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Bill Bachrach: Continuous Learning or Continuous Improvement? | |
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 I sometimes hear people refer to continuous learning and
continuous improvement as though they are the same thing. They are not the same. Can you learn without improving? Certainly. Can you improve without learning something new? Definitely. Does all learning create improvement? No. Before you read that next book or attend another webinar or seminar or conference, ask yourself a couple of important questions: "Am I doing this to learn or to improve?" "What will I be able to do to be better as a result of reading this book or attending this webinar or seminar or conference?" "How quickly will I be able to implement what I learn to produce results in one or more key areas of my personal or professional life?" If we've done your Success Road Map®, you can give it the Success Road Map check with questions like: "How will this help me bridge the gap between where I am now and where I want to be with one or more of my success metrics?" "How will this help me achieve me goals?" "How will this impact the fulfillment of my values?" (Click Here to learn more about getting your complimentary Success Road Map.) Professionals at the highest levels are masters at refining what they know to approach perfection at their craft. Through diligent practice and repetition they become virtuosos. While this term is normally used to describe musicians and singers who operate at the highest levels of technical proficiency, could it apply to you as a Financial Advisor? In Music in the Western World by Piero Weiss and Richard Taruskin, we find the following definition of virtuoso: "...a virtuoso was, originally, a highly accomplished musician, but by the nineteenth century the term had become restricted to performers, both vocal and instrumental, whose technical accomplishments were so pronounced as to dazzle the public." Wouldn't it be great to be dazzling at the key elements for building your community of Ideal Clients? Ie: Conducting a brilliant initial client interview as well as effectively asking for and receiving referrals. Also, being good enough on the phone, when you make your follow up calls to your referrals, so they call you back, and when you do speak with them you are articulate and compelling. Maybe you have some learning to do. Once you learn how, then continuous improvement applies until you are producing the desired results. My advice: Learn less. Apply more. Continuously IMPROVE. Get great results. Repeat. Keep moving forward,  Bill Bachrach Founder & Chairman ________________________________________ Contact Anne Bachrach at the Financial Services Speakers Network at anne@fsspeakers.net to schedule Bill Bachrach for your next meeting or conference.
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Anne Bachrach: 4 Steps to Increase The Power of Your Focus | |
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Living your life without practicing The Power of Focus, is
like trying to hit the bull's eye of a target you can't see. You can spend hours
launching arrows, only to miss the target entirely. You become exhausted and
frustrated when your repeated efforts don't show the results you are trying to
achieve. This is what it feels like to operate without The Power of Focus.
To get to where you want to be professionally and personally, you must hold clear in your mind what you want most. Your subconscious mind is a powerful, goal-achieving machine, but it can't lead you to your desired goal, if you don't provide it with a specific target. If it doesn't have a clear and specific target, it can't get you there. The Power of Focus is the practice of focusing on the 'right' activities that put you in the highest probability position to achieve your goals, while minimizing distractions that take your focus away from goal achievement. It will improve time management, professional and personal performance, task efficiency, overall life balance, and provide your mind the information it needs to get you to the bull's eye. When you focus on the 'right' activities that lead to 'big' goal achievement, you will succeed. A client of mine set a goal she was afraid to set because she had never been successful at achieving it before. We brainstormed a list of what we thought were the 'right' activities she needed to do in order to achieve this particular goal. She got focused on these activities, did them, and exceeded her goal! The same thing can happen for you when you focus on the 'right' activities. Step 1. Create a Long-Term Goal List What are your Long-Term Goals within the next 3-5 years? Within 10 years? 20 years? They can be anything you want - but they must be what you really want. Your Long-Term Goals should go far beyond your comfort zone and how you would ideally like to see your life. Asking to retire rich isn't specific enough - you must include as many details as possible along with the specific date (month, day, and year)you would like to achieve each goal. This process is not unlike what you do with your clients so this should be familiar to you. Step 2. Create a Short-Term Goal List What are your Short-Term Goals? Within one week? Within 3-12 months? Whatever they are, include specific dates down to the month, day and year. Prioritize your short-term goals and put the goal that is most important to you at the top of the list. When you finish the most important things, move them off your list and do the next one, then the next one. It isn't the one that is the easiest to do and the one with the least amount of discomfort. It is the one that is the most important to