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161: A New Unconventional but Exciting Way to Approach Your Goals in 2024 · The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am doing an experiment for myself this year related specifically to goals.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I have just been having a lot of conversations with advisors lately who are really struggling with kind of traditional goal setting.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Right, they have great revenue, they have great work-life balance.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: You know what's another 10% of revenue really going to do for them, and they're having kind of a hard time connecting deeply with the why behind the goals, since they're very, very happy with their business and their lives.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Right, and you maybe have goals to streamline your business so that you can work more efficiently.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, to some that means freeing up hours to work less, to some that means freeing up hours to be more profitable.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: But mostly just setting goals for the sake of setting goals is a lot of what I'm seeing here recently and it's really hard and I know I went through this phase too where I can remember my husband at the time saying to me you know, like why are you trying to grow your business?
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And I just remember looking at him and like saying, because I can and I really didn't have.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: You know, I was in a place where what's an extra 10%, you know, is that really going to change my life in any way?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And it's hard to get connected to the why behind the goals.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Like you want to have goals that you, you know, jump up out of bed every morning for the things that get you super excited and I do.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I see a lot of goal setting just for the sake of having goals.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Like we just live in an environment, as entrepreneurs, as financial advisors, that we're trying to hit benchmarks or we're trying to hit definitions of success defined by other people.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: There's the elusive, you know, seven figure firm that a lot of advisors, once they hit that, you know, are kind of left with a little like oh well, that was fun, like empty feeling because it wasn't really about the money.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's really hard just to set goals related to things that don't actually bring us joy and motivate us Right.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: So I've been having a lot of these conversations and I do what a good coach would do, right, we try to dig and pry into what would make them happy.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: We reflect back on last year and look at what brought them the most joy and their personal and professional lives.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: You know, what do they want to start, what do they want to stop, what do they want to continue?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: You know kind of the typical, you know goal setting routine, if you will.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: So today I want to offer up a different acronym for goal setting, if you're in that place where you just need to mix it up and you maybe just need a different approach to 2024.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: So we've all you know, we all know smart goals, and if smart goals are your thing, great.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: This just might be a fun addition to come alongside some of your traditional business goals.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Or maybe you're an advisor that just needs a shot in the arm to get reinvigorated about your business.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: So let me introduce you to F?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: U N goals, fun goals.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Let's dive in.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to acknowledge that you are here and the fact that you are using your precious time whether that's treadmill time or drive time or just straight sitting and listening time the fact that you are here investing in yourself, investing in your business through spending your time and energy with me.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I just want you to know that that doesn't go unnoticed and I am so grateful that you are here.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: And I know you're here because you know it is possible to have energy left over for your family and still have your dream business, that elusive work life balance and you know what I'm talking about the business that you are running instead of it running you.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: If you're new to the efficient advisor, welcome.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I'm Libby Gray.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: We and I started from scratch, built and sold at age 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 and taking off 14 weeks a year to lean into being a mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter and, frankly, someone who loved taking vacations not going to lie and I'm here just to walk alongside you and to show you how to do exactly the same and to help you take immediate action on the most important strategies for scaling, organizing and creating less stress and overwhelm in your business.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: We are about to transform your practice, so move over exhaustion and get out of the way.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Advisor ADD.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: It's a thing and it is time to just take that one right next step to build a business and a life that you love.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Now, before we dive into the fun goals, I do want to share with you just kind of two things that I just want to make sure I mentioned.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I know for you this year, a lot of you are wanting to really streamline your financial planning process, and I know some of you are in the cohort that we've got starting January 9th to do like all kinds of process creation, but a lot of you just are curious about the one page financial plan, and my friend Matt Jarvis and my other friend, micah Shalansky over at the Perfect RIA have created a masterclass all around how to craft a really good, really good, compelling one page financial plan.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: So I will drop the link for that in the show notes If that's on your radar for this year.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: It's super affordable and something that you can plan here while you're still on your new year's resolution high.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: The other thing I want to mention is episode 148 was about the family tree template that I used in my own practice and a lot of advisors use in theirs.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: That is still available for a $15 donation to St Jude.