Without the right mindset, it’s impossible to determine if where and how you practice is indeed best for you, your business, and your clients.
Every so often, taking a step back and looking at your business life from a bird’s eye view is essential. Forget the nitty gritty details you’re mired in for a moment: just stop to take stock.
Why? Because, much like building a house, the foundation must be strong. Put another way, we believe that without the right mindset, it’s impossible to determine if where and how you practice is indeed best for your business and clients.
These points may be a bit more nebulous and cerebral than our normal due-diligence-centric teach pieces, but they’re no less critical. Actually, this may be the single most important advice we provide all year—because all advisors, regardless of size, location, business model, or any other factor, can readily implement the practices described herein.
No doubt you’re saying, “Who has the time?” So, I challenge you to invest just a few minutes in one of these five techniques each day over a week.
You’ll find that by developing a consistent practice around these mindset techniques – whether once a month, once a quarter, or once a year – the result will be greater clarity and awareness. And that is the foundation that leads to being a better advisor for yourself, your team, your firm, and your clients.
- Press pause.
Taking a break every once in a while is the healthiest thing you can do for yourself and your business. It brings balance back to your life, allows you to replenish, and actually fosters a sense of creativity, passion, joy, and commitment. The time you take to replenish allows those who support you to step up to the plate: To shine, thrive, figure things out, and be leaders. They can revel in the opportunity to grow, create, and become more self-reliant, which in turn gives them a greater sense of purpose and confidence. And lastly, pressing “PAUSE” means that the universe continues to do its thing whether you’re in charge of mission control or not. Things unfold as they are meant to. In fact, when you let go, things often have a way of turning out better than you might have planned.
- Heed your inner voice.
While this isn’t a self-help article, we know from our hundreds of daily conversations with top financial advisors that even the industry’s best and brightest struggle with the “inner battle.” That is, the voice in our head simultaneously sends two conflicting messages: one that cheers us on and the other that holds us back. It’s essential to be mindful of your thoughts, but know that they don’t define you. Try using a positive mantra or repeated phrase whenever negative thoughts creep in. That inner struggle does not need to be a constant. While inaction is an option, it will likely keep you from finding and achieving your full potential. Learning to trust the “right voice” – your gut instinct – can allow you to stretch beyond the edges that constrain you.
- Focus on process, not results.
Our industry is obsessed with results. And in our society, that means utilizing an objective measure of success like dollars and cents. What might that look like? For example, you may say, “My business generated record revenue this year, so I had a good year.” And while there is nothing inherently wrong with being outcome-oriented, it obscures the most important part of the puzzle: the process. If you have a good process and do things the right way, you needn’t care about the outcome. Good things should follow simply because you are consistently committed to doing the right thing with excellence and without regard for your own personal financial gain.
- Ask yourself the right questions.
We recently worked with a wirehouse advisor who was one of the top 20 largest advisors in the industry. “I’ve built an incredible business, I make stupid money, but I’m woefully unhappy,” he said. Why? Because he never stopped to ask himself the right questions. For him, the right question might have been, “What does happiness look like for me?” Or “What do I want to be when I grow up?” If he had asked these high-level questions, he might have realized that it wouldn’t matter if he generated $100mm in annual revenue. His true north was doing right by his clients, and he felt he had grown so large that he couldn’t pay each the time or attention they deserved. If he had stopped to ask the right questions 10 or 5 or even two years ago, he might not feel as he does.
- Speak your truth and detach from the outcome.
This is effectively a 3-step process. Step 1 is to determine your core values: those guiding principles that will act as your North Star through thick and thin. That’s the hard part: It requires introspection and honesty and can take years to hone. Step two is being confident in those values and using them to inform every decision you make publicly and privately. Lastly, the “detach from the outcome” piece means living with the results—knowing that even if they are sub-optimal, they were rooted in sound logic and a process-driven approach.
No doubt, staying up to date on an ever-changing industry landscape is critical to compete and thrive. But it’s also equally important to check in with yourself periodically to ensure your thoughts and goals are well-aligned with your path and that your foundation remains strong.
As seen on WealthManagement.com…
