Lloyd Williams

Ever wished you could understand your clients’ fears regarding the markets and their investments? The book The Science of Fear helps you understand the root of fear and will prepare you to better manage your own concerns and your clients’ fears as the markets volatility makes remaining calm difficult. This is a must read for advisors wanting to protect their practice and clients from the irrational fears that cause bad decisions. Highly recommended.

Studies now show that checklists actually improve the quality of deliverable service. What was once the tool of pilots and astronauts is now used by surgeons, hospitals, and money managers to improve there execution and delivery of value. The book Checklist Manifesto details the value of using checklists. This is a great summer read. Highly recommended.

Procedural checklists are an important part of every successful practice and I recommend them for all my coaching clients. The following are several links to important checklists you may find of value:

Pipeline Process - checklist for developing a relationship with a prospect in the financial service industry

Operations Manual - checklist procedures for running a financial service practice

RoadMap for Change - weekly task list to accomplish your most important dreams

Improve your practice by reading Checklist Manifesto and create a bullet-proof practice.

By Om Malik from On Business

Jobs on Solving Hard Problems

The best ideas win here at Apple. We have healthy debates in this company. We debate how to tie shoe laces and we even debate about what great is. We’re an engineering company, we think like engineers and scientists, and we think it’s the right way to solve real, hard problems. We try to have our cake and eat it too, we try to have great design and great performance. If you look at our products, that’s what we deliver. We are working really hard and we can’t run really faster. There are cars in the parking lots at all hours, people have cots in the office.

Lesson #1: Hard problems are solved by hard work and no compromises.

continue reading…

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

- George Bernard Shaw

Ever wonder why the Harvard and Yale Endowments substantially outperform the markets, advisors, and investors? They use a Counter Intuitive approach to investing. This 2009 book Ivy Portfolio explains the process used by Harvard and Yale. To learn how to apply similar Counter Intuitive processes that can easily be used by advisors and their clients register now for the upcoming workshop.

Additional Reading

How Harvard and Yale Beat the Market - by Matthew Tuttle

Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment - by David Swensen

Foundation & Endowment Investing: Philosophies and Strategies of Top Investors and Institutions - by Lawrence E. Kochard and Cathleen M. Ritterreiser

The Endowment Model of Investing: Return, Risk and Diversification - by Martin L. Liebowitz, Anthony Bova and P. Brett Hammond

Get Organized with One Sheet of Paper

The Pocket RoadMap™ is a single sheet of paper folded into six small panels that puts you in control of your life and time. Download the PDF file and print the two pages back to back on one sheet of paper.

Whether you are using GTD or ZTD or any other productivity system the Pocket RoadMap will keep you focused on the most important items each week. Download it for free and give it to your friends. This is a tool your entire team can use.

Video showing how to use the Pocket RoadMap coming soon.

Every once in a while a book comes along that transforms your definition of business and practice management. The new book, Rework by the founders of 37signals.com is such a book. Order a copy now.

A coaching client asked me this week to discuss my thoughts on social prospecting. This is a delicate subject because you do not want to be labeled a “networker” which is synonymous with “always selling” and becomes a fast track ticket to the “Black List.”

When asked about what you do for a living you should have an effective Elevator Script which results in the person saying “tell me more.” But what do you do when you are in a social setting and no one inquires about your job and you look around the room at all these great prospects.

First ask yourself, why are you there? Was the purpose to prospect, if not maybe you should stop trying to sell and just enjoy the company and conversation. If your purpose was to prospect, then you should ask yourself whether the other’s expectations are to be solicited. If not maybe you should amend your purpose.

Too many sales people join organizations solely to find prospects and they are soon identified by the group and “Black Listed.” If you join a group, be there for the purpose of the group. Be there because you believe in what they are trying to do, if not leave.

As I mentioned in an earlier post clients and advocated first need to like us before they trust us. If you want to work with your social contacts, be likable and participate in the activities because you believe in them. If they like you they will trust you. Then when they ask what you do, you are prepared with your Elevator Script.