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Bill Bachrach: Secrets to Success? There are no *%#@ing secrets. | |
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 I find it interesting how many articles, books, and
professional / personal development programs refer to their content as
"secrets." "We'll unlock the secrets..." "You'll discover the 5 secrets to..."
The bottom line is there are no secrets. Just because you don't currently know
how to do something that will produce a result in your business or life does not
mean it's a secret. In fact, the contrary is true. Everything you need to know
to accomplish just about any goal you can imagine is readily available
information. You just need to make one good statement followed by 2 good
questions to find out anything you need or want to know. So, let me tell you
about this secret process known only to a handful of gazillionaires who I
happened to be lucky enough to catch at a moment of weakness and they revealed
them only to me on their deathbed! (Just kidding.) Here you go:
Shhhhhh. Don't tell anybody. It's a secret. To read more from Bill Bachrach you can access his blog at www.bachrachblog.com, you can check out articles in the article archive on our website at www.baivbfp.com/news_articles, and you access the audio archives at www.baivbfp.com/srvc_downloads. Click here to register now for the May 19th Webinar Build Your Ideal Client Community by Referral Only. Keep moving forward,  Bill Bachrach Founder & Chairman |
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Anne Bachrach: Persistence Pays Off | |
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 Persistence is to success as excuses are to failure. Never,
never give up - there is always a way. Jim Rohn said, "If you want something, you will find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." And he should know. A college drop-out, and in a rut, in debt and unable to see his way out by his mid-twenties, Jim set out to achieve more. And he did. His persistence paid off and by age 31, he was a millionaire. If you want more, you WILL find a way, because there always IS a way. With persistence and consistent action you will make it happen. If you don't believe me, keep reading. Did you know that Thomas Edison had over 10,000 failed attempts to create the light bulb before he was successful? His persistence was as valuable as his invention. 10,000 failed attempts and look what he created! Even if you're not out to change the world, what could you create with an unresolved persistence? Allyson Felix made it to the Olympics in just over one year. With an intense training schedule of five to six hours per day, her persistence paid off. By the end of her training season in 2003, she had broken many records, including one set by Olympic Gold Medalist, Marion Jones. At the 2004 Olympics, she won the Silver Medal by running a 22.18 in the 200-meter race. Amazingly, she did all of this while being a high-school senior and a freshman college student. Persistence always pays off - and sometimes big time! It's a known fact that more business deals are inked when one of the parties is persistent. Now, being persistent is not the same as being pushy; rather, it is voicing your ideal fit and expertise to someone that may not be aware of the benefits they will receive working with you. They will appreciate your persistence and the benefits - but you have to make them known. At one point, JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter book series was on welfare and so broke that she wrote her story on pub napkins. She could have easily given up on writing, but she was persistent in her passion. She finished the first Harry Potter novel, found a literary agent and went to work marketing her book. Today, she is one of the wealthiest women in the world, with a net worth of about $1 billion dollars. There are thousands of examples of ordinary people achieving extraordinary goals; these are just a few examples of how persistence paid off. Achieving your goals requires you to take consistent action, be persistent, and maintain a resolve to simply not give up. Below are 5 steps you can take today, to get you closer to achieving your goals.
Every action of every day between now and your goal achievement counts. Take action, bring your best, find solutions to your obstacles, and say "Next!" to your rejections. Feel good about how far you've come and be persistent until you achieve your goals! It's a great time to be a Financial Advisor! B.C. FORBES Founder of Forbes Magazine For additional assistance on how Persistence Pays Off so you can Achieve Your Goals Sooner, obtain the 25 minute tele-seminar at: Accountability Coaching Resources.  ________________________________________Anne Bachrach is the author of the book, Excuses Don't Count; Results Rule!. She has 23 years of experience training and coaching. Anne works to help financial professionals 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. Take advantage of the many complimentary resources on her website (www.AccountabilityCoach.com) |
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Mark Little: Becoming Best-In-Class | |
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 We all know that financial advisors who offer the most
comprehensive financial services command the highest compensation and are the
most highly valued by clients. Regardless of how long you have been in the
business, I'm going to give you a plan and a path to offering fully
comprehensive financial services to your clients which is "best in class." I put
"best-in-class" in quotes because best means different things to different
people. By my definition, however, "best-in-class" implies both highly developed
