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Bill Bachrach: Announcing New
Updates to E-Newsletter |
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"Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed
possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change
your beliefs."
– Maxwell Maltz
We're especially excited
about this month's e-newsletter because of the additional value you will get in
this and every future issue. I'll write something relevant about building
high-trust client relationships and you'll get 3 more articles that can have an
immediate and positive impact on your business and your life.
Have you
heard the term "marrying up"? Well that's what I did when I married Anne. She
wrote a great book called "Excuses
Don't Count... Results Rule!" We'll publish an article by her in this
e-newsletter monthly, about how you can be more accountable to get the results
that matter most to you.
Mark Little
will also contribute his expertise about building a best-in-class deliverables
team of subject-matter experts so you can provide the most value to your Clients
and improve your own quality of life.
Additionally, we will have a guest
columnist on a subject of value to you, such as communication, time management,
etc.
This month Bert Decker, the
world famous communications expert and author of "You Have to Be Believed to be
Heard," contributes an excellent article that will help you be a better
communicator.
And if hearing from me once a month isn't frequent enough
to scratch your Trusted Advisor itch, keep your eyes and ears open for my new
blog coming soon.
This really is a great time to be a financial advisor!
Keep moving forward,
Bill Bachrach
Founder & Chairman
P.S. Are you looking
for a great athletic challenge and adventure? Check out the Stagecoach Century
and other great cycling events sponsored by The Shadow Tour. Not ready for a
century? Check out the options for a shorter ride on this amazing, scenic
out-and-back course. (1 stop-sign in 100 miles!) www.shadowtour.com.
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Anne Bachrach: Belief - Helping
You or Hurting You? |
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 Wherever you are in your life, you are exactly where you are
because of your beliefs. When you speak to yourself what do you say - words of
encouragement or words of criticism? You may not realize it, but your self-talk
is creating your belief system. That belief system is either helping you achieve
more or keeping you bound where you are. Who you are, as well as who you will
become, is created by your beliefs.
Belief simply comes down to the
ability of having a high level of belief in yourself and your potential,
regardless of any circumstance you encounter.
When you have a high level
of belief in yourself, it leaves no room for doubt, allowing you to develop a
keen awareness that you are made of infinite potential and can achieve anything
you believe you can. In contrast, lack of a solid belief in yourself results in
habitual self-doubt that renders you unaware of your infinite potential and your
ability to achieve a higher level of success.
The reality is this,
whatever you believe is what you have created and will create in your life. A
healthy belief system gives you the confidence to achieve any goal you set for
yourself, while a weak belief system creates habits that sabotage your ability
to achieve your goals.
People who have a high level of self-belief -
know anything is possible. People who don't have a high level of self-belief -
hope some things will be possible.
Successful people know they are
successful; while people who struggle hope or wish they will be successful.
Hoping or wishing will not create success, only knowing will create success. And
you can't know you are successful without a high level of belief. To get to
where you want to go and be who you want to be, you must believe you can do it.
A solid belief is formed from the conviction you have in yourself to accomplish
anything you set out to do, and the desire to accomplish your goals regardless
of your current circumstances.
To accomplish your goals, you must
believe - and your belief comes from your conviction and desire.
Conviction is defined as that which you are convinced to be true (even
if you can't physically see it). You can imagine achieving your goals in your
mind and feel it in your gut. You have absolute resolve that what you are doing
is going to work and places you on the path to even greater success. Conviction
means you keep going because you can see the end results before actually
manifesting them.
Desire is the emotional aspect of your goal. When you
desire something so strongly, you will do whatever it takes to achieve it.
What has to happen for you to strengthen your conviction?
What
has to happen for you to strengthen your desire?
What has to happen for
you to strengthen your belief?
Changing your circumstances and creating
the life you really want starts with creating a high level of belief that allows
you to feel that you can achieve anything you set your mind upon. With
conviction and desire, you will be unstoppable because you will believe that
anything is possible. As a result, you will create the life you have always
dreamed about having.
________________________________________
Anne Bachrach has 23 years of experience training and coaching.
Bachrach's fresh approach to business and life offers a much-needed boost for
stagnant businesses. Anne works to help business people and entrepreneurs
improve their productivity, profitability, and quality of life. Through her
proven systems, she inspires her clients to stay focused and take action on the
highest payoff activities that lead to their ultimate professional and personal
success.
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Mark Little: Balking the Talk
(Part 1) |
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 Why most financial advisors shy away from doing their own
financial plans...
