Monthly Archives: February 2014

Principle 12: Manage Your Minutes (Part II)

Time is Like Money

Coaching baseball, running a business, earning a Master’s degree, serving in ministry, and being a great husband and father all at the same time can seem like a huge juggling challenge to the causal observer. When my wife asked me to drive her on an errand, while I was trying to complete a reading assignment for school, it was not an interruption, but rather an opportunity to shift my focus from the objective of earning a Master’s degree to the objective of being a good husband. That’s an important distinction and a good lesson in perspective.

Second, driving Stephanie to the mall and getting my school work done were not opposing time demands. They could be easily integrated if I just thought about my time in terms of minutes rather than blocks of hours. We’ve all heard the adage, time is money. True in one context, but time is also like money, in that it is currency, and you are continually spending it, moment by moment. People who get a lot done and seem to “have it all” live an integrated life. They don’t like to waste time, but they see time in minutes. Paying a bit more attention to how those minutes get spent will make you aware of how many of them are wasted. No one can really manage his time. He can only spend it. So, it must be spent well.

A Few Pointers

I read about 50 books a year. But, half of them are audiobooks. I listen in the car traveling to and from the office, on the airplane during flights, while walking the dogs, and so on. Rather than waste all that driving, flying, and walking time on mindless mental wandering and useless cell phone chit-chat, I put it to better use. You can buy audiobooks on CD, or you can download them to your smart phone or tablet and take them everywhere you go. Even some of my school books are available in audio format. It’s the future of publishing.

Here’s another pointer. Use your televisions; don’t let them use you. Turn off the televisions, all of them. Only turn them on for a specific program or movie. Some folks turn the TV on as soon as they come home and it stays on all night until bedtime, then they turn on the TV in the bedroom and watch more worthless “entertainment” until they doze off to sleep. TV, TV, TV. It will suck the life out of your otherwise “free time.” That said, I had a television installed in my bathroom.  I spend a good thirty minutes getting ready every morning. The TV is set for my favorite news channel, and I get prepared for my day both physically and mentally by catching up on the top stories while shaving, showering and getting dressed.

One more pointer. I travel extensively for education, ministry, and business. This could steal a lot of precious time away from my family. But, I bring them along. My son is taking an African mission trip with me this year. My wife routinely comes with me on business travel. A few summers ago, I included my daughter on an archaeological dig in Israel for a course I was taking at seminary. Integrate everywhere. I integrate driving and reading, shaving and news consumption, travel and family time, and so on. Now, how can you start integrating? To get the most out of your time, be flexible and opportunistic, pay attention to where it is going, and start integrating whenever you can.

Principle 12: Manage Your Minutes (Part I)

The Multi-Tasking Myth

I coach baseball. A couple of seasons ago, while coaching the spring season of my son’s elite youth baseball team, I was also carrying a load of 12 hours (6 courses) in my Master’s degree program. In addition, I was running my wealth management practice and pastoring the small community church I had planted 12 years earlier. Needless to say, time was a little tight. One evening, while catching up on my reading assignments for school, and after a full day’s work at the office, my wife asked me to drive her to the mall. I asked if I could wait in the car while she shopped. She said, “Sure.” I asked how long she’d be, and she said, “Maybe 20-30 minutes.” I thought to myself, “I could get a whole chapter of reading done in that time,” then turned to her and said, “You bet. Let’s go. I’ll read in the car while I’m waiting for you. Take your time.” This small slice of daily life offers two useful instructions.

