Disconnected

Apr 3, 2020

What Is High Net Worth?

;

The HNW Disconnect

The average advisor is not able to interact with the conference big wigs that we see plastered all over social media. When we see posts from Carl Richards or Michael Kitces we know that the high end of wisdom is in the room. Yet, most financial professionals don’t have the time or the resources to rub elbows with these high end gurus. 

What can connect you with the great minds of financial services is social and digital media. Yet, the promise of good fortune seems to be more distant when we realize that the lives they live are well beyond our grasp. 

So what can you do as an average advisor to take advantage of the high end wisdom they espouse? 

Your model of value must be specific to your circumstances… you can’t achieve the greatness of the HNW advisors by simply copy and pasting what has been done by others… no matter how successful they might have been. 

Your model of success is dependent on the introspection that the “successful” HNW advisors have already gone through. 

It’s great to read and hear about the success of other advisors who are immersed in HNW business models, but your reality lies within your ability to emulate how they got there and not just a cookie cutter model of what they have done. 

Your success, like the success of HNW advisors, is dependent on introspection of your very unique circumstances. 

Your future is dependent on your ability to be honest with yourself about your value…  
Discover your value… Define it… Design your value for digital consumption.

 

Make your value tangible so you can survive and thrive in a robo world. 

Discover More

The best way for advisors to create a niche

Dec 3, 2019

Your Niche Is Out There

Why form a niche?

Why must you discover your niche? Not because it works… not because others have had success… because you can’t compete in the financial services industry on price. If you try, you will be replaced either by the industry, your firm or your clients. When the measure of your value is price alone, you become replaceable. You must become responsible for the ownership of the perception of your value. In doing so, you must find ideal like-minded clients to serve… because you can’t be all things to all people. Attempting to be a jack of all trades is the quickest way to be forced to exit this industry. Trust me when I say this, You don’t want to miss out on the next 10 years.

Clients that come to you for discounts will leave for discounts.

So you need a niche to remain relevant and become irreplaceable. Not because it may have worked for someone else.

1. You can’t compete on price.

2. You can’t be all things to all people.

3. Price becomes an issue in the absence of value.

4. Prescription without thorough diagnosis is malpractice.

5. Quality over quantity.

You must increase the quality of your clientele but you can’t afford to have your reputation tarnished by making promises you can’t keep. Your authentic value must be made available 24/7 for the world to see and here. This is not the corporate slogan or the company catchphrase… this begins with your client-centered purpose. You must own the words that define your authenticity and it all begins with your shared purpose. Ideal relationships are formed with a shared purpose… this is where you begin to carve out your niche.

To survive in the digital age advisors I must not compete on price… to thrive I must be able to increase the quality of my relationships by design. My process must become simplified yet productive. 

Your Process Must Empower You…

  • Connecting the dots of the critical components (simplification).
  • Building the foundation of your advisor alpha to create tangible value (exude value 24/7).
  • Expand tangible value to remain relevant and become irreplaceable (completing the process but never finishing).
  • Productive repetition by design (small steps).

You must get ideal clients…

you must remain relevant…

and you must become irreplaceable to keep ideal clients…

while you simultaneously expand the breadth and depth of your services 24/7.

Your niche can be formed by your purpose… in fact, it’s the only way to truly connect to your ideal audience in the new digital era of financial services.

 

Quality relationships begin with shared purpose.

 

I will pay you to solve my problems if you can prove to me that our end-game is mutual success.

~ Ideal Client

Discover Your Niche

Build On Purpose (3/3)

Oct 28, 2019

Building On Purpose

Part Three of Three
G

Building Your Business On Purpose Empowers You

 

In this three part blog post I am attempting to simplify what I have known to be fundamentally true about advisor value design for the past three decades… It can be tricky sometimes to simplify the complex.