All the jokes about "The cobbler's kids not
having shoes" aside, the simple truth is that most professional financial
planners who own a fully updated and functioning financial plan are in the
minority. What is the most consistent guidance I give to some of the most
successful financial advisors I coach from around the world? "Sit down and get
your own comprehensive written lifetime financial plan completed." It may be
hard to fathom that honest hard-working and highly successful financial advisors
who do financial plans professionally for their clients might not have their own
financial plans completed, but it is an unfortunate reality.
As the
founder and creator of a nationwide wealth management firm, for twenty years I
have valued financial planning sufficiently enough to require that all my
clients have a written financial plan. During that time, I have hired numerous
financial planners to create those plans and in all my years of hiring planners
not one, during the initial interview, had completed their own comprehensive
written lifetime financial plan.
For the past seven years, in addition
to owning a wealth management firm and actively advising retail clients, I have
trained and developed hundreds of successful financial planners. I speak at
industry conferences, teach workshops on practice management and have offered
one-on-one coaching to select financial advisors and in all that time, I have
encountered but two financial advisors who were in possession of a comprehensive
written financial plan.
Why live life in alignment?
So,
why? Why is it that a community of professionals who presumably understand the
value and wisdom of having a well-crafted plan are absent this obvious item,
without which their life appears to be significantly out of alignment with what
they advocate to their clients? Well, to paraphrase Jim Rohn, It may be easy for
a financial planner to sit down and do a financial plan for themselves, but
frankly... it's easier NOT TO!
It's just like exercise; over the past
two years, I have lost 139 pounds of excess weight. Advisors who have seen me
speak at conferences over the years, now come up to me with astonishment after
each speech and ask, “How did you lose all that weight? What was the secret?" My
answer is always the same; "the secret is that there is no secret." I simply
picked up my activity level and cutback on what I was eating. "So, then why,"
I'm frequently asked "didn't you do that before?" The answer is as obvious as
the real reason a financial advisor, who knows better, doesn't have their own
fully updated financial plan. It was much easier, before, for me to skip the
workouts and eat whatever I wanted. It's much easier to sleep-in on a Saturday
and miss a swim workout than to leave my cozy bed on a cold morning and swim
laps in a cold pool.
So why is it when we know the right things to do we
don't just do them? Why don't we just do the things that we know deep in our
hearts are in our best interest? It is an important issue to contemplate, one
that is worthy of reflection time. Not only will the answer help you live your
life more in alignment with your values, but it will also help you be more
effective with your clients.
How many of us have friends who live their
lives vastly different than the one they make public? Do you know anyone like
this? When we exhibit inconsistent behavior, it's often noted by others. In
myriads of ways we give those around us an opportunity to assess how
well-aligned we actually are. Unknowingly we all have an Inconsistency
Broadcasting System viewable by everyone but ourselves; and don't we treasure
most those whose lives are in-synch with what they profess? Aren't we naturally
attracted most to people who "are what they seem" and do what they advise others
to do?
A wise man once suggested that we all treat others the way we
want to be treated and the collary to this is to advise others in a way that's
consistent with the way we've chosen to live our own lives. Right?
So,
before you hassle a client for their failure to go "update their estate plan" or
"pay-off the mortgage" or any of a number of other pieces of advice you are
annoyed that were not followed, perhaps the answer lies behind the same reason
you do not have your own financial plan fully updated in writing. Have you
considered that people suspect when things are out of alignment in others? Have
you contemplated the possibility that your overall effectiveness could be
improved if you made it a point to do those things that would move you more
in-line with those things matter most; particularly things you are advising
others to do?
Walking the talk
In case you're wondering if
I'm recommending that you actually sit down and create a comprehensive written
lifetime financial plan as thorough, detailed and complete, as you would your
very best clients do? In short, yes!
If nobody else is willing to make
this point to you then I will. If going through such an exercise is exceptional
advice for your very best clients, then it is an effort that is absolutely,
positively a "must" for you. You are your most important client, and are worthy
of the effort; you are worthy of the best advice you have to offer.
So
what are the benefits of walking the talk? What can you look forward to by
having a realistic plan in place? Now, I appreciate that you may have said what
I’m about to say to clients many many times in the past, so I'm going to ask you
to relax and just listen to what I'm about to tell you. Put all your
preconceived and "canned" thoughts aside get quiet for a moment and consider the
following.