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: There's a link in the show notes for that as well, where you can make your donation, and 100% of the proceeds will go to my favorite charity, st Jude.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Last year we raised over $1,000 for them through the family tree template.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It's a win, win, win.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: You get the template, you don't have to spend any time and energy creating it, the kids get money to do really fun things like throw a prom for the high schoolers and St Jude is just a really cool charity and it's a win for me because I get to give out some templates that I use, while honoring the fact that I have coaching clients that are paying for these types of things.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: So it's a win, win, win.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, enough about that.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Just wanted to share with you those two resources are still available here in the new year, okay.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: So, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, I'm kind of doing an experiment this year and I saw this concept mentioned and was like, ooh, this would actually make a really interesting episode to drop around at the beginning of the year when everyone is kind of thinking about the year and goals and maybe you've already done some of your business planning and maybe you're in that place too where you're feeling a little disenchanted with your business or maybe not that excited or not that connected to your goals.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So I thought I would record this episode quick and, of course, my team loves when I totally change the content calendar at the last minute.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: So we're just going to talk about goal setting and some different perspectives and things that that people run into and the reason that I wanted to mess up our whole calendar and put this here at the beginning of the year is because I've been a little bit on the struggle bus with goals too, being that I just kind of reinvigorated the efficient advisor pretty much in the last year.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: You know, the first year I had all kinds of goals set, all the smart goals, had all kinds of numbers.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: But I realize now that that was maybe a little I don't know a little crazy because I had no idea what to expect.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Right, I ended up doing four times the revenue that I thought I would it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Just the areas that I made the most revenue were in totally different areas than I thought they might be.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: It was just kind of way off.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: And so this year, when I sat down to really figure out my goals and I came out of a really hard year last year so between you know kind of the uncertainty of this business and the uncertainty of life, I realized that you know what I just really want to do goal setting really, really different.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: This year, and this might be the only year that I do it this way.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I'm normally, traditionally a very goal oriented person.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I love and I'm going to give you a ton of examples later in this episode, but I'm you know of weight, maybe ways that we can think about goal setting slightly different to get same results.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So I know a lot of you are going to go oh my gosh, well, if you don't write it down, it doesn't happen.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: And if you don't put these specific, measurable, attainable, you know, realistic, time sensitive think parameters on your goals, they're never going to happen or they're not going to come to fruition, or you can't, you know, reverse engineer them into the steps that you need to take in order to achieve those goals.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And I'm kind of on a mission this year to prove myself wrong in that category, because that's totally where I am right.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: We know all the science, we know all of the you know setting these numbers down, but there's also, I think, an art form to goal setting that maybe we don't talk about nearly as much.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: And this year I'm focusing more on the art form side of it than I am on the, you know, quantitative side of it.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: And so one thing I've noticed is that advisors really struggle with this idea of contentment versus complacency, and I know I struggled with this in my own business, right there we all want to get to a place where we feel really content right, where we're not as overwhelmed, where business is really good, we've got lots of reoccurring revenue and we're just kind of happy with how the business is functioning.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: But a lot of advisors have that Enneagram, three tendencies, or just achievers, or you know, maybe it's just the way that we've been kind of raised and bred in this industry to have goals for the sake of goals right, and because of who we are.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I ran into this contentment versus complacency thing really about every five years and I noticed this with advisors.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: So here's, if you are at any of these markers or feeling this, it's totally normal about 10 years into the business you start to become a little discontent, a little disenchanted with your business.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Maybe you feel like you're going through the motions, maybe not.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: You know you're still motivated to help clients, but it's just feeling a little less fulfilling than maybe it was two, three years ago, and then really about year 10, that's when that kicks in.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And then about every five years after and this is my own personal experience, you know I graduated from college and started my practice, so this was the only thing I knew for 16, the 16 years that I ran my business and I literally had one career.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I was the only person I knew of my friend group that graduated from college and had like the exact same job from the day that we graduated until I was 37 years old and, quote unquote, retired right.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: So I had to reiterate my business every few years to keep it interesting, to keep it exciting and to reframe how we were doing business with clients, but also what I wanted out of the business.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Because once we hit a certain revenue point, you know and for those of you that aren't there yet, I don't say this flippantly, but there is a point where you hit revenue where you're like gosh, you know, if we set a goal to increase by 10%, what is this extra hundred percent, what is this extra hundred thousand dollars really going to do?