First, I did not see my wife’s request as an interruption because I do not see my educational goals as in competition with my family goals. I want to earn this Master’s and then go on to a PhD. I also want to be an excellent husband and father. To do both, I merely need to be flexible and opportunistic. It is about perspective. Too often we settle for small goals or none at all because we don’t think we can “do it all.” We work, we go home, we go to sleep. Doing it all is for other people who have limitless supplies of energy and otherworldly self control. But, that is really just a perception that does not prove true. There is no such thing as multi-tasking, per se. Rather, there is only flexible and opportunistic tasking. This is the skill of moving easily from one objective to the other and back again without getting flustered or losing momentum. Take “interruptions” in stride, but keep moving forward. If one objective meets a temporary roadblock, then shift to another one. Don’t fall apart or fall off the wagon, just keep making progress. You will eventually get there.  The longest journey begins with the first step.  Keep taking deliberate steps, and you will reach your objective, no matter how many of them you have.

Stay tuned for Part II…

Principle 11: The Temperance Movement

Always Be Professional

My version of a popular saying goes like this: “We don’t drink, smoke, swear, or chew, and we never run with those who do.” These vices get in the way of business; they do not facilitate it. They are distractions, they are distasteful, they are ungentlemanly (and, especially unladylike), they are costly, and they are unprofessional. Everything you do in life has either a cost or a payoff, takes you closer to your goals or farther away, or helps or harms you.  Little, if anything, that you do is benign. And, so it is in business. Vices can kill your professionalism, even if you can’t see it. There is a better way to win clients and build business relationships. Always be a professional.

Drugs and Alcohol

I don’t drink alcohol. I am not against it, per se. Nor am I self righteous when others do. It’s legal in most situations. I just can’t see a benefit that outweighs the risks. Alcohol dulls the senses. I want to be in charge of my faculties. Drinking produces drunk drivers. I don’t want to hurt others, especially while driving under the influence. Alcohol lowers inhibitions. I don’t want to do things I might regret later. Alcohol is expensive. I don’t want to be seen as a sycophant in a business relationship. Getting drunk makes you less attractive (I can hardly afford to be any less so). I don’t want clients, co-workers, or business associates to see me in a state of intoxication. There is nothing to be gained and much to be lost. Avoid the practice in any business situation. I maintain a stiff firm policy: No drinking with clients, co-workers, vendors, sponsors, or the home office, whether before or after business hours, whether at home or while traveling, whether on personal or company time. We just don’t go there as a matter of principle.

I don’t use drugs, I AM against it, and I AM self-righteous when others do. It’s illegal. Otherwise, everything else above concerning alcohol applies here.  Don’t do it.  Ever.

Tobacco

Of course, it is harmful to your health. That alone should be reason enough to avoid the practice, but let us stick with the context of business. Smoking makes you smell funny, yellows your teeth, soils your clothing, takes time away from your duties, and reveals a weakness to addiction which is undesirable in any business situation. Most smokers are unaware of the aromatic cloud that follows them around throughout the day. In decades past, smoking was not only considered socially acceptable, but it was cool. All the movie stars did it. Today, smokers are more and more relegated to sidewalks, back alleys, and airport smoking booths. Restaurants, bars, theaters, office buildings, and retail establishments have all but eliminated smoking in urban and suburban areas around the country, and the trend has gone international. It should have no place in your business world. I want to present a professional image in every business context. I do not want time wasted on smoking breaks. I do not want to be seen as susceptible to unsavory appetites. We strive to hire nonsmokers exclusively in our practice.

Foul Language

Foul language is the last resort of a limited vocabulary. People who use foul language, especially in a business context, degrade themselves and those around them. Its use is disrespectful and creates a poor work environment, especially for the ladies. I once was in a meeting with a new client who let an f-bomb fly in earshot of two of my female staffers. The man had a belligerent attitude, and I feared correcting him would cause a scene. But, I felt compelled to stand up for my staff and our principles. All I had to say was, “Please watch your language, there are ladies about.” He immediately lowered his countenance and sheepishly apologized. I was relieved. He conducted himself honorably in every future encounter with me and my staff. In another instance, I was at the mall shopping for a gift for my wife. I was so impressed with the grace and professionalism of the woman who helped me, I hired her to join our staff. Within a month, I was getting complaints from her co-workers that she was using strong foul language in the office. I could hardly believe it.  When I called her on it, she immediately admitted to the practice.  I terminated her on the spot. If cursing and swearing are allowed to exist they will flourish. That is not the kind of environment I want for my clients and staff. Set a zero tolerance policy and set the best example yourself.