do first that will have the biggest impact on your overall success. Review your short-term goals frequently. Remain mindful of your goals as you go about your day and read them aloud every morning and every evening before going to sleep. Your goal lists serve two purposes. First, it uses The Power of Focus to help you concentrate on what you DO want so you can work on making it a reality. Secondly, they serve as positive reinforcements. When you can cross off a goal because you achieved it - you feel good! And you know that achieving short-term goals have a positive impact on long-term goal achievement. Step 3. Create a Daily Task List At the end of each day, create your Task List for the following day. Prioritize your tasks in order of importance, with the most important (not the easiest) being at the top of the list. The following day, start with the number one item and work your way down the list. At the end of the day, you will have completed your tasks with improved organization and efficiency. Step 4. Calendar Everything and Honor Thy Calendar Once you have your tasks listed, put all your activities on your calendar. Determine how much time it takes to do each activity and place them on your calendar. A good rule of thumb is to add a bit more time to what you think as it may actually take you longer. If you are like me, I always think I can accomplish more than I actually can in the time allotted. To prevent you from falling behind or feeling frustrated if you do take longer than you think, just give yourself a bit more time up front. If you complete the activity ahead of schedule, you can easily move on to the next task. The Power of Focus is more than just goal-setting exercises. It is a process in which you develop a crystal-clear vision of where you want to be, so your goal-achieving machine can make it a reality. Remember, your subconscious mind is a goal-achieving machine. It reacts to the information fed to it - no emotion, no judgment. This works to your advantage or disadvantage. The subconscious mind doesn't know how to judge the information it receives, it only reacts to it. Whatever you feed your mind will become your reality. This is why practicing The Power of Focus every day is so important. Focus on your goals, and your subconscious mind will actually support you in taking the right actions to get you to goal achievement and living your dreams. New Program... If you're looking for an inexpensive way to gain a competitive advantage to achieve your goals in the current economy click here to learn more about joining Anne Bachrach's 90-Day Goal Achievement Program.  ________________________________________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: Is "Doing it All" a Disservice to Your Clients? | |
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 It occurred to me in 1999 that I was doing a disservice to
my clients by trying to be a "one-man-band". By having conversations with my
clients about money management, financial planning, estate planning insurance
and tax rules, I was implying that my knowledge was more comprehensive than it
actually was. Even though my knowledge, after a dozen years as a financial
advisor, in some of these areas was significant, I was in no way an expert in
any of those fields. Think about the definition of the word "disservice"; the word means "unkindness" with synonyms such as "detriment", "harm", and "wrong." I felt because I had some shallow experience with each of those areas of finance I was actually serving my clients and had no thought that I was harming or wronging my clients. Eventually, I came to the realization that by giving any advice in these areas I was denying my clients access to Best-in-Class advice and was therefore a disservice to them. In past columns I have shared how I utilized this "reality-check" in 1999 as an opportunity to seek out and recruit true experts in every area of finance to interact with each other and serve my ideal client community. This allowed me to provide fully comprehensive financial services by outsourcing through a Best-in-Class team who were already experts in their narrow fields. Clearly you can do this too. In this column I want to discuss a more insidious issue I encountered; failing to delegate the administrative work coordinating my new Deliverables Team. Once I put my Best-in-Class Deliverables Team in place, I thought my role was to compile their work and crunch lots of numbers to back-up, review and assemble their efforts as an over-sight safety net. I did not immediately realize that I could delegate the creation of these documents, summarizing the work of my team, without abdicating my oversight responsibilities. Most time consuming of all, I felt I needed to collect, consolidate & control my Deliverables Team Members’ work prior to a client progress meeting. Recruiting an outsourced team of crème de la crème professionals to replace myself in every major area of finance was an easier "mental leap" for me than was the inner breakthrough I needed to delegate the administrative support of my new team and the creation of documents preparing myself for client progress meetings. For some reason, I stubbornly held on to those administrative tasks far too long. Ultimately, however, I came to the realization that this too was a disservice to my clients. So how, you ask, could reviewing, collating and preparing summary documents in preparation for a client meeting ever be considered a disservice to clients? The reality is that administrative support people can be acquired and trained to do this "summary document creation" and client meeting "prep" thereby freeing-up the Trusted Advisor to perform higher-level work, which