Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

Seeing people post pictures of the books they’ve read can feel intimidating. Here’s how to get through your own stack of books, even if you’re not a voracious reader.
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Last week I was flying to San Diego for one of our Ash Brokerage roadshows with advisors. I was seated in front of two people having a conversation about someone within their company posting about all they achieved. The two people behind me mentioned how irritating they found their colleague’s continual posts about the number of books they read along with their own commentary on the books.

Oftentimes advisors feel like they should be reading more and want to be reading more to be able to offer different ideas to clients. But, understandably, were busy people, and it can be somewhat daunting when we want to get through some major best sellers out there to be able to promote ideas to our clients. But there’s an easy way to do this.

Mike McGlothlin, our Head of Retirement at Ash Brokerage, posted several weeks ago mentioning that he sets himself a goal of reading 10 pages a day. And so I worked this out: if you read 10 pages a day, five days a week, that’s 50 pages a week for 50 weeks a year, and you have read 2,500 pages within a year. Now, once you’ve read 2,500 pages of great books, this is the stack that you’re actually going to have completed! You’re going to have your own stack of very cool books you’ve read, and you can take your own picture to post on social media, but most importantly, you’re going to have read some really neat authors! (I mean obviously, first and foremost is The Distraction-Proof Advisor by yours truly, which goes without saying.🤣) But my point is 10 pages a day—that’s easy to do!

Now when you look at these stacks of books people are displaying, they’re intimidating until you break it down. So I’m encouraging you to do just that. To achieve your own stack of reading by year-end,

1. Break it down. Choose to read 10 pages a day, and that’s it. Just those 10 pages.


2. Take notes. When I’m reading my 10 pages each day, I have a little Post-It Note pad beside me, and I write down ideas that really pop off the page to me. Then I put my Post-It Note on that page so I can easily find that information if I want to refer back to it or share it with someone.


3. Take the picture of yourself with your own stack of completed books and post it, if that’s something you want to do, not to brag, but to encourage people by telling them how you did it, with a social media post like this one. You can also send copies of the books that you find especially helpful to clients with some highlighted passages that you found most memorable and useful.

It’s a great way to complete your own stack of books, let people see the kind of content you’re reading, become even smarter with how you can help people, and stay most informed.

Enjoy your reading, and I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.