One Final Word

Practicing vice (bad habits and immoral behavior) is indiscretion (behavior that displays a lack of good judgment). This quote speaks best to the issue of exercising vice: “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout, so is a woman who lacks discretion” -Proverbs 11:2. The woman is the small gold ring, the vice is the large pig. Sort of lays it out there, doesn’t it?

Principle 10: The Goal of Marketing (Part II)

Show Some Love

Some years ago, I had a pastor whom I loved. But, I never seemed to be able to get his attention. After services each Sunday, I would wait in the handshake line to speak a word of encouragement to him and let him know I appreciated the sermon or was praying for him. Invariably, while shaking my hand, he was anxiously looking over my shoulder to see who was in line behind me. He was never in the moment. I eventually left the church. A few years later, he was caught in an adulterous affair and lost his ministry. Pretty sad. He wasn’t satisfied with what he had, and he wasn’t willing to continue to invest in his relationships because he was always looking for the thrill of the next one.

I used to be on the marketing treadmill, too, until one day I was told that my existing clients were having to wait sometimes 3 or 4 weeks for an appointment.  Clients were complaining that they could not get me on the phone. A few were threatening to leave me. I was frustrated about not being more attentive to my clients’ needs, but felt the pressure to focus on getting new ones. I felt I was acting like my former pastor, and I was ashamed. I was just too busy, and something had to change. My clients weren’t getting the love, and it was my fault. I was too focused on the next client to love the ones with which I had been blessed.

Unlocking the Potential

For the record, we have about 250 client families in our practice. We manage around $140M. I averaged 5.5 appointments a week last year. Things are pretty good. We’re blessed. How did we get here? It was a three-step process. First, I realized I had over marketed and that I needed help. We seriously curtailed our seminar schedule and I broke down and brought on another advisor. Not a loser from the industry who couldn’t make it somewhere else. I brought one up from operations. I started training him and helped him get licensed. In time, I was introducing him into my clients relationships, and he started doing some of the lighter planning and transactional work. Second, I identified about one third of my client base and began shifting the majority of the responsibilities for managing their accounts to my new associate advisor. This transition took some time, but we managed it well and it was successful. Third, we reorganized the practice’s revenue structure from commission only to hybrid. We started charging fees. This was a daunting task, but we buckled down and got through it, emerging victorious on the other side.

Love Your Book

Once I was able to reduce the number of client families I was personally responsible for, I was able to give them the love they needed and deserved, either personally or through my associate advisor. We started focusing more on spending time with them and attending to their needs. Clients went from zero or one appointment a year to three or four. Three things happened. Client attitudes started to change, referrals shot up, and new business started rolling in from these relationships. We eventually cancelled our seminar schedule all together, even though we still had $10,000 of unused credit we had paid to our marketing company for upcoming seminars that would never happen.  We were content. We went from a growth pace of 10-15% per year to more than 30% per year, and that with no active marketing plan. Our marketing plan was replaced with the concept, “Love the Book!”

Now, we continue to win new clients exclusively through referrals and our business is robust. As the practice grows, we add new associate advisors who are gradually introduced into existing client relationships and eventually take them over. No advisor, including me, is allowed to manage more than around 85 families, yet we bring on more than 50 new client families a year. About every 18 months we graduate a new advisor from our paraplanner track and everybody transitions clients to the new associate. We are thriving, and our clients are well cared for. Everybody wins. The goal of marketing is to eliminate its need.

