Latest / The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners / 219: When Part of Your Business is a Mess

Transcript

219: When Part of Your Business is a Mess · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you've listened to the podcast for a while or you've followed me on social media, you've heard me say this do it messy and make it fancy later.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And today we're getting real about something that's often swept under the rug in our industry the messy parts of running a business.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: You know those moments when things feel out of control, when you're unsure of what your next move should be, or when everything just seems so far from perfect.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Spoiler alert you are not alone.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Every single one of us has been there, and the truth is, those messy parts are a natural and essential part of growing a successful business.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So today we're going to deep dive into why it's okay to have these messy moments, why perfection isn't the goal, but, most importantly, how to keep moving forward when things aren't perfect and how to get in there and fix the thing that is a mess.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: So let's get into it, but stick around to the end, because I've got three strategies for how we are going to slowly and methodically turn your mess into a plan of action.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We're going to pinpoint where you feel like you need to focus and we're going to talk through some tactical things that you can do to take that one right next step for your business and to tidy your mess without the stress.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: All right, let's go look.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I know you're here because you know it's possible to have an abundance of energy leftover for your family at the end of the work week and still have your dream business.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You know the business that you are running.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Instead of it running you.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: When you walk into your home at the end of the day, you feel good, you feel peace, you feel like you got everything done.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: That's the kind of business that we're talking about.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So, if you're new to the efficient advisor, I'm Libby Grywe.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I started, built and sold by 37, a 100% referral only planning practice that I grew to seven figures as a solo advisor, all while working just three days a week.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Of course, I had an amazing small but mighty team behind me.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I am here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do exactly the same right To help you build out the right systems and processes to take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: And often that less stress and overwhelm comes from just deleting the non-essentials.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But we are about to transform your practice, so move over exhaustion and get out of the way.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Advisor ADD.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: It is time to take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: So we've all seen that analogy right Of a, of a duck gliding across the water.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: You know it's all beautiful and peaceful and perfection, and then when you dip below the surface of the pond, you see its little feet just paddling away, churning water.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: Everything is completely crazy and I just want to acknowledge that everybody has an area of their business that's a little bit of a mess.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: We want to acknowledge this thing that we all experience but rarely talk about.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Every business, no matter how successful, has a messy part, and maybe it's that CRM that's always been a bit behind or you're not utilizing it to its full potential.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's that content calendar that's never quite as full as you'd like it to be.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's those best client relationships that need more nurturing and you want to do more and extra for them, but you just haven't had the time or capacity.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: It could even be something bigger, like launching a new service, and maybe it just didn't take quite the way you hoped it for.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: We all have that part of our business that's a little messy, so we want to normalize that right and I have coached over a thousand advisors at this point and I just want to share with you.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Everyone and I mean everyone has some area of their business that's a little unorganized Sometimes.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: The worst mess is those that have the million dollar business and they've just been winging it and there are so far along in their business and they don't have systems and processes.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So let me give you an example.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: When I was in my third year in the business right and it's funny because we always think like, wow, all these successful people, they have it together I was in my just my third year of the business.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I had qualified for my broker dealers top conference for the second time and I remember being at the conference and having so many questions and I was so embarrassed because I was like here I am, I'm getting the top however many 25 of our company and I'm supposed to have it all together.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: I can't ask questions.