IT’S A HARD NO, UNLESS IT’S A HELL YES!

I received an email from a wonderful advisor that I do private coaching with asking if I would be interested in being introduced to an account manager for a new money manager he is exploring.

My knee jerk response was, ”Bro, NO!”

The advisor and I have a great relationship, so I think he could have handled my initial response, but considering the fact that I am supposed to be a professional, I thought I ought to dig a little deeper for a kinder and more thoughtful response. 

Focusing on What I Do Best

 
The truth is that I have an investment platform that I use that meets the vast majority of my client needs and that by working deeply with one high touch service provider, I can provide a highly-vetted, consistently monitored, cohesive investment strategy for my clients and I can focus on what I do best…coaching my clients to make the best financial decisions to accomplish their goals.

There are times when I will need to offer something off platform and I am open to doing so if there is a specific reason.  In that instance, I will research options and seek out the best providers of those solutions for my clients. 

I am not interested in exploring all of the different options available in the marketplace that I could provide to my clients and, depending on your phase in your business, I would suggest that you shouldn’t be either.  There is no end to the myriad financial instruments and companies that your clients can invest in.  This is a rabbit hole with no end.

I am always asking myself these basic questions as my guideposts.

1. Can my clients get where they want to go without this product or service?
2. Does this product or service offer a SIGNIFICANT advantage that makes it easier for them to get where they want to go?
3. Are the benefits provided by this product or service worth the downsides of complexity and expense? 

If the answers to these questions are not a clear yes, then I’m just not interested.  And I am definitely not interested in randomly connecting with product reps and account managers.

I went on to explain to my advisor friend that we are in different phases of our businesses.  He is a newly independent advisor who is exploring the landscape of this new world he finds himself in.  He should be out meeting and greeting and testing out ideas. 

Embracing His Inner Explorer

I encouraged him to embrace his inner explorer for now, but realize that eventually he will want to settle down and get serious about building his empire.  And when he does that he will want to be crystal clear about his investment and planning philosophies and guard against distraction. 

His default should eventually pivot from ”Open to everything.” to “It’s a hard no, unless it’s a hell yes!”

Meet & greets and lunch & learns are a great way to feel like you are busy, but really be busy doing nothing meaningful to serve your clients.  They are a way that many advisors use to “play office” and hide from doing the hard work of growing their practices and building strategic businesses.

 

And let’s imagine for moment that you do get distracted by every shiny new object that crosses your path and all those ideas end up weaseling their way into your investment portfolios, you will end up building an amalgamation of garbage that is impossible to track and monitor and service in any meaningful way for your clients.

The lack of a disciplined investment philosophy being implemented across the practice creates an unwieldy administrative nightmare that does not serve the clients.  And the chaos and complexity creates a distraction away from the most important role we play in our clients lives, helping them consistently make good financial decisions so that they can accomplish their goals.

Let me ask you the hard question, are you currently running your business like an horizon explorer or an empire builder?

I hope this serves you,

-Lucila