ChrisNotes

I Owe a Lot to Strategic Coach

The purpose of ChrisNotes is to provide education, inspiration, knowledge, skills, attitudes, and habits to Private Client Advisors.  (See definitions)

If the content and message of this blog resonates with you, I believe you need to enroll in The Strategic Coach Program.  I have a voluminous Success Library that contains works by hundreds of authors.  Even given that, I believe that Dan Sullivan surpasses them all when you consider how well he synthesizes and integrates the personal achievement universe of ideas and combines it with his original concepts.

Boiling it down to a 250 word blog entry, here is what I have learned from Strategic Coach. 

1. To be successful, you must manage your time.  The Time Breakthrough
2. Your job should be doing what you love doing.  Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want
3. The easiest path to happiness and success is through strategic planning.  (The Goal Cultivator Series is no longer available for purchase-- he wants you to sign up for the program to get it.)
4. Capture your wisdom and package it for sale- stop giving it away for free.  The D.O.S. Conversation and Great Value Creator Escape (no longer available).
5. Once you get good at selling your wisdom, you can sell your process to the competition.  That is, once you learn how to bake the cake, you can start selling the recipe.  This is the focus of the Coach 2 Program.  Only open to qualified applicants who have completed three (3) years of Strategic Coach.

Strategic Coach is one of the most important competitive advantages that a Private Client Advisor can have. 

"Bear" Makes it Awesomely Simple

My friend John Spence <website> (his nickname was "Bear" when we played Rugby together at UF) says his unique ability is "Making the complex awesomely simple."  He has the most extensive Success Library of anyone I know.  He makes his living reading business books, chewing them up and digesting them for his clients in terms of seminars, workshops and personal coaching. 

Last week he blogged on The Four Most Important Things I Have Ever Learned.  He encourages his readers to comment with four most important things of their own.  I responded with mine, but I realize now I can't keep it to four things.  There are at least a few more lessons that are too important to omit- they are impossible to prioritize off.

My original four:

1. Cultivate great relationships
2. Always be learning
3. Tell the truth
4. Today not tomorrow

I have to add:

1. Form good habits and become their slave.
2. The less you eat, the longer you will live.
3. Learn from your mistakes.
4. Give yourself solitude for planning every day.
5. Save 10% of everything you earn.
6. Take a lot of vacations.
7. The world expects you to do the most with what you have.
8. Do not tolerate negative people.
9. Rid your life of unacceptables.
10. Lighten your load.

I am going to keep thinking about this and adding to and editing this list.  Maybe it needs to be 100 items long.  Thanks, Bear- a worthwhile exercise. 

High Probability Selling

I rate Jacques Werth's book right up there with the most important Success books I have ever read.  This hugely under-appreciated work was revolutionary when published in 1992.  Today, I believe that the marketplace is coming around to his way of thinking. 

People don't like to be "sold" but they love to buy things.  So why would a company train its salespeople to spend time trying to convince and persuade anybody who can fog a mirror that they should buy their products and services?  Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to only spend time with people who say that they want and are ready to buy what you are selling?  That is what High Probability Selling (HPS) teaches us to do.

For the HNW advisor, this lesson is invaluable.  Sophisticated, wealthy people are approached constantly by people presenting ideas, opportunities and flat out wanting to sell them something.  This wears on them even more than on average people.  This creates a wonderful opportunity to distinguish ourselves!  Let's be different!  Let's just tell our clients what we do and what we have for them and ask them if this is something that they want.  There you go!  That's the secret of HPS. 

What other wonderful benefits accrue to the Private Client Advisor who follows this discipline?  They don't feel rejected.  They feel more professional and like an equal who is just bringing an item of value to another person's attention.  Werth's message is simply, "Selling causes resistance." 

I promise more ChrisNotes on HPS.  In the meantime, read some of Jacque's blog.  And remember:  There are two kinds of sales- the easy ones and the ones you don't get.

Mastery

No Success Library is complete without Mastery by George Leonard. [Wikipedia Entry] How does one get better at something?  You study, you practice, you work at it, you copy others, you get feedback, you make corrections, you learn from your mistakes, you constantly make small, incremental improvements.

In this book, Leonard teaches us how to systematically approach Mastery in anything.  It may be a sport, in music, in writing, in a subject, in becoming an expert- the process is the same.  You work and nothing happens.  You work, nothing happens.  You work at it longer, nothing.  Then one day: Boom.  You make an incremental jump in effectiveness, understanding, skill, whatever. 

When you understand this, it is so much easier to deal with your negative thoughts that creep in to your brain, "I'm not getting any better."  Yes you are.  Just stay at it.  Get started, don't quit. 

Another gem I take from this book:  The world is so big and fast moving it is impossible to keep up with everything.  So, pick your field.  Keep learning.  Specialize and narrow your focus even more.  Put in the time.  Pretty soon, you will be a genius.  And the World will notice.

Time Power!

In these first few weeks of ChrisNotes, I will introduce you to the most important books I have stubled upon in my quest to make myself successful.  Right behind Greatest Salesman is Time Power by Charles Hobbs. 