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I can't ask silly questions.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I don't want to disclose that I don't know what I'm doing or that certain parts of my business are just an absolute disaster and I just kind of quote, unquote, got lucky.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I know that's not true, but you know what I mean and that's why I'm here again and and I know that there are people who are producing at a lower level than me that have it all together and know the answers to all these questions and I was too embarrassed to ask.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And we were at an event and it was sort of like this I don't know if it was the, the bourbon tasting that we were doing or what, but all of a sudden, all of these tops it was an event for the top 25 in our company and all of these guys were sharing guys and gals.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: There weren't very many gals, but all the guys were sharing sort of the areas of their business that they wished were in a little bit better shape.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: And it was so interesting to me because I just remember noticing like, wow, everybody has an area, no matter how successful or how many millions of dollars of revenue they're producing, everybody has an area that is a little bit of a mess.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: So it's okay to feel dumb, asking for help or advice, it's okay to feel like you're supposed to be further along than you should be, and that's actually a really common saying that I hear from advisors that I work with is I feel like I should have this figured out by now.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So I just want to let you know you have figured out a lot of things.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: You have figured out so many things.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: If you have survived more than a year in this business, you have worn more hats than most people wear.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Than a year in this business.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: You have worn more hats than most people wear.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: You have done a lot, and it is okay to not have every area of operating a business be a strength.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I say it all the time that often advisors like we are business owners by default, not by design.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Right, like we all went into this like, oh, yeah, it'd be so cool to own your business.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, great, I love the autonomy and the freedom and all of like the sexy stuff that comes along with that.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: And then we have this moment where we're like, oh, but like I actually own my own business and I have to like run a business and I have to be in charge of a PNL and employees and I'm HR and I have compliance and I have to take care of my client, like it's, it's a lot, okay.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: So I want to give you a personal example my website, right, this is the.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: This is, like you know, we're going to, we're just, we're just going to be vulnerable here and I've mentioned it before but arguably one of the most client facing, when the most important client facing tools that I have.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: It has been a mess for years.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: So I did my website on my own back in 2014.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: And I just, you know, when I relaunched the efficient advisor back in 2021, after my sabbatical, I wanted to wait, right, I wanted to wait and redo the whole website.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: I wanted it to be perfect before launching, and I just kept waiting and I would revise one page at a time and it was just taking forever and I was finally like you know what?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: What is out here is still valuable, even if it doesn't look as sexy as it could.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: And so, 2021, I just pushed forward and I went ahead and launched the efficient advisor, or relaunched it, and left the website A lot of the website the way it is.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you've ever tooled around on my website, you've seen pages that look new and modern and you've seen pages that you're like, huh, did a toddler put this together?
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: The answer is yes, I did, um, and I just remember thinking like, okay, I want this to be perfect, cause what if somebody comes out who's never seen me before.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: They're going to check out the website and they're not going to want to work with me because this page is crappy, or I don't love the way that this is written, or this looks kind of outdated, and you know what?
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: It was a mess and I wanted to wait and I wanted to wait and finally, I just said you know what.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to push forward.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to launch with what I've got.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: And you know what?
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: There have been thousands and thousands of downloads of the tools that are out there for you guys the templates, the examples, the samples, the letters, the all of the tools that are out there for you guys the templates, the examples, the samples, the letters, the all of the things that I have for you.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: And are they as cute as I want them to be?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: No, are they in the old format with the old logo?
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Sure, are.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a chance to go through and update everything, and you know what?