Imagine listening to the nightly news and hearing the
anchorman say "We had a bad day on Wall Street Today" and your visceral reaction
is to shrug and think to yourself "So what! I've got a plan in place that is so
thorough and well-conceived that no matter what happens in the investment
markets or world events I have the greatest probability that I'm going to be
able to accomplish my goals and experience those things in my life that matter
most to me.” Imagine that! Envision having a written plan that is so realistic
and comprehensive; a plan that is updated frequently enough to make the course
corrections necessary to create the greatest likelihood that you will be able to
accomplish everything you want to accomplish financially without worrying about
running out of money.
In the final installment of this article next
month (part 2) I’ll share the best way of getting your financial plan completed
and how this will put you and your image in better alignment.
________________________________________
Mark is a financial
advisor who built a multi-million dollar financial advisory firm. However, at
one point in his career, he was ready to leave the business world.
In
2004, at age 48, he had too many clients, worked 84 hours per week and, after
struggling with his weight for 25 years, he weighed 313 pounds, suffered from
diabetes, a painful form of arthritis and a family history of heart attacks.
Rather than quit his business, Mark decided to get focused, transform
his business and get more balance back into his life.
First he
identified 17 ideal clients within his client base of 1,242. Within 36 months
those 17 clients helped him grow the ideal community of clients to 91 (he had
politely disengaged from the 1,151 other clients).
He was able to reduce
his workweek to 3 days a week while quadrupling his income to well over
$1million per year of predictable recurring revenue.
Oh and, by the way,
this wall all during three of the most terrible years in the financial markets:
2000, 2001 & 2002.
Most importantly, however, he gained more balance
in his life
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Bert Decker: Communicate To
Close |
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The effectiveness
of your communications determines the effectiveness of your life. In today's
tumultuous environment, how you communicate with your clients is more important
than ever. And if you are skillful, you will weather the storm.
Let's
start with a self assessment:
Would you consider yourself a peacock or a
woodpecker?
This is probably a comparison that you haven't thought much
about. Maybe you've likened yourself to other animals, but a peacock and a
woodpecker? Humor me. First, think of the peacock - that showy creature known
for its fanned iridescent tail – it knows how to make an impressive appearance.
And then there are the woodpeckers with their relentless pecking, making them
more often heard than seen.
So, when it comes to engaging with your
clients, which one are you?
Now, which one should you be?
The answer is you must be both.
Peacocks create an
experience. They are memorable. If you're a peacock, you express confident,
leveraged behavior at meetings, events, and important client touch points.
Woodpeckers are tenacious, consistently taking action to accomplish
their goal. As a woodpecker, you engage with clients repetitively, persistently,
tirelessly. If they don’t see you, they hear about you.
Here are some
tips to translate this into your communications experience with your clients and
communicate to close.
 To be a peacock:
- Understand that people judge quickly. We have less than 30 seconds to make
that first impression – how we show up in front of others is critical. And yet,
many of us are completely (and even sometimes blissfully) unaware of how others
perceive us. What do we look like? How do we sound? Without feedback, we'll
never know.
You can learn to be "first brain" friendly so you can make
an immediate connection with your audience (whether it's one or one hundred). It
has everything to do with the behavioral aspects of communications – including
eye contact, energy through your voice, facial expressions and pausing.
The first step: Record yourself on audio or video. Learn about your
habits – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Begin by working on 1-2 skills at a
time, just like a golf swing.
(Read more about judging quickly in
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.)
- Be memorable. Your message has to be as memorable as you are. The problem
with most messages is that they are data dumps. We have so much information to
share and think that if we say the words, people will get it. But unless that
information is presented in a way that makes it memorable, your message is
already long gone.
Use the Decker SHARPs: Stories, Humor, Analogies,
References & Quotes, Pictures & Visuals. Think of these elements as
hangers from which you can hang the facts and figures of your message. People
don't remember statistics, but they remember the analogy that shows why a key
piece of information is so important.
(Read more about memorable
messages in Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.)
 To be a woodpecker:
- Always have a Point Of View (POV). All client touch points, whether in
person, over the phone, or via email, must be focused and answer the "So what?"
for that person. Picture your client sitting across from you strumming her
fingers on the table saying, "So? What does that mean for me?"
- Drive toward specific action steps. Action steps are part of salespeople's
DNA, but they're not always specific. Think: timed, physical and measurable.
Every interaction should end with an action step that allows you to move the
ball forward. Take a few minutes to plan ahead for the desired
outcome.
Start 2009 by building the skills to be memorable and
tenacious. You'll make that immediate connection with your clients, and close
business.
Learn more at www.decker.com.
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