skills and top-notch service. If a professional is playing at the top of their game as it relates to their skills, but never returns phone calls, they are of little value to our clients or to us. So "best-in-class" must embrace both, which raises the bar even further for you. But don't despair, let's explore how to quickly meet this superior standard. I just read Malcolm Gladwell's new book "Outliers" (author of "Tipping Point" and "Blink"). I enjoyed this book even more than the others. One of the themes in the book is, what makes a "genius" like BIll Gates or the Beatles is not superior DNA, but rather the right opportunity to clock in 10,000+ hours of experience in their field. Yes, Gladwell defines an expert in this book as a person who has invested more than 10,000 hours in their narrow area of expertise. Let me see... that's 8 hours a day, five days a week for nearly 5 years (58 months) focusing on a narrow topic, such as tax, estate planning, money management, financial planning and insurance. Each of these areas of expertise are represented by various designations such as Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.), Chartered Financial Analyst (C.F.A.), Doctor of Jurisprudence (J. D.), and others. Further, to be "best in class," the designation is frequently conferred to the professional before the "10,000 hours" begins on the road to becoming a Subject Matter Expert (SME). For instance a C.P.A., is trained in many disciplines of accounting to gain their designation, but to be "best-in-class" for financial advisors, like us, we will be looking for 10,000 hours of experience dealing specifically in the area of tax serving affluent clients who meet our Ideal Client Profile. That would represent "best in class" advice in the area of tax. Similarly for an estate planning attorney (J. D.), not just any old attorney will do. We're looking for an attorney who has "clocked" 10,000 hours specifically in the area of estate planning for clients who meet our ideal client profile. So let me burst two myths with one swift puncture; no single advisor can be "best-in-class" in the areas of tax, money management, estate planning, financial planning and insurance. By Gladwell's measure, we're not simply looking for an advisor with 25 years' experience, rather we're looking for a single advisor who has devoted five focused years in each of these five areas of expertise. So let's get real, what we're talking about here is you, as Trusted Advisor, building and then orchestrating at least five other "best-in-class" professionals who are each subject matter experts in their narrow fields. Let not your heart be troubled, this is good for you. My premise is that you should not hold yourself out as the subject matter expert in any of these five fields, and you can still be a "best- in-class" financial advisor in less than 16 months. How? It's simple! You can "hitch your wagon" to a 10,000 hour expert in each of these fields who has already invested that time in their clients and themselves. This strategy is not only feasible... there is no question you can do it. You can find an expert in each of those areas who has more than 5 years of experience serving people meeting your ideal client profile AND who is thrilled to work with you. Building this deliverables team of "best-in-class" subject matter experts leaves you free to be the Trusted Advisor (Relationship Manager) to your Ideal Clients. I would make the case that spending any of your precious time to become an expert in any of those areas of finance could do a disservice to your clients. Stick with me for a minute here. Have you considered that if you decided to devote your next 10,000 professional hours to something, wouldn't your clients be better served if you became an expert at human behavior, behavioral finance or simply learning how to be an exceptional leader for your clients and your Deliverables Team? With uncertainty being at heightened levels, clients are demanding more from their advisors. So will you consider making this commitment to become an even more fully comprehensive financial advisor by building a team of experts? ________________________________________ To learn more about how to implement The Three Meeting Process™, you can sign up for "The Kate Wilson Case-Study" at no charge at The Trusted Advisor Toolkit. Mark McKenna Little is a speaker, author and Trusted Advisor who began implementing Values-Based Financial Planning® in 1999. Contact Anne Bachrach at the Financial Services Speakers Network at anne@fsspeakers.net to schedule Mark Little for your next meeting or conference. |
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Tom Voccola: Our Reactive Identity | |
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 Part 3 of a continuing series on CEOing and the Values
Based Financial Advisor. Today I am going to help you see the invisible forces that have, for your entire life, been running you. Now I want you to get this, because if you get this then you will know what all Powerful Leaders know - if you truly understand yourself, you will profoundly understand humanity - because we are all run by the exact same forces. This can be notoriously difficult to explain so I am going to actually draw you a picture. But before I do I want you to consider something. What if you have been living your entire life with access to only half the resources you were born with? I mean, what if you have an entire set of invisible powers you knew nothing about? What if you suddenly realized that you are here to do something magnificent? What if you suddenly found out that you are actually here to change the world for the better in your life time? Would you do it? Now before you say yes, there are already some things at work within you. First of all, while you've always suspected that it might be true - I mean 98% of people, when asked if they felt they have a purpose in life, say yes – part of you may becoming very skeptical. That's okay. Not to worry, just thank that part of you for sharing and read on. Over the past 18 years, working with over 300 CEOs and 15,000 managers and employees, not one person has failed to articulate, in black and white, on a piece of paper, exactly who they are in the world. And each and every one of them realized that they were here to serve others in a way that is uniquely suited to them.  Ok, here is the first part of a two part picture I promised. I call
this view of the current human model our Reactive Identity. Now just look at this box. It's just a simple box with some words in it. Words that I suspect you know something about. I call this part of the current human model - our Reactive Identity - for reasons that will soon become apparent. It's the way the world runs today. It's the way almost every person, relationship, organization, business and country works. But to better understand how and, more importantly, why, let me share my definition of each word for you. Ego: Our ego is that reptilian part of us that is meant to protect us. Its primary function is to scan the horizon and react to danger. It lives in a world of fear, uncertainty and doubt. Everything and everybody is a potential threat. This is the eye-for-an eye part of us. Our ego is an interesting character in our little play, and is pretty much recognized as the most powerful entity on the planet so far. In our quest for survival, our ego has developed us into a species of master reactors that lives from the past. This is where our instinct to fight, flight or freeze resides. In fact, it is just that, an automatic, unconscious instinct. Personality: Our personality gives voice to the ego. Whether you fight, flight or freeze in a fearful situation depends upon the