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: The feedback on them is still amazing.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: People are still using them.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: It's still helping them, even inside of our group coaching program.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I have some of the old templates back from 2016 and 2017 that I would love to go back and update, but I'm also so busy creating new and exciting stuff that, like, there's always that balance right and it feels like the website is a little bit of a mess and everything is still helpful right.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And so if you're in this position too, that even if your stuff isn't perfect and you're waiting for perfection, if you just move forward on something, you will be shocked that what your version of messy is might actually be an absolute godsend for one of your clients.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Your recommendations template or your one page financial plan template might not be exactly the way that you want it yet.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: So, instead of holding back, just do it messy.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: You could always come back and make it fancy later, and really it's given me a lot of perspective, even with the website.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Like, yes, it's still on the to-do list.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Yes, there's moments where I'm like, okay, we're going to focus on, um, fixing the.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: You know the page that has all of my favorite books.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I haven't updated it in forever.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: You know I want to do this and I want to do that.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: And you know what people are still telling me all the time, like, hey, I saw this book on your website and I read it and it totally changed my life.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I love it Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: It's still helpful and I want you to just move forward in the face of mess and know that like, even if it's something that you're not like, oh, that's absolutely perfect, and I really want to deliver that to my clients.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It's still going to be helpful and they might not even notice that it's not as polished as you'd like for it to be, and I can remember my dad saying to me once that sometimes, libby, done is better than perfect, and you just have to move forward messy sometimes, knowing that that done can actually still benefit your business and still move you forward right.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: So the key takeaway here is that messiness, it's not a sign of failure or incompetence.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: It's a sign that you're in the trenches, you're working on something that matters, and it's so easy to look at other advisors who seem to have it all together right.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: They have the perfect website, they have the perfect process, they've got their pricing structure down perfectly, and it's so easy to feel like you're the only one that is struggling.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: But I promise you, everyone has areas of their business that aren't as polished as they'd like them to be.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: The difference, yeah, between those who succeed and those who get stuck in that moment is the ability to just keep moving forward when things aren't perfect.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Right, you've got a lot going on, that's normal, that's common.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: You have big goals and dreams and a business to run right.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: So just because other people look like that duck gliding across the water, it is a big old mess underneath.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, the second thing I want to talk about is the paralyzing trap of overthinking.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Right which, or is the kind of the same thing?
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Or, even worse, right Waiting for it to be perfect.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Your perfect isn't going to be perfect anyways.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about something that can turn messiness into a real obstacle this overthinking.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It is so tempting to get caught up in the what ifs and the should ifs.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Should I tweak my pitch one more time before I present it?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Should I wait until my social media strategy is flawless before I start posting?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Should I hold off on launching this new offering until I have every single detail nailed down?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: These questions can be absolutely paralyzing, and I remember working with an advisor who was just like obsessed.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Obsessed with perfecting her LinkedIn profile.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: She kept rewriting the headline, reordering all the experience that she had, agonizing over the summary, these details.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: She went by it right.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: In six months later, she was still messing around with her LinkedIn profile and hadn't even really launched it yet, so she made zero updates to the one that was out there.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: The one she had was pretty Bessie.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: It was pretty bad, but she was agonizing over this and in that meantime, she didn't reach out to a single new connection.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: She didn't connect with anybody.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: She didn't meet anybody new I mean, like there was.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: She couldn't direct people to her LinkedIn that were interested in her.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: She didn't post any videos, right.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And then, all of a sudden, she decided we were coaching and she decided to just go with.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Good enough, and things started to change.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Right, she was able to just do one small tweak at a time.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: So that's what we were focusing on is, instead of having the whole thing be perfect, why don't we just put whatever headline out there?
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Let's write four and whichever one you like the best, put that out there.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Let's just get what you have, your experience, out there.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: You can always come back and make changes and you know what?
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: She made some seriously valuable connections and, shockingly, no one ever mentioned that she had some imperfections in her LinkedIn profile.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Overthinking is really just another form of procrastination.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Right, it feels productive because you're working on something, but in reality, you're not producing anything.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: It's actually holding you back.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: So, instead of letting overthinking paralyze you right, we just have to focus on that one right next step.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: You've probably heard me say this a million times before we don't need to worry about getting from A to Z in one leap, we just need to get from A to B.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So we have to figure out what is B and do that.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: What is C and do that.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: So maybe it's sending the one email you've been putting off, or going to that networking event that you have been avoiding because you wanted everything to be perfect.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's putting your website out there or starting that podcast, or doing whatever that one right next step is.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: And the step doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be forward.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I want to say that again for the people in the back the right next step.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be forward.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Never underestimate the power of momentum.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Multiple steps forward in the right direction is how you cross the finish line.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So I want to give you another example of this and I hope this might help you in thinking about your processes.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: But I want to talk about the group coaching programming, sort of the evolution of it, right?
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: So I can remember that when we were getting ready to launch our first one back in 2021, I was wanting to like record everything.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I wanted to have the content all sketched out.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I wanted it to be like this absolute perfect thing.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: And my business coach and mentor at the time said to me she's like Libby, just make it up as you go, and not like wing it, but like just do it and get the feedback, get the comments from people.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: See what's helpful, see what they need more time to do, what takes too long, what is less time, what pace do they want to go at what?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: What do they need?
