How could you apply this simple idea in your life to help you achieve your goals?

This mistake is akin to the tennis player or golfer who can’t get over a bad shot. You’ve seen this scenario unfold before: player hits bad shot, player smacks club or racket on the ground, player stews over it and carries negative emotions to next shot, and player proceeds to hit several more bad shots, thereby making a bad situation worse; sometimes resulting in a really bad outcome. The best professional tennis players and golfers learn to quickly put their bad shots behind them. They learn to let it go. What about you? Can you let it go?

The key lesson here is that your success or failure NEVER hinges on the decision of one potential or existing client of any kind or any size. Your success or failure hinges on your daily habits. Take a look at your habits for Client Acquisition activities, for example. So… how many referral conversations did you have today? How many self-referral conversations did you have today? How many follow-up calls did you make today? How many phone or face-to-face appointments did you conduct today? How many phone or face-to-face appointments did you schedule today for the future? Imagine what will happen to your skill and confidence when you like the answers to all of these questions!

What would happen if most work days you engaged in the right amount of client acquisition activity? What if you did this on the days when people are responding positively to you and on the days when they aren’t? What if you didn’t let the inevitable negative responses deter you from doing what will lead to getting your next Ideal Client?

You can’t eliminate bad outcomes, but you can learn to let it go. The best way to let it go is to take the next action that moves you in the direction of your goals. This is what mature professionals learn to do.

If you want to be in control of your own destiny and not at the mercy of whether or not a few individuals struggle to make decisions about hiring you or referring you, learn to let it go.

Client Service Mastery
Helping your clients get their entire financial house in perfect order and keeping it that way forever. This starts with the implementation meeting, which is the first meeting after youve been hired, and cycles through three meetings per year to help your clients keep their financial house in perfect order.

Client Acquisition Mastery
Mastering four elements:
1. Asking for referrals.
2. Making follow-up calls in a way that is engaging and leads to a reasonable percentage of referrals agreeing to a more in-depth phone appointment about how you can help them.
3. Facilitating this phone appointment in an effective way so a reasonable percentage agree to a face-to-face initial client interview at your office.
4. Conducting brilliant client interviews so a reasonable percentage hire you.

Leadership Mastery
Building and leading a team of Best-in-Class™, Subject-Matter™ Experts, technical and administrative, who help you help your clients get their entire financial house in perfect order and keep it that way forever.

Communication and People Skills Mastery
Asking the right questions, being an empathic listener, and when it is your turn to talk, giving your advice with conviction in a way that’s all about them so that your clients take action and implement.

Mindset Mastery
Thinking like a business owner instead of like a practitioner. Focusing on what you can control and not being distracted by events out of your control like the market, or the economy, or world problems and conflicts.

Time, Priority, and Calendar Mastery
You running your business instead of it running you. Know your priorities, put them on your calendar as appointments with yourself and others, and develop the habit of honoring your calendar.

Embark on the master’s journey and you will acquire all the Ideal Clients you need to generate all the business revenue to cover your expenses, pay your taxes, and have all the net income you want for a great present lifestyle, and all the money you need to fund your future goals and financial independence.

The other admirable character trait is integrity: “By God, I promised to take care of these people and I’m going to do whatever it takes to do that!” This is a noble goal, but futile given the unchangeable truth of the Rule of 168. Please don’t be upset with me for delivering this message about the Rule of 168. It wasn’t my idea. God did not consult with me when he or she decided how long it would take the Earth to achieve a full rotation or how long it takes the Earth to revolve around the sun. It is what it is. Your job is to make your business and your life work within the boundaries of the Rule of 168.

If you are working too many hours it’s likely because you are choosing to do things with your time that are not as necessary or as important as you might think and because you are working with too many of the wrong the clients. Notice I didn’t say “bad” people. I said the wrong people to make your business life effective so you can work a reasonable number of hours to generate the money you need to make your life work.

What does it mean to make your life work? That’s really up to you. For most humans their life “working” includes some common elements: financial health, physical health, relationship health, mental health, and spiritual health. Exactly what you do and how you do it in each of these areas can vary greatly. It is a great life and this is a great profession for achieving success in all five areas.

This does not have to be your reality, however. You have a choice. Choose to be one of the Financial Advisors who transcends the norm to experience something better.

In this blog post we will examine why most advisors end up with too many clients, working too many hours, for too little money. And we will identify some things you can do to create a business with the right number of clients, working the right number of hours, for the right amount of money… for you.

Too many clients.  Paradoxically, most Financial Advisors admit to being less than effective at consistently implementing prospecting, marketing, and client acquisition systems, yet they end up with too many clients, especially too many of the wrong clients. How does that happen?

1. Continuing a pattern from early in their career of accepting as clients almost anyone who will do business with them.
2. Inheriting “books of business” from advisors who leave the industry.
3. Buying “books of business” from advisors who leave the business (or are smart enough to sell their non-Ideal Clients to another advisor).
4. Successfully executing mass marketing prospecting systems (direct mail, seminars, radio shows, advertising, etc.).

Can you really have too many clients? Of course. Here are just 4 key indicators that you have too many clients, any one of which is enough to prove the point. You can probably think of others.

1. At whatever point you have even one client who you would not recognize if you passed them on the street. (Exacerbated if you have clients you have never met face-to-face.)
2. At whatever point you have even one client for whom you don’t have time to make sure all of the following action items are done for them, some completed by you and others coordinated through the appropriate subject-matter expert:
   1. comprehensive, written financial plan
   2. program to build and maintain adequate emergency cash reserves
   3. program to manage, reduce, and / or eliminate debt
   4. asset allocation, including assets not held with your custodian
   5. comprehensive insurance program covering every risk that could challenge their financial health and security
   6. legal documents that support excellent financial health (wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, living wills, health directives, business succession plan, etc.)
   7. taxes filed on time, accurately, and paid in full
3. When you have even one client who you can’t meet with the several times per year necessary to keep them on track to make smart choices about their money so they achieve their goals and keep their financial house in order.
4. When you have even one client who does not pay you enough to cover their fair share of your business economic needs. (Especially if what they pay does not even cover your costs to have them as a client or justify your time investment.)

Most Financial Advisors I’ve met would love to have deeper, more meaningful relationships with their clients, deliver truly comprehensive financial services so every client has their financial house in perfect order, meet with their clients frequently enough to hold them accountable to keep their financial house in perfect order, and be paid enough by every client so they have all the business revenue they need to make their business and their life work. What’s the problem? Not enough time? It probably feels that way, but enough time is not really the problem. You have all the time there is. Everyone who survived the week had 168 hours. The real issue is choosing to allocate your time so you acquire the right clients and serve them fully. I call this the Rule of 168.