personality you were born with. The personality allows the ego to express itself in the world. Some say that who we are is our personality. I believe that not to be the case. I say that our personality is simply the perfect tool box for expressing what we are here to do. I believe it is underutilized and misrepresented and, as we will see later, perfectly suited for much more than we yet realize. Personality is generally represented by four representations: Degree of Dominance; Sociability; Patience and Independence. There are many other aspects of personality of course, but these are the ones that dominate the business jargon. Personality is extremely easy to identify and measure. If you want to know more about yours, go to: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp. You do not have to register. Take the survey. It will give you your results in the form of four letters with some numbers below them. (The instrument will give you your Meyers Briggs profile) Write them down. The letters refer to aspects of your personality and the numbers refer to the degree of preference. Mine is ENFP, for example. When you have your results go to: http://www.wikipedia.org At the bottom of the page there is an empty box. Enter your four letter results (not the numbers) into the box and you will be taken to a page that explains your particular personality profile. Have fun with this! It is all part of the journey. Again, this is not who you are, but it is a powerful tool you use to engage the world. Beliefs: Given our reactive environment and outlook, when something happens to us we "make up our mind" about it pretty quickly. Mostly we do this unconsciously. Beliefs occur within us two ways; we are born into them, or as our reaction to life around us. An important distinction about beliefs is that they are not necessarily true or false. Scientists have determined that well over 90% of what humans believe to be true is not. Beliefs are convenient constructs, sort of like short hand for the mind. Beliefs can be sorted into two types: empowering beliefs or limiting beliefs. It's the limiting beliefs that cause so much pain in the world and in our lives. Being invisible until called into question, our beliefs lie dormant until something sparks them, causing us to react in a prescribed way. More about that later. Experiences: Our ego, as expressed through our personality, and guided through our beliefs, has experiences. We may have big, bold, jumping out of an airplane experiences, and we may have more subtle, day-to-day kinds of experiences that shape us over time and everything in between. No matter what, stuff happens in our lives and we react our way through it. In fact, it could be said, as the human animal is concerned, we are master reactors. Our experiences are always colored by the beliefs we hold. For example, if we believe that employees are helpless and hopeless, we will seek out evidence to support that belief. This, by the way, is humanities biggest blind spot. We actually believe our beliefs are true. Behaviors: For the most part, our beliefs are invisible until called into question, but when called into question we automatically react with key emotions which guide our behaviors. Behaviors are the automatic outcome of our beliefs. So, to wrap this up as neatly as I can: all of the above points to a: In other words, everyone on the planet behaves this way. How it works is whenever something happens in our lives, our invisible beliefs cause an automatic emotion which triggers a reaction that leads to the results we experience in our lives. (> = cause) This is the basis of cause and effect. Something happens, then... This is how humanity occurs in the world. What runs us, what runs you and me, are a set of invisible beliefs, most of which we were born into, that we rarely question, and when we do, there is usually a violent re-action associated with that event... revolutions even! This is the perfect model to explain the current environment of fear, uncertainty and doubt in the world and in our companies. When you are afraid all the time you are on guard all the time. And when you are on guard all the time you focus on survival at all costs. Not a bad thing, it’s just that there is so much more that we are capable of. You know this to be true because you are much less cautious than others. You are, after all, an entrepreneur. Here are some key points to remember about our reactive identity. Our Reactive Identity is: Unconscious, automatic, reactive, operates from the past, is driven by fear, uncertainty and doubt, focused on what's wrong and what we don't want, is colored by our experience & beliefs, is closed and rigid to new ideas, requires tremendous amounts of our physical energy, craves perfection, fosters complaint, requires trust, resists change, separates through fear, strives to keep status quo, is at the affect of the world, requires control, and is the primary reason for management, government, laws and religion. Fortunately, a few have seen the truth of it and have given us some examples of how to live a more balanced, productive and satisfying life. I will leave who to you. But since we are told by our culture to be like others, we spend precious little time seeking to be our selves. As a consequence we unknowingly give up the most satisfying part of life. And so do your family, employees, customers, etc. How can knowing this change your relationship with others? Think compassion. Next month I will introduce you to that part of you that has been missing all these years. That part of you that was always meant to work with your reactive self and bring you to a different outcome. You do not want to miss this! 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 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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| The Trusted
Financial Advisor (tm) ISSN 1543-432X A monthly publication dedicated to helping transform the financial services industry from salespeople to Trusted Advisors. Bachrach and Associates, Inc. baivbfp.com info@bachrachvbs.com 8380 Miramar Mall Suite 200 San Diego, CA 92121 800-347-3707 Printing Tip: For best results print this newsletter in landscape mode. (c) 2009 Bachrach & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. The following are registered and trademarked and intellectual property of Bachrach & Associates, Inc.: Financial Road Map®, Success Road Map®, Values-Based Selling®, Values-Based Selling® Academy, Values-Based Selling® Academy 2, Trusted Advisor Coach®, Values-Based Financial Planning™, Being Done™, Values-Based Financial Professional™, The Values Conversation™, High-Trust Leadership™ and The Quality of Life Enhancer™. All rights reserved. |