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And so, instead of like recording videos and having all the templates created the very first launch, we did a.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: We called it a beta test group, right?
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: So our advisors that knew like hey, this is like we're building this thing together.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And we showed up live.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Every single session was live, and I did this for a couple of rounds, right, we did live sessions every single week for a couple of rounds, and what it did for me was it helped me gather all of the right information.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: So, before I recorded any of the content.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I went back, almost like a football team watching tape, right.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I went back and was like, okay, what did we talk about?
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: What questions did they ask?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: How can I get ahead of those questions and answer them inside?
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: If I would have just gone and created the content for the group coaching program the way that I thought it that here's what people are going to want to know and here's what people are going to ask I would have totally missed the mark and I would have wasted an insane amount of time trying to get it right and doing what I think was the right.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: You know what I would have thought was perfect and it turns out by just doing it messy and having people help me build it as we went like, hey, here's a couple of versions of this template.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: Which one do you like better?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: What should I add?
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: What should I take away?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Doing exit interviews, getting feedback right?
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: My thought was live would be best and it turns out people wanted more prerecorded content that they could work on and then come to the live sessions having done the work, versus me teaching it live Right.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: So my idea of perfect and what I would have wanted to start with wasn't going to be perfect anyways.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: So by just saying, hey, I'm going to do this and join me, I'd love for you to help me build it.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: We're going to offer it at a crazy cheap price, and here's what I need from you and here's what I'm going to give you.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: Helped me actually build a program and we're still reiterating it and we're still getting better.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: So, kind of coming with this idea of that my version of perfect wasn't actually going to be perfect anyways and just taking action in the face of imperfection and I'm so grateful for that advice and feedback, right Cause, like, as we've continued to go through the program and now that we're on our seventh or eighth version of it, right, it's, oh, this would be helpful.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, how can I add that?
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Right, how can we make this user experience better?
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: How can we organize the documents better?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And instead of me trying to have had it all figured out that very first round, like allowing myself to just start building it as I went, so giving yourself permission to move forward and know that you're perfect Wasn't going to be perfect anyways.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, but how do we actually move forward when things feel messy?
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Right, the answer is simple it's action.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Action is the antidote to chaos.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: I remember hearing that somewhere and it has always kind of resonated with me.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: It's not about making these huge leaps all of the times.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just the small, consistent steps in the right direction that build momentum.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: So we often will have advisors that I'm working with, let's say, they're overwhelmed with onboarding.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Right, their process is a mess.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: There's too many steps, there's too many forms, there's too many NIGOs.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: It took forever to fully get a new client onboarded.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Instead of waiting to create the perfect system, right, we start making small changes one step at a time, and this is what we do inside of the group coaching program.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: The reason it's 10 months long to build out these processes is that we take these big, huge, sometimes hairy processes and we break them down into teeny, tiny, actionable steps.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: So it's streamlining one form, it's creating a template for one email.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: It's creating one workflow or one automation inside of your CRM.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: It's starting to use one new tool.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Each small change makes the process a bit smoother and over time, these small actions add up to a much more efficient system.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: So is it perfect right away?
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: No, and I tell my group this all the time.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Like, our goal is not to when you leave in 10 months, for you to have the world's most perfect systems and processes.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: No, we're going to have a skeleton down for you that you can then build on.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Right, we want to give you as many tools and templates and examples and examples and all the things that we can to get you to think through the process.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: But it's not until you actually start executing that process with your ideal client avatars over and over and over again that you start to say, okay, whoops, now we thought this would go really well in this area, but it turns out my ideal client avatar.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: This isn't resonating, so we need to make an adjustment or a change.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So by breaking it down into teeny tiny steps, you can start to actually build the perfect process.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: It allows you to keep bringing in.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: So an example of onboarding right, if you just wait to onboard anybody until you've built out this new, fabulous, perfect process, you're just going to get stuck, right?