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: What is it really going to change?
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And I was just having this conversation with the coach and client of mine about two months ago and you know, and I can totally empathize and I know that sounds like a major first world problem, but there is this desire to get better, this desire to grow, and often we tie that to revenue, to number of clients, and I want to offer some alternatives that I think would reinvigorate or reignite some passion towards your business.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: So with that, here's a couple of things that helped, and, don't worry, I am going to get to the FUN goal setting type thing here that I'm doing.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: But this I want to.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I want to walk you through a couple of things that I used to do, and I still do, in my personal life and in my professional life that have really just helped me stay super connected to my business, stay super connected to my goals and to really just get me excited about life in general.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: So one of the first things that I always share and there's a whole episode on this, I mean it's like way, way, way back in the vault.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: It's one of the first, maybe like 10 episodes but this idea of just asking myself you know, how did I overcome the challenge of getting stuck in the business, getting kind of into the mundane, feeling a little bored, you know, feeling a little disenchanted, and there's a couple of things that I would do.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: The first, I would ask myself my favorite question wouldn't it be cool if dot, dot, dot?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: And then I'll explain that here in a second.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: The second thing that I would do is I would look at.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: How could I reinvent my role within the business?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: How can I take on a new niche or a new mastery?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: Do I step more into a CEO role than I have previously?
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Do we change the way that we're approaching leadership within our business and take that leadership hat on really seriously, like, how could I affect the role of the business and my other role inside the business?
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So maybe it was getting rid of more clients and doing more of that strategic planning.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's changing the target market that you're working with.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: So maybe learning a new niche or new mastery of something more complex.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: That's one of the things that when I would get really bored, I'd be like, okay, what else can we learn?
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Like, what else can we do, what else can I master?
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And I used to ask myself this too, and this is something we talk about, you know, in the group coaching program what do you want me to do when we start is how do you want things to feel in your business?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: So what do you want your clients to feel, what do you want your employees to feel?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: What do you personally want to feel about your business?
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And using some of these answers as North stars to guide you in your goal setting process.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: So, if you want to feel calm and you want to feel collected and you want to feel in control, right, what are the action steps required?
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Or what does your schedule need to look like?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Or what are the clients that you need to be working with in order to serve that idea of how you want to feel in your business?
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: So, using feeling as a you know same thing with clients, right, what do we want our clients to feel when working with us?
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And then how do we build out a process or systems and our whole experience to support the feeling that our clients have coming in and what we want them to, the transformation that we want to provide them and what we want them to feel about actually moving forward and working with us?
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And then this year I'm doing these fun goals and I guess I'll explain it to him in a minute.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I know that's why you're here, but I need to set this up first.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: So I heard this years ago this question as a writing prompt and I started adding it into my CEO days and, honestly, it changed my business, it changed my life and I know that sounds cheesy, but it's the 100% truth.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: And the prompt is wouldn't it be cool if and it's just such a simple statement but when you allow your brain some white space and to just really flow on this, you will be amazed at the stuff that bubbles up.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And I've done this a few times with advisors, you know, and just kind of given them this prompt when they're in that stuck place and sometimes it's a week later, sometimes it's a month later, but I'll get an email.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And inevitably I'll get an email saying oh my gosh, that was such a great exercise, like here's what I came up with, here's what my spouse and I came up with, here's what you know, like, my team came out.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: It's just so fun and the idea is that it's designed to be an impactful prompt to stir up your imagination.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: And then an imagination put into practice is where those amazing, fun things happen.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if you've ever heard this, this acronym, crafal, c-r-a-f-f-l.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: It's a crazy, amazing, ridiculously fun filled life.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: And I, you know, years ago this, every year, I pick a word or I pick a term that's going to describe what I want to look like in my personal life and what I want to look like in my professional life.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Last year it was for both.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: It was palms up, just this idea of being in a posture of just waiting to see what opportunities came to me and saying yes to lots of things and trying lots of things and taking chances and doing things that maybe I would have normally hesitated to do or maybe not have felt ready to do, and just being in this posture of like, whatever God gives me, I'm just going to say yes and I'm going to give it a try and see what happens.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: But a few years ago so same concept that the term for me was this idea of Crafal and it's what would it take for me to live this crazy, ridiculous, amazing, fun filled life?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Like that was really what I, at the end of the day, you know, when I am old and gray and looking back at my life, I want to look back at it and say, oh, that was crazy, that was ridiculous, that was an amazing, fun filled life.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: And I'm not necessarily wow, I had a really big house and we had a pool and I had a fancy car For me.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That's what it was.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: And so this question started, or this prompt kind of came in around the same time that we were looking at you know, what would it take to live this Crafal.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: And so this is where I want you to spend some time before we get into the fun goals.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Because when you ask yourself things like wouldn't it be cool if and this is where you just give yourself permission to just anything can be written down right, anything comes out.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: So maybe it's.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if the entire office was closed on Fridays?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Like, wouldn't it be cool if I never had a meeting after 2pm?
