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Bill Bachrach: Lessons From a
Billionaire |
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 Last month in this column ("It's called a correction for a
reason" - email sdaughters@baivbfp.com if you missed
it) I wrote about how corrections help business owners get focused on what
really matters and make their businesses better. My business is no exception.
More specifically, I wrote about the many times I passed on the opportunities I
had to meet with the billionaire who lives in our neighborhood. Well, as you
know if you read last month's column, I scheduled an appointment with my
billionaire neighbor to ask questions and gain some knowledge, insights, and
wisdom to become a better CEO. This month's column is dedicated to sharing with
you some of the nuggets he shared with me. You may find these ideas useful as
you decide your course of action during these challenging times.
The 5
most significant, transferrable ideas for being successful are:
- A desire not to be controlled by circumstances.
- An unwavering determination that nothing was going to prevent me from
accomplishing my goals.
- The determination to increase my knowledge through study and experience.
- Continuous effort.
- A passion for helping people.
When he talked about a lifetime
dedicated to helping people he got tears in his eyes. His passion for helping
people was palpable.
How do you rate yourself in each of the above
categories?
What about the rest of your team?
How strong is your desire to NOT be controlled by
circumstances? Now is a great time to put that desire into action.
How would you describe your determination to accomplish your
goals? Unwavering?
What is the level of your
commitment to increase your knowledge through study and experience? Is that just
something you do when times are "good?"
Continuous
effort? For example, are you continuing to ask for referrals, make contact with
new people, and add new Ideal Clients during this unprecedented opportunity to
build your business? Or are you justifying your lack of continuous client
acquisition effort because you're too busy holding your existing clients' hands?
Do you care so much about helping people that you
get emotional about it?
Your ability to survive, and even thrive, during
challenging times has nothing to do with your technical ability or your tenure.
Lots of smart, experienced financial advisors are either considering leaving the
business or are squandering this unprecedented opportunity to add new Ideal
Clients to their practices.
The single word that exemplifies how my
neighbor became a billionaire is DETERMINATION. His "unwavering" comment was
also a clue to what it really takes to thrive in any economic environment.
The legendary boxer, Joe Louis, is famous for saying, "everybody wants
to go to heaven but nobody is willing to die." And that's a good lead in to the
other big lesson that was reinforced for me during our 3-hour conversation:
there is no "silver bullet." His success was due to applying fundamental
principles over time. He was simply willing to do, consistently and with
determination, what most others knew to be true, but just didn't do it.
For more ideas and inspiration to capitalize on the current opportunity
to add Ideal Clients visit my blog, http://www.bachrachblog.com/.
It's a great time to be a Financial Advisor!
Keep moving
forward,
Bill Bachrach
Founder & Chairman
________________________________________
Contact Gina
Concotelli at the Financial Services Speakers Network at gconcotelli@fsspeakers.net to
schedule Bill Bachrach for your next meeting or conference.
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Anne Bachrach: 8 Ideas for
Getting Things Done... the Right Way |
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 We all want more success and the fear of failure can often
be the driving force of our actions. We work long hours, sacrifice personal
time, and even sleep. We put our heart and soul into what we're trying to
achieve, only to find that we're spinning our wheels. We think we're getting
things done, because at the end of the day all of our Action List items are
crossed out; but did we really get closer to achieving our goals? The fact is,
most of us accomplish a whole list of things by the end of the day, but have
little to show for it. Your success depends on what you are doing and the way
you are getting things done. If you're not moving closer to your goal
achievement, you are not getting things done the right way.
The good
news is - getting things done the right way requires only a simple shift in your
actions. There are only two ways of getting things done; one way leads to your
success, while the other keeps you in the same position you're in right now.
There is no in between. Getting things done right comes down to taking actions
that support your forward progress and success. If you feel like you've been
spinning your wheels, you probably have been. You might be getting things done,
but your actions have been sabotaging your success. You end up working twice as
hard, only to stay in the same place.
Getting things done the right way,
can take you from spinning your wheels to; creating more time, expending less
effort, reducing frustration and moving you closer to your goals with every
single action. This is possible because success relies on one principle: success takes successful actions.
1. Organize Your Time for
Optimal Performance
Success takes successful time
management. Whether you're a corporate executive or an entrepreneur, you must
optimize your performance. The universe will only deliver what you can handle,
so if you want more, you have to do more without adding more hours to your day.
Ascertain what you need to Do, Delegate, and Delay.
Since you can't manifest any more hours in a day, focus on your highest pay-off
activities. In other words, do just those things that will lead to the highest
probability of achieving your goals in the quickest timeframe possible. Put
these things in priority order and then in your calendar. You will quickly
realize you don't have time for anything that doesn't get your closer to
achieving your goals.
2. Take Action with the End Result in
Mind
Maintaining a constant focus on your goal
will help you achieve it faster. Remember, getting things done right means
taking actions that are in support of your goals. As an example, watching TV for
5 hours is not an action in support of your success. You may have to learn to do
the things you don't necessarily want to do, but you do them because they will
get you to where you want to be.