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: We don't want to.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: We want to allow you to keep bringing in clients without getting stuck.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: We take these big processes and you break them down into teeny tiny baby steps, and I'm talking teeny tiny.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: So, um, maybe about probably eight or nine years ago, I remember doing a hosting a class on goal setting, and we talk about taking goals and breaking them down into what I call laughably small, less than 10 minute tasks and using a 10 minute task every day, doing one of these small, 10 minute tasks to actually move your goals forward.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So we talk about, okay, having no more than three major things going on in your business at any time that you're working towards, right?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: So I know most of us have a scattershot approach where we try to do 47 different things and we make a little bit of progress towards all of them and nothing actually happens.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Instead, I'd love for you to focus your energy for the next 90 days on three things and if you do a 10 minute task towards each of those things every single day 30 minutes of your day it is amazing to me how you will knock down goals so quickly and so like.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Let's just give me an example.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: So let's say you're an advisor and you want to switch offices.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: You know your office setup isn't working.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: You're expanding, you're growing.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's an ideal environment for you to work in with your clients, blah, blah, blah.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Instead of like the idea of like oh my gosh, I have to switch offices and write this A to Z, this okay, I'm going to need to get this whole new place.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I have to get all set up, get the technology working, get, you know, new contracts.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I have to figure out this lease.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: I have to, you know, paint the walls and get new furniture, and maybe it needs to recarpet it.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Instead of worrying about all that, all you need to do first is break it down into what are all the small tasks that could potentially need to be done towards moving it, towards moving into a new office, and it could look as little as I just need to spend 10 minutes writing down what it is that I need from an office space and what it is that I don't need from an office space, and that's it.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: That's all you have to do today and maybe tomorrow.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: The 10 minute task is reaching out to a real estate agent and or two or three, and asking if they can help you find a place and send them the list that you gave them.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Then it's just having a 10 minute phone call with the real estate agent to talk about it.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Then it's taking 10 minutes to look at the listings that they potentially sent you.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Then it's taking, you know 10 minutes to book an afternoon to go look at these spaces that you so you.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: We break it down into teeny tiny.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: If you do one thing a day in a 10 minute increment towards your goals, these laughably small tasks will help you move in that direction and build that momentum.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: The lesson here, right, is that you don't need to have everything figured out before you start.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The next right step is really all that matters.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: So whether it's improving a process, reaching out to a new lead or simply just making a decision that's been on the back burner, taking action is what will get you through the messiness.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And remember it doesn't have to be this huge leap forward.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Sometimes just the smallest steps make the biggest difference over time.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: And in the same vein of embracing you know messy and making it fancy later, a lot of what's holding us back from that next step is fear, right.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Fear of recording that first podcast, cause it's going to be terrible.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Fear of making that first video for your website with your why story, cause it's going to be terrible.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Fear of making that first video for your website with your why story, cause it's going to be terrible.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Fear of putting yourself out there on social media and doing something different than you've ever done before writing a blog, whatever it is, it's going to be the first, is always the worst and it can only get better.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: And I'd rather see you do 10 videos for social media and have four of them be horrible and six of them be a dramatic improvement, and then make 10 more.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And then make 10 more.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: And is every single one?
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, are you ever going to get to a place where everything you do is absolute perfection?
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: That right next step, though However small, is what will keep you moving forward.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So we want to stop thinking or not stop thinking.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: We want to stop overthinking.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: We do want to take action, and you have to just trust that the path will become clearer as you continue to move forward.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: So the messiness isn't really this roadblock, right?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: The messiness is part of the journey.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So we just have to embrace the fact that everybody has a messy side.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: And I'm telling you, guys, I have advisors who come to me that have $3 million revenue businesses that have areas that are just an absolute disaster.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: So here is your permission to do it messy and just come back and make it fancy later.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You are not here to prove yourself.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: You are here to improve yourself.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: So here are the actionable takeaways from today, right?