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I only worked three days a week?
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I never, ever, worked a night or a weekend again?
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: You know, wouldn't it be cool if I bought my own office building?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I hired a CPA to work inside of our business?
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: What if I wrote a book?
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I fired all the clients I didn't like?
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: What if I?
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: You know what if I took a full month off to travel, which I did, by the way, and you can hear all about that in episode six of this podcast, you know, and how we built up to that.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: But, like, all of these things can be the start of a game plan to really truly building your dream business.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: It just helps you get out of your own small thinking and sometimes we dream really small because it's easier and we don't take the time to actually let our imaginations run truly wild.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Sometimes these things sound just too big or too hard or too farfetched, but this prompt can also be applied to your personal life and lead to a lot of cool stuff.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: So, like, wouldn't it be cool if we lived in Hawaii for a few months?
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: You know, this is the question my husband and I asked ourselves that we ended up making a plan and we did it, you know.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Did it take a while?
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, did we do it overnight?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: No, but we eventually moved to Hawaii and spent half a year there and it was amazing.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: You know, we didn't know that.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: That was even a dream of ours until we had asked ourselves that question.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: You know, and during the pandemic, when nothing seemed cool, we asked ourselves this question and came up with, you know, like, wouldn't it be cool if we bought an airstream and traveled the United States with our kids instead of sitting at home and doing virtual school?
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we did it and it was really cool.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: And for the record, I should have asked myself the question like wouldn't it be cool if we homeschooled our kids with our own curriculum?
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Because if I would have asked myself that question, I'm sure I would have been like hold up, wait a minute, pump the brakes.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But we did it, we survived.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: My kids had a year of very, very so-so education from a totally unqualified teacher.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But it's fine, everything's fine, we're all fine, but anyways, these were some of our best adventures.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: When I look back at our life, and they directly came out of asking ourselves these prompts, you know, and do yours have to be the same as mine?
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely not.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Yours might be something like wouldn't it be cool if I ran a marathon?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I bought a vacation home?
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if we got a cabin in the woods?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I did a triathlon?
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, whatever.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if I took my kids out to lunch once a month or did more one-on-one time with them?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool if my spouse and I actually were able to do a date night once a week?
