Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

What would you rather wear in front of the world: this [skimpy swimsuit] or this [Olympic medal]?

…

When I’m speaking to audiences I use both my swimsuit and the Olympic medal as props. Funnily enough, at the end of each talk, many people want to put this [medal] on and take photos, and that’s fine. No one has yet asked me if they can put the swimsuit on to take a selfie in.

That is much of what our business life is like: we have goals and aspirations of growing our business and reaping those end rewards. That’s fine to have that as our focus, but we’ve got to realize the day-to-day mundane activities require a lot of plain stuff – a lot of stuff we would normally shun or resist and really just want to get here [to the reward] as fast as we can.

Growing a financial services business and bringing on that first million-dollar client or that first five-million-dollar client is fantastic, but the day-to-day reality means that you’re going to make yourself vulnerable learning new language to ask for referrals. Or you’re going to be a little bit uncomfortable the first time you clarify about the two pieces of your business – the investment piece and the financial planning piece. Those are aspects that you’re going to present to a prospect that initially can have you feeling uncomfortable, slightly worried, maybe, about how is this going to sound.

I want to encourage you: you keep going through these [uncomfortable] times. This [swimsuit] was my day-to-day uniform; this is what it took to win my Olympic medal. It meant wearing this [suit] on a daily basis to get to this medal, that really, relatively speaking, I only ever wore for a couple of minutes (which compared to the time spent in this [swimsuit] wasn’t much at all).

I want to encourage you to take stock of those aspects of your business that might feel uncomfortable that you know you need to execute well.

So,

1. Identify those seemingly mundane, boring, even uncomfortable activities and steps that you know need to implement into your business to really maximize your full potential.
2. Commit to doing those things. Implement them daily. Practice them as much as you can, at every opportunity. You’re not going to hit it right the first time, but over the long haul, you’ll get better and better at it.
3. Therefore, be patient. It takes time. So many people want to pursue these Olympic medals, but there are no shortcuts to the top. Thirteen years were spent in this swimsuit to enjoy wearing this medal for maybe a minute or two at the end of that race. Fortunately now, at fifty-one, I don’t have to wear this anymore, but the success lasts and lasts.

Oh, and by the way, thanks for your feedback last week regarding our landscaping project. As you can see, this beautiful fountain and water feature behind me is not part of it! We’re in downtown Greenville. I’d love it to be that way. We do have a water feature, which we’ll put in another post coming up, but until then, I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.