The Perfect RIA

Key Links Magellan MasterMind & Network: Page The financial advising program that Matt references: Academy of Preferred Advisors ----------------- In this episode, the dynamic duo, Matt and Micah, are back to talk about their previous episode with Joe Lukacs. Because of time constraints in addition to the importance of the subject material, Matt and Micah (M&M) wanted to take a whole episode and analyze the insights and principles that "Coach Joe" introduced to listeners. They also express a "hindsight is 20/20" type of regret for these concepts they wished they had known about and implemented in their practice many years prior to their first meeting with Coach Joe/Matthew's respective coach. And so, for the benefit of seasoned pros and fledgling entrepreneurs, listeners are bequeathed the invaluable advice from a man who wrote the book on financial investing. Micah starts the discussion by explaining his own relationship with Joe and the usual route both Joe and Micah take in their business relationship. This means they talk once a month, go over important details about Micah's practice, and meet face-to-face a few times a year. Coach Joe also has a mastermind group called Magellan MasterMind & Network which Micah is involved with, all for the purpose of establishing highly profitable lifestyle practices, as well as reinforcement from fellow RIA's and professionals. And on the flip side, Matthew shares that he takes weekly calls from his own coach. But despite the differing dynamics at play, both see immense benefit in their respective coaches, noticing positive trends towards forward-thinking in their own lives because of it. Also, as Coach Joe pointed out to both Micah and Matt, it is extremely important to reinvest either 5% of your gross revenue or 10% of your net into your own personal development. To simplify this process, Micah likes to have a separate account just for personal development. The reason being that it can quickly become unnecessarily confusing to differentiate business funds and other financial holdings--the process is made much simpler when everything is financially compartmentalized. They also talk about the importance of being a part of a mastermind--but with a caveat. Joining a mastermind should be done when all parties present have "skin in the game" and where the mastermind itself doesn't become a full-time job. Some other important topics discussed on the episode consist of not falling for the "next big thing" in marketing or the shiniest widget designed for flawless output; instead, focusing on what you know, on one particular modality, so as not to waste valuable time and energy or spread yourself thin in the industry. The point being that long-term plays are the most important. The truly valuable enterprises will ultimately take a long time to establish, but are invaluable to have implemented. Matt and Micah also echo Coach Joe's sentiments on morning rituals before stressing once again the absolute importance of finding a financial coach.

Key Links The financial advising program that Matt references: Academy of Preferred Advisors Joe's free program: PracticePower International Performance Group: Website Magellan MasterMind & Network: Page ---------------------------- Micah Shilanski's coach for the better part of fifteen years, Joe Lukacs, is the guest of this episode. And within the time allotted, Joe disrupts the usual gamut of topics discussed for some interesting insights he has gained over the years. One of the first topics that he brings up is boredom. More specifically, how a coach can handle the boredom brought upon by holding too comfortable a position in the industry. As is common in most vocational positions, Joe knows just how detrimental a comfort zone can become for a coach. He says that human beings are happiest when we are in "expansion mode." That is, we are challenging ourselves, learning, and overall expanding our repertoire. In short, to stave off boredom and to prevent a harmful mentality from developing, challenge yourself and challenge your clients. He says that as soon as one thinks they have figured something out is the first day they start to slide from any lofty position they may have held. Don't hasten the backwards slide and don't let yourself get bored. Another crucial segment in this talk is when Coach Joe talks about the middle stage that all successful investors must move past to truly reach prosperity in their practice. He calls it the "pivot point to prosperity." According to Joe, there are three different levels of being a financial advisor. The first being what he calls a "scarcity startup." Essentially, this is the stage where advisors are paying the bills and keeping the lights on. The second, advisors are sustainable and abundant--this is the comfort zone and the most tempting stage to never pull one's self out of. This is the stage that advisors need to pole vault out of to reach prosperity. And the last is where the magic happens, where the future is realized and plans of "what's next?" become further cemented and realized. To get there though, failures mustn't be avoided, but instead, encouraged; it is the crucial time to take risks and to avoid regrets of not having taken the chance to expand when the opportunity was there. And Joe encourages advisors to never stop chasing the next thing. Don't be failure-phobic. Lastly, Joe talks about the importance of surrounding yourself with a network (or tribe as Joe calls it) that inspires you, bolsters your practice, and ultimately reinforces beneficial mindsets of abundance for your personal development. Joining a mastermind is brought up as a strategy for obtaining all of this; meaning that deep, lasting friendships are developed as well as valuable support for your enterprise. This is one of the most important techniques for shifting your mindset from complacency to prosperity. Some other important action points are laid down by Joe, Micah, and Matt. These include, establishing a morning success ritual, reinvesting 5%-10% of your total revenue in yourself for the purpose of personal development, and last but not least, joining a mastermind group.