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: You know, the question is actually just a really fun one.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: So do it with yourself, do it with your team, do it with your family, and you might be shocked at what jumps out of you that you weren't expecting and you can then start to put small steps into play to make these cool things happen for you and your business and your family.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, so how does this play into a few end goals?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: So we've all heard smart goals which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Or I've heard it's a time bound, meaning there's a deadline to it, and those are all really important and it's backed by boatloads of science.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: That getting it down, creating something that you can actually measure, that's able to be achieved and not so impossible, that makes a ton of sense for you and has deadlines All of those things are critically important and really, really helpful for goal setting.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: But what I wanted to do was try an alternative, and I saw this on I don't remember, like Instagram, and it just totally clicked.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: For me, it was this idea of goals being fun.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: So the goal is to start thinking about the experience that you are having in your life and your business.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: So for me, this year, it was taking a break from some of the numbers and the specifics and the ROI's and while that's all still going on in the background, because you don't want to run your business like a total dummy.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: You know I'm.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna run your business into the ground or spend money that you don't have right.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: You're still gonna use your brain.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Right, we're still gonna use our heads.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Let's just all assume we are smart humans and we're not gonna do like dumb stuff.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to use the principles of this to just mix it up a bit this year.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: And am I saying just, you know, take a break, do whatever makes you happy.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: No, absolutely not.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: You still need to be the CEO of your business.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: You still need to provide and cast a vision.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: You still need to provide direction.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: You still to make sure you're profitable.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: You still need to make sure you're developing your team professionally and personally.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: But you can also add in some fun.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: So what is fun goals and how am I applying it to 2024?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the F stands for flexible.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: So having flexible goals.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Life changes, circumstances change and some things are, frankly, just outside of your control, and I've always kind of only planned in quarters because of this.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: So if you are one of those people who has, like a 10 year vision or a five year vision or a three year vision, you are my hero.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I want to be when I grow up, I sometimes don't even have a vision for what we're having for dinner tonight.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: So for me, working in smaller chunks of time made more sense, just to the way that my ADD brain operates right.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I liked flexible.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I wanted short, because things changed.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I wanted if something wasn't working, I didn't want to feel so committed to it that I had to continue pressing forward.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: You know, there's that whole sunk cost fallacy of like, hey, you put all this time and money into something like you got to make it happen and make it come up through fruition, and I totally am that person.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: So by only planning in quarters, it made it small, it made it bite size and made it palatable for me, and so I like this idea, but being really flexible as far as even what your goals are.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: So I'll give you a couple of examples.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: So I set a goal a few years ago where I was like I'm gonna walk 10,000 steps every single day and maybe like 200 and something days into that journey I missed a day and I can't remember why or what it was, but maybe we're traveling or whatever.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: I just didn't get the steps in and I remember feeling like, oh my gosh, I am such a fit.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I failed that goal Like there's no, there's no fixing that right, there's no 365 days of perfect 10,000 steps or bust, and you know.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: So I kept going and I think maybe I missed five or six days that year and I still looked back at my year and was like, wow, I didn't hit that goal, when, in reality, the mindset I probably needed to have was oh my gosh, I hit a small goal.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: I hit the goal of 10,000 steps a day 298 times, or what are no 358.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: What are you?
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: You know, you know the math ain't mathen, but you know what I mean.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: So, like, instead of looking back at that as like a failure, which is the way that I was looking at it, it was really more of like, wow, what a success.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I did that 358 times.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Like, that's a big deal, but yet for people who are really tied to specifics with goals, so just being flexible, like, I'm going to do this most days, I'm going to give it my best effort.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: I am going to not be stuck on a particular thing.
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: So if I break my leg, this goal is just going to have to change and maybe there's something else that I can do with it.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: The one thing I will not ever be flexible with is my model week.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: No sir, no ma'am, that is a deal breaker for me, since that is the number one time management tool that I have found to make the absolute biggest difference for me.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So you can listen to a whole episode about that, episode 12.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: So I won't be flexible with my time, but I'm also not going to be rigid with my time.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: So another thing for me as far as like this flexibility goes this is kind of a random example, but just this idea of slacking, this idea of slowing down in general, this is going to be a big deal for me this year.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Not rushing around like a crazy person, not always trying to be as productive as humanly possible, like I would find myself going to the grocery store and I'd get out of the car and I'd, like power, walk in.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And I just remember one day thinking like Libby, if it takes you an extra 15 seconds to get into the grocery store, everything's going to be OK, it's not going to kill your product.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: And I just was, I was rushing down and around and just I need to slow down and really embrace the moment.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And so last year, you know, getting a business really up and running, getting through a pretty hellacious divorce, you know, having the blood clots go into my heart and that haul, just it was.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: It would.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: It was a year, and one of the gifts that came out of that was just this idea of being fully present and just really embracing the moment.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: So F is being flexible and giving yourself flexibility with your goals, and I would encourage you to look at flexibility from a standpoint of planning on shorter durations so that you can adjust, modify.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: You know there's a great saying that, like any good coach knows, the game isn't won or lost at halftime.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: And so being able to modify your goals and I'm not saying Greatly reduce your goals or make them so easy that you can definitely attain them that's definitely not what I'm saying here but knowing that if you need to pivot, or if you're, maybe you just plucked a number out of thin air and you're not on your own track to do that, what else can you do?