Principle 10: The Goal of Marketing (Part I)

Getting off the Treadmill

Most financial advisors I know are looking for ways to keep their calendars full with new prospects. They exhaust themselves on endless marketing treadmills adding as many new clients each year as possible. And, every time they add a new client, it gets harder and harder to do a great job for the ones they already have.  These advisors run seminars at expensive restaurants, they join the Rotary Club, they serve on school committees, they write blogs (ahem), they do anything and everything to find that next client. Certainly, at the beginning of a financial advisor’s career she has to do a lot of marketing, but it should not become a way of life. The goal of marketing is to eliminate its need.

Trouble is, most advisors already have too many clients. Let’s do a little math. If an advisor has say  300 client families and sees each one 4 times a year, that works out to 1,200 appointments annually. Assuming 4 weeks of vacation, illness, and business travel each year, this advisor must have 25 appointments a week just to keep up with her current book. Some of you may be thinking right now, “I can’t spend that much time seeing my existing clients or I’ll never have enough time to find any new ones.” Or, you might be thinking, “My clients don’t need that much of my time, besides, I already have all of their business.” Nonsense. You need to take a fresh look at your book.

The Book Produces

This is a mantra in our practice.  In fact, it goes like this, “The book produces; love the book.” Advisors like to believe that they have all of their client’s money. But, study after study has shown that most clients, especially the more affluent ones, prefer to work with more than one advisor, and sometimes three or four. This means that there is opportunity for more business in most client relationships. Business is continually being generated from our existing book of clients. A spouse retires, an inheritance comes in, the other advisor leaves his firm, a CD matures, dividends pile up, profit is taken on an investment, a job change necessitates a 401k rollover, a business succession plan needs creation, a partner buyout occurs, and on, and on, and on it goes. There is no end to the possibilities in a book of business. If you aren’t paying attention and cultivating this business, another advisor is getting it.

Stay tuned for Part II…

Principle 9: All Clients Great and Small

Treat Every Client Like a Celebrity

Celebrity infers celebration. That’s the idea. Celebrate every client. When prospective clients come up that elevator for the first time, they are often scared half to death. They have amassed a certain amount of wealth, yes, but to them it is their life savings. They are facing the prospect of retirement, which means no more paycheck. Whatever they have saved and invested up till now is going to have to last them the rest of their lives. It’s a scary prospect for most. For one reason or other, they have taken the step of coming to see me. They deserve my gratitude and respect, no matter how large or small is their life savings. Some advisors take the approach that every prospect falls into one of three categories: planning trail, product sale, or garbage pail. What a crass, insensitive, and selfish approach to labeling clients. No client is fit for the garbage pail.

These are people made in God’s image and they should be given every courtesy. When someone new sees me for the first time, she is going to get three 90 minute meetings in which I will undertake a review of her financial life, give her my personal assessment of the problems and concerns in her portfolio, and then present our financial world view. That’s a minimum of 4.5 hours over a couple of weeks’ time and represents a considerable value. We do this with every client, every time. No matter the size of the potential account. It’s the right thing to do. There is no charge for this work, and there is no demand for a commitment.

What About Minimum Account Sizes?

Uh-uh. Some advisors require a minimum account size before they will agree to work with a client. We don’t. Practice growth consultants routinely suggest that advisors establish minimum account sizes in order to grow their practices to “the next level,” whatever that means. We have never done this. In addition to questions of morality, little clients become big ones, and little ones refer big ones. True, it can be inefficient for me personally to give the same amount of time to both small and large accounts throughout the life of the relationship, but they deserve it nonetheless. This is why I have trained, experienced, professional associate financial advisors in my office who can help me ensure that every client of the firm gets the full program when it comes to service.

