Latest / The Perfect RIA / You Are Only Cheating Yourself [Episode 264]

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You Are Only Cheating Yourself [Episode 264] · The Perfect RIA

0:11
Matthew Jarvis: When you skip steps, you're only cheating
0:13
yourself,
0:42
Today's podcast is brought to you by TPR Live. That's right,
0:45
The Perfect RIA. Micah and myself will be joining you live
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and in person in Phoenix, Arizona on September 25 where we
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accountability around how to make that actually happen. So go
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to theperfectria.com/live to get signed up and get all those
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important details. Alrighty, back to the show.
1:12
Micah Shilanski: Welcome back to The Perfect RIA podcast. I'm
1:15
your co-host, Micah Shilanski, and with me, as usual, the
1:17
legendary Matthew Jarvis. What's going on, bud?
1:19
Matthew Jarvis: Micah, it's great to be back in the
1:21
recording studio and talking to the TPR audience. You and I have
1:24
been all over the place. Well, I've only been to, like,
1:26
conferences. You've been to Europe. You walk the Camino
1:28
trail like you guys have been all over the place. It's great
1:31
to get back in the studio.
1:32
Micah Shilanski: It is, you know, family time is really
1:34
great spending that, but getting back to work and, you know,
1:36
adding a lot of value and doing those things are also very, very
1:39
important. So I'm excited to get back at it.
1:41
Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, Micah, excited to tackle today's topic,
1:43
because you and I are just ruthless at effectiveness. Not
1:47
necessarily be confused with efficiency. We're ruthless and
1:49
effectiveness. We're always looking at everything and
1:51
saying, if this takes 10 steps, how do I do it in two steps? But
1:56
that can cut both ways, because what can happen, and you and I
1:59
have gone on the wrong side of this. You can cut out steps that
2:03
don't seem important, but are, in fact, critically important,
2:06
and this is absolutely essential when it comes to client
2:09
profitability, when it comes to surge meetings, when it comes to
2:11
the prospect process, when it comes to your own financials.
2:14
We'll share a story later this episode about an advisor who was
2:16
off on his numbers by just just $400,000 just so it's not really
2:22
a big, a big deal, so, but these steps are critical. They can be
2:26
cut out. And there's ones that have to be in there
2:29
Micah Shilanski: And you nailed it, right? We get in this aspect
2:31
of a, hey, I want to be efficient, and so you start
2:33
cutting things, but then you lack effectiveness. And I'm
2:36
always sold for effectiveness, not efficiency, right?
2:38
Efficiency is doing things the most efficient way possible, as
2:41
simply as possible, but that's not always solving for a quick
2:45
outcome. Effective is doing the right things efficiently. So to
2:49
be effective, you must be efficient, but you must be
2:50
focused on doing the right things, and sometimes that means
2:54
adding steps to a process that you don't think should be there.
2:58
But there are key things that must get done, since our team
3:01
grows, right? And that's one thing. It just took me a long
3:03
time to realize that, you know, I need a different process for
3:06
Micah versus for the team, because we think differently.
3:10
And when I have my operations persons in here, and they're
3:12
sitting there building out processes, they have so many
3:15
more steps than I think are necessary in the process.
3:18
However, when we go through them, each one is the decision
3:21
point they want to be able to track and make sure things are
3:23
done the first time. And when I finally went into that and had
3:26
them kind of build up, these processes build a lot of steps,
3:28
error rate went down, things got processed so much more
3:31
effectively. We could track things so much easier, right? So
3:34
it's again, what are we solving for? I'm a big fan of cutting
3:37
out steps, but be careful you're not cutting out too many or
3:40
putting up the right steps.
3:41
Micah Shilanski: Yes, you got to be really careful that even when
3:41
Matthew Jarvis: We also need to be very diligent. And I know
3:44
some people who are super successful are not good at
3:50
articulating why they have each step in their process again, if
3:56
I'm and they're crushing it, my first thing is to duplicate the
3:57
this is a common theme our podcast. From whom did this
4:17
process come? So if the process came from some expert, I'm
4:35
entire process 100% right? And after I have success in that
4:38
probably going to cut out all the steps. If the process came
4:51
process, now I can go and look at it and say, Okay, what's
4:53
working? What's not working for me? Because now I'm gonna be
4:55
different. And so many people jump to that second step before
4:58
they do the first one. Jarvis, instead of getting 100% to make
5:00
from an advisor that I know and respect who has a level of
5:00
it work, they're like, Oh, I'm different. I'm different. I'm
5:02
gonna say it different. I'm gonna set it up differently. I'm
5:03
gonna process this different. Like, hey, this thing doesn't
5:05
work unless only one piece of Alaska doesn't work for everyone
5:07
else. No, you did the process wrong, right? Really little
5:12
details matter.