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: How can you modify?
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: How can you accomplish similar outcomes, but maybe with a different strategy and play Okay the you.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: So we have F, flexible you is uplifting.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: So this is saying no to the things that suck the life out of you that you don't enjoy, that take your time, energy and attention that really don't bring you tons and tons of value.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: So you know, something like for me this year adding in more intentional time with Some very specific people in my life so mostly girlfriends and just making sure that I am booking into my calendar uplifting time.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: These, these Girls nights, these coffees, these walks these things bring me so much support and encouragement and Intention that I need to be more intentional about having uplifting experiences in my life.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: So, professionally, I mean, maybe you're super connected to a charity.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: So for me, at st Jude, I love, love, love st Jude.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: So maybe you want to do some sort of fundraiser in your business.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: It takes time and it takes energy, but it brings you joy and that joy will radiate within your team.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: It'll radiate within your clients.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: It'll potentially drive a totally different set of referrals for you that maybe you have even imagined possible.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: So saying no to the things or people that aren't uplifting and I know how hard that is as a self-employed person, right?
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: So being self-employed, you know getting kind of into a new old business, right?
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: So the efficient advisors been around since 2014 or 15, ran it until I sold my practice took a few years off, kind of came back to it.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: So it's like a new, old business and I know how hard in a new, old business that it is to say no to an offer that comes with a lot of money.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: And Last year I had, you know I had been approached by a couple of different companies to do some projects that were like strategic work, and you know I Am so glad that I said no to those.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: While the paychecks would have been really high and really Pretty substantial, I know that it was under my hourly rate that I wanted to shoot for and that that kind of work, while steady and, you know, something I could count on, it just wouldn't have made me happy.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: And With the year that I had last year, goodness gracious, I am so glad that I was focusing on the parts of my business that really I enjoyed doing.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: And the more we Focus on things that bring us happiness, that bring us joy, the more revenue will actually come.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: So same thing inside of your business.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: So thinking about client experience as opposed to Revenue or number of households or how much additional AUM you're bringing in, you know, can we focus on the client experience and how can we make working with our clients more enjoyable?
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: How can we make our behind the scenes systems and processes run more smoothly so that we can be?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: We have extra time to do things that are uplifting, or Maybe it'll be really encouraging and supporting for you to have some of that stuff in place.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: So, f being flexible, you being uplifting and being numberless Okay, and I am notorious for setting numbers based goals.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Nothing wrong with it but I do get hung up on specific things and then I beat myself up for it.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Right, so that 10,000 steps a day thing, right.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: I felt like a failure because I only did it the 258 times you know, and so, instead of focusing on the fact that I did it, I focused on what I didn't accomplish, you know, or same thing.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: So this is another example.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Like, my goal every day last year was to get out and walk for at least 20 minutes in the sunshine, and if I looked at the clock and I was like, oh shoot, I only have 10 minutes, I didn't go do it.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: I would let it sit for later, because I wanted to get my 20 minutes in, because that's what I had said, and then sometimes I didn't end up doing it all, or I didn't get it in when I actually could have gotten out and gotten a 10 minute walk in and gotten 10 minutes of sunlight on my face, but instead, you know, ended up with zero, and, and.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: So this is the opposite of what I normally preach like.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: Normally I like to have numbers, normally I like to have Specifics that I'm shooting for and I can reverse engineer into very specific actions all of these things the fun goals can still be done like that.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: So I still, when I sat down and kind of mapped out my year, I Use these as my guiding principles, but I still reverse engineered them into very specific actions.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: So this like so, for example, if I still want to get outside and walk every day, so that's the numberless version of that goal.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I want to get outside and walk every single day.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: So some days it might be 30 minutes, some days it might be 20 minutes, some days it might only be 10.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: As long as I'm getting out and walking, I'm a happy camper and not putting so many parameters around it that give me opportunity to feel like I'm not living up to my own expectations and I'm not reaching my goals, that I'm somehow Deficient or failing in some way, shape or form.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: So this is going to be a massive experiment for me and I'm excited to kind of come back, perhaps at the end of the year, and share what a year off of smart goals really looked like and how having these flexible, uplifting, numberless goals really worked.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: And I know I will struggle with this more loosey-goosey approach this year, but I'm also kind of excited about this idea of how it might be more freeing.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: And then perhaps you know, as I'm revamping the way that I do my own CEO days and Working on some things for you guys about CEO days in particular, I get asked about it constantly like what should I be doing and what should I be looking at?