We Spoil Them Rotten

We want each client to feel like a million bucks, like a celebrity, like family. We adore our clients, every one. They are solid gold. Each member of our staff warmly welcomes every guest and offers a refreshment. Our tenured clients have adapted to our culture of hospitality and know what to expect. But, new clients are sometimes timid, often distracted, and usually under some degree of stress. So, it is not surprising if they refuse offers of refreshments. We want every staff member to drop in on each guest, physically touch them, and offer them something soothing and comfortable to brighten their spirits. No alcohol, of course, but a fresh ground cup of StarBucks coffee, a hot savory cup of premium herbal tea, or an icy Diet Coke can go a long way toward making our guests feel welcome and at ease. Everything is served on our finest crystal and china. It may take 3 or 4 tries, but we eventually break down the walls and are allowed to serve. Our staff are trained to get up from their desks, greet each visitor, introduce themselves, and offer a beverage and a pastry or dessert item. We bake cookies, danishes, quiches, and muffins every day. And, not just once at the beginning of the day either. We bake something fresh for every guest, every visit. Whatever it is we are baking gets popped into the oven just a few minutes before the guest arrives so that what is delivered to their conference room is aromatic, steaming, and fresh. It’s nice to be loved. Love and celebrate them.

Principle 8: Navigate Change

Change is Hard

The first step in navigating change for anyone in any circumstance is disengagement. Before you will embrace the new idea, solution, color, neighborhood, or hairdo, you’ll have to let go of the old [insert whatever]. Before a prospective client, even one who is disgusted with his present situation and sought you out on his own, will embrace you, your investments, and your financial plan, he will first have to let go of his old advisor, investments, and financial plan. I learned this from my first controller and CPA, Catherine Carroll.

Disengagement is part of the financial planning process. If I can’t help my client disengage, I will not be able to help her engage. The proven method for initiating the disengagement process is exposing the problems in the client’s financial life, including inappropriate risk, unsuitable investments, lack of diversification, excessive taxes, too much cash, too little cash, outdated estate documents, whatever. Once the problems are laid bare, the next step is obvious: disengagement.

You Can’t Overdo This

But, it is not just a matter of merely exposing problems by simply bringing them to the client’s attention. The client must take ownership of the problems, or disengagement will not occur. We all procrastinate. We all fall into denial. You must exhaustively expose the problems in the client’s financial life until there is recognition, acceptance, and ownership. Don’t short change this process. And, don’t proceed in the relationship until this step is accomplished. Be patient. Be systematic. Be thorough. Be persistent. Like the doctor who must convince her patient that his illness is serious enough to warrant the surgery, you too must convince your clients that their problems are significant enough to warrant the change. Show them the blood work, the EKG report, and the x-rays. Give them the full diagnosis. Then, give them the prognosis. The diagnosis is what is wrong. The prognosis is where it will lead if nothing is done. If you don’t do this, and well, you won’t help many folks.

Principle 7: Clients Aren’t Clueless

When a prospective client comes in for her first visit, she usually has an idea of what she wants to accomplish – find a new advisor, get the portfolio in order, make a good return, retire. Something like that. Where she’s in the dark is in how to make good investment decisions, and she probably doesn’t know how she has been making them up till now.  If she had a handle on that, she wouldn’t be coming to see me.  She has likely spent her life investing in a career or caring for a family. In either case, she became an expert at something, just not investing. No shame here. I don’t know anything about music theory, or chiropracty, or engineering, or delivering babies, or whatever she devoted her life to. Since I am a reputable trained professional in my field, she has rightly decided to give me a test drive.

Her portfolio is often simply the result of several poor advisor relationships, some self-doctoring, a little neglect, and a whole lot of happenstance. My best chance of helping her lies in teaching her to become a more sophisticated investor and walking with her down a proven financial planning path. I can never let the cart get before the horse. There is a process.  Her natural inclination may be to unknowingly try to circumvent that process by misdirecting the relationship or asking for things out of order, because that’s how she’s done it in the past. I must break that cycle to really help her. I must stay the course. Step 1, step 2…etc. If I let her fly the plane, we may never get it landed.