only they can do. You may already have administrative support people on your team capable of creating or collating this "meeting prep" for you. An important breakthrough for me was to create a tight infrastructure and culture of collegial but spirited "peer-review" amongst my growing Deliverables Team of Subject Matter Experts. I found that if I provided them with these summaries of the entire Deliverables Team’s recommendations in advance and asked for their opinions, they provided me with pertinent and, sometimes, animated insights. This was a short-cut to the most valuable and relevant oversight I had ever provided; a great service to my clients. So, what higher-level work did this allow for me to carry out for my clients? My Deliverables Team Member's recommendations were now being collected and summarized for me by my administrative support person, according to standard formats we created. Prior to client meetings my Deliverables Team cross examined each other's recommendations and those comments were delivered to me in a spirit of cooperation and professionalism. A huge time-saver which freed-me-up to interact with my ideal clients on a significantly deeper level to clarify questions from the Deliverables Team, uncover even more complicated issues and to contemplate how best to hold them accountable to those things that would advance their cause. My clients look to me as their Trusted Advisor and orchestrating a comprehensive Deliverables Team is a full time job. I finally realized that by focusing on people, not administrative tasks, I was doing a much better job of oversight and keeping my clients financial affairs on- track. I made the sincere commitment to no-longer be a disservice to my clients and ensure that everyone on the team focused on the jobs that only they could do; including me. ________________________________________ To learn more about how to implement The Dry-run Prep Meeting™ and 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: Being Powerful With Others Mastering Relationships | |
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 Part 6 of a continuing series on CEOing and the Values
Based Financial Advisor. Mastering Relationships In Part 3 of this series I asked: 1. What if you suddenly realized that you are here to do something magnificent? 2. What if you suddenly found out that you are actually here to change the world for the better in your life time? Well here's a flash, even if you knew, you couldn't get past the first step without being able to build great relationships. And like everything human, great relationships can seem difficult to come by. Yet, they don't have to be. What if there was a Universal Formula for Creating Great Relationships? Well, there is, and it works like this:  Establish Common Ground There is an old saying, "Where there is no vision the people perish." (Proverbs 29:18, King James Bible) I believe this is true for individuals, relationships and groups. History has shown over and over again that relationships work best when they perceive a meaningful reason for them to exist. Great leaders and people with great relationships know that energy follows focus so they strive to create and maintain common ground. Their ever expanding conversations serve to grow and stretch each other and deepen their relationships. Great relationships are a gift, even the bumpy ones, because they cause us to question and examine our own thoughts and reactions to life. It's been said that we are never angry or upset at another person, but rather, we are angry or upset with the disowned part of ourselves that we perceive in the other person. Know What's Expected For those of you that are married and have kids, have you ever sat with them and shared your vision for your family? Within that context, have you had a discussion about expectations? What they expect of you and yes, what you expect of them? Perhaps if you began to view your family as a dynasty, one that's committed to making a difference in the world rather than simply surviving it, that would help. As you begin to think about this, you will naturally be faced with a critical question: do I seek to control them or engage them? Just be with the questions for now, we will discuss it more next month. Of course this can be done with your staff, clients and your content experts as well. Know Where You Stand The only way to know where you stand is to first know what's expected. Then, arrange a reoccurring time and place to get the appropriate feedback. My wife Frances and I for example, have a Friday night dinner ritual where we give our relationship a simple numerical rating of 1-10 based on five key areas. This way we are never far away from knowing where we stand. I've worked my way from being an unconscious knucklehead, to being the best husband in the Universe using this technique. Believe me, it works. Have the Courage to Engage It takes a lot of courage to be able to ask someone else to give you feedback based upon how they feel, especially in the beginning. And that’s where the common ground comes in. Frances and I are committed to one another's growth and development. This assures a safe space for expression and creates an eagerness to give and receive feedback about our behavior and beliefs. Next month: To control or engage? Copyright 2009 Thomas A. Voccola ________________________________________ 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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Back to Index | |
Don't miss Bill's presentations at the 2009 FPA
Convention October 10th-13th in Anaheim, California.  |
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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. |