 

This is part three of three. We pick up where we left off in part two…

 

A big part of what I do is trying to simplify what I have learned over the past 30 years in the financial services industry. The models and slides that I share freely can be the biggest piece of the puzzle for some advisors looking to break out of the opacity of the industry designed “black box” that defines advisor value. Building on purpose is a metaphor for doing the right thing all the time but it also can be physically modeled to demonstrate how a progression of value design can justify value while empowering advisors to take complete control over how their unique value is perceived. The big picture for advisors in the new digital age is control over perception… if you are an advisor you must become responsible for the definition and perception of your advisor alpha (advisor value). If you are counting on the industry to do this for you, you will be replaced by the industry.

 

Previously in parts one and two we touched on the purpose driven model to demonstrate exactly how advisors can ultimately promise their behavior.

Your relevance hinges on your ability to promise your behavior. By promising your behavior you are able to get and keep ideal clients with your digital filter. By promising your behavior you’re able to control the perception of your relevance. By promising your behavior you’re able to demand reciprocal actions from your trusted clients. By promising your behavior you’re able to gather feedback that matters. Your promises tied to behavior leads to the value that you control the most which allows you to take complete control over the perception of your value.


Earning trust controlling perception and creating collaborative relationships are the three main elements that are required for survival in a robo world.You must be able to promise your behavior to create that culture by design.

The progression of infinite advisor alpha empowers advisers to promise their behavior so they may remain relevant in a robo world.

We are now shifting from the slides that model how to earn trust by promising behavior to the infinite progression of advisor value development which empowers advisors to get and stay exactly where the want to be… a state of perpetual relevance.

 

Amplify the value that you can control. Take complete control over how that value is perceived. And maximize your relevance to get and keep ideal clients in a robo world.

This is what it means to build on purpose.

Earn trust, promise your behavior, demand reciprocal behavior, create trusted partners as clients, make your value tangible, gather feedback, continue to amplify your value and your business, and live your preferred life.

In order for your business to have a positive change 30 days from right now, you must start making incremental changes daily. And those incremental changes must add up in a way that makes sense. Your focus must be appropriate the system you choose to maximize your relevance must make complete sense and you must carry the discipline that it takes to make incremental improvements daily.

Organized
Efficient
Simplified
Driven
Realistic
Interesting
Fun
Adaptive
On-point
Relevant
Healthy

It’s all about you.

This is where you want to be.

Ultimately you are earning trust by becoming accountable because you’re able to promise the behavior that leads to the value that you can control the most. Which is exactly why your ideal audience should be paying you.

 

Build your business on purpose.

 

Discover more.
Part Two of ThreePart One of Three

Meaningful Engagement

Oct 15, 2019

More Content That Matters

The content that you publish must be relevant to your ideal audience…

That’s it.

You don’t have time to generate siloed content to put behind gated walls to gather emails (spam emails) of potential clients to put in a sales funnel to harass with an email campaign that creates a cost center for your business.
Those days are over.

Your content must create meaningful engagement for clients and prospects in one fell swoop.

Your published engagement must cause action… the action for your clients is to stay and continue to pay you. The action for prospects is to leave their current situation for your unique services (if they qualify).

Your position as a trusted wealth steward allows you to publish your beliefs and opinions without hesitation. Your client-centered purpose guides you in the direction of what topics to publish. Your behavior must be promised to elicit reciprocal actions (you promise yours, they promise theirs).

The topics you publish have been designed to lead the engagement to your unique value, but moreover, the unique value you control the most (no compliance required).

The way you see marketing must be different than what we have been taught.

Your marketing campaigns must generate revenue… not leads.

There is no time for legacy tactics in a robo-world.

The progression to generate meaningful engagement can only be found here.

Discover More

Get Better

Oct 8, 2019

You're Good

Get Better

Improve your advisor value in less than two minutes every day.

Define your client-centered purpose.

Publish your principles.

Share your opinions.

Document your experiences.

Define your expertise.

Promise your behavior.

Become exclusive (You can’t survive in a robo-world by being all things to all people).

Develop your philosophy.

Become omnipresent.

Create topics for meaningful engagement.

Ask better questions.

Gather better feedback.

These are the 12 disciplines of advisor survival in a robo-world.

Get Better

Right Now