5:13
Matthew Jarvis: A multi million dollar book, right? This is 212
5:13
Micah Shilanski: All right, so let's give you some examples in
5:13
Matthew Jarvis: They'll call this preaching, or we'll call it
5:20
Micah Shilanski: This is a multi million dollar practice. He
5:20
other clients.
5:21
success beyond my own, then I'm going to follow that and assume
5:24
wants to spend a little more time out of the office, you
5:31
know, traveling around. So he's gonna bring in another advisor
5:32
here, which is kind of our peer, which is reality. So I was
5:34
working with a very successful advisor. He's got a good book
5:36
probably worth 230-240 clients. And he's looking at spending a
5:38
and says, I'm gonna say, Great. Do you have one clients? You're
5:39
little bit less time outside of the office.
5:44
that every single step, from how they hold their pen to the
5:46
like trauma resurfacing, because you and I have a long history of
5:51
gonna transfer over to them. So we talked about our regular
5:52
green report, and, you know, he made the revenue report, regular
5:55
green book, complexity inside of it, which was fantastic. And
5:57
then we together, and I was like, you have to hide these
5:59
things in order to choose you're gonna go to the intruder. He's
6:01
like, no, no, I'll go ahead and do this myself. And he went
6:03
through, looked at each individual name, and out of the
6:05
two and eight weeks, down to 70, by the way, out of 2020 he was
6:06
script on the call, everything is intentional. Example, Micah,
6:07
able to afford 20 to go to the junior that he's hiring. I was
6:10
like, why are you hiring a junior? You're 20 clients. This
6:13
makes zero sense whatsoever. That's like, what? Four days of
6:16
appointments? I was like, You're not solving for anything, right
6:19
here. And he got really frustrated at me. I was like,
6:21
you have to hide the names. Go do these. Micah, you don't
6:23
understand. Okay, anytime you tell us we don't understand,
6:26
right? You're emotional point of view, because we have been in
6:29
I was just calling for its advisor, came up to me says,
6:30
the same positions that you have been in, right? You are not
6:33
really looking at this logically. You were saying
6:34
like, Oh, I gotta do that better on your point is spot on. I'm
6:36
you're unique in your own area that no one could possibly have
6:39
done the same thing you've done before. That's just a little
6:42
silly, because in the same shoes that which process is that you
6:46
have to do things a certain way.
6:48
Matthew Jarvis: It reminds me of one of my favorite lines to use
6:49
Hey, Jarvis, listen to the podcast. Big fan. I know you
6:50
with clients and prospective clients, is that it's impossible
6:52
to be objective with your own money, the same as your
6:54
practice. Right? We talk about this all the time in our
6:56
masterminds and our coach, it's impossible to be objective about
6:58
your own practice. There's too much emotion. So specifically,
7:01
the regular green report, when you're seeing the names of the
7:03
clients, you're not looking at it as a business. You're looking
7:06
at as Bob and Sue, or my third client, I remember they paid my
7:08
mortgage, right? Larry and David. I remember when their
7:09
talk about centers of influence a lot, so I'm started calling
7:11
adult son died, and we cried together over there, over the
7:13
cancer, whatever it is, and that has a place like, we're not
7:16
talking about just being cold hearted. If we are running a
7:19
business - We need to run a business. And that regular green
7:19
gonna duplicate someone's system, I need to duplicate
7:21
report that client profitably. Profitability analysis only
7:24
works. Also take names off of it. Just it will not work either
7:27
way.
7:28
Micah Shilanski: Yeah, let's just fast forward this, right?