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: Number one we need to identify the messy area just one and make that our area to tackle.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Right, we want to take a minute to just reflect on our business and identify that one area that right now feels particularly messy or perhaps maybe feels unfinished so it could be an outdated process or an area that you don't have a process or a half finished marketing plan or a cluttered onboarding uh, you know and just commit to improving that one area in one small way this week.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: It doesn't need to be perfect.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: It just needs to be a teeny tiny incremental step, better than it was before.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Number two just take that right.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Next step we just want to remind ourselves that progress is made one step at a time and I just want to encourage you to choose that one small activity that you can do right now that will move your business forward.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: So it could be sending an email, making a tough phone call, implementing a minor change inside of your workflow, finally sitting down and writing that email template.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: The key is to stop overthinking and to just start doing.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, action item number three for us we want to set reoccurring time for imperfect action.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: So set aside some time every week dedicated to working on your business and make that time dedicated to taking imperfect action.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: So you could even put that in your model week, right, like I have an hour every Thursday afternoon for imperfect action.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: So giving yourself permission to do it messy and this could be, you know, just a little block of time where you work on tasks that you've been putting off because you've been waiting for the perfect moment.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: By taking regular imperfect action, you will start to build momentum and, like I said, you will set goals up and you will knock them down, and that momentum is crazy and once you have it, it's hard to stop it.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: And another strategy I just want to share that I've embraced recently is just called bless and release, right?
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: So whether it's something in your life that a person that you just need to bless and then release, whether it's a client that you just need to bless and release, whether it's this expectation you have on yourself that we just need to bless and release.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: So we're just, we're just calling it bless and release, and I'd love to know what you are blessing and releasing, right.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: This idea of having the perfect website.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: I have blessed it and I have released it.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: The idea of having the Libby's favorite things page be perfect.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I have blessed it and I have released it.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Is it still on the list?
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, but it's more important and more impactful for me to keep improving our group coaching program, to continue to create more templates for my private coaching clients, to continue improving my keynotes for speaking engagements.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Those things are going to help me get to my goals faster and to make a bigger impact than updating the one page on my website, right?
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: So I've decided to not let those things hold me back.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I have a massive brain dump that has all of the stuff that I'd love to do on it, and let me tell you what.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: It's huge and if you're anything like me and most advisors are, you have more ideas than you have time.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And so, having this huge brain dump of all of the things that you'd love to do and then just picking three that are going to make the biggest impact, that are going to move the needle, and just moving forward on them, even if it's messy, you know, as I'm testing new keynotes, I just did one in North Dakota a couple months ago and it was a brand new keynote for me.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Was it perfect?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Nope, I did it messy and afterwards I immediately sat down, made some notes, called a few people that I knew that were in the crowd, asked for feedback, and you know I'm reworking that keynote.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be delivering the same one at XYPN here in October and hopefully this round it'll be.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: You know what, if it's not perfect there either, that's okay too.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: It's still going to be great.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, the feedback I got from that session in Fargo was still phenomenal.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: It was still helpful to people.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: So that's that encouragement, right, that we need to just do it messy and always come back and make it fancy later.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: So bless and release.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Here is your permission to have a little bit of a mess and see what you can do to hopefully take that mess and reduce the stress.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your week.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: I would love to chat with you more out in the efficient advisor community over on Facebook.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: It is a free community of over 2,000 advisors that are just here to help improve each other, share ideas, what's working, what's not working, and it's overall just kind of a cool place to ask questions.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I love I just absolutely love going out there and seeing all of the questions that you guys are putting out there and everyone getting like 20 answers Like, hey, try this, try that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I just I can't.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what I had envisioned for that group and, of course, I'd love to connect with you over on LinkedIn.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: That's the other platform that I use and you can DM me with any questions.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I'm always open to podcast ideas.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, so much.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Have an amazing rest of your week.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and we'll talk to you soon.