The Authentic Advisor

In episode 8 of ‘The Authentic Advisor’ podcast, James Mason Managing Director of Mindshop is joined by David Smith, Managing Partner of MHA Henderson Loggie, Chartered Accountants, Tax and Business Advisors a 110 year old firm with four offices across Scotland. David shares his journey in growing MHA Henderson Loggie’s advisory businesses, exploring how the development of four Growth Hubs supported by one to one coaching became a conduit for further advisory work and firm-wide referrals. David outlines the internal development activities that have underpinned the success of building advisory capabilities, not only within the dedicated advisory team, but across all departments and seniority levels, from school leavers through to partners and the executive management team. Use of smart technology has also been a foundation of how David and his team have scaled up advisory work especially through the pandemic, from offering online coaching and training to pivoting to online workshops. He talks about overcoming early challenges and shares what he would have done differently to avoid mistakes made in implementing advisory services. If you or your firm are looking to create or scale up your business advisory offering then this is the podcast for you!

Michael Burke is an independent advisor who works with business leaders to develop and implement high performing strategies, through strategy development, implementation coaching and executive problem solving. In this episode Mike and James Mason, Managing Director of Mindshop take a deep dive into the evolution of delivering strategic planning support services as an advisor to align with the changing times. Packed with information, Mike talks about how to apply agile tactics to strategy development with clients, encouraging incubation of ideas and using the agile concepts of minimum viable product, pivot or persevere and contrarian thinking. Mike talks about how creativity in strategic planning is essential, but on the flipside that strategies should not take eons, creating volumes of plans only to collect dust on the shelf. Within a rapidly changing world, the need for a strategic plan to be a guide rather than set in concrete is discussed. As Dwight Eisenhower said, 'planning is everything, the plan is nothing'. Mike shares his key tips for helping clients implement plans successfully, looking at risk, using forward thinking tools like strategic SWOT and how to help clients prepare for 'black swan' events. He shares his ideas on how to get the best out of a client's strategic planning session, setting pre-work, how to navigate planning session pitfalls and the importance of avoiding the 'cookie cutter' approach. A 'must listen' podcast for any advisor offering strategic planning services to keep ahead of the pack.

Mike Boyle, Mindshop's resident sales scientist from Sales Shift Australia joins James Mason, Mindshop's Managing Director to talk all things sales for advisors. With a long career in direct sales, sales management and consulting, Mike helps clients boost their sales performance through training, coaching and leadership strategy development. Discussing what selling advisory actually means in the current environment and how the market has changed over recent years, Mike touches on the critical shift advisors need to make from 'being right', with a focus on technical capabilities to being a facilitator with the attributes needed to problem solve for clients, all summed up in the mantra 'fall in love with customers' problems not your solutions'. Mike talks about the power of asking questions to connect the dots based on data and insights and the continuing importance of building the fundamentals - sales processes, strong referrals and demonstrating proof of capability whilst being authentic to yourself.

There are a multitude of business and personal profiling tools out there, with 25 years' experience in the market, Susannah Brade-Waring, Managing Director of Aspirin Business Solutions, UK talks to Mindshop's Managing Director James Mason about why she selects particular profiling tools over others, the benefits they provide and how best to integrate them as part of a wider advisory business model. Discussion moves to the fundamentals of profiling, the different uses for personality profiling tools versus Motivational Maps® and how to align them with to Mindshop's five phases of business advisory. Susannah talks about how profiling can assist in gathering data and insights, start problem-solving conversations and engage people to co-create, build trust and ultimately successfully implement strategies, revealing some of the hidden traps for advisors contemplating including profiling tools in their advisory offerings with some invaluable tips for success.

Psychologist, coach, author and speaker Dr Darryl Cross joins Mindshop's Managing Director James Mason to discuss how advisors and their clients can build resilience to succeed in both their personal and professional lives. Dr Cross is a clinical and organisational psychologist with a career spanning government and academic roles, he subsequently established a private practise to deliver management consulting to help leaders, individuals and family businesses. In an uncertain, volatile world full of stresses, now compounded by a global pandemic, resilience has never been so vital. Dr Cross discusses how adapting well in the face of adversity, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress can give the mental toughness to see through bad times and provide energy to others. Leaders especially need resilience to show teams they are coping in the face of adversity and can lead the way. In turn, advisors need to build resilience to deliver energy and practical advice to these leaders, becoming a trusted 'sidekick' in tough times. Dr Cross provides three essential tips to address attributes that could be holding you back, to build resilience levels and be a better leader or advisor.

In this 'must listen' podcast for those in accounting firms who want to provide exceptional advisory services through the effective use of technology, James Mason is joined by Dixie McCurley, Co-Founder and President of Trusted CFO Solutions based in Atlanta, USA. Dixie shares her decade long experience in the provision of virtual CFO services and reveals the key elements to her success. Starting in corporate accounting Dixie moved to CPA firms where her specialty was setting up accounting systems for SME's. After co-founding Trusted CFO Solutions over a decade ago she reveals her secrets to becoming the heart beat of a client's business as a trusted advisor using real time numbers coupled with expert analysis to remotely deliver advisory and CFO services. Dixie covers how to successfully shift from traditional to digital services including the importance of using real time metrics combined with advisory tools (such as Gap Analysis and One Page Plans) to dig deeper into issues and formulate strategies. Revealing the key applications she uses to be an essential and embedded part of the team from collaboration tools to payroll and ERP systems whilst still working remotely, this podcast is also full of tips on avoiding implementation pitfalls (such as the client self-service and cookie-cutter dashboard traps), as well as ideas on how to price client engagements to be remunerated appropriately for value delivered.

In the second episode of 'The Authentic Advisor' podcast series, Mindshop's Managing Director, James Mason interviews Craig Stanmore, CEO of Enspira Financial, an advisory and accounting firm based in Sydney, Australia. James and Craig discuss the different ways business advisors can improve efficiency and capacity and how using various technologies can assist in 'unlocking the numbers' to problem solve for clients. The conversation then turns to how creating capacity through leverage does not necessarily bring automatic business advisory success, as capability, business acumen and experience are mandatory to build trusted client/advisor relationships.

In the inaugural episode of 'The Authentic Advisor' Mindshop's Managing Director, James Mason interviews James Atkins, Director of Vantage Strategy, who shares his experience and ideas on marketing insights to create cut through in a cluttered business advisory market. James works with boards as an advisor and director, he is Chairman of Big 4 Holiday Parks and Greening Australia, is a non-executive director of the .au Domain Administration, the Connective Group and Circus Oz.