case-Study" at no charge at http://trustedadvisortoolkit.com/.
Mark McKenna Little is a speaker, author and Trusted Advisor who works with
advisors committed to implementing comprehensive financial services. |
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Tom Voccola: The Fifth Key to Building a Growing and Sustainable Financial Services Business |
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 This article continues to examine The Five Keys to Building a Growing and Sustainable Financial Services Business. This installment explores the Fifth Key: Let go of wanting to know exactly how you will get there in advance.
The Five Keys:
1. Know exactly what you want. 2. Develop and inspire a conscious team that appreciates what you want. 3. Install a 90 day project cycle to keep everyone focused and growing. 4. Encourage (leverage) the dynamics of intention, creativity, innovation, and integrity. 5. Let go of wanting to know exactly how you will get there in advance.
This is a call for flexibility. If you have ever been in the military you know that the moment a battle begins, all plans are obsolete. General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II and later the 34th American President, put it well when he said: Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
And that's where I want to begin.
Planning is everything because it gets you and your staff above the reactive rat-tat-tat of the day-to-day and helps you dissipate staff confusion and overwhelm by putting everything in perspective. It helps heal and realign staff with your values and principles. It helps re-engage them in the dream.
Plans are worthless because of what typically happens after the planning session is over: The majority put the plan in the drawer, forget all about it and visit it again next year. And a much smaller contingent follows it almost to the letter. Some call it managing by "objective". Not a bad thing, but don't be surprised if your employees follow the plan at the expense of opportunity every time. The plan is what they are being measured for.
You might want to consider yet another path. Let go of wanting to know exactly how you will get there in advance. Train your people to be flexible, not rigid, responsive rather than reactive. Agree on a clear intention: Take that hill, for example, but understand that if, when and how you take it depends entirely upon the situation on the ground in the moment. No sense dying for a hill. Competition, markets, and situations change constantly. One must have a clear intention, yet remain flexible in terms of timing, execution and cost.
I am not saying don't have a plan. I am saying leave some room for innovation and unexpected opportunities…and train your people appropriately. One way to do that is through projects that improve immediate Team throughput and performance - your ability to deliver.
I love projects that address specific strategic* opportunities that can be completed in a short time frame, no longer than 90 days. These kinds of projects are powerful and effective because there is always a beginning, middle and end which allow you to mark and celebrate progress on what's normally a never ending slog. You are constantly working on bite sized chunks of mission critical opportunity, but not overwhelmed with them for long periods of time.
Consider:
- Planning is important because it gets you out of the mud and gives you a broader perspective, allowing you to appreciate the real situation and let go of things that no longer serve the organization.
- Plans are worthless if they sit in a drawer or are followed to the letter, rendering them out of date. Both sap your energy in different ways.
- Rather, have no more than three clear intentions that are in alignment with your values and principles and then break them down into strategic initiatives (actions that will improve team performance in the near future) and assign them as projects to be completed within 90 days.
- If you are going to plan, plan to do projects that give you an immediate and lasting return on investment now and into the future. Plan to become better at what you do at every level. Improve every process. Improve employee team building, facilitation and thinking skills. Improve employee and customer interaction. When you do these foundational things, just as Eisenhower knew from firsthand experience, you can be confident of taking the appropriate hill.
*Strategy: the pre-placement of resources necessary to execute the next phase of an operation. For example: Trained troops, mission critical materials and ammunition staged when and where they are required.
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: Five Steps to Your Ideal Life |
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 Are you ready to have your Ideal Life? Bachrach & Associates, Inc. (BAI) has broken down the process of having your Ideal Life into five simple steps that any committed advisor can follow to have their Ideal Life in four years, or less...
What would you like YOUR Ideal Life to be like? Think about those activities for which you would like to have more time. With whom and how you would spend your time? How many days would you like to work each week? How many hours per week? How many weeks of real vacation would you like to take? Where would you go? How is your Ideal Life different from your current life? More importantly, what is in the way of you having your Ideal Life right now?
If you are like most advisors, the answer to the last question is a lack of money or the number of hours you have to work each week to serve your existing clients and acquire new clients.
The BAI Turn-Key Business Model resolves these issues in five simple steps:
Step 1. Have one of our professional Accountability Coaches work with you to create your personal Success Road Map™. It's complimentary and it only takes an hour. Have you clearly defined all of your metrics for success? Are your values clear and in writing? Do you know exactly what you want and have a written plan to get it? Are your critical goals articulated and in writing? If not, take a "time out" and get it done today. It's easy and fun. Call (800) 347-3707 today and schedule your time to get your personal Success Road Map™ so you can check this one off your list. Whether you decide to do Steps 2-5 or not, this will be a good investment of your time.
Step 2. Enroll in the The Ideal Life Evaluation Program. This intensive program allows you to "test drive" The BAI Turn-Key Business Model for delivering fully comprehensive financial services. You'll learn how to create an extraordinary "first client meeting experience" that will enable you to be hired in the first meeting. Then you'll go on to learn how to deliver such exceptional value to your Best Clients that you'll instantly be more referable. You'll also learn how to effectively delegate a significant portion of your workload to your Administrative Manager. Along the way you'll learn how the BAI Turn-Key Business Model can enable you to have your Ideal Life in four years, or less. Your results from The Ideal Life Evaluation Program will include happier clients, more income from current clients, income from new clients and more referrals.
Step 3: Enroll in the BAI Committed Advisor Program. This 2-4 year program is ONLY for serious advisors who believe the BAI Turn-Key Business Model will enable them to build their Ideal Business and their Ideal Life in four years, or less.
You'll learn how to become a very effective CEO of a comprehensive financial services business delivering fully comprehensive financial services on the Values-Based Financial Planning™ Turn-Key Business Model, through a best-in-class team of subject matter experts in Financial Planning, Money Management, Insurance, Tax and Estate Planning.
Step 4: You'll build an Ideal Client Community of 75-125 Ideal Clients, by referral only and be earning $500,000 to $2,000,000 (based on your personal business and financial plan) of PREDICTABLE RECURRING revenue each year. You'll have enough money to run your business, pay your taxes and you'll have all the money you need to pay for a great current lifestyle and fund all of your future goals. You will own a business over which you have control rather than owning a business that controls your life.
Your business will be easily salable for $1,000,000 to $4,000,000 because you will have systems and processes in place that can be run by ANY competent business person…even a person without financial services experience.
Step 5: Enjoy your Ideal Life! You will have a great quality of life with significantly more time for family, fun, relationships, physical health, career growth, and spiritual health. In other words, you can live the life you choose, the way you choose to live it.
It is a choice. Are you ready to have what you deserve? If so, start today with step 1. It's easy and it's complimentary. Pick up the phone right now and call (800) 347-3707. Let us help you experience your Ideal Life in four years, or less.
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Rick Barrera is a nationally acclaimed marketing consultant and author,
known throughout the Fortune 500 for his extraordinary speaking ability and his
unique approach to brand building. His consulting focuses on helping companies
design unique client experiences that drive high levels of referrals. Rick's
research on the strategies used by breakthrough brands like Apple, American
Girl, Starbucks, Chico's, Lexus, Tivo, and Google will change your thinking
about marketing forever.
His impressive client list includes Abbott
Labs, AutoZone, Bayer, Caterpillar, IBM, Intel, Merrill Lynch and Verizon. His
newest book, Overpromise and Overdeliver: How to Design and Deliver
Extraordinary Customer Experiences is both a Wall Street Journal and
Business Week best seller. |
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