Key Links The 'Sleep On It' Jarvis Financial Process Carl Richards Book on the One-Page Financial Plan -------------------- Most financial planners thrive on helping people. In addition to having an affinity for numbers, many CFP's share in common the desire to take in an innumerable amount of clients as a means for bringing more reassurance and financial security to the biggest pool of people as possible. Unfortunately though, there is only a finite amount of clients that one can possibly meet with. In addition, clients also have to bring in enough capital to sustain the entire practice. This means that tough decisions need to be made for the sustainability of the business itself. But how does one go about insulating one's self from unprofitable clients or safeguard one's time from borderline charitable acts instead of profit-driven endeavors? For managing and dealing with complicated circumstance like this, simplicity is key. Either refer unprofitable clients to other ventures who can help them or like guest Neil Rossiter implements in his own practice, send them to a junior advisor instead of another firm. Another way of looking at this is when Matthew states that he likes to give the analogy that some customers approach him looking for brain surgery instead of the heart surgery that his firm provides. And much like the many specialists who comprise the spectrum of the medical profession, so to the financial world is replete with specialists who have their own function. Matthew offers a simple solution to the problem. In addition, this episode delves into the importance of streamlining the process from which clients can get ahold of the financial planner. Matthew states that instead of wasting time and being constantly interrupted, there is a simple but powerful solution for having too porous a barrier between client and advisor: what needs to be done is that unless in an emergency, the client will always be scheduled to talk to Matt or Neil usually by next day. And then once questioned if the nature of the call is administrative or financial advice, sometimes the admin can actually do the work and minimize the scheduled call from actually taking place. This strategy provides simplicity to what was potentially a convoluted process. And last but not least, the one-page financial plan makes a reappearance for the sake of streamlining and simplicity. Matthew ends the episode by providing two action items: Don't take incoming phone calls unless by emergency or appointment and start trying and practicing the Carl Richards, one-page financial plan that has been a staple of the Perfect RIA podcast.

To start this episode, Micah Shilanski provides a very valuable comparison between the mentalities of a shopkeeper and a CEO. He starts this way to illustrate the often erroneous assumption that many business owners make about the amount of time they should devote per day to their practice. Workdays start to become these open-to-close events that are very quantity-over-quality phenomenons. Instead, there is an incessant need to optimize days like a visionary or CEO would; doing things efficiently will ultimately transcend the quantity of hours spent. Micah also points out that having a shopkeeper mentality doesn't make much sense because most financial advisors or business owners aren't paid by the hour, but instead by result. Sure, if it takes you twelve hours on a given day to see the best results for your client, that might be true, but consistently overworking and creating busywork are bad habits to cultivate. Matthew Jarvis then rides the momentum of this concept and admits an area in his own daily practice that isn't very productive. He stresses that reading the Wall Street Journal makes him feel like he is busy, but the pressure to always feel busy is detrimental to the overall value of his practice. For the next hour, instead of spending time on bringing actual monetary value to his firm, he spends an hour reading opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal. By his own admission, the time is perhaps wasted. To keep the ball rolling, Micah states that there should be an alarm system of sorts in place: a self-administered system of checks and balances that one can use to test if the time being spent is worth a thousand dollars an hour (or five hundred); and through that metric, personal accountability is possible and the value of your firm will only increase. And to keep themselves accountable to what they preach, both Micah and Matt use "forcing mechanisms"--a concept they have underlined in previous episodes as an accountability system and value-building mechanism that one forces oneself to stick to. The forcing mechanism that Matt uses is he looks at a picture of his wife and kids on his desk and asks himself if he could look his family in the eye and say something along the lines of: "Hey, I'm sorry I worked late tonight, but I really had to get the Wall Street Journal read." These type of mechanisms really provide a positive framework for how valuable your workday can and should be. Lastly, during the talk, Matthew accentuates four key things that advisors should do to save themselves from cultivating a shopkeeper mentality: (1) Eliminate pop-ups, alerts, distractions like email or anything that constantly pulls you away from the task you are focusing on.(2) Don't waste time on guilty pleasures: things like social media or games that you find yourself gravitating towards at all times of the day. (3) Implement a backup plan just in case clients cancel or time is freed up in another way; this way time is always spent productively and with purpose, instead of aimlessly. (4) Lastly, train your employees and clients that you are not available at all times of the day, but only in designated slots. And a bonus thing to consider is to have a clean desk policy to minimize all paperwork that accumulates and to clear your headspace.

