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“Everything works…some of the time.” Domenick Swentosky, author of Troutbitten.com and Fly Fishing Guide in State College, PA
Dom is a friend and massive mentor to me in the #flyfishing world. I have had the extreme pleasure of having him guide me several times and am now at the point where I will go out with him at least two (if not more) times per year.
How does that apply to growing your financial services business? In just about every possible way and that is good and bad at the same time. I have looked back over years and years of experience training, coaching and consulting and tried to find the common elements that led to client success and this blog is my attempt at a ‘DIY’ guide for the successful FA to help choose a path to the next level.
Problem
There are a ton of good options for FA’s that want to learn how to grow their business:
Training courses
Coaching programs
Marketing services
Technology stacks
Consultants
Conferences
and many more!
All of it is good, or, can be good. What makes any of them great (for you) is whether or not you (a) believe it will work and (b) execute upon what you learn.
How the heck, if everything works some of the time, do I find what will work for me all of the time?!?
We have all taken a course and/or sat through a speech and gotten inspired by a nugget or two of great information and then not implemented. That is not a bad thing, but frustration grows when you keep experiencing that.
Where do I start in my decision making process?!?
At the beginning. What has worked for you in the past and why do you feel it did so?
I am not saying that you need to repeat that tactic/strategy the same as before (maybe)
You have too many choices and I have one suggestion: look for a way to leverage multiple options in one choice.
A good starting point is a current mentor of yours. Share with them what your goals are and get their input. Check with your peers that you trust and ask them what is working for them. Don’t forget to ask your business owner clients as well.
My best recommendation to meet that criteria is a professionally moderated mastermind/peer advisor council that is focused on multiple areas of growth for your industry and filled with peers that are not competitive. At the end of the day you only have so much time and financial resources. If possible, try to ensure that what you choose has options to grow in its impact on you personally and professionally.
An example would be a new program I am launching in June of 2024 (you can do this on your own if you want to). The program will combine the following:
- Monthly, virtual peer advisory council meeting (mastermind) with 10 owners of financial advisory practices from different geographic locations (no overlap).
- Embedded training in the monthly meeting on my proprietary referral system.
- Quarterly reviews with each member focused on value growth of their firm and their personal development.
- Private online community for members to get ongoing Q&A from myself and from other members.
- A private link to my calendar to grab 15 minutes for urgent work whenever needed.
I am excited about being able to, in an extended time frame, leverage and layer multiple learning and coaching formats for my clients. The challenge I share with you is I can only work with so many clients at a time. Currently, this program is restricted to 20 advisors that own their own firm and I already have 8 slots filled at the time of this blog.
You can do this on your own. Of course, when you hire someone else to handle the administration and moderation you are going to pay for that time. I would strongly advise you, if you go after this on your own, to get a copy of Tina Corner Stolz’s great book on mastermind groups: Your Seat at the Table: How to Create and Run Your Own Peer Advisory Council
No matter what, I would highly recommend advisors join some kind of mastermind group and make decisions about what/how based upon your level of impatience and resources. The key to making it work is (remember above?) (a) believing it will work and (b) executing upon it.
Related: Bad Referrals? Almost an Oxymoron