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: And I'm working on some stuff for you guys.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Do I have a specific deadline for it?
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Nope, because I'm having numberless Flexibility this year.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: But it will be uplifting to get that kind of stuff done for you because I'm really excited about it.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: But I know for myself I might end up making adjustments to my CEO day based on this idea of Fun goals and not quite so focused on some of these very specific Measurables.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: So it's an experiment and I would love if you are one of those advisors.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: That's in a place where you're like, oh, I just need a little extra Something and I don't know what it is and I can't put my finger on it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Consider doing this experiment with me.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: And, like I said, I think these these types of goals could run alongside some of your smart goals.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: So maybe you have some very specific things that you want to do.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe you need to increase your revenue by a certain dollar amount so that you can hire someone.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Great, yes, you do that.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: That needs to happen.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: You don't want to have a loosey-goosey roll goal around that.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: But maybe, alongside that, you have some Numberless goals.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Like maybe, instead of saying I want to read 24 books this year, you say I want to read every single day, and that way you are doing something towards that goal.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: And if you let's be honest, if you read 22 books this year instead of 24, you're still doing a hell of a job.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: You and is that delta really gonna matter?
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Like, is those extra two books going to just totally destroy your future?
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: No, you just read 22 books and that's pretty dang good.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: So maybe there's a way to take some of these FUN goal principles and apply them to some of the goals that maybe you have really built a lot of structure or numbers or specifics around.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, thank you for letting me interrupt our content calendar to discuss this thing with you.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: I just think it'll be kind of fun and kind of cool.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: So take that time, go grab some white space and ask yourself, like wouldn't it be cool if, and just give yourself permission to just let some ideas and imagination flow and maybe relax.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: Like take your foot off not take well, I shouldn't say it, don't take your foot off the gas.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: That's not what I'm saying.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: If you're in growth mode, you keep doing, you, you keep, you know, pressing forward, but maybe it's just taking off some of the pressure surrounding that growth or some of the pressure surrounding your personal development, and maybe just being a little bit more loosey-goosey with me this year and let's see what happens, and you know what I might come back at the end of the year and be like that was a terrible idea.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Nobody should do that.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: We all need very specific goals, but I have a really good feeling that for me in this calendar year that this is going to be something that ultimately ends up bringing me a lot of joy and a lot of happiness and a lot of just.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: I want to be underwhelmed this year, just kidding, I just don't want to be overwhelmed.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I just want to be overwhelmed.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Is it possible to just be well?
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: Let's just be welled together, and I think this might be one of the things that I will, you know, incorporate in some way shape and form for a long time to come.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, thank you guys so much for listening.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: I would love to connect with you more out in the Efficient Advisor community, over on Facebook or over on LinkedIn.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Those are the two places that I hang out online, and if you give this exercise a go, I want to hear about it.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: So definitely DM me through LinkedIn or communicate with me over in the Efficient Advisor community.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: I'm dying to hear what this maybe looks like for you and how you could take some of your very specific goals and turn them into fun goals.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you, guys so much.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: I hope you have an amazing rest of your week and don't forget to check out the St Jude Family Tree template that I used in my own practice and the Perfect RIA's one page financial plan master class, both linked in the show notes, and you can find information over for both of those on the resources tab on theefficientadvisorcom.