Keep a working list
of actions you need to do today, and place them in prioritized order. Check them
off the list one at a time as you complete. This leads you to focus on your
highest payoff activities, not the ones that are the easiest.
3. Act
with 100% Integrity
It's not always easy to
always to do what you say and say what you do. But there is no way around it;
acting with anything other than 100% integrity will sabotage your success. The
truth isn't always easy, but it is the truth!
4. Act with the Best
Interest of all Involved
Achieving your goals
does not mean you step on people to get there; in fact it's quite the opposite.
This principle follows the universal law of reciprocity; what you put out
comes back to you. Getting things done right, means you keep the best
interest of all involved at all times, so the reciprocal comes back to you.
Every action you take has an outward effect, and long term, sustainable success
is only possible acting by this universal law. Napoleon Hill explores the power
of this law great depth in his book, Think and Grow Rich.
5.
Think "Outside the Box"
What got you to where you
are today typically isn't what will take you to where you want to be. Get
creative and brainstorm ideas and possibilities. Ask friends and business
associates for feedback. Ask them what improvements you can make to improve your
service and relationship with your clients. Study someone you admire. If you
know someone who is successful and want to know how they did - ask them! Think
outside the box of where you are right now and learn how you can improve
yourself to encourage your success.
6. Remove Negative
Emotions
Taking action based on feelings of fear,
anger, or jealousy will get you no where and can even lead to goal regression.
Negative emotions sabotage your success - period. Remove them from your thoughts
and actions, and you will be getting things done the right way. Pay attention to
what you say to yourself. Sometimes we don't realize we're feeding our minds
with negative thinking until you consciously pay attention. Ask a friend, peer,
or significant other to share what they hear you say or do. Having an occasional
5-minute pity party is acceptable – but then you've got to get over it and move
on.
7. Write an Action Plan
You don't
have to know exactly what to do, some of it you will have to figure out along
the way, but you must have a general plan of action. Say you want to add a
specific number of ideal clients this year. Create an action plan detailing
exactly what activities you need to do to add ideal clients and then how much of
each of those activities you have to do each month and each day to achieve this
goal. Create a detailed spreadsheet for that identifies all the activities
necessary and the goal for each week and each month for each activity. Then
compute your reality each month to see if your activities are actually producing
the desired results. If you are part of the Bachrach & Associates, Inc.
Being Done Study Group, you already have a way to track activities as they
relate to adding ideal clients.
8. Write Self-Evaluations and Look
for Areas of Improvement
Ask yourself the
following questions:
- Did I focus on the highest pay-off activities that allowed me to be the most
productive and efficient I could be so I could achieve my goals?
- Did I effectively use my calendar and honor it?
- Did I delegate and delay everything I could?
- Did I reduce or eliminate distractions so I could stay focused only on those
activities that put me in the highest probability situation for success?
- Did I make decisions that delivered the best results for all involved? If
no, how might I have reacted differently to improve end results?
- Did I act with 100% integrity in all of my personal and professional
relations?
- Did I accomplish my goals? If no, where were my thoughts and actions
focused? Did I allow myself to make excuses and then let myself off the hook?
What will I need to do to change this?
If you have answered "no" to any
of these questions, explore why and how you can improve future actions and
desired end results.
Action is good, but it's the way you take action
that makes all the difference. Action taken produces results, good and bad.
Successful action produces positive results and brings you closer to your goals
- that's getting things done in the right way. Optimize your performance, act
with integrity, keep the higher-good of all involved and every action you take
will get you closer to your success. Results Rule!
Success comes to those who become success conscious.
NAPOLEON HILL, Author of the best-selling
classic, Think and Grow
Rich
________________________________________
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 McKenna Little: Pivotal
Questions |
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 Let me describe a "fork in the road" scenario for you. You
know, one of those situations where, you may not realize it at the time, but if
you take the correct way there's smooth highway. If you take the wrong way,
however, there's a dirt road and the going is not easy. OK, the hypothetical
situation could be you are at a meeting of a board on which you volunteer or
serve, or you're chatting with some parents at the PTA, or playing a round of
golf, or having dinner with some new neighbors. For this discussion, let's say
you're at dinner. You've had a pleasant evening with your new friends, your
neighbor starts to take a bite of cheesecake, but looks up at you with genuine
curiosity and says, "So what do you do for a living?" Believe it or not, you are
now at that fork in the road I described.
Several years ago I was at a
meeting of my local chamber of commerce when a financial advisor came up to me.
I had never met this fellow and so after chatting briefly I asked him, "So what
do you do?" He dutifully handed me his business card. After I looked at it for a
couple of seconds, he launched into a sales pitch about what he did. As my eyes
glazed-over, resisting the temptation to look over his shoulder to assess better
conversation opportunities, he proceeded to confuse me with his description. His
explanation was unclear to me. He said something about fulfilling people's
dreams and then he said something else about living the life you want. After
hearing what he said I had two reactions. My first reaction was, "After glancing
at your business card, I thought I understood more about what you do than I did
from your narrative." My second reaction was, "Boy does this guy have a serious
case of 'sales breath' or what?" His lack of clarity about the value he brings
through his service offering left me no choice, I smiled pleasantly, shook his
hand and moved-on to mingle with other people.