7:31
all the centers of influence in my area, offering to take them
7:40
You got a civil advisor, you know, to crush that multimillion
7:54
to lunch. And I said, dude, hard stop. You missed the entire
7:57
dollar practice. Like, seriously, is that a better
7:58
every single step, just the most minutiae steps, and then it gets
8:06
Matthew Jarvis: And of course, this applies not just to
8:08
advisors looking to make more time. Advisors bid career as
8:10
well, where you wake up one day, you really 600 clients, 20 of
8:12
option? No, obviously that's not a better option. You got to
8:13
which are paying all the money, and 580 they're paying basically
8:16
thing. He says, no, no, lunch is the same as paying them. No,
8:16
nothing. That same red, yellow breed, right? The only time you
8:18
want to look at the names, the names. The only time is if
8:21
you're doing what we like to call a pedo report, if you're
8:23
looking for clients that are difficult, you're looking at
8:26
your team. Look at it without the numbers, and you're saying,
8:28
hey, any names on this where you see their name, you cringe.
8:29
bring in other people to back you up, and he wants to spend
8:31
That's the only time we look at it. Otherwise, it's numbers, and
8:34
we're looking again if you're mid career. All right, I need to
8:36
move up market. My expertise, my skills, are more than they were
8:38
it's not. The reason I call an offer to pay them is because
8:39
before. My time is more. All right, there's clients are not
8:42
named me what I want, they need to be transitioned to an advisor
8:44
who will do a job for them. And this, again, comes down to
8:46
more time with his wife and his kids, etc. Great things. You got
8:46
working for me. Then I have the liberty to fine tune it, because
8:47
whoever you refer to, like your C client, which you should never
8:49
have tiers, but your C level client is someone else's A level
8:52
client. They're going to give them better service than you are.
8:55
Micah Shilanski: That's 100% case, right? So it's another
8:58
period that we lie to ourselves in the process to go through it,
8:59
it's really different experience than taking a lunch. And so you
9:00
right? And this is this example, right here, this advisor, over
9:02
here. This advisor cheated himself with process, you're
9:04
to balance mode, because you're not hurting the client by
9:04
supposed to hide the names, then do the filtering and sorting,
9:06
etc. Then put the transffer. When you do it that way it
9:11
works. He's cheated one little step, not hiding the names when
9:14
by line you couldn't get it done. What's another example?
9:18
When you don't follow the steps on your numbers and understand
9:20
bringing in someone who can help them and service them when
9:21
your finances again. Again, Jarvis we are working with an
9:23
advisor. When we tell these stories you're gonna think they
9:23
but you think, you might think, well, I'm going to shortcut this
9:25
are about you because they are because we're the same, right?
9:29
These are not unique things. These apply to all of us, kind
9:32
of across the board. And by the way, when I'm at my mastermind I
9:33
what may seem totally unimportant might in fact be the
9:35
really, well, I don't like it at the time, but at the end, I like
9:37
you're not available, right? That's adding more values than
9:37
it when they called me out on stop our own numbers, tell
9:41
ourselves, our own lies, etc, which they want to mastermind.
9:45
So we wondered, by just crushing it, and we asked him what his
9:46
process. Lunch is a better thing than meeting their office. I
9:48
gross was. Gross. He kept telling us what is gross. So
9:52
it's like, no, that's not your gross. You're not a gross means
9:54
like making short, let's go with that. But they're going to get
9:55
the total debit from the client account. But that's not the way
9:58
he was. Counting it down to the 400 and he wasn't even looking
10:05
Matthew Jarvis: In that case, we see this again all the time. So
10:05
at that.
10:08
don't pay as much. You missed the entire process thinking that
10:12
no service because you're going to be gone or 80% of your
10:12
deal breaker in that entire process.
10:23
if you think the story is yours, it's it is also yours, it's also
10:28
service? Which is better, zero or 80?
10:31
you found a shortcut.
10:31
Micah Shilanski: This isn't saying fire temp, and I'm saying
10:48
yours. We see this all the time, right? Because we say the first
11:02
not to whatsoever. But our business owner know what your
11:12
step is to figure out the gross number is how much money was
11:31
freaking expenses are, right? Again, don't play the card. Oh,
11:34
my client feeds it. It's not a real expense, nope, because that
11:35
deducted from the client's account on all sources. Now, in
11:37
is 100% your expense. You can't look for recommendations. You
11:40
were the one. That's just the platform. You were the BD?
11:43
Whatever that is, you have to say, are they delivering? And
11:46
I've met with tons of advisors at BDS, where they like their BD
11:49
the BDS generate tons of value for them, and they're fine
11:52
paying it, and they're making a good, educated and informed
11:54
decision. Rock on. There's nothing wrong with that. But
11:57
don't lie to yourself about these numbers.
