In this episode, what I want to talk about is everybody’s favorite subject. Adversity. Right?
Obviously, it’s not. But if you live at all and you’re in business in any shape or form, let’s face it
adversity is going to show up on your doorstep. It’s not a question of “If” but it’s a question of “When” and “How many times”.I want to share with you
some strategiesthat I’ve developed, in my 25+ years of coaching advisors on how to deal with adversity.Let’s talk about adversity first and define it.
All adversity is not created equal. In my experience, there are two types of adversity. One is
internal adversity, which I’ll explain in a moment, and then the second one is
external adversity.What are the differences?
Internal adversity, for the lack of a better word, is self-imposed. It’s something you created on your own. For example, it maybe that you stopped your morning ritual or your daily game plan.Or you’re just on survival mode. You’re not going to the gym, your energy level sucks, or your health is not
in good shape. Things like that are internally focused. External adversity , in essence, are things that happen outside of our control. The best example that I can use here is the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009, we had a lifetime’s worth of external adversities in about six months.
Things like economic scenarios, market scenarios, geopolitical scenarios or the weather right here in Florida. We have hurricanes, right? That’s external adversity. In California, you have wildfires and droughts. This past winter in Michigan you had ice storms. Again, external adversity.There are things that happen that we don’t control.
The bottom l ine is, you need to have strategies in advance. You need to have a game plan to handle these pieces of adversity when they show up.Some of you may be saying or thinking, “Wait a second. Isn’t this being negative?”
No. It is about preparation. For example, here in Florida. I have a game plan if a Category 5 hurricane comes over Melbourne, FL. and totally destroys my house. I’m going to be in Atlanta, GA
within 24-48 hours.I’ll be getting a VRBO and I have everything in the cloud if everything is thrashed. Then, I’ll go to BestBuy and get a new computer. I’ll be up and running in 48 hours. I’ll be in Buckhead in Atlanta. Why?
Because I’ve done the research and I’m set to go.Let me ask you another question. If your office building burned down tonight, do you have a plan that says, “If I cannot access my office, here is how I’m going to move forward”. If you do not have that, you need to create one.Again, this is not negative thinking. This is preparation. If adversity shows, what must we do?
O ne thing that we don’t want to do is just pretend that it doesn’t exist and have this psychology that I’ m just going to “out effort” it.I’m just going to sit there and plow through it. I’m a tough dude or I’m going to make it happen.That is to me, the same scenario as, I went for a hike in the forest, I’m lost. I’m going to run now, and run with my head down not caring what direction I’m in.
If you run with your head down in the forest, you’re going to either run into or run off of something. Nothing good comes of it. Same thing with adversity.You cannot just put your head down and work.
Y ou’ve got to take a pause and look around and survey options. This is why pre-planning is so important.For you on teams. What if a key team member has to take a leave of absence? Maybe they have a phase going on in their life. What’s our plan for that? How do we handle that?These are just some scenarios you may want to take a look at. Whether the adversity is internal or external, here are some rules that I’d want to share with you as a part of this episode. Number one,
Simplification.In other words,
what you’ve got to look at is truly what is important , what is the core and what can be temporarily eliminated.As an advisor, your core is our
“Magellan Core 5”, right? First, we adhere to our morning ritual no matter what.
Keep your mind right.Second,
we need to stay in the communication contact game , right? Third is that we need to make sure we serve our clients, review our clients, update their financial plans.Fourth, we still need to talk about introductions, referrals.
We still need to be in the “Growth Mode”. Referrals and introductions are the easiest way to grow our business because it doesn’t require a campaign.Lastly, we would always need to keep our KPIs.
We always need to track how we’re doing. So those are the Core 5.In other places, quite frankly, you may simply go, ” You know what? We can’t take on events right now” so we pull them off. Conferences are a no go so we pull them off.
You just scrape everything off until you get to your core.When you’re in adversity,
running a simplified model will get you through it and keep you on track. A lot of times, and I’ve had these happen pretty much every year of my career, one of my client’s key staff member will go on a maternity leave. Depending on the stage, it can be just a couple of months or sometimes maybe even almost half of the year!If you know that’s coming in, what happens next? We’re going to bring in a temp in or you’ll say let’s not do this and we just start pulling back some things temporarily and we keep our core moving forward.Related:
How to Optimize and Leverage Your Business for Maximum ProfitsRelated:
Why Client Insecurities Will Wreck Most Advisors’ Careers T he other thing that you must do when you face adversity is to determine what’s important. Let’s talk about concentric circles for a second.
You must take care of yourself first.Taking care of yourself is the first priority and I’ll explain in a bit. The second thing will be the people you care about, both personally and professionally. Then the others.As an example, when the airplane is ready to take off, remember what they say about the oxygen mask?
“Put on YOURS first. Then help others”. That’s self-care.
In adversity, the same rule applies. You must make sure you have a plan to take care of yourself. Be it your morning ritual, your nutrition or your exercise program.At some levels it may seem counterintuitive because our brains will be in crisis mode and we’ll just go ahead and attack the problem. The issue with that is
you lose your edge once the adrenaline wears off.Once you lose your edge, you then start creating a series of bad habits and patterns that makes you less and less effective. If that happens, then you’ll really just go into survival mode.
My strategy is designed to keep you out of survival mode. It may not be in high thrive mode but, realistically speaking, in a place where you can say, “I can handle this”.Again, this is not negative thinking but about preparation. So, the next time you have your team meeting or if you’re a “solo-preneur”, ask yourself and your team, “What would happen if we were unable to access our building. How would we set up shop? Think about that.Think about what would happen if you were unable to perform your duties as an advisor for 90 days. How would you handle that? Again, this is about thinking like a business owner. You need to recognize that.
A dversity will come your way regardless of your age. Always have a plan B, C and D. If you’re self-aware and break your patterns down you’ll see the time where “the bill comes due”.At some point in your life you’re “going to pay the piper” and you don’t want to do that.
Life is too precious. Just be honest with yourself. Am I creating some sort of potential adversity down the road for me by the way I’m living my life?
Recognize those preventable or solvable problems and always have plans in place. That being said, thank you for listening and thank you for watching this episode of The Magellan Network Show. Love to see you. Subscribe to my
YouTube channel,
podcast,
PracticePower.net and
MagellanNetwork.net. Come check me out and let me help you . Have a great day!