Never Make a Proposal

Plenty of prospective clients come through the door looking for a proposal. They say things like, “Why don’t you work up some suggestions for me to consider?” Or, “Before I bring my accounts to you, I want to know what you are going to do with my money.” Honestly, I can’t blame them. They’ve lost money elsewhere, or they’ve been neglected, or they’ve been burned. In any case they’re cautious, and they should be. But, I don’t want to propose something that gets an up or down vote. I want to get hired. Products, proposals, and plans come and go, but I want to be their advisor 10 years from now.

When someone makes a proposal request, I have a standard reply. “The reallocation of your portfolio will be a collegial process that will take several meetings over the next few weeks. We will work together to put your accounts in order. I won’t pat you on the head and send you home while I make all the decisions. We’ll do it together. There will be material for you to review and many discussions that will need to take place concerning your specific goals, investment risks, and product features. I am your coach, but you will be the quarterback, making the final decisions on the field. At the end of this process, you will be pleased with the result.”

The point here is that clients can develop the skills to become good investors, and thereby, good clients. But, you must have a well thought out decision-making track and the willpower and self discipline to keep everyone on the track, the client and yourself.  Quality client relationships take time, invest it.

Principle 6: You Can Do More…

…Than You Think You Can

This is going to sound like boasting. Well, it is, I suppose. No way around it (as if this entire blog is not just one shameless self-promotion after another; makes me want to vomit just thinking about it). But, it’s for a good cause. I want to show you something. So, here goes. In addition to running a $100 million wealth management practice (which I built in 10 years with the Lord’s guidance and blessing), owning and managing a stand alone tax and accounting practice, which I am building through acquisitions, and maintaining a top 5 advisor production rank at my broker dealer (where I also serve on its investment committee and travel bi-monthly to its home office in San Diego for 2 days of meetings each time it convenes), I head coach elite level youth baseball two seasons per year (which includes 2 evening practices and 2 evening games each week night), write two blogs (one personal and one business), serve as Associate Director of World Hope Bible Institute (for which I travel internationally more than 60 days per year and keep office hours at its headquarters on Mondays), attend Biola University, a private Christian college in Los Angeles, as a full time student (taking 9-12 hours per semester) where I am about half way through an executive Master’s degree (not an online program, as I have to travel to Biola for lectures 4-5 times per year), homeschool my 9th grader, am an avid bird hunter with my sons and dogs, and am currently restoring two vintage cars, a ’65 Thunderbird and a ’69 Cutlass, both convertibles. Except for travel and baseball, I am home very night. I attend all my kids’ events when I am in town. I vacation with my family 3 or 4 weeks a year, and so on.

No Superman

I heard that Muhammad Ali once refused to fasten his seatbelt on a flight. When the flight attendant insisted he do so, he quipped, “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” The flight attendant replied dryly, “Superman don’t need no airplane.” I’m no superman. I’m just organized and efficient. True, I hate being idle. But, the more I add to my plate, the less I am involved in trivia, like watching television, mowing the lawn, surfing the Internet, or daydreaming. I once was asked by the Gideon Society (those folks who put the Bibles in hotel rooms) to become a member. When I complained that I already had too much to do, they said that that was why they’d invited me. The man said, “Busy people get things done.” I instantly knew it was true and could not come up with a reasonable defense. I joined and served three years until I stepped down to enroll in seminary (ministers could not be members, and I wanted to be more involved in ministry). Just after our son was born (our daughter was 5 years old at the time), my wife became ill with a serious neurological disorder and was bedridden 24/7 for six years. During this time, I sold my first business (a regional annuity distributor with 200 advisors and staff and offices around Texas), enrolled in seminary where I completed my undergraduate studies (earning two degrees in theology while carrying a 3.8 GPA), planted and grew a community church (acquiring and renovating a small Bingo hall/beer joint for its use), started and built my present wealth management firm, cared for my wife, and raised our two kids. My in laws, and especially my mother-in-law, who lived nearby, were indispensable during this time, and I am very grateful for them. You can do more than you think you can. A lot more.