11:58
fairness, Micah, that's not an easy step to do. There is not a
11:59
Matthew Jarvis: I think the other place where this manifests
12:02
itself, right? You mentioned the getting defensive, emotionally,
12:04
right? Like You understand, right? That's a warning to me,
12:07
as either a coach or the participant, that I'm getting
12:10
defensive. Here another place we see advisors say this. They say,
12:12
I'm, you know, I'm making enough money, I'm taking enough time
12:16
off, and so therefore I don't need to look at this. Now, this
12:20
is super nefarious, and it really becomes a cancer to your
12:22
clean report that shows that. So it does take some legwork. We
12:23
practice, because once you stop turning one rock, you stop
12:26
turning over two rocks, three rocks, four rocks, suddenly you
12:29
start telling yourself all these lies. And again, how do I know
12:31
this? Because I tell myself these lies sometimes, and I need
12:33
someone to call me out on that. So then we say, Well, cool, when
12:36
was the last time you reviewed all the beneficiaries for your
12:38
all your clients? Well, recently. Cool. What was the
12:41
date? Pull up the report, pull up the oh, it was six years ago.
12:45
gotta open up client statements, we gotta look at billion files.
12:45
Okay, so that's not recently, but once we stop being critical
12:49
and analytical of our practice in one area, it spreads like a
12:53
cancer to every area. I just never seen it any other way.
12:55
Micah, I don't know if you have I've never seen any way.
12:58
Micah Shilanski: Comment from Joe Lucas, which I love, right?
13:00
Comfort, the cancer of success, and that is 100% the case,
13:05
right? You're the coast, and also that cancer is going to
13:07
erode your practice, and you're going to be in this falling rock
13:10
We gotta do some massive extrapolation out. But again,
13:10
mentality, and it's all going to be going down like, holy crap.
13:14
How did this happen? Happen overnight? It happened because
13:16
the last five years you weren't doing crap add value to your
13:19
practice, and now you're paying the price for it. So these are
13:22
things that can really add up. You have to be vigilant watching
13:27
for these things. And I gotta say, the time thing, that's
13:29
something that Jarvis calls me on regularly, which is great
13:31
for this, this advisor, it was a $400,000 difference. Now, once
13:31
because I'll say, hey, this came out like, a couple years ago.
13:33
He's like, we're like, five or 10 or five. Oh, I guess it was
13:39
that long ago, right? Those things that I just know I'm not
13:42
really good at knowing the exact time, but I know what our value
13:44
adds I have scheduled when they go out. We can go pull that
13:47
stuff up so we have processes in there for things I am not good
13:51
at to make sure they get done. Because Jarvis, I'd be 100%
13:54
guilty of that I would say sure did our beneficiaries last year,
13:55
he kind of saw the number, he could say, well, where's that
13:57
my standard response. But if I didn't have a report, I could
14:00
prove that we can go back and look, when did beneficiaries,
14:04
when did we do that work? When did we last do our buckets for
14:07
it? When did we do our risk analysis right? And now we can
14:09
make informed decisions.
14:11
Matthew Jarvis: The other place, Mike, this manifests itself, is
14:14
not setting deadlines right? This is such a critical step. So
14:17
people say, I'm going to implement surge, I'm going to do
14:17
money going? That 400,000 I'll go, let's just say it's going to
14:20
value adds. I'm going to raise my fees. Cool. When are you
14:22
probably next year? Okay, so never, just be honest. You're
14:25
never if it doesn't have an exact date on your calendar. You
14:28
know, if we pan my camera over to my wall calendar here, if
14:31
there's not an exact date, that's just never going to
14:33
happen. And again, you think that step doesn't matter, I'll
14:36
get around to another person. I tear it up. No, it's just not
14:39
going to happen. If it's not on the calendar with extreme
14:41
accountability ain't gonna happen.