Key links Episode 2 (featuring Gina Cotner) of The Perfect RIA Gina Cotner's website for virtual assistants: Athena Executive Services The financial advising program that Matt was enrolled in: Academy of Preferred Advisors The two books referenced in this episode: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell & The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss Matthew Jarvis's prospecting process -------------------- If you are currently successful, so-so, struggling, in a down quarter, thinking about quitting or unsure of where to turn regarding your practice, Matthew Jarvis has some valuable advice to give. In this episode, he explains to fellow advisor Adam Hersh that there are a few important concepts necessary for elevating your practice to its optimal level. This is done by centering your focus on time blocking, prospecting, defining a clear client-service model, and staffing. Because of his six years spent with Tom Gau and Ken Unger's coaching program, The Academy of Preferred Financial Advisors (APFA), Matthew learned a lot and transposed those ideas to fit his own practice. He explains that the concepts he learned while in that program helped him work with retirees, gave him ideas for how to naturally increase his network, which in turn led to robust opportunities for prospecting new clients. Also, Matthew gives Adam some good advice on prospecting potential clients and expanding his network when he suggests that he teach free college classes at the community college. The reason for this being that those who attend a three hour lecture (one with an overabundance of information) are bound to come up and ask questions after the lecture--which is a perfect icebreaker for generating a new client. Matthew also explains the importance of being a young financial advisor and being able to assure clients that you are there for the long haul, that you won't be retiring before them. He also talks a little about delegation, and how Adam should hire a virtual assistant to do some of the non-value tasks (like paperwork) that he spends so much time on. Referring back to the second episode of The Perfect RIA, he recommends Gina Cotner's platform: Athena Executive Services as an invaluable resource for this. Finishing up his talk, he has five key takeaways that one can utilize for generating a more valuable practice: These are as follows: Ideally, designate a day of the week which is proactively spent on just working on your business. For example, you could make this a Monday, where the phones are off the hook, and you are proactively working to generate more value for your practice. Pick five non-value tasks to delegate or eliminate. Read Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point Read or reread Tim Ferriss's book The 4-Hour Workweek Remind yourself that doing is the key to all success, and just knowing is not enough.

Key Links Math Diagram -------------------------------------- As the title states, this episode is all about determining a fee schedule for clients—that is, what a fair rate to charge clients for services rendered should be. Instead of making it complicated, both Matt and Micah stress over and over again that simplicity is key when it comes to your fee. Also, just as important as simplicity, is the cost-value structure that you set up. This isn't as complicated as it seems. What is meant by cost-value structure is determined by what your goals are. If you have ambitions to keep growing your firm's revenue or assets, then keeping your prices high enough to meet that goal means that your cost-value structure has been correctly formulated. Lastly, Matt and Micah talk about raising rates and how much the process varies over time. But one should never negotiate prices. Staying fixed, usually only rising and never falling in price, conveys that you will only keep growing. Not having a business plan and negotiating too much means that people will not take you as seriously. And that hurts your reputation and potential revenue. Do not let this happen.