Hobbs was the expert that led the Day-Timers time management workshops back in the 1980s.  He provides essential definitions:

1. Time Management is the act of controlling events.
2. In managing our lives, we need congruity which is, "balance, harmony and appropriateness among the events in your life."
3. To get things done amid our hectic schedules requries "a concentration of power which is the ability to focus on and accomplish your most vital priorities."

He then lays out the logical structure for organizing your life.  It starts with your highest beliefs (Unifying Principles) and moves into practical examples and questions that help you create a framework for writing down and working on your goals.  The beauty is how Hobbs helps you integrate your unifying principles into lifetime goals and ultimately into a prioritized daily action list.

Ben Franklin taught us in his Autobiography to break big projects into smaller, manageable tasks.  Hobbs shows us how to do this by separating the process into two parts- first you consider your long range goals and decide on what part you can focus on today.  Then, after you make your list, you ask yourself another set of questions that helps you prioritize your to-do list.  This is significant because it is a different brain exercise to identify what you need to do than to decide which is most important and which to work on first. 

The other concept that I LOVE is the Theory of Accessability: If a goal is continually at hand and visible, the chance of you achieving it increases.   I believe that you can write down some goals, stash them in a drawer, pull them out a year later, and you will find your subconscious has worked to achieve many of them.  Given this, think what you can do if you have your well-written goals where you can read and revise them on a regular basis.  The book suggests that you set aside 15 minutes of solitude for planning every day.  This item has been on my to-do lists for the last 25 years.  On most days, I am able to check it off as done.

The Greatest Salesman in the World

ChrisNotes was conceived as the idea that I would read books and write brief articles laying out what is of interest to Private Client Advisors.  Well, there is One Book that you must read.  The wisdom in this book cannot be distilled down any further than contained on its 111 pages.

The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino © 1968 Frederick Fell Publishers, Inc. / Bantam Books

My favorite quotes:

"Which two, among a thousand wise men, will define success in the same words; yet failure is always described but one way.  Failure is man's inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be."

and

"The only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference in their habits.  Good habits are the key to all success.  Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure.  Thus, the first law I will obey:  I will form good habits and become their slave."

The Success Literature

What I have learned from studying the success literature for over twenty-five years will be the subject of many ChrisNotes to come.  Let us begin with what I consider to be the seminal work:  an essay written in 1940 by Albert E. N. Gray called "The Common Denominator of Success" [Click for Full Text ]

Here's the ChrisNotes:

Successful people have a purpose that unsuccessful people do not.  This must be an emotional purpose- not a logical one.  Gray asserts, "...it is easier to adjust ourselves to the hardships of a poor living that it is to adjust ourselves to the hardships of making a better one...  ...there's no inspiration in logic. There's no courage in logic. There's not even happiness in logic. There's only satisfaction. The only place logic has in my life is in the realization that the more I am willing to do <insert your purpose here>, the more I shall be able to do for myself."

We are all slaves to habit.  Given this, we must make ourselves slaves to good habits.  Gray says it,  "The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.”

Definitions

Here are my meanings of some of the terms I will use in this blog:

Note- (V.) The act of writing for this blog.  (N.) One of this blog's entries. 

High Net Worth (HNW)- An individual or family whose net worth is at least $10MM and in most cases is in excess of $20-30MM.

Clients- NHW people who pay Advisors for wisdom, services, and products.

KASH - An acronym for Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, Habits.

Private Client Advisor- (Advisor for short) A professional who has predominately HNW individuals and families as her or his clientele.  Most often an attorney, CPA, investment manager, or financial planner.   

Selling- The process of getting Clients to make decisions and to take appropriate actions.  Can also include educating Clients on their options.

Success Library / Success Literature- Books, tapes, essays on the subject of persoal achievment, self image psychology, sales, entreprenuership, business, and related disciplines.

Shelfari - The books on the "shelf" are ones I Note on.  You can buy them by hovering your mouse over and clicking on the Amazon link.  Your purchase will help me pay for this blog.  Some books on the shelf are not Noted yet.  They are there to remind me to Note them. 

Welcome to ChrisNotes

I think one of my unique abilities is to recognize when something is a good idea.  I come across a lot of good ideas because I tend to read a lot, I never drive without an audio book, I scan numerous blogs, and I attend conferences and seminars, and I talk almost every day with someone in my network of people.

Another of my natural tendencies is to share the stuff I learn with people who can benefit the most from it.  So the idea to write this blog was born.

At the moment, my focus is on learning how to grow a financial planning practice.  How to get favorable introductions to wealthy people and families who need my unique ability to sort through the myriad of financial opportunities and focus on the good strategies and ideas.  I have chosen to do so exclusively by working through other advisors, primarily estate planning attorneys and wealth managers.

If you are one of these professionals, why would you want a relationship with me?  And why would you want to introduce me to your best clients??  Because I can help you grow your practice by sharing with you what I am learning about Networking, Referral Cultivation, Communication, Client Relationships, and creating Unique Experiences.    

At the same time, I am scouring the ever-expanding universe for better financial strategies, products, and ideas to bring to your attention.

So, I will share what I learn and think is important.  Y'all let me know if you think it has merit, OK?