So how do you perform
when confronted with simple straight-forward questions about your business? Can
you honestly say that in brief conversations you well-represent the value you
bring to your community of clients? There are several pivotal questions that you
should be prepared for. I recommend you fully script your responses and practice
them as though you were preparing for an opening night on Broadway. The stakes
are high at this "fork in the road." If your responses skillfully offer clarity
about what you do and your brief reply describes true value that a potential
ideal client would recognize instantly, then you will be able to see it in their
face. You will know that you have described your value suitably when, after your
response to their question, a large number of potential ideal clients say
something like, "Really? Tell me more!."
The pivotal questions are quite
simple. Short uncomplicated responses to queries such as, What do you do? How do
you deliver on that? What kind of clients do you serve best? Exactly how do you
charge? What exactly do your clients get for what they pay you? What's the
process when someone hires you? ... and a few others that space doesn't permit.
Skillful responses to pivotal questions like these will make all the
difference in that nano-second when the person across from you is deciding if
they are interested enough to continue talking with you or not.
All of
these pivotal questions are outlined in a financial advisor case-study I have
prepared for you. The 3-part case-study, of a financial advisor named Kate
Wilson, deals primarily with how she launched high-level comprehensive services
into her practice, but in the first episode she puts together her scripted
responses to all theses pivotal questions. You can sign-up for Kate Wilson's
case-study at http://askmarklittle.com/kate/.
My primary advice to you is to carefully script-out and practice how you respond
to simple questions about your business. You will see improved results in your
client acquisition activities simply by having a clear mindset about how to
articulate the value you bring to people's lives. I know I did.
________________________________________
Mark Little is an independent financial advisor. Contact Gina Concotelli at the Financial
Services Speakers Network at gconcotelli@fsspeakers.net to
schedule Mark Little for your next meeting or conference.
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Tom Voccola: CEOing and the
Values-Based Financial Advisor |
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 Being a successful independent Financial Advisor requires
the ability to inspire trust in people. If you are reading this newsletter you
already know that. Running a successful Financial Services Advisory that gives
you the time off to enjoy your success will require something different. It will
require a new level of leadership. You will have to assemble and lead a small
but talented band of content experts to serve and lead a powerful but skeptical
group of clients into the future. Being a business owner, no matter how
entrepreneurial you are, does not make you a leader. Being a leader makes you a
leader. And there are some secrets you really need to embrace if you are going
to pull this off and still have a life you love. So let's begin.
There
are so many details to starting and running a business, but the key
responsibility of a leader is to remember that business, at its core, is about
people, working with people, doing stuff, for people. Eighty to ninety percent
of every issue you will ever face as the CEO of a highly successful Value Based
Financial Advisory will be about the people – suppliers, staff, independent
content experts and clients – not the stuff. Burn this formula into your brain
right now. Business is about people, working with people, doing stuff, for
people. The stuff, while important, is always secondary.
B = P + P > S > P
Now, many of your peers will
lament and ignore this fact because they believe that people don't matter as
long as the forms are filled out right, the reports are done on time and the
advice is solid. Heck, you can do that with technology, can't you? They will
believe that it is inherently too difficult to deal with people because they are
so unpredictable and so they will not spend the time necessary to master what is
necessary. You will want to be different.
This is good news for
those of you that take what I am about to share seriously as it will give you
access to great power. You see, all the power in an enterprise is in the
relationships it creates. No amount of technology or product will ever trump the
power of a trusting relationship.
People are actually very predictable,
and if you spend a little time to understand what makes them tick, engaging them
in your Vision of the future will be an amazingly rewarding experience. I am
going to help you see what you haven't seen before.
It is my intention,
then, within this column, to give you a useful context that can help you create
and sustain one of the top 100 practices in the country. Why aim for less?
My experience as an entrepreneur, a three time CEO, and as a Chief
Executive consultant who has worked with over 300 CEOs and their organizations
has brought me to discover, appreciate and articulate three little known laws of
success. These laws are essential to your becoming a credible leader capable of
profitably growing a sustainable enterprise. These three universal laws of
success are:
- To be Powerful in Your Life, you must first Understand & Master
Yourself.
- To be powerful in Your Relationships, you must first Understand Humanity and
Master Relationships
- To be Powerful in the World, you must first learn to Co-create and Master a
Game worth Playing.
On the face of it you may find yourself saying "I
know that!" I mean you may even look at these three powerful laws and actually
hear yourself thinking, "Well that's just simple common sense!" I wish they
were, but the fact is The Three Laws are almost universally ignored in today’s
global business environment as being "too soft". And therein lays a tremendous
untapped power for those of you who adopt them as your own. You see the magic is
not in knowing the laws; the magic is in being them.
Next month: Who
you really are, and why you have been so hard to find.
Copyright
2009 Thomas A. Voccola All rights reserved
________________________________________
Entrepreneur,
speaker, author and CEO Coach, 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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