Key Links Book Referenced by Matt and Micah: Selling the Invisible ---------- "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." This quote from Warren Buffet frames the whole episode. And by using this as a tool for showing just how important reputation can be, hosts Matthew Jarvis and Micah Shilanski chronicle the instances in their lives where reputation has generated large ripples in one way or another. Be it, a firm tarnishes their own reputation because of charging money for "services rendered," even though the "services" they rendered were certainly of a negative quality. Or, a treasurer for a church suffers the embarrassment of a check bouncing because of a mistake from Matt's firm. Whatever the circumstances, both Micah and Matt cut through the noise and simplify everything with four words: "Take the high road." And it is through these four words that almost everything is made simple. By taking accountability and offering to pay penalties, or giving a client their money back because they were unsatisfied with the services provided, you keep your reputation intact. And because word of mouth travels fast, you may lose some money in the short term, but the positive reputation you gain is much more valuable.

Key Links John Barron's LinkedIn profile --------------------------------------- In this episode, John Barron shares the importance of replacing old systems with new ones. Most business owners take a plateau personally or as a sign of having mismanaged their business, but Barron says this is not true. The culprit is often that there are systems in place that are not consistent—somewhere along the way, X stopped being X and became Y instead, even though what was really needed all along was Z. Or as Barron says, "a Toyota factory can't produce a giraffe." Perspectives are just as important as systems because if you are an entrepreneur who has been "down in the weeds," and you are suffering from tunnel vision because of it, often you need an outside agent to provide a more balanced viewpoint; a coach can help one obtain this crucial vantage point. Procrastination can also be just as powerful a tool as well. As Matthew, the host of the podcast shares in this episode, he works more efficiently when a deadline looms near. Putting things off to the last minute actually helps him get work done at a faster rate.

Key Links Carl Richard's Website Malcolm Gladwell book which profiles Tom Gau: The Tipping Point --------------------------------------- During the episode, host Matthew Jarvis supplies us with nine crucial rules to follow regardless of if you are an advisor, CPA, actuary, or if you are just concerned with imparting understanding and reassurance in the minds of clients. These nine rules range from the necessity of practice to the headache-inducing method of trying to shrink a whole financial plan onto a single page. Using the metaphor of speaking a foreign language to someone who doesn't know the tongue, Matt communicates just how difficult it is for common people to understand the financial and legal nomenclature so easily referenced during consultations and financial-advising meetings with clients. He gives the advice to simplify speech, not as a tool for talking down or belittling the client, but to cover all bases during the consultation. One wouldn't talk down to an English-speaking tourist vacationing in China for not knowing a wide range of Mandarin. Matt also draws from a lot of biographical experiences where he was forced to act as a translator because the financial experts who were involved had a hard time self-censoring the depth of the language they used. In other words, it is very easy for smart, technically-gifted people to have a hard time not using their specialized jargon—terms that would confuse the average person (of any levels of education). Matt says this confusion should not be there, and he teaches listeners of this episode how to prevent most language barriers from forming.

Key Links Athena Executive Services | Website | Facebook Page --------------------------------------- In this installment of the Perfect RIA podcast, CEO and Founder of Athena Executive Services joins us in the studio and shares her wisdom on why hiring an executive assistant can and should be an enriching and ultimately game-changing decision in one's professional life. By giving clear-cut examples in her interview, Gina establishes the importance of "inspecting instead of expecting" results from your executive assistant. In brief, when an executive has done their due diligence and inspected adequately, then proper delegation of tasks is possible. Gina states that once the appropriate amount of time has elapsed, and any learning curves have been superseded with mutual understanding, the investment made in an executive assistant (or a virtual executive assistant) is worth the initial time it takes to get on the same page. And to design the correct dynamic between executive and assistant, an executive needs to truly inspect the work that is done. This means that guidelines need to be expressed clearly, and tasks explained properly. Once the input and output coalesce into a coherent whole, a very streamlined process is the outcome. And as a result, you have successfully created a mechanism that enhances the value of your enterprise and your time.