14:42
a tamp for this discussion. Say, discussion sake, you can then
14:42
Micah Shilanski: Because life happens, right? Come up. Justify
14:46
us not getting things done. You have a team member that's gonna
14:48
leave like, holy crap. They were a key team member. I clearly
14:51
can't get these other things done. I can't prospect. I can't
14:53
do this. This happened our last mastermind, that someone lost a
14:56
key advisor in their practice, and so now they're paying the
14:58
price for that now, like they replaced them. They're super
15:00
happy with that, but they took six months off from prospecting,
15:03
so they're not having new clients come in and you took
15:05
decide, Hey, is that temp bring me $400,000 of value to me and
15:06
your foot off the gas. Now get a good excuse, but I'm not saying
15:09
I wouldn't have done the same thing, but that had a price,
15:12
because prospecting wasn't front and center on something you
15:15
should be active in. That was easy to get derailed. Once it
15:19
got derailed, it's so hard to pick it back up. So all of these
15:23
things, let's pick surge. We talk to advise all the time to
15:25
say, I'm doing going to do surge, right? One, what does it
15:27
mean when you're doing search? You don't have to copy our
15:29
my clients? And maybe the answer is yes, I don't think so, but
15:29
calendar, right? But are you being hyper intentional about
15:32
your calendar? Hyper intentional about adding value to clients,
15:35
right? That's that's the essence of surge, right there. And if
15:38
you're going to do it, when? And don't say you're going to do all
15:41
of these things at once, because these are all big lifts. Like,
15:43
when are you putting them in years to make sure your practice
15:47
is up and running to where it should be?
15:49
Matthew Jarvis: Boy Surge is a great one to touch on. In fact,
15:51
it's actually one of the very first master classes that Micah,
15:53
you and I did together. So if you want to see Micah and I
15:53
if, maybe the answer is yes, but now we can have that discussion
15:56
before we knew each other, like it was, it's two different guys,
15:59
but surge I was, I was working the other day, and the advice
16:03
was, yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm just not gonna be with my
16:05
clients. Cool, neither am I. But have you warned them of that?
16:08
Have you given them a reason why you want to be in the fall? Have
16:11
you told them what to do if an emergency comes up? Have you
16:14
given them a communications policy? No Jarvis. I just did
16:17
what you did. I saw him. I wouldn't meet him till the fall.
16:17
otherwise. What heads up? Then we Micah and I ran into this
16:18
No, that's, that's not at all what I did, what I did, process
16:22
and missing steps, yeah, yeah. And I think that's what happens
16:25
to like a jump to the end result. I talked to an advisor
16:28
yesterday at a conference, and he's getting ready to launch his
16:30
own RIA and I said, Cool. How are you going to find clients?
16:32
And he says, Well, I think I'm just going to do paid Facebook
16:36
ads. Okay, okay, you could put the money in a rare tax
16:40
with an advisor one time. We said, Hey, this role that you're
16:43
deduction. You could burn the money. Who know that's done that
16:46
successfully? He did have one name. And I said, Cool. I know
16:48
Micah Shilanski: So an easy example, a month out of the
16:49
that advisor as well. And I know that guy who spent 10 years, 10
16:53
years refining that thing. He didn't just go call Facebook, we
16:57
jumped to this end result, and we think that magically it's
17:00
going to happen.
17:02
office, right? With the family, walk the Camino, etc. And this
17:04
part of, how much are they charging? He says they don't
17:06
wasn't, I just left for this, right? This was the fall of last
17:10
year. I was letting clients know, because they often ask,
17:12
what's going on with us? Oh, we have a big trip coming up. We're
17:14
going to walk the Camino as a family. This will be great. It's
17:16
30 seconds on my life, right? I'm not going into whole detail,
17:19
but I planted the seeded fall when spring came around, one of
17:23
the things I added in our agenda after being Hey just as a
17:25
charge me a thing. How do they keep the lights on? How does he
17:25
reminder after tax season wraps up, I'm going to be headed
17:28
Europe with my family for a little vacation. We're going to
17:30
walk. If anything comes up. Here's how to get a hold of me.
17:35
Of course, I'm always available if there's an emergency, right?
17:38
But I planted the seed with them, then I'm following up with
17:41
that communication. Now, my office knows the step that if a
17:44
client calls in to talk to Micah, there's a way to handle
17:47
it. And then, you know, I really need to talk to Micah, just
17:48
have his private jet? Well, the client pays it. Whatever money
17:49
absolutely, as a writer, Micah is on a pilgrimage with his
17:53
family in Europe, but let me go ahead and get a message out to
17:56
him so you call back. Oh, wait, that's right, he is out of the
17:59
country. You know, this really isn't that big of a deal. Maybe
18:00
I could just talk to Victoria and she can take this for me. Is
18:04
this all doing a good service to the client? 100% yes, we're
18:07
setting patients. And never once did I tell the client I wouldn't
18:10
be able to talk to them. It was the Hey, If this comes up in
18:12
the client's paying is money they're willing to pay you. And
18:13
this emergency, the team can absolutely get a hold of me, get
18:15
a result. And Jervis, I had zero emergencies come up while it was
18:20
gone over a month, because we had set it up in advance with
18:23
our clients. Now we've not done that. Had called in, like the
18:27
daily rate clients call they want to talk to Micah, and Micah
18:30
out of the country for a month, and they didn't know about this.
18:32
That's now an uneasy feeling. He's out of the country, and I
18:35
so in his case, the client was paying about 50 150 basis
18:36
can't get a hold of how does this work, etc.
18:38
Matthew Jarvis: And I was thinking, as you're you're
18:39
sharing that story. Micah, the reason that we skip these steps
18:42
is that they're hard. They're hard. It's hard to prep your
18:47
team that you're going to be on the Office for three weeks. And
18:49
they have their concerns. It's hard to prep clients because,
18:52
again, some you saw that fear. A lot of clients are gonna be
18:55
excited for you. Some clients are still gonna say, like, wait
18:57
a second, I've never taken a three week trip. I I've never
18:57
points. He was getting 100 of that. So the role of was getting
18:59
had you know, maybe I'm paying you too much so you can afford
19:02
these. Do these things, right? These difficult steps. Now, the
19:05
more you practice the more refined, the easier they become.
19:08
Like you and I cannot do these, you know, offhand, like tying
19:10
our shoes, but early on, it's really easy to skip them because
19:14
they're hard to do. It seem like taking the names of that's hard
19:16
to do. It's, I mean, functionally, it's just high
19:19
column, but in real life, right? It's a wonderful in real life,
19:21
50 basis they were even 1/3 plus all their other stuff. Now we
19:24
it's really hard. They start playing. I think I know whose
19:27
count that is by the size.
19:31
Micah Shilanski: Maybe I should change my decision on this one.
19:33
Yeah, it's really hard, but these are the hard things that
19:36
actually matter, right? What are the injustices that's that's
19:39
done to ourselves? As we look at someone else, we say, Oh, it's
19:41
so easy. You know, this person can do it, clearly that can do
19:44
it. Well, yes, that is true, but are you willing to do the work
19:44
have the real numbers. Now we can have that discussion, but
19:48
that's required to be that successful? Everybody wants the
19:50
outcome. Are you willing to put in the sweat equity? Are you
19:54
willing to put in the work to really transform your life and
19:56
your practice? And that's a big question. And I got guys that
19:59
come to me and says they want to make X dollars a year, and I'll
20:02
say, Man, that's fantastic. We can do that. Are you willing to
20:05
work better there? And I did remember how one advisor paused,
20:07
you can't skip these steps. I know they're difficult, you just
20:09
and it was really wise, uh, younger kid as well, and he was
20:12
like, you know, Micah, I don't think I'm willing to work that
20:15
hard. What if I just work this much? What type of practice with
20:17
that music? Okay, great. Now we can have an honest conversation,
20:20
right? Good job not lying to yourself. This is okay. You can
20:23
have a great practice. This work level is probably going to be
20:25
level success. And he's like, You know what I think right now,
20:28
where I'm with my family, that's kind of where I'm at. It's okay,
20:30
great. You can have a great success like that, but don't lie
20:31
can't skip them.
20:33
to yourself, because what happens if you lie to yourself
20:35
now, then you get into this victim mentality later, because
20:37
you're not hitting this level of success. What do you mean? A, B
20:40
and C? People can do it, and I'm out there doing everything that
20:42
they're doing. They must be cheating their clients. They
20:44
must be doing this real negative path when the reality is you
20:48
just didn't work to get there.
20:50
Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, and it's good point, Micah to own that,
20:52
and then to take steps related to that. So if you just say,
20:56
Listen, I just want an eight to five job, and I don't want to
20:59
read, you know, 10 books a month, and I don't want to spend
21:01
my nights and weekends calling people to get one at a risk of
21:06
variable. Cool, there's a lot of great career channels for you.
21:09
They're not any that interest me. But again, like you and I,
21:12
are willing to grind like crazy. And not everyone has that grind,
21:14
and we can talk about that on another podcast, but this is
21:17
where we go back to not cheating the steps. So , I want to start
21:20
my own RIA. Cool. Are you willing to make 100 phone calls
21:23
a week? No, no. Are you willing to make any No, okay, you
21:27
probably shouldn't go this channel. You should probably
21:30
find a Fidelity office or a big RIA that you can join as a gen
21:33
two, where someone else is doing the great baking. You'll make a
21:36
fraction of the money. You'll never create real wealth, but at
21:39
least you won't get 10 years down the road and still not have
21:41
money or real wealth, then no health insurance, and be trying
21:43
to figure out why you're not succeeding.
21:45
Micah Shilanski: I absolutely love it. You know, what are the
21:47
coaches that we work with? A lot never done 10 books a week, but
21:49
we did have a coach that was having 10 a month. Yeah, even 10
21:52
a month is a lot of one book a week that we had for a while.
21:57
And I gotta say, that was pretty intense. I had to really beef up
22:00
my reading schedule. It'll really be intentional, but
22:03
really it holds you accountable. I thought you're a man of
22:07
integrity to do what you said you're gonna do. That's
22:09
interesting. What else are you lying about? Right? But
22:12
rightfully so. I said I was gonna do this thing. Are you
22:14
really gonna do it? So you need that other person, whether it's
22:16
a coach whatever, to hold you accountable to these typical
22:19
things, or it's a pure group or mastermind, but someone that's
22:22
actually going to hold you accountable and call you out and
22:25
not give you a pass for in the society and the generation, they
22:27
get passes for everything they can do. That's not okay, right?
22:30
You need to hold up and be able to do certain things, and it's
22:33
hard work.
22:35
Matthew Jarvis: It really is like another step that comes to
22:37
mind, and I know we need to get to action items on this podcast,
22:40
is cheating yourself on what your actual growth rate is. Goes
22:46
back to the numbers, but it's easy to get I've fallen big to
22:48
that. You say, Well, how many clients you brought up? Feels
22:51
like 15 or 20. Okay, you had 120 clients last year, and you have
22:55
121 this year. Well done. I don't lose that. Yeah. Okay, all
23:02
right. She worked with an advisor recently a BA goal to
23:06
get to a billion dollars of assets, which is a phenomenal
23:08
goal. We work with a lot of advisors that have that goal,
23:10
and then we run in the math backwards, and we're saying,
23:12
Hey, dude, listen at your current growth rate. It'll take
23:14
17 years to get there. No, no, we'll get there faster. I'm just
23:17
doing the math your current growth rate because I've seen
23:19
the numbers 17 years now. That's still noble. To get there at any
23:22
point in your life. That's incredible. But if you're saying
23:24
you want to get there in 5 and skip steps like, hey, I want to
23:26
get there in five there's these numbers I want. I want them
23:28
really bad. Therefore they'll be there and I'll skip all the
23:30
steps in between. So you got to have somebody that can call you
23:33
out on this stuff. I think Micah get more than anything, because
23:35
you just don't even see it. Right?
23:36
Micah Shilanski: If you get to an empire practice, right, your
23:38
your practice changes right? A 20% growth on a $500 practice is
23:42
a lot different than 20% growth on a $5 million practice. You
23:44
know, it's the same. 20 becomes a much different animal on how
23:47
you're going to do that. So, you know, one is to bring 5%
23:50
clients, 50 clients, okay, that's a different animal. 75
23:53
households. It's so as you continue to grow towards that
23:56
larger spectrum, just how you're doing things, what got you here?
23:59
We'll get you there. That same mentality, right? So it's all of
24:01
these things are really important to look at and not
24:02
just think, Oh, I've had 20% growth over the last five years.
24:04
I just keep doing growth, maybe, but probably not.
24:08
Matthew Jarvis: Micah, one last thought on this. This is my
24:10
second last time when we talk to advisors at conferences, when we
24:13
listen to podcasts, when we read books, even like this podcast,
24:16
in my book, you're at best getting, like, 1/100 of the
24:19
whole story. And it's not because someone's being
24:20
nefarious. Understand how they are. Some of those people,
24:22
they're rare. It's not that we're sitting on this podcast.
24:24
We're trying to hold things back. That's not the case. Just
24:27
there's so many steps, it would be impossible to detail them
24:29
all, and that's where you can't ever assume that you know all
24:32
the steps. You know my own processes. I feel like, oh, you
24:33
know what? There was a step in here. I didn't even realize I
24:35
was doing it every time, but it's critical to the process.
24:37
And I just mentioned that because it's just thinking we
24:40
found an easy system. I talked to this guy is a five step
24:42
process. Is a five step process, and he makes a million dollars.
24:46
He has 500 steps in between each of those steps, and I've got to
24:49
just be laser focused on finding those again and again.
24:51
Micah Shilanski: I love it, alright? Jars, this podcast is
24:52
all about action and items. So our last thought is action
24:56
items. So yeah, what's the first action item our listeners can
24:58
take and implement this week?
25:01
Matthew Jarvis: If I'm in the back, I've been a lot of
25:02
conferences lately. If in the back, I'm like, holding up a
25:04
sign, like, what are the actions? Like, size quarter,
25:07
there's 10 minutes left. What are the action items?
25:09
Micah Shilanski: I do wonder, like, how much of our audience,
25:12
or are we making lazy by just summarizing the action items?
25:15
Right? Because I know the same thing on events. I'm like, Look,
25:16
I gotta go through all this. Just tell me what I need to do.
25:18
And I'm like, oh, huh, losing some critical thinking skills
25:20
here.
25:21
Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, well, actions, we can control. Action
25:23
number one, get a physical wall. You're at a glance calendar.
25:26
They have a lot of Amazon. We're midway through the year, so you
25:29
want to go from like July to June or whatever. And map out
25:32
your Surge calendar, map out your value adds, map out your
25:35
personal and professional development, map out your family
25:37
time. Have that accountability. Mine's right here on the wall to
25:40
my left. That accountability is critical. My entire team does
25:43
this. My family does it. It seems like don't you know how to
25:46
use a apple calendar? I do. I have those as well. I have three
25:49
of them, but I have a physical calendar. It's a critical step
25:51
in my progress and my success.
25:52
Micah Shilanski: Yes, which one you're looking at? Look at my
25:54
analysis. Okay, we want to do A, B and C. Then I look at the
25:56
calendar and be like, Hey, I have all of our events planned
25:57
out on the calendar. Where are we going to put a, b and c? I'm
26:00
not saying we can't do it, but I gotta make some hard decisions
26:02
here. You have to get things in there now. All right, action
26:04
item number two, write down your steps inside of the process,
26:09
right? Or have someone else write on steps and someone else
26:12
follow up with you when you're doing something, are you
26:14
actually doing the steps that you think you're going to do? So
26:17
any of these things that we talked about, whether it's job
26:19
duties, hiring team members, prospect process, client
26:21
process, etc. You need to write down every have someone else
26:24
evaluate doing all of these steps. Which ones are you
26:28
skipping then, okay, it's a question. Is that step really
26:30
needed, or are you skipping it because you're being lazy and
26:32
you're choosing not to do the hard work that would equal
26:34
success?
26:35
Matthew Jarvis: Yeah, and I would definitely add on there
26:36
too. We can do an entire episode on this, which is the steps you
26:38
will never do. For example, same day paperwork. We never do same
26:41
day paperwork, right? That's in our client meeting process. So
26:44
the last action item Micah, you and I now have been doing this
26:47
podcast for six, six years, five years. So something that six
26:50
gotta be sick. Yeah, it's been a ton of fun with 1000s of
26:53
advisors listening, but we're getting ready to make some big
26:55
changes. We want to make sure, because, in a way, this podcast
26:58
a lot of fun. In some ways, it does a disservice. You mentioned
27:00
earlier about sometimes the action items are kind of a
27:02
cheater. It kind of a cheater. It kind of saves you from the
27:03
hard work. But again, the podcast teases at the things
27:07
that need to be done, and some advisors can take that run with
27:09
it. Most need more, so we're working on some new improvements
27:12
for the podcast. If you have suggestions or things you would
27:15
like to see for the podcast, send an email to
27:16
lifestyle@theperfectria.com, but stay tuned this summer for some
27:20
exciting changes.
27:21
Micah Shilanski: Awesome. Jarvis, as always, it's a blast,
27:21
Awesome. Jarvis, as always, it's a blast, and it's a nice time.
27:54
and it's a nice time. Happy